Good evening. I want to read
a passage of Scripture from Exodus chapter 28. This passage of Scripture
may have as much to say about our need for grace as any passage
of Scripture in the Word of God. Um, before we read that, everybody
here knows Cody and when a Groover, um, Cody's eldest child is Andrea. She's been here with us a time
or two before. And, uh, Zach had the blessing
of marrying Andrea, uh, this past year, been a year or two
years now, two years. And Zach is with us tonight.
So it's good to have you brother. Um, This passage may have as much
to say about our need for grace as anything in God's word. And
we'll begin reading in verse 36. Now grace is for sinners. Grace is for sinners. Most folks
think sin is just a behavioral problem. or maybe some bad thoughts
or bad feelings or things that their conscience bothers them
for. This passage reveals what sin
really is. Verse 36, now Aaron you know
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who is our high priest. Christ intercedes for us and
makes an offering for sin to God on behalf of his people.
And Aaron represents Christ in the Old Testament economy. And so in verse 36, and thou
shalt make a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it like the engravings
of a signet, holiness to the Lord. So Aaron has this plate
that says on it, holiness to the Lord. God is the only one
that's holy. And he gets all the glory for
he is separate from sinners. And thou shalt put it on a blue
lace, that it may be upon the mitre, upon the forefront of
the mitre it shall be. Now the mitre was the head peace
that Aaron wore and on the front of that mitre was a gold plate
that said holiness to the Lord. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things
which the children of Israel shall hallow in their holy gifts. and it shall be always upon his
forehead that they may be acceptable before the Lord." Aaron had to
intercede on behalf of the holy things that the children of Israel
offered in worship. What this passage of scripture
is saying is that there's enough sin in our worship to send us
to hell. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
doesn't present himself before God on our behalf in the best
things that we do, we'll go to hell. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are pleased to make your
children to be sinners. And that in that miracle of grace
that you do in the heart, you cause them at the same time to
find the Lord Jesus Christ as their High Priest, the one who
intercedes on their behalf, the one who makes them acceptable
in thy sight, so that even their offerings of worship can be made
clean. We ask now, Father, that you
would do that for us. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's stand together again. Hymn
number 158. 158 from the hardback hymnal.
158. Sunday we looked at Hebrews chapter
6 and tonight I'd like for us to
turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. Both of these passages
of scripture have a message that needs to be heard It needs to
be believed. It needs to be rejoiced in. And properly heard and believed
will be a great source of comfort and encouragement to the child
of God. Sadly, there's some verses in
both of these chapters that have either been misunderstood or they've been
twisted to mean something other than what they mean and they
have created some conflict rather than comfort. My hope tonight
is that you and I will be comforted. That we'll hear what God's saying
and that he will speak peace to our hearts and give to us
assurance of his salvation. The scriptures begin by speaking
of the law being a shadow. Now, in order for you to have
a shadow, light has to strike a substance. You can't have a
shadow without a substance, without something reflecting or casting
that shadow. And so he begins by saying, for
the law, having a shadow of good things to come. Now that shadow
not only is a good thing to come, but it is a thing that already
was. The substance of the shadow,
which is Christ. He's the substance. He's the one that the light of
the gospel that shines from heaven cast the shadow from. So he's
the one, he's the lamb that was slain before the foundation of
the world. He pre-existed the law. The existence of a shadow implies
the pre-existence of substance and here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ as that substance look what he says for law having a
shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the
things the shadow itself is not the image the laws the shadow
the shadow is a being cast from the substance, which is Christ.
And so he's saying that there's no salvation in the shadow. It
only points to the one that's casting the shadow. It's a symbol
or a shadowing of the reality of Christ. can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto
perfect. The shadow can't make you perfect.
The law can't make you perfect. No amount of law keeping. That's
just a shadow. There's no substance to the shadow. The substance is in that which
casts the shadow. And he's the only one that can
make us to be perfect. The law can't make us perfect.
