Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Before we read this evening,
let's ask our Lord's blessing. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening
in our heart, thankful, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And only in Him are we able to enter into Your presence and
to speak to You, to ask You, to seek, to knock. Father, I
ask You tonight, would You bless the Word And Lord, I pray for
these, our brethren, that have been mentioned. Lord, have mercy. I pray that you'd heal physically. Lord, I especially pray for the
spiritual healing of these that hear your Word preached, for
those that sit under faithful preachers. Lord, I pray for our
kids and grandkids and parents. wives and husbands. Lord have
mercy for Christ's sake. Amen. scriptures, I began to think on how much
we have looked verse by verse, word by word, this blessed book
and the times that the Spirit of God drew the Apostle Paul
to pin just exactly what the Lord wanted to say. And as I
mused on these things, I started thinking about how many times
the Scriptures repeated concerning the priest and the comparison
between the Levitical priesthood and the priesthood of our blessed
Lord. And then I started thinking about
how often I need to hear and how necessary it is that I be
taught by the Spirit of God. We're all prone to forget. We hear these blessed truths. How needful. How desperately
needful. I know I wouldn't embarrass Dick. I wouldn't embarrass
you, Dick, for anything in the world, Fred, anything. But I
was just thinking about our dear sister that just recently was
taken. And different ones that have
been here. As I said, since I've been here,
nine funerals. that I preached, starting with Martha and Brother
Scott and Rob and right on down. And I thought about how frail
this life really is and how quickly, just a moment, it's over. It's just gone. You're there. You're gone. when our Lord is pleased to remove
one of His own out of this world. The Scripture says that that's
a precious thing in the sight of God. Now knowing the seriousness
of leaving this world without a substitute, without a mediator,
without an advocate, appointed unto man wants to die.
And then the judgment. And as I mulled over that thought,
I thought again afresh about the seriousness of these Scriptures. Scriptures that the Apostle Paul
told Timothy were able to make you wise unto salvation. Oh,
how desperately do we need to hear tonight? How desperately
do we need to be taught afresh of these holy Scriptures right
here? I pray the Lord bless and that
it would not be as I confess how easily it is for me to be
forgetful, to let these things just slip. Think about that Scripture. Redeeming the time for the days
are evil. Time, as far as human beings,
is the most precious thing that we possess. And what we know concerning Him, this is life and death. This
is real. This is eternal. in what we're
doing tonight, looking at the Word of God and asking the Spirit
of God, bless these things to our hearts for Christ's sake.
The Apostle Paul had been led by the Spirit of God to write
down the words quoted out of Psalm 40 back in the Old Testament. by our precious Savior. He said,
sacrifice an offering, thou wouldest not. That's not what Almighty God
desired for the putting away of the guilt of His people. But a body, He said, hast thou
prepared Me. A body suitable for suffering. A body that deity inhabited. Flesh. Perfect flesh. Flesh that could suffer. Flesh that could be the atonement
for the sins of His people. And knowing that the Lord God
had no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices, the Lord said,
Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. The will of God that was not
to make salvation possible. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come to make salvation possible and left it to the ability of
an impotent man because an impotent man Just that, he's impotent. He has no power whatsoever. But
he came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came and took away the first. That is, showing that first covenant,
the old covenant, the law, to be incapable of putting away
sin. That he might establish the second. That second. was shown to truly be efficacious. It got the job done. That's what
it meant. Powerful. Real. He made sin for us who knew no
sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Here He is. The Lord of glory. Now picking up In verse 11, the
Scripture says, and every priest standeth daily ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sins. Now let me ask you this. Think of how many times we've
considered Scriptures after Scriptures that sets forth this truth. But stop for just a minute and
ask yourself, how needful is it for me to know this? Every
priest... Now you know what that says to
me first? That there was a bunch of them. There was a bunch of
them. A bunch of priests. That priest
that would come in, high priest, into the Holy of Holies one time
a year. But there were priests and priests and priests, and
every priest standeth daily. Here again, the Spirit of God
never entered a word in the Holy Scripture that didn't mean something.
