Chapter 10. All right, we'll wait just a
minute. We've got some coming in. Alright, Hebrews 10 verse 15. Let's read verse 14. It says
of Christ, by one offering He hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, For after that he had said before, this is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and their minds
will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. He said there in verse
17, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Up
in Hebrews 8, verse 12, he says the same thing. He says, the
covenant being, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and
their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now
listen to this. Whenever Balak tried to hire
Balaam to curse the Lord's people, the Lord put sent this word to Balak. And
this is what the word of the Lord said. He said, He hath not
beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in
Israel. The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them. He hath not beheld iniquity
in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. And then
we find Isaiah saying in Isaiah 38, 17, he said, behold, for
peace, I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou has cast
all my sins behind my back. And then Paul quoted the Psalmist
in amazement as all the Lord's people In Romans 4, 7, Paul said,
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. The Lord promised in Jeremiah
50 in verse 20, he said, in those days and in that time, saith
the Lord, speaking of when Christ had come and accomplished this
work of redemption. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. In Psalm 103, 12, the Lord said,
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. Now, Thinking about these scriptures,
the Holy Spirit bears record. He bears witness in the hearts
of those he's regenerated. And he declares, God remembers
the sins of his people no more. He makes you know personally,
God remembers your sin no more. We read there, God's not beheld
iniquity and perverseness in his people. God sees no sin in
his people. And then the sins of his people
can be sought for. And God said there are none.
He said the sins of his people shall not be found. What does
that mean? How is all this so? What does
it mean? How is it so? Well, for God's
elect, for his true Israel, for his spiritual Israel, for each
one given faith in Christ, God remembers our sins no more. Because before the judgment seat
of God, they are no more. They are no more. Christ put
them away, and he made us the righteousness of God in him. Now, there's a good many folks
who will object to this message, to preaching this truth. I don't know, though, how anybody
could object to it if they've experienced their sin and been
taught something of the depravity of their sin, and been taught
the forgiveness we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know
how anybody could reject it, and don't know how they could
do anything but rejoice to hear it. This is the gospel. This is the power of God unto
salvation, wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. This is the
power by which His people are made willing to obey. This is
the power by which we repent toward God and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is the power when God makes
you to know this in the heart. It's the power by which we willingly
assemble to hear the gospel, even when it's raining, we want
to hear it. This is the power by which we're
motivated to love one another, to love one another. Do whatever
we can to try to keep the peace so we can assemble together and
have the gospel together. This is the power by which we're
made to come to Christ, confessing our sin, and confessing our need
of mercy when we fall. It's the same power that makes
you know you've not received the spirit of fear, the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of
adoption. so that you can come to your father and ask him for
help, and he'll give you help. He'll give you help. It's the
power by which his people continue to persevere in faith. This is
the power. You know, if you went to a dealership,
you were looking at a new car, and a salesperson is showing
you all the exterior and how pretty it is and all the, you
know, features it has, it lets you sit in it, it's got all these
gadgets in it and just, man, it's loaded out, you know, you've
kicked the tires, you know, it looks good. Say I want it, you
sit down in it, try to start it up and it doesn't have an
engine. Or for the EV folks who don't have a battery, you can't,
it won't go anywhere, it won't do anything, it has no power. You can declare what sinners
are to do. You can declare how sinners are
to obey. And there's nothing wrong with
that as long as the bulk of what you preach is majoring on shutting
sinners up in their sin with no other hope but Christ. Because
that's the power. That's the power that's going
to make us want to obey the other. And you usually hear it the other
way around. You usually hear, you know, 50 minutes given to
do and don't do and then about 2 or 3 minutes to grace. It ought to be the other way
around. We ought to spend most of the time looking at the engine,
looking at the power. First of all, let me say what
it does not mean when he says he remembers our sin no more
and he does not see sin in his people. It doesn't mean there's no sin
in the Lord's people. It doesn't mean that. When God declares that He remembers
our sins no more, or that He sees no iniquity or perverseness
in us, it doesn't mean that His saints are without sin in ourselves. Now, anybody born of God, taught
of God, we know that's true. You know that's true. We see sin in ourselves. We see it. In fact, a believer,
you know, if a believer, we're harder on our own selves than
we are on others. We find the fault with our own
selves more than we find the fault with others. And, you know, when people load
you up with everything you've done wrong, A believer takes
that to heart. It's all you can think about.
