Alright brethren, let's turn
to Ephesians chapter 1 again tonight. Ephesians chapter 1. Now we've gone through several
messages and looked at sort of an overview of this, so we're
starting to get more in detail now. Go back and look at these
verses one by one. And we find here in verse 4 two
things that we're going to concentrate on tonight. Let's read verses
3 and 4 together. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Paul is speaking,
and he's speaking to the Ephesian believers. They were elected
of God, blessed with all spiritual blessings, and he said, and this
happened in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. That, here's what
we're going to focus on, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. We're going to look at holy and
without blame. That's our subject. Now included
in that chief spiritual blessing, that chief spiritual blessing
being election, included in that was all spiritual blessings.
including these right here. One, he says, holy, that we should
be holy. God is holy. God's holy. Therefore, without holiness,
no man shall see the Lord. We have to be perfect to be accepted
of God, to enter into God's presence. Now, to be made holy is to be
sanctified. To be sanctified is to be set
apart, is to be set apart for God's holy use. And in our experience
of it, it's to be given a pure heart. is to be given a pure
conscience within, and to have our bodies washed with pure water
without. It's how a sinner is made to
have communion with God, a union with Him, by God making us one
spirit in the Lord. And then he says here, in without
blame, Now, that may include holiness, but we're going to
look at this tonight as it being us made righteous, being made
righteous. Because to be without blame is
to be righteous, is to be without blame before the law of God,
to be justified before the law of God. God is righteous. He's
righteous. And so a person that's guilty
of breaking His law can't come into His presence. We have to
be made righteous, be justified of all our sin. Now this is what
I want us to get. These spiritual blessings of
being made holy, and being made without blame and being kept
so. This is the work of the triune
God through the blood of Christ Jesus and it's to the praise
of God's grace. It's His work. First of all,
we're going to see it's God who does this work. And then secondly,
we're gonna say a few words on why his elect are made holy and
without blame. And then thirdly, a few words
on how we're kept holy and without blame. Now first of all, it's
God who makes his elect holy and without blame. First of all,
God the Father, God the Father does. God the Father made his
elect holy, and he made us without blame by eternal election. Now we said this last time when
we looked at the doctrine of election. But the verse says
there in verse 3 that God the Father blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. Holiness and righteousness are included in those. And He
did that according as. Verse 4 says according as He
had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. That
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now, God the Father sanctified
us, His elect, when He chose us in Christ. That's clear from
Scripture. Jude 1 says, to them that are
sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and
called. And also because God the Father
chose us in Christ, who is the Lord our righteousness, who is
our righteousness. We've always been, His elect
have always been without blame before Him. even though we sinned
in Adam, and even though we came forth transgressors against the
law of God ourselves, even though that we were conceived in corruptible
seed, and we came forth polluted and defiled with a sin nature,
completely against God. The first sight God had of us
when He put us in Christ, our mediator and our head, is the
sight Christ has always had of us and will always have of us. And that is before Him, His elect
were holy and without blame. Holy and without blame before
Him in Christ Jesus. That's how we were. We saw last
time the kingdom prepared for us which we shall receive in
the world to come was prepared for us from the foundation of
the world. The Lord said that in Matthew
25, 34. So first of all, God the Father receives the glory
for making us holy and without blame before Him in love according
as He chose us in Christ Jesus. And then secondly, let's turn
to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. Secondly, God the Son. Christ
Jesus makes His elect holy and without blame. Now the theme
of Ephesians is the wisdom of God in making all His children
one in Christ. That oneness that's made by Christ. It pleased God in the wisdom
of God that after that the world by its wisdom knew not God. It
pleased God to send forth His Son and to gather together in
one all His elect in Him, in Christ. And so first, God the
Son became one with His elect. He came down and He took part
of our flesh and became the God-man. It was becoming to God the Father
for Him to do this. Look at verse 10, Hebrews 2.10.