For then, if the law was able to make us perfect, then would
they not have ceased to be offered? If the sacrificial system and
the law could make one perfect, then there wouldn't have been
a need to make the sacrifices over and over and over again. Because that the worshipers once
purged should have no more conscience of sins. If we were made perfect
by the law, then we would have no more conscience of sin. Now,
the only way that a believer, a child of God, can have a clear
conscience is to believe that they are without sin. We know that, here's the dichotomy,
isn't it? We're nothing but sin, and at
the same time, we are completely without sin. You know, only a
child of God can understand what that means, but that's the truth
of the gospel. We come to the Lord as a sinner
with no righteousness of our own, knowing that the shadow
of the law can't make us perfect. but the one who cast that shadow
does make us perfect. So that our conscience before
God, we're able to, he's gonna conclude this chapter by saying,
we can come boldly before the throne of grace, why? Well, that's
actually in chapter four, but that's how we come, isn't it?
We come before the throne of grace with confidence. Look what he says. Verse three. But in those sacrifices there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. All the sacrificial
system did was just remind people that they were sinners. It didn't
clear the conscience. It didn't put away sin. Never. And it can't do it now. No amount
of good works, no amount of church attendance, no amount of prayer,
no amount of Bible study, no amount of anything on our part
is going to make our conscience free, clear, perfect before God. Only the substance that casts
that shadow can do that. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. All the religious
activity of the Old Testament economy never put away sin. And all the religious activity
of people today who are trying to earn favor with God through
their good works, through their free will, cannot put away sin. Wherefore, When He, the substance,
the One who cast the shadow, the preeminent One, when He came
into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not.
God was unpleased with the sacrifices and offerings of man. David said,
if sacrifices is what you want, Lord, I would make them. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite
heart. That's what the Lord does when
he does a miracle of grace in the heart. He breaks us, causing
us to realize that we have nothing to favor God with, we have nothing
to earn salvation with, we're nothing but sinners, and causes
us to come to Christ. But A body hast thou prepared
me. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one that was born of a woman, born under the law. All those sacrifices of the Old
Testament and all the sacrifices that people do today in order
to try to earn their salvation. God says, I won't have it. There's
one sacrifice. I gave him a body. I brought
him into the world. I put him under the law to redeem
them who are cursed by the law. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast no pleasure. That doesn't require a lot of
comment, does it? God says, I don't take pleasure
in your sacrifices and offerings. You're not going to bring anything
to the table of salvation. Nothing. The only thing you've
got to bring is your sin. And that's all on the negative
side. There's nothing about that that's
going to favor you with God. Then said I, Lo, I come. He's still coming. He came 2,000 years ago, born
of a virgin, lived a sinless life, offered himself up to the
Father as the sacrifice for sin. And our prayer right now is that
he'll just keep coming. That he'll come to me again and
again and again. That he'll come to you. That
he'll make himself known to you as we wait for his second coming. I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me. We don't come here and open this
book in order to learn doctrine or learn history or just acquire
knowledge. This book is nothing less than
a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, in the volume
of the book it is written of me. He told the Pharisees, he
said, you searched the scriptures and they were so diligent. A
lot of folks that are diligent to study the Bible today. Said,
you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal
life. You don't realize that these
scriptures are a means to an end. Eternal life is in me. It's not in what you learn. It's
not in what you memorize. It's not in the printed page. It's in Christ. And these words
are a revelation of him from beginning to end in the volume
of the book it is written of me. You search the scriptures
because you think in them you have eternal life, but these
are they which testify of me. And what is written in the book
about Christ? There it is in verse seven, to
do thy will, oh God. God's not satisfied with you
and he's not satisfied with me. He's satisfied with Christ. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
did God's will perfectly, and that's what God requires, perfect
righteousness. And the testimony of that was
right up to his last breath, wasn't it? Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. Trusting the Father to reward
him The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one whose works go before
Him. And they do. And they recommend
Him to God. And there is a sense in which
we can say God is obligated, God is obligated to raise the
Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and reward Him for what He did. He earned it. He earned it. You didn't. I didn't. But He
did. In the volume of the book it is written of me, I have come
to do thy will, O God." And he did it. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
and offerings, and burnt offerings, and offerings for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. That's just so clear, isn't it?