And you think, yeah, you know, and wish you'd have done this
different, that different, the other thing. But the Pharisee
is just the opposite. You've done everything wrong
and they've done everything right. And the Lord has to turn that
around, doesn't he? He has to turn that around on
us. There was sin and there was perverseness in Israel. Whatever
sanctified child of God is willing to confess, we have a sin nature. We know it, and we get sin. We hate it, we're ashamed of
it, and it makes us sorrow, but it's so. And we know that, and
we want to be free from this body of death. We want to be
completely free from it, but we know we sin. In Romans 7, 17, as a regenerated
believer, he said, now then, it's no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. Most people in our day, if Paul
would have said that from a pulpit, would say, oh, you're just making
an excuse for your sin. But that's the Spirit of God
speaking in Paul. That's the Spirit of God speaking
in Paul. And he said, if I do it, it's no more I that do it,
it's sin that dwelleth in me. I know that in me that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for the will is present with
me. But how to perform that which is good I found not. And he said
in verse 20, now if I do that I would not, it's no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I found then a law, this
is just how it's going to be. Now listen, when I would do good, Even when I do good, even when
I do what I'm supposed to do, evil is present with me. It's
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's who delivered us, is delivering
us, and shall continue to deliver us. God's saints don't love sin. We hate it and we strive against
it. We're no longer under its dominion
or we wouldn't be able to believe. We wouldn't be able to continue
believing. We wouldn't have a delight in our heart for the law of God.
He doesn't have dominion over us anymore, but every regenerate
person knows we have two opposing natures. And they are at war
with each other. And both of them are you. You're
the sin nature and you're the new man. They're both you. The old man doesn't die until
the body of flesh dies. He's not improving. He's not
going to improve. I just was talking to somebody,
I forget now who it was. There was a 90-year-old man,
a believer. And somebody asked him, they
said, you don't have trouble with sin anymore, do you? 90
years old. He said, you wouldn't. He said,
you just have no idea. That which is born of flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. He doesn't reign, but He does
not surrender. And not only is sin with us,
sin mars everything we do, including our best deeds. Sin doesn't just show up down
then. You know, we're not being real careful, and sin just surprises
us. It will do that. But the fact
is, sin dwelleth in me, Paul said. Sin dwelleth in me. When I would do good, evil is
present with me." What did the songwriter say? If I pray or
hear or read, sin is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord
indeed, tell me, is it thus with you? We have a new man created
of God that doesn't commit sin and cannot sin. born of God. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin because he is born of God. But the old man is only sin and
will always be sin, and so sin is mixed with all we do. The old man can bring us into
captivity, and he can cause us much sorrow, and we can fall,
and we can be cast down, but the Spirit of our Lord and the
power of His grace is going to keep us, and the old man of sin
will never separate us from Christ and never be able to make us
stop believing on the Lord Jesus. No matter how bad you fall. It don't matter if you end up
in Sodom. He's going to bring you out. He's going to bring
you out. So this doesn't teach sinless
perfection by any means. That's not what I'm saying. If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourself and the truth's
not in us. If we say that we have not sinned,
you know, the first verse there is talking about what we are.
The second verse is talking about what we do. If we say we have
not sinned, we make a malire and His Word's not in us. That's
so of every one of us. Well, secondly, it doesn't mean
that God doesn't see the sin in his people in this world.