It says, For it became Him God the Father, for whom are all
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory. It became his perfections, it
became his wisdom, his justice, it became his grace, it became
his holiness and his righteousness, his character, the perfections
of who he is. And it became his purpose of
exalting his son and exalting these people he loved as his
son, in his son. It pleased him, it became him
to do this. Look, to make the captain of
their salvation perfect through sufferings. Christ Jesus, the
captain of our salvation. It's the same word that's used
over in Hebrews 12 when it says He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the captain of our salvation.
And it pleased God to make Him that perfect captain of our salvation,
that perfect author and finisher of our faith through sufferings. through sufferings, to come,
make Him come under the law, to be tempted in all points like
as we are, yet without sin, to walk where we walk, and then
go to the cross and endure the cross, being perfectly holy in
His heart and obedient to the Father, as He bore the sin of
His people in His body on the tree, and answered to divine
justice and put away our sin, so that in Him we're made both
holy and righteous. It pleased God to do that through
sending His Son to suffer. So he says there, he gives several
Old Testament scriptures which spoke of Christ's coming to be
our holy representative, to be that holy prophet, priest, and
king, that holy man who would represent his people in the earth
and live and die for them. And he says, verse 14, for as
much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same. that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage." Alright, look at Hebrews
7. Hebrews 7. It became us. It became us for Christ to come
and serve in holiness for us. Hebrews 7.26. It says there,
For such an high priest became us, for such a high priest became
us." It was becoming because He meets all our needs. He meets
all our needs. Such a high priest became us
who is holy and harmless and undefiled, separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens. He's holy and without blame.
He came forth holy and without blame, holy and righteous so
that He could serve throughout His life fulfilling all the law
of God, go to that cross and lay down His life for all the
elect of God and justify us of all our sin and make us righteous,
make us without blame. He is holy and without blame,
so He could enter into the holy place, into God's presence, with
His own blood, and thereby, sprinkling His own blood, sanctify us, and
be our sanctification, and be our righteousness. So, it became
us for Him to come, this Holy One, and do this for us. Now
look at Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. Now all through the law, this
is what was being pictured. This is what was being typified.
Hebrews 10.1 says, for the law having a shadow of good things
to come. It was a shadow of good things
to come. But not the very image of the
things. Christ is the express image. He's the very image of
which those things pictured. Those, he says, not the very
image of the things, they can never with those sacrifices which
they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they have not ceased to be offered because
that the worshipers, now here's a key word, once purged, once
purged, once they had their conscience purged, once they were sanctified
inwardly, they would have had no more conscience of sins. coming
there year after year, every year. There's a remembrance again
of sins every year. They had to come back every year.
Verse 5, he says, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world,
when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, they always had no pleasure.
They never satisfied God. They never put away sin, never
justified one's soul, never made one's soul sanctified. Never
made anybody holy and without blame by any of those sacrifices.
Verse 7, Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. And he
says there in parenthesis, the volume of the book is written
of me. The whole volume of the book
has been speaking about me, Christ said. Now look at verse 8. Now
above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings
and offering for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein
which are offered by the law. And then he said, Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. Well, when Christ came, he taketh
away the first. Christ abolished the old covenant,
fulfilling all. He was what it all pictured,
and he took it all away. He took away the first, that
he, Christ, may establish the second. Christ is the minister
of the better testament, the everlasting covenant of grace,
which he writes on the heart of his people. By the witch will,
look here now, by that will, by His will, by Christ willingly
coming and fulfilling the will of God, we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. By that one offering. Verse 11, and every priest standeth
daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices
which can never take away sins. And men do it today. They don't
have to necessarily be presenting themselves as priests. They don't
even have to be, they can be in churches today, but they're
still trying to offer sacrifices to God. They're still trying
to make themselves holy and without blame by something they've done,
by keeping the law or doing something they've done by themselves. Verse 12 says, 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, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified." That's what he's done. That's what Christ
has done. Now hold your place right here
in Hebrews. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5. Back to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5. Now, the Lord God promised Christ
that when He accomplished this work and He put away the sin
of His people, He promised to exalt Him. He said He will see
His seed. The pleasure of the Lord will
prosper in His hand. And He promised to exalt Him, and He did. He
exalted Him. We saw that in one of our previous
messages in chapter 1. He exalted Him to be head over
all things to His church that Christ might fill all in all. Alright, now, the captain of
our salvation, the author and finisher of faith, is our risen
head and our risen husband. That's where he is. He's risen
now. And Ephesians 5.21 says, Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. Now when Christ gave Himself
is when He suffered. That's when He went to that cross
in the place of His people and He suffered on that cross. And
thereby He justified His elect so that now all those for whom
He died are without blame by His blood. They have their sin
put away by His blood. And as promised, God the Father
raised Him to be head over all things, to fill all in all His
church. So He sends the gospel, Christ
does, to us with the Holy Spirit. And this is what He does, verse
26, That first part there is how He made us without blame.