Nothing you offer God will be acceptable to him. He's not pleased
with it. Why? Because it's all infected. That's what we just read. Aaron had to make the holy things
acceptable to God. Aaron had to intercede on behalf
of the people in their worship services because those things
weren't acceptable to God. There's enough sin in my preaching
to send me to hell. There's enough sin in your prayers
to send you to hell. We just don't, everything we
do. That's why Christ is all, and
he's in all. Our righteousnesses are filthy
rags before God. Then said he, verse nine, You
know, God has given us so much repetition in scripture just
for the purpose of emphasis, hasn't he? In case you missed
it the first time, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. And so he's gonna tell us again,
then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first that he may establish the second. He fulfilled the law. You're
not under the law anymore. Sin no longer has dominion over
you. You're not under the law, you're under grace. Sin's been
put away and the law's been satisfied. How? By the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. By the witch will, we are sanctified,
made holy. How am I going to be holy before
God? How am I going to be sinless before God? Only if I'm hidden
in Christ. Only if I have an advocate with
the Father. Only if I have a sin bearer representative before
God. One in whom I can hide. One in whom I can find refuge. One who is acceptable to God. One who is pleasing to God. One
who did do the will of God in every way. By the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We don't reenact the crucifixion. We preach it. We declare it as
something that's been done once for all. It's a finished work. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. There's our problem. Our problem
is a sin problem. And it goes a lot deeper than
just the things that bother us. Somebody told me one time, well,
you just don't know how bad I've been. Somebody recently told
me, I've got things that I had an 80-year-old man tell me recently,
he said, pastor, preacher, he said, I've got things in my past
life that just haunt me. And I knew that, you know, he
just didn't realize that what you've got right now, if you
had never done those things, what you're guilty of right now
is sufficient to send you to hell. could never take away our sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down at the right hand of God. This man, the perfect man,
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's seated at the right hand
of the Majesty on high, received back into glory rewarded for
his faithfulness and he ever lives to make intercession on
behalf of his people. We are accepted before God in
the beloved. We're just looking to Christ.
He's our life. He's our righteousness. He's
our salvation. From henceforth expecting The
Lord Jesus Christ is expecting God to reward him for what he's
done. Expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. Now there's two meanings to that.
Two meanings to that. Truth is that we all come into
this world at enmity with God. That's how we're born. Some the
Lord brings to sit at his feet like Mary and choose that one
thing that's necessary, listening to him, rejoicing in him, delighting
in him, believing him. and he makes his elect to become
his footstool in that they sit at his feet and rejoice in what
he has to say. He makes his enemies to be his
footstool. And the other meaning to that is that those whom he
has not elected to save, those that he doesn't bring to sit
at his feet and to lovingly rejoice in all that he has to say, will
find his foot to be on their neck in judgment. All of his enemies will be made
his footstool, one way or the other. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are made holy, them that are sanctified. He was offered up for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. We're justified before God. We're
made holy. See, when the Lord Jesus Christ
ascended back into glory, He took with Him the names of all
of His children and made them, presented them perfect before
God. Now, it's not until in time that we come to experience the
salvation of our own souls when the Spirit of God opens the eyes
of our understanding, but that's already been accomplished. Notice the verb tense, for by
one offering, he hath perfected. When did he perfect? Do you become
perfect when you're born again? No, you became perfect when you were
sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ, when he ascended into
glory. forever. Oh, we could go back
further than that, can't we actually? For He is the Lamb, according
to Revelation chapter 5, He's the Lamb that was slain before
the foundations of the world. When was I saved? I was saved
in the covenant of grace before the world ever began. The Lord
Jesus Christ has always represented His people before God. And His people have always been
accepted before God in Christ. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
laws in their hearts and in their mind while I write them. Oh,
he writes the law of grace, the law of love, the law of the spirit,
the law of righteousness in our hearts. But you know what else
he does? He causes us to hear the law for what it is. There
was a time when we heard the law and we weren't threatened
by it because we thought we were keeping it. We thought we were keeping it.
Now the law has come to our hearts as our schoolmaster. And it's
caused us to realize that we've never kept one of God's laws
one time. The law has been brought. It's been revealed. And their sins and iniquities
I will remember no more. Oh, there's our hope. Oh, child of God, you can have
a clear conscience before God. Clear conscience. If you're looking
to Christ, you've got an advocate with the Father, and here's the
promise of God, I remember your sins no more. They've been put
away. They've been covered by the blood of Christ. I've separated them from you
as far as the East is from the West. I've hid them in the depths
of the sea. I've sewed them up in a bag and
cast them behind my back. They're gone. They're gone. Now where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. You know, what's religion
all about? I'm going to do better. I'm going
to rededicate myself. I'm going to be a better person.
I'm going to make up for this. What happens when you hear the
gospel? You just get worse, don't you? You just get worse. You just realize more and more.