It doesn't mean that either. It doesn't mean he doesn't see
our sin in this world. He deals with us, though, as
a loving father toward a child that's hurt, that's fallen, rather
than dealing with us as a judge toward a criminal, a father toward
a child. in love rather than a judge toward
a criminal. God's not pleased with our sin,
He's displeased with our sin. He's displeased with it. It's
great mercy and it's loving kindness when He chastises us for our
sins rather than condemn us and cast us away. He doesn't condemn,
He corrects. For whom the Lord loveth, He
chasteneth. That's the only ones. Who he
loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth. That doesn't sound very pleasant,
does it? It's not. He scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. If you endure chastening, if
you endure chastening, not only if you're chastened, but if you
endure it, God dealeth with you as with
sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? This
is the promise that we have from our Lord. He said in Psalm 37,
23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth
in his way. Well, I thought scripture said
there's none good, not one. Those that are born of God by
the Lord Jesus are his good men. We saw that not long ago. And
he orders our steps and he delights in our way. And though we fall,
See, we can fall. Though we fall, though we fall,
he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth
him with his hand. I've been young and I now am
old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed
begging bread. He is ever merciful and lendeth. His seed is blessed, so depart
from evil and do good and dwell evermore. These two things are
always together. The Lord, He always comes, you
see Him deal this way when He walked this earth. Sinners would
come to Him or He would come to a sinner and He would declare
the Gospel to them and declare to them or work a miracle and
show them a picture of His power and His power to save or what
have you. And it's a picture of Him teaching
us the Gospel, teaching us who He is and what He's accomplished
and what He's done. And then he says, now go and
sin no more. He always brings you the good
news. He always lifts you up. He always turns you from it and
lifts you up and shows you you're still mine. I still have you
in my hand. I'm still keeping you. I'm still
saving you. Now go do it no more. But here's the good news of these
scriptures. This is what these scriptures are telling us. This
is the glad tidings of good things right here. God sees no sin in
His people so as to condemn us. He sees no sin in His people
before His judgment seat. He doesn't see any sin. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world to put away
the sin of His people. He came into this world to completely
redeem us from all iniquity, to purge all our sin, and that's
exactly what He accomplished for His people. That's what He
accomplished for His people. I am always reading this, but
let me read it. Hebrews 1, 3. It says, He is
the brightness of God's glory, the express image of His person.
He opposes all things by the word of His power. And when He
had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand
of the Majesty on high. We started out by reading Hebrews
10, where it says, By one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He has completely, thoroughly
put away the sin of His people. So the Lord, the Lord God, the
all-seeing, all-knowing God, He does not look upon the sin
of His people with the eye of justice. He did that on Christ. He doesn't mark the sins of His
people and be against them. He doesn't impute sins to His
chosen. You know why? Because by what
Christ accomplished for us, we do not have any sins to impute. I'm talking about before God.
I'm talking about before His judgment seat. He so justified
His people. He's not pretending when He will
not impute sin to you. He will not impute sin to you
because in Christ you are the righteousness of God and there
is no sin to impute. That's so of His elect in Christ.
That's so of His true Israel. And if He's made you to know
that, given you faith, that's the good news to you. And that's
the power. That's the power that makes you
pick up your feeble, your hands that hang down, and that's the
power that strengthens your feeble knees. That's the power that
makes you lay aside the besetting sin and the weights and get you
back in that path and you keep running the race looking to Him.
It keeps you partaking of His holiness, keeps you loving it,
loving peace and holiness that you follow with all men. It's
because the Lord Jesus, by the sacrifice of himself, he has
put away our sins. Now listen, past, present, and
future. Now that scares some people to
say that, but that does scare God's people. Not when the Lord
is teaching you in your heart, not when the Spirit of God's
applying that in your heart. That's the greatest news you
ever heard. That makes you want to hold on Let me read Isaiah 53. Verse 4, Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes."
Now listen to that. We are healed. We are healed. Well, I don't see that in myself.
Don't be looking at yourself. Be looking to Him. What you see
in yourself is your old man. But you're not going to mortify
the deeds of your flesh looking to your old man. That's like
trying to clean a dirty floor with a dirty mop. It'll never
happen. The power to mortify sins is our Lord, and the power
is the Spirit of God. And that's why Paul, in Colossians
2, he gives that list of things, and he talks about a man who's
not holding the head. He's not beholding Christ. He's
not holding Him from whom all the nourishment is given. And
he says, but if you've seen Him and you've beheld Him, And you
know that you're there with Him. He said, why are you acting like
your life's in this world? Why are you letting yourself
be brought under the bondage of touch not, taste not, and
handle not? He said, now, in this voluntary humility, in this
will worship, that has a show and it looks good, but it doesn't
mortify the flesh. It actually inflames the flesh.