He justified us, made us righteous. Now watch what He does here.
He makes us holy too. Verse 26, that He might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word. Our head
is our prophet, priest, and king. That's who He is. And He ministers
to the hearts of all those that He's made without blame, all
those He's justified, all those He's purged by His blood. He
ministers to our hearts the Gospel. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling. He saved us by giving Himself,
laying down His life for us. And then He calls us and tells
us, I've done it for you. It's done. That's right, He saved
us and then He calls us with His holy calling and tells us
what He's done for us. And He gave Himself to save us
and then He calls us and tells us. And here's that end that
God the Father sent Him to accomplish, to make all one, watch this,
that He might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and
without blame. That's what without blemish means,
that it should be holy and without blemish. So that's what Christ
has done. So we see first that God the
Father, He makes His children holy and without blame by putting
them in Christ. And before Him, His elect have
been holy and without blame before Him. He sees them in Christ,
always have. And then we see that God the
Son came, and He suffered. And He makes us holy and righteous
by the blood of His cross and by sending the gospel to us and
through the Spirit ministering this grace into our hearts. And
Paul said, and you are complete in Him who's the head of all
principality and power. That's good. That's good to know.
We're complete in Him. complete as fully as He's the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. We're that complete in Him, brethren.
That complete in Him. Are you resting that complete
in Christ? And that faith says, I trust that I'm that complete
in Him. I'm holy and without blame in Him. All right, now
look. Let's go back to Hebrews 10 now.
Back to Hebrews 10. Now God the Holy Spirit also
makes His elect holy and without blame. Back there in Hebrews
10, where we stop there in verse 15, He says, Whereof the Holy
Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that He had said before,
back in Hebrews 8, He said, 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 in their minds will I write them. God
the Holy Spirit is used to do this. We just saw that Christ
gave Himself for us, redeemed us, made us holy, made us without
blame, and then He ministers the Word to us and washes us
by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. He sends forth the Spirit. God the Father gave Him the Spirit. He said, I'll pray the Father
and He'll send forth the Spirit. That was the promise to Christ
and He sends forth the Spirit. And so look at what the Spirit
does. The Spirit comes forth and He is used of Christ to write. to put my laws into their hearts
and in their minds while I write them. Now you know, hopefully
everybody knows, Romans 2 tells us plainly that we have the law
of Mount Sinai written on our conscience by nature. We know
stealing is wrong and committing adultery is wrong. The Gentiles
who don't even have the law bear witness of that fact, Paul said.
But what is this he writes on our heart? What is this laws
he writes on our heart? Laws means words. That's what
it means. Words. Remember the apostle said,
you have the words of eternal life. That's what he writes on
our heart. He writes the words of eternal
life on our heart. He writes, he said, He said,
whereof the Holy Ghost is also a witness to it. Whereof means
all these things He's just been saying. The Holy Ghost writes
these words on our hearts that by one offering Christ has perfected
us forever. And that's the first time those
words will penetrate into the new man that God's created and
make us rest in Christ. When Christ through the Spirit
writes those words on our heart and says, you're perfected forever
by what I've done for you. He tells us these words that
He's saying right here after that. There's sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more. When He writes that on your heart
and He says, you're perfected forever by my one offering and
now your sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. Oh, some
new things start happening. Some brand new things start happening.