What were they doing? They were standing. Why? Because their ministry was never
going to be over. Standing daily, ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which could never take away sins. The Scripture says forth, Verse
4 of this chapter, chapter 10. Just turn it back. There it is.
Verse 4, Hebrews 10, 4, For it is not possible that the blood
of bulls and goats should take away sins. It's not possible. Not possible. These sacrifices were ordained
of God. They were ordained of God. This
was of God's making. The blood of bulls and goats
was of God's making. God instituted that. And that
which Almighty God did concerning the shadow and the type and the
picture, that couldn't take away sin. How much less the invention of
a man and what a man thinks. can take away sin. Not by works of righteousness,
Paul says, that we've done. The blood of bulls and goats,
and God instituted that, could never take away sins. Do you
think that the ordinances could take away sins? Do you think that the efforts
of a man's ability can take away sins? No effort on man's part
could ever take away sins. Here is a priest, multiple priests,
over and over and over doing exactly what Almighty God had
ordained to be done. Shadow, type, picture. That couldn't
take away sins. Let us always be reminded that
salvation is in but one, His work, His power, His grace, His
purpose, His will. These priests did exactly what
Almighty God said to do, and what they were doing In the offering
of those bulls and goats, the blood could never take away sins. But this man, this man. Oh, stop for just a minute and
contemplate the wonder of those three words. But this man. We would never say anything other
than what the Scripture truly sets forth. The Scripture sets
forth that the Word was made flesh. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and
tabernacled amongst us. the holy, true God-man. We look upon Him tonight by faith
and realize by the grace of God, God Almighty came into this world
to redeem that which was lost, this man, this priest. Every priest is taken from among
men. Almighty God provided this man, this man after the order
of Melchizedek. Not like that every priest, multiple
priests, standing daily, ministering the offering all the time, the
same sacrifice. They offered bulls and goats
today, this morning, and bulls and goats tonight, and in the
morning they're going to offer bulls and goats, and tomorrow
night, bulls and goats. And the following day, bulls
and goats and bulls and it will never, never, never take away
sin. But this man, this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sin, every year on the Day
of Atonement, that high priest would have two goats. One goat. was set apart. It was the Lord's. And that was
going to be the one that was going to be sacrificed. And that
goat was slain. And the blood of that goat was
brought in behind the veil into the Holy of Holies. And the people
waited outside. And that high priest would go
in with the blood on the hyssop, go in with that golden censer,
that censer of that incense setting forth the prayers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he would take that hyssop
and he would sprinkle it on the mercy seat. And the people waited. And that priest, after the blood
was sprinkled, he would come out. And when he came out, The
people rejoiced and he blessed them. But do you know what? The following year, he had to
do the same thing. He had to go through the same
set of sacrifices, the same sprinkling, the same. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, forever sat
down on the right hand of God. Sat down. It was finished. He cried from the cross on that
great day in which He put away the guilt of His people. And
He cried, the Scripture says, with a loud voice. Heaven, earth, and hell heard
it. And He said, It's finished. It's finished. The wrath of God was spewed out. Atonement was made. Redemption
was secured. It. What a word. It. What was it? Everything.
Everything. All that was required. This man,
after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever. Boy, how subtle
that is to the heart of a believer. It's over. It's done. Our Lord, in His sacrifice, one
sacrifice sufficient to put away the guilt of His people. And we know this by the revelation
of the Spirit of God to our hearts, teaching us His Spirit bears
witness with our spirit. This is so. We see through a
glass darkly tonight, but bless God, we see. We understand in
part, but bless the Lord, we understand. We know, seen through
a glass darkly, but we see. Oh, may the Lord teach me afresh
of this. But this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice, he's put away all of our guilt. from henceforth, verse 13, expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. What's he doing? I'll tell you
what he's doing. According to that Scripture,
he's expecting till his enemies are put under
his feet Psalm 110, verse 1, the LORD, the capital L-O-R-D,
Jehovah said unto my Lord, capital L-o-r-d, Jehovah said to the
Lord Jesus Christ, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. He is the Exalted One. He is
the one seated, seated at the right hand of God until I place
all your enemies under your feet. Satan, sin, rebels of this world and finally
death. Until I make all of your enemies
to be your footstool, I know right now, Obviously it's so. But all the enemies of the Lord
Jesus Christ have not been made subject yet to His will. I know that. I know they're defeated.