And the next word He says is, so if you be risen with Christ,
Set your affection on things above, where Christ sits at God's
right hand, because you're dead. You died with Him at Calvary.
If you're His, if you're risen with Him, you died at Calvary.
Your old man of sin died at Calvary. And your life came out of that
grave in Christ, and there you are, seated at God's right hand.
And then the next word, He says, and therefore mortify the deeds
of the flesh. What's He saying? Before and
after it, He said, He said, this touch not, touch not, taste not,
handle not, this looking to yourself is not how you going to mortify
it. Look to Him. Look to Him. Look to Him. God, by the blood and righteousness
of His Son, by His sacrifice, having satisfied God, God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit look upon us
in Christ, washed in His blood, robed in His righteousness, complete
in Christ, and He receives us. If you can
come into the presence of Holy God right now, right now, there's
only one way you can do that. He's made you to be accepted
of Him. And He said it has to be perfect
to be accepted. Now I know that's not in me.
I know that's not in you. Where is that then? It's in Christ. It's in Christ. Let's go back
there to Hebrews 10. We'll finish up with this. Hebrews 10. Verse 19. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new
and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart 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,
that promise. And let us consider one another.
If you want to provoke one another, let's provoke one another unto
good works. That's a good provoking. That's a good provoking. A good
provoking. Now, I want you to think about
this. I'm almost finished. He said,
I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor have I beheld perverseness
in Israel. There's something to the way
he said that. Because that's who God's people are. If you've
been born of God, you are Jacob and you are Israel. That's who
we are. The old man's Jacob, the new
man's Israel. And I think, you know, maybe
he said he'd never, he doesn't behold iniquity in Jacob because
it's, you know, in our old man, we're always trying to come to
God by our works and what we've done. And that isn't, it doesn't
equal up to God's righteousness. You come short of the glory of
God. He said, I don't behold that iniquity. And then in our
new man, in Israel, all we can see is our perverseness. And he says, I don't see perverseness
in Israel. In other words, he's put the
sin away. He doesn't regard your sin at all. Every born-again
child of God is Jacob by nature, a sinner, supplanter, trickster. And every born-again child of
God is Israel. With Christ formed in us, That's
Christ's name is Israel. And with Christ formed in us,
He's given us His name by His grace. He's brought us to faith
in Him. He's given us His name. And we wear His name and now
we confess that we need Him. He made us princes to God and
we need Him. How did He give Jacob that name? You remember, Jacob was trying
to wrestle. Jacob was trying to wrestle with
the Lord. And the Lord, He wasn't going
to prevail that way. And so the Lord pinned Him, put
His thigh out of joint, and all He could do was beg for mercy.
And the Lord said in Hosea, I believe it is, He said, that's how He
prevailed. That's when the Lord gave Him His name Israel. And
that's what the Lord does for us when Christ put His thigh
out of joint, and when He's put our thigh out of joint in the
new birth. We don't ever walk the same again.
You don't ever walk the same again. Jacob never walked the
same the rest of his days. Every time he took a step, he
limped. And it reminded him that in his
flesh dwelt nothing good, every step he took. When he would do good, evil was
present in all his works. But every time he took a step
and he limped, he also remembered who did that. And he remembered
what Christ had done for him, and that Christ was all his salvation.
And that kept him putting one little limping leg in front of
the other one and following Christ. You see that with every step
you take? You limp with every step you
take? It isn't like the sanctification the world speaks about. They
talk about you getting so good that you can just flutter and
fly right on up to heaven. The more the light shines, the
more you see. How that 90-year-old man that
can't even do anything, can't hardly get out of bed, why is
he talking about all his sin? You start out thinking your sins
in your hands and your feet and your tongue and what you eat
and drink and wear and all that. The older you get, the more you
find out that don't have anything to do with it. It's in you. It's what you are. That's what
Christ was teaching when he said it's not what goes in your mouth.