As you grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the light of the gospel shines into crevices of your heart that
you didn't even know existed. And you find new areas of infection
that you didn't even know you had. And you become more dependent
upon Christ and more sinful before God, more humbled by His grace
and realizing that He's put them all away. And in Christ, I'm perfectly
righteous before God, justified, sanctified, holy before God in
the person of my substitute. When God gives you repentance,
you know what He does? He changes your mind about how
it is He remits sin. That's what He does. You know
the word repentance means to have a changed mind. That's what
it means. And people say, well, you need
to repent of that sin. I read somebody recently, they
said, you haven't repented of your sin if you're still doing
it. Tell me one sin you ever quit.
In your heart. If repentance means that I've
quit sinning, then I've never repented of anything. But if it means that God has
changed my mind about how it is that He puts away my sin,
how it is that He remits my sin, how it is that He justifies me
and makes me holy in His presence, then God's given me repentance,
because I don't think the way I used to think about that. Now where remission of sin is,
if God has remitted my sin, if He's put them away, if He's satisfied
the demands of the law, if His justice is fulfilled and my sin
has been remembered no more, then there's no more sacrifice
for sin. There's nothing I can do to add
to what Christ has already accomplished. The sacrifice has been made once
and for all, and God is satisfied with it. Am I satisfied? Are you satisfied with what God's
satisfied with? Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Oh, we have
confidence. This boldness is not a cockiness. It's a confidence. It's believing
that God Almighty is pleased with Christ, and that Christ
is my advocate with the Father, and I can come before God with
confidence, knowing that my sin's been put away. that I'm holy
in the presence of God. How? By a new and living way. which he hath consecrated for
us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Now you know
what happened when our Lord bowed his head on Calvary's cross and
said, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. That veil, that thick curtain,
they tell me it was about 14 inches of fabric, thick. And the high priest would have
to work his way through that veil once a year into the holies
of holies to make a sacrifice on that mercy seat. And what
happened? They were getting ready to make
sacrifices at Passover. And the veil was rent from top
to bottom. By a new and living way which
He has consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh. That
veil is a picture of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ which
was rented by God on the cross so that we could have access. What did God tell Moses? Here
I will meet with you. Here at this mercy seat, where
the blood of the Lamb was placed, and the Shekinah glory of God
came, and the sin covering was made, here I will meet with you. And now the veil's been rent
through the rent body of Christ, and God is saying, you now have
access into my presence. And having a high priest over
the house of God, we no longer look to Aaron, we no longer look
to a man, We have a priest, one who is in the heavenlies. Let
us draw near with a true heart, a sincere heart. We're not, you
know, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. How about
you watch this stuff that goes on in religion? You know, people,
people just play in church. That's what they're doing. They're
playing church. It's all about entertainment. It's all about,
you know, it's just foolishness. We come with full assurance.
We're the true circumcision which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The
Lord told that woman at the well, God seeketh after those who worship
him in spirit and in truth. This is serious stuff. This is life and death, isn't
it? We're not here just to play church. We're not here to just
try to figure out a way we can be better people. We're here
to be saved. We're here to be saved. We're
here to have our sins remitted. We're here to draw near to Christ
and find Him to be our all and in all. We have a high priest. Let us
draw near. Oh, we have hope. God says come. He's commanding
us. He's calling us to come. Our
warrant for coming is that we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one. We can come into the very presence
of God in full assurance of faith. Full assurance. Do you have full
assurance? Full assurance. And by that, I mean, can you
say what that Ethiopian eunuch said when Philip told him, you
remember the eunuch said, what doth hinder me to be baptized?
Can I follow Christ in baptism? Is there anything holding me
back? And Philip said to him, if thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. All your heart, full assurance
of faith. And that eunuch said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe the one you
just preached to me. I believe that, I believe him. You know the believer just, one
thing a believer can't ever do is not believe. Blasphemers, all believers were
at one time blasphemers and idolaters. Paul said, I was a blasphemer,
I was an idolater, but God forgave me, why? Because I did it in
ignorance. But a believer can never go back
to being a blasphemer. He can never not believe, not
if he's a believer. He just can't do it. By God's
grace, he won't ever be able. I cannot think of anything else
that I could say to you a believer won't do. If God doesn't restrain us, there's
nothing that we wouldn't do or couldn't do. Don't ever think,
don't ever look at somebody else and think, well, I would never
do that. You, you sure would. God didn't keep you, you would.