I know they are. I know this, that He's expected
until there's coming a time, Almighty God, when Almighty God
is done using the means of His good pleasure, He Himself is
going to put all of the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ under
the Lord's footstool. They're going to be under His
feet. Right now, Satan is as a roaring lion. He's as a roaring
lion. He's as one. He's not because
he's not able. He's bound. in chains of darkness,
bound. Bound. What does that mean? He
cannot prevent the Lord Jesus Christ from accomplishing His
eternal purpose. He's bound. He has a roaring
line going about seeking whom He may devour. Every tongue has
not yet confessed that the Lord Jesus Christ is who He is. Every knee has not bowed yet,
but they will. Every knee is going to bow and
every tongue is going to confess that He is Lord to the glory
of God. You sit down by one sacrifice. This man sat down on the right
hand of God from henceforth waiting expecting Almighty God is working
all these things after the counsel of His own will to bring all
things into subjection openly. I do know right now that there's
men, women, devils, demons, whatever in this world all being governed
by the hand of Almighty God, doing exactly what Almighty God
purposed whenever those Romans took the Lord Jesus Christ at
the bidding of those Jews and took Him and crucified Him. Did
they take the Lord Jesus Christ with wicked hands? Scripture
says they did. to do what He had eternally purposed
in the redemption of His people. They did what they wanted to
do. They cried forth, crucify Him, crucify Him. But I'm telling
you, there's coming a time when that knee is going to bow. And
that knee is going to confess that He's Lord. And without a
substitute, Almighty God will then put them into hell like
a fire. Chains bound eternally. 1 Corinthians 15, 25, 26, For
he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. And
the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For by one
offering, the Scripture says, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Now, there is something in that
Scripture right there that every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ
looks at and is thankful for and absolutely
believes, but shall never this side of the grave get over. For
by one offering He hath perfected forever. He has by one offering made holy. He has by one offering made perfect them that are set apart. Set
apart by God. by one offering, every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ struggles. We've talked about this often.
They struggle with sin within, with the presence of sin. Why do I find myself so inconsistent? Paul said, it's not I. It's not
me. It's sin that dwells in me. It's not that new man. That which
is born of God is holy. That which is born of God is
perfect. And right now, every believer
is joined to that old man that he is going to have to live with
until God separates him. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? There will come a time. I know
this. I heard Brother Scott say this
or wrote it or something. He's the one I heard it from.
There will be a time when I will not disrespect him anymore. There will be a time when I won't
think so lightly of him. anymore. There will be a time
when I will see Him as He is and know Him. For by one offering..."
Oh, the efficacy of that blood, Gary. By one offering. By one
offering. By the blood. "...putting away
the guilt of His people, paying their debt, setting forth The
honor of God's law, the soulless senate is going to die. Made
sin. Made what we are. And Almighty
God in absolute justice put away the guilt of His people. Their debt. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Oh, the wonder of a Scripture
that sets forth that He has made perfect forever. Them that are
sanctified by Almighty God, sanctified by God's Spirit, sanctified in
electing grace, set apart for the holy use of Almighty God,
made perfect in Him. One sacrifice. May the Lord bless
these words to our hearts afresh and cause us to muse upon these
things. Lord, teach me this. I do pray
that God make me to see this truth afresh and to rejoice in
it, to be made to just Contemplate. I know this. I don't have the
ability. As I read those Scriptures, I
thought, oh, the wonder of that precious sacrifice that the Scripture
reveals would make a sinner like me perfect, holy, no condemnation,
no blame, no guilt. No guilt. Are you saying that you don't
sin? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute that sin. If we ever get
a hold of that, here we are watching, seeing ourselves, knowing in
ourselves how frail we are. And Almighty God in Christ would
say, No charge. No charge. No guilt. Holy. In Christ, perfect. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Oh, in that day when we see Him
as He is and are made like Him, how will we praise Him forever? for that which He has been pleased
by His marvelous purpose, will, and grace to do for us. For Christ's
sake, amen.