It's what you are. It's what you are. But the more that light shines,
you also see Christ is everything. He's everything. And growth in
grace is growing down in your estimation of you. And Christ
increasing more and more and more. You follow that regression
of Paul? I don't remember the exact words
now, but where he said at the beginning, you know, I'm not
worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the saints. The letter he writes, and he
says, I'm the least of the apostles. I may be mixing it up, but you
know what I'm saying. And at the end, he said, I'm
the chief of sinners. I'm the chief of sinners. But I'll persuade it, he said,
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. I know whom I have believed. If you never believed on him,
Or if you're a believer that's fallen, and that fall goes two ways,
you know. We fall down in our sin, and we fall down in our
haughtiness and pride, too. And we think we hadn't fallen.
If you've fallen either way, or if you've never believed Him,
you come to God believing on Christ. You come to Him confessing
your sins. I don't mean just that you did
a few bad things. I mean, come confessing, you
are sin. And in everything you've ever
done, you have sinned. And you need mercy. Because your
sin is against God. It's against God. And ask Him to cleanse you. And
ask Him to receive you. And ask Him, if He will, to justify
you and be merciful to you. The Lord delights to show mercy. That's the only way He shows
mercy to sinners that come like that. But He delights to show
mercy to real, true, bona fide sinners. And He never stops doing
it. This is what He said in Isaiah.
Come now, let us reason together. Isn't He a merciful God? Come now. Let us reason together. Saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. That makes you thankful. It makes you thankful. It makes
you compassionate. It makes you love a little deeper. You know, it makes you a little more
long-suffering. Just see how short your long-suffering
is and yet how long is it. That will make you a little more
long-suffering. All right, brethren, we're going
to close. Our God and our Father, we thank
you. Thank you for today. Thank you for letting us wake up this morning causing our first thought to
be You and thanking You for giving us another
day. Lord, keep that thought in our
heart today. Make it be our last thought tonight.
And in the morning, just keep us thinking on You. How we do thank You, Lord, that
You don't see our sins so as to condemn
us. So thankful, Lord, that You sent
Your Son and put Him away. And Lord, we're thankful that
You do see the sins of our old man. Thankful, Lord, that You're faithful
to strip us Bring us down. Keep us looking to Christ. We're also thankful, Lord, that
You know the heart that You've put in Your people. Thankful that You know that heart
that is willing and wants to and delights in Your Word. Thankful You look on that heart. Lord, You've been more willing to be
gracious to us than we have to ask You for grace. You've been more willing to show
us mercy than we've been willing to seek it. Thank You for drawing us. Thank
You for causing us to approach unto You. Lord, increase our hatred for
sin, increase our shame of our sin. It's painful as that is
to us to see it and be ashamed of it. We know it's for our good. We know we need You to do it.
And Lord, we ask You at the same time Your dear Son, more and
more to us. Make us delight more and more
to walk after You and please You and seek to do what You command
and avoid everything that You tell us to avoid. Thank You, Lord, for growing
us. We don't like to grow in pains. We don't like to see it in our
brethren. Make us patient, Lord, to endure
the trial and not try to pull ourselves or our brethren out
of it. Make us patient to wait till you brought us to the end
of it, taught us what it is you're teaching us. Thank you, Lord, that you put
down a rich man. That old, rich man in us and
You raise up that poor man in us. Lord, we just thank You for saving
us every day continually. Lord, would You be with our brethren
who are sick and in pain and those facing surgeries Those
that have been through surgeries, be with our brethren in Florida.
We have family there, brethren there, and pray you'll be with
them and enable us, Lord, to help any of our brethren any
way we can. Give us cheerful hearts to do
whatever we can and do it abundantly and generously. We know you're
providing. Next time we need help, you'll
use them to help us. Lord, thank you. Be with us now,
we ask you in Christ's name. Amen. Relentless love preserves my
life from unbelief. sustains me through my sin my
doubt my