But I'm telling you right now, a believer will never be an unbeliever. Ever. A believer cannot become
a blasphemer. A believer cannot deny Christ. He just can't. You'll see that in this chapter.
Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful. There's the
hope of our faith. Not in my faithfulness, but His
faithfulness. He is faithful to keep me. For He is faithful that promised. What did He promise us? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's God's
promise. Is my hope resting in the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ for all my salvation. Let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and to good works. Let's encourage one another
in this walk. Let's lift each other up. Let's
seek to do good, especially to those who are of the household
of faith. Let's talk about Christ with one another. Let's encourage
one another. Not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together. Now he's not saying, you know,
don't miss church. We miss out on a lot. We're two
or three gathered together, there I am in the midst of them. When
we miss services, we miss out a lot. We miss the blessing of
God speaking to his children, God revealing himself. But that's
not what he's talking about here. He's not talking about just,
you know, missing a service or becoming, he's talking about
walking away from the gospel. That's what he's talking about.
Look what he says. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so
much more as you see the day approaching. As you look to Christ and grow
in grace, you realize how brief this life is and how little time
we have, and you learn more and more what it means to value the
time that we have. Verse 26. Four, now verse 26 is in the
context of what's just been said in verse 25. And it's in the
context of everything that's been said previous to verse 25
in this chapter. So this is the verse I want you
to understand. This is the verse that has caused some babes to
have great consternation, to lose assurance of their salvation.
And it's caused others to twist the scriptures and to claim themselves
to be sinless. But it's not what it means. For
if we sin willfully, let me ask you a question. When was the
last time you committed a sin that wasn't willful? Everything we do, we act on our
will, don't we? He's not talking about acts of
sin. If you say that you have no sin,
you deceive yourselves and the truth is not in you. James put it like this in James
chapter 3, For in many things we offend all of us, every one
of us. Proverbs chapter 24 verse 16
says, The just man falleth seven times and riseth again. Now, seven is the number of perfection.
In other words, we just keep falling, don't we? We just keep
stumbling and keep falling and keep sinning and we do it willfully.
Willfully, as much as we disdain our sin. If the Lord's saying,
after you're converted now, if you commit a willful act of disobedience,
you're gonna lose your salvation. That would be contrary to everything
scripture teaches, isn't it? So what's he talking about? For
if we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking
for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses. He's reminding these Hebrews, he's saying, you remember
the Old Testament law? Now, if you broke one of those
laws and two or three witnesses accused you, you died. Of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy? Now, we're gonna find
out what sinning willfully is. Who have trodden underfoot the
Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant a common thing." Paul said, I was a blasphemer. God forgave me because I did
it in ignorance. I can't go back to that. A person,
what he's talking about here is a person who has heard the
truth, who has said they believe the truth, and now they've gone
back to the law. They've gone back to free will
religion. They've trodden the blood of
Christ. They've counted the covenant
to be a common thing. Now that means that they've reverted
back to the conclusion that Jesus died for everybody. that God loves everybody, God's
trying to save everybody, and your will and your works are
the effectual cause of your salvation. And a believer can't go back
there. They just can't go back there. There's a lot of things,
as I said a minute ago, I can't think of anything else I can
say to you that you can't do, but you can't do that. You just
can't do it. You can't trodden underfoot the
blood of Christ and count the covenant, the covenant of God's
free grace. By the grace of God, you can't
go back. Not if God's made you a believer.
A believer can never be an unbeliever. And one who has come to believe
in the covenant mercies of God and the accomplished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what this chapter is all about.
The blood of Christ has put away our sins. We have a priest. It's not by our works, it's by
His works. God gave Him a body. I have come
to do Thy will, O God, and by His obedience we have perfect
righteousness before God. That's the gospel and that's
what we believe, isn't it? That's what we believe. You can't
ever stop believing that. Not if you really believe. But
here's the truth. Here's the truth. There are people.