Old things start passing away when that happens. You mean all
this law keeping and all this being yoked by my preacher and
all these distinctions he's been making and saying this makes
a difference and all these things, you mean all that's gone? All
that's gone. It's all gone. That didn't do
anything for you anyway. That didn't do you any good at
all. Christ says, I've perfected forever you by my one offering. And He says to us then, and your
sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. And He writes this on
our heart, verse 18. He says, now where remission
of these is, where sins are put away, where they're gone, where
you've been perfected forever, there's no more offering for
sin. There's no more offering for sin. That's when our conscience
is purged. Look back there at Hebrews 9.
Hebrews 9 verse 13. If the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the
purifying of the flesh, if it did that in type and ceremony,
which is all it did, how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot
to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. And when he speaks this, then
the conscience is purged from dead works by the blood of Christ. We see what he's really done
and what he's really accomplished. And that's when, of God, Christ
is made unto us sanctification and righteousness. We quit looking
at ourselves and our works and what we have done and what we
haven't done and how much further we got to go and how we just
fell in this area and that area and we get out from under that
Satan's yoke and Satan's bondage wherein he held us by making
us fear death all our days. He delivers us out from under
that by showing us he's done everything required to make us
accepted of God. That's when we've been sanctified.
When we stop trying to make ourselves holy and righteous and we rest
in Christ. That's when we've been sanctified.
That's a pure heart. That's a heart that's been made
right. to have communion with God and cast all into the hands
of Christ. And now, because He's done that,
now the holy and the righteous God can and will receive us and
we have communion with Him. Look at verse 19. having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus."
We've got liberty. We've got confidence that we
can come now and enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way, not that old dead way, not that old
dead letter, not that old dead way of our flesh and our sinful
depravity trying to come to God Say we've spit shined ourselves
enough that God will receive us not that way By a new and
living way which he consecrated for us Which he perfected for
us the captain of our salvation through the veil that is to say
by his flesh by him going into the presence of God for us and
and Having a high priest over the house of God this one's there
for us to ever live to make intercession for us not only being having
the liberty to enter by His blood, but also having Him there for
us over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart,
a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience. and our bodies washed with pure
water. No more conscience of sin. Oh, we see sin in us. We see we are still sinners,
but now we know He's purged us of our sin and we have liberty
to come to God and He'll receive us. Because the King's daughter
now is all glorious within because He sanctified us within. He made
us holy within. And her clothing is of wrought
gold. We've been robed in the righteousness of Christ. So we
are holy and without blame. And holy and righteous God will
receive us. That's what we're talking about.
Now let's go to Romans 12. Hold your place in Hebrews. We're
going to come back. Let's go to Romans 12 now. Secondly, briefly, I want to
look here at why are we made holy and without blame? Why are
we made holy and without blame? I tell you what, let's go to
Romans 6. Go to Romans 6. We saw there, I read that to
you in Hebrews 9, when our conscience is purred from dead works, now
we can serve the living God. The living God. Before we were going through
a dead charade is what we were doing. Now we can truly serve
the living God. Now look here at Romans 6.22.
God has made us holy and without blame for us to serve Him. Look at Romans 6.22. But now
being made free from sin. Isn't that wonderful? We've been
made free from sin. How about so? In every way before
God. It's still with us, it's still
in our flesh, but we're free from it. We're free from it.
And now we've become servants to God. Servants to God. And you have your fruit unto
holiness and the end everlasting life. Look at Romans 7 and verse
6. And we serve Him now in newness
of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7, 6. But
now we're delivered from the law, that being dead wherein
we were held. It's dead. It's dead to us and
we're dead to it, the law. It is. Christ has accomplished
it. He's satisfied. He's fulfilled
everything. That means, brethren, if the
law says of you, past, present, and future, that you are perfectly
righteous and can do no wrong, you're free from it. You're free
from it. And that's what we are in Christ.