And we've seen it. This is the same thing that Hebrews
chapter 6 is teaching. It's the same... Well, let's
just stick to biblical examples. Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot. What did he hear? What did he
concede to believe? Did he go back? Yeah. Yeah. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter
1. I mentioned this Sunday, but
I didn't have you turn to it. We'll turn to it now. 1 Timothy
chapter 1. Verse 19, 1 Timothy chapter 1
verse 19, Holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having
put away concerning faith, have made... You see that word shipwreck? It's the word reprobate. Reprobate. They have made themselves reprobate. Why? Because they turned back. They left the gospel. They denied,
they trodden underfoot. Now look, and now he's gonna
name them. Of whom, and these are just two of the ones that
Paul was thinking about, but of whom, Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. These men were once professing
believers, followers of Christ. And now they've become blasphemers.
And Paul said, I've turned them over to Satan. They've become
shipwreck. They've proven themselves to
be reprobate. Were they saved and got lost?
No, no. Hebrews chapter 10 is not a warning,
it's not a threat to us, it's an encouragement. Let's go back
to our text. Verse 29, of how much sore punishment
suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who have trodden underfoot
the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith,
now you'd see that word he, that's Christ. He wasn't sanctified
and now he's not sanctified. He said by which Christ was sanctified. Christ was sanctified through
the blood of the covenant. Christ was made holy and his
people were made holy through his shed blood. So, whereby with
Christ was sanctified, and they've considered it to be an unholy
thing. In other words, the blood that
the Lord Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's cross, if he shed for
everybody, then it was wasted. It was unholy. It was ineffectual. A believer will never come to
that conclusion. Ever. We don't know much, and there's
a whole lot of things that we're capable of doing. But by the
grace of God, if God's made you to be a believer, you can't ever
be an unbeliever. And you can't ever go back. He won't let you. And not only
will he not let you, you don't want to. You don't want to. For we know him that hath said,
vengeance belongs unto me. I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. I know. Now what he's going to
say here is that there's some, there's some trials, there's
some troubles, there's difficulties, there's persecutions that come
with this gospel. stand for Christ you're going
to you're going to be ostracized you're going to be called members
of a cult or a cult leader or whatever you know you're going
to be called crazy if you you trust Christ but look
what he says but Call to remembrance the former days in which after
you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of affliction,
partly why you were made gazing stock, both by reproaches and
affliction, and partly why you became companions of them that
were so used. You know, remember what it was
like when the Lord first converted you, when he first saved you
and you started telling your family and your friends about
what God had done for you and what you believed. Remember what
a gauging stock you became. And then when they found out
where you went to church and who you were associated with, remember
what the things they said about you. But you had compassion on me
and my bonds and took joyfully, you took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods. You were glad to come out from
among them. You so rejoiced in what the Lord
had done for you that whatever you had to forsake and whatever
other people thought meant nothing. The glory of God was more important
to you than the praise of men. You took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better
and enduring substance. You knew in your heart that what
God had given you was so much better than what you had to lose
in this world that you were happy to make the change. You were
happy to have the exchange made in your life. You just cast not away therefore your
confidence. Confidence in what? Confidence
in Christ. which hath great recompense of
reward, you have need of patience, that after you have done the
will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little
while, and he that shall come will come. He will come, and
he will not tarry. You've got a little bit more
to endure, for the just Those who are justified, those who
are in Christ, shall live by faith, looking to Christ, resting
in Christ. Don't go back to the law. Don't
mix law and grace. Christ alone. For if any man draw back, if
any man draw back, if any man go back, He only proves that
he wasn't a believer to begin with. If you can go back to free
religion, if you can go back to mixing law and grace, if you
can go back, if you can deny Christ, then it only means that
all you had was lip service. They honored me with their mouths,
the Lord said, but their hearts were far from me. If God's done
a work of grace in the heart, that's permanent. But here's our hope. Look at
verse 39. We are not of them who draw back
unto perdition. Destruction. That's what he's
talking about here. Those who are able to leave the
gospel. Those who are able to leave Christ. Those who are able to deny the
truth of what he's accomplished. They have drawn back unto perdition. Plenty of people have done it. God's people won't do it. They
can't do it. We are not of them who draw back
unto perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of our
souls. The number one evidence of salvation
is not your good works. the number one evidence of salvation,
of true salvation, is perseverance. Perseverance. Lord, keep me. Keep me. Don't let me deceive myself,
don't let me deceive the Lord. Lord, do a work of grace in my
heart and make it permanent. Open a door that no man can shut.
and shut a door that no man can open. Lord, if you do that, I'll
believe to the saving of my soul. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and we pray that your Holy Spirit would apply
it to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 107 in the soft back teminal.