That is exactly what the believer is in Christ. So now we serve
in newness of spirit, not in oldness of the letter. I know
that folks who say I preach a lascivious doctrine, they don't understand
this, because they say that's lasciviousness, you're teaching
men to live in sin. This is the only thing, the free
and sovereign grace of God, accomplished by Christ Jesus, wherein He has
made us holy and righteous forever, is the only thing, this great
love, is the only thing that will constrain us to truly serve
Him. And do so in newness of spirit
and not in that old, dead, whoremonging, licentious way that men call
holiness and righteousness. This is the only thing that will
do it. Like those vessels and those priests in that tabernacle,
whenever we've been chosen, we were set apart by God, we were
purged by the blood of Christ, we've been sanctified through
the Spirit to believe on Him and trust in Him, and it's happened
to us for God's holy use. Now we're God's and we're being
used of God for God's glory, to publish His good news of His
Son and what He's done for us, for the good of His house and
His brethren. That's what we're here for. That's
our purpose. Read Romans 12-1 now. Romans 12-1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God. You see that this is all, it's
the goodness of God by which we serve. It's love that constrains. By the mercies of God that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. After we see what God
has done for us so freely and so fully, after we see what Christ
has suffered for us, to go and bear that shame of that cross
for us, and then to break down every wall and every barrier
and bring this Gospel to us and work everything in providence
to bring us right here, right now, right here where we are,
to be gathered together to hear his gospel and see what he's
done for us. This is reasonable service. Reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world. but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what's that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. We have to come constantly
to Christ to have our minds renewed, to be constantly hearing His
gospel, constantly being washed, constantly being purged, that
we can constantly be washed from all the defilement we pick up
going through this world and from the defilement of our own
flesh and our vain ideas and our ignorant thoughts we have
of what will make God happy. We've got to be purged from those
things and be renewed in our mind continually that we may
be able to prove, to discern, to understand what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God. It's to serve Him by
faith which works by love. That is, that's the perfect will
of God. For I say through the grace given
unto me." He said, I'm speaking to you by the grace given unto
me. To every man that's among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.
Remember brethren, we have done nothing of ourselves to receive
this from God. That's what it means. Don't for
one minute go to thinking now, you are going to be able to do
something in your flesh that's going to please God by the works
of the law or anything of that nature whereby you're going to
be able to come apart from God's grace, apart from the blood of
Christ, apart from the spirit of God. Don't ever think that.
Think soberly. This has all been done for us
by the grace of God. Look now at verse 3. According
as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as
we have many members in one body, and all members have not the
same office. He's brought us all into one body, hasn't He?
It's what He said He was going to do. And all members have not
the same office. There are many different ministries
in the body of Christ. So, he said, we being many are
one body in Christ, everyone members one of another, having
then gifts differing according to the grace that's given to
us. If your gift is prophecy, he says, prophesy according to
the proportion of faith. He says, or ministry. There's
all different kinds of ministries. Going over and fixing a shutter
on one of your brethren's windows is a ministry. Fixing or repairing
something on their car, that's a ministry. Whatever it is that
you're given the gifts to do, he says, wait on our ministry. Or he that teacheth on teaching.
Or he that exhorteth on exhortation. Or he that giveth, let him do
it with simplicity. That's a ministry. He that ruleth
with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Don't be divided between God
and His house and His service and this world's house and this
world's service. Don't be divided over it. Abhor
that which is evil and cleave to that which is good. Be kindly
affectioned one to another with brotherly love. In honor, preferring
one another. not slothful in business, fervent
in spirit, serving the Lord." You see that? Serving the Lord.
Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant
in prayer, distributing to the necessity of the saints, giving
to hospitality. You see, I want you to read the
rest of that later, but it goes on and on. It talks about our
our walk in the world, and our service in the world, and how
we are to conduct ourselves amongst the world. But this primarily
is talking about between one another. But here's what I want
you to see. Chiefly, chiefly, the purpose
for which God has separated us out of the world, and made us
holy and without blame before Him, and brought us into His
household, into one body, is for us to serve Him. To serve
God our Father, to set forth the good news and this will and
this purpose and this glorious wisdom of God our Father that
He purposed in His Son, to publish what His Son has accomplished.
Because it's going to be through sheep that He's already sanctified
and made righteous, that God our Father, through Christ our
Head, is pleased to call out His lost sheep and sanctify them
and give them this word of grace in their heart. According to
how we've received this mercy, that's how we'll appreciate this
mercy. If we received it this way, we'll
see this is a wonderful thing He's done and I need it, I need
it. And this is for the edifying
of our brethren who He's already called out to help one another,
edify one another. This is the purpose for which
God has called us out, has separated His people. Alright, now let's
look at this third thing. Look back at Hebrews 12 then.
Hebrews 12. Now we've seen that God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit gets the glory for making
the elect of God holy and without blame. We've seen here that God
separates us for the purpose of serving Him and the good of
His house, the good of His glory and His people. That's why He
separated us. But now lastly, my question is this, how are
we kept holy and without blame? Now we saw all that, what he's
done for us, but we often do a very foolish thing because
we're still in this body of death. We're still in this body of sin
and death, and so we do a very foolish thing very often. We
try to serve God and be conformed to the world at the same time.
That's what we try to do. I know that we might not think
we're trying to be conformed to the world, but that's what
we do. And I know this is what we do because I have the same
infirmities and I do the same thing. I know this is what we
do. I'll give you an example. Satan's crafty. He's a beguiler. We don't think this because we're
beguiled often. Very often beguiled. Our flesh
lusts after the smile of this world. That's what we lust after. You know, when we think about
going to a class reunion, we think about being able to present
ourselves and all we've done and everybody just praising us
for it. We go to a family reunion. That's
what you think about. You think about, you know, ragging
on your kids and your house and everything and where you are
and there, you know, and just Everybody just patting you on
the back. We got all these different ways, honors we want, applause
we want, and different things we want. We want the smile of
this world. But the smile of this world brings great weight
upon us, very heavy weight upon us. It's our lust to have bigger,
better, and faster than we need. That's our lust, to have bigger,
better, and faster than we need. We get ourselves in bondage.
We get ourselves in debt in this world. In many, many ways. Many, many ways. And the applause
of this world comes with a heavy price. A heavy price. Before
we know it, we're stretched so thin. We're stretched so thin
that our focus turns from God and His house. And many arrows
pierce us through. Many arrows pierce us through
it. What do you mean? See if this rings a bell. We
get to thinking, you know, I just got so much strength. I just
got so much time. I just got so much money. I'm overwhelmed here because
I've got all this weight on my shoulder and I got all these
responsibilities and these things I've got to do. My hands are
hanging down, my knees are weak, I'm tired, I'm worn out. When
I get home, I'm just worn out. I want to serve God, I just right
now don't possibly have the time to do it like I want to do it.
And our minds become so entangled with all these burdens, we can't
be renewed in the spirit of our minds because We're constantly
being pulled away from the only one who can renew us in the spirit
of our minds. We don't have time. We don't
have time. And without realizing it, we've
become conformed to this world. That's what the world does. That's
exactly what the world's doing. A world serving for me and mine
and doing everything we can, what we can do, and if we have
time, we might show up over there and come to hear y'all's preacher. That's what the world's doing.
That's actually what the world's doing. And without realizing
it, what we end up doing is trying to frantically keep up and keep
up and keep up, keep our head above water. We're neglecting
the one who has the power to open so no man can shut. The
one who has the power to shut so that no man can open. The
one who has all power to provide all our needs, everything we
need in this earth. This very one who separated us
and made us His servants and said, now, here's the primary
purpose. Don't let anything interfere
with this. Set forth my gospel in this world. Do everything
you can to keep that church and my house built up for this purpose. getting the name of it in the
phone books, and getting the name of it in every way you can
get it out there, let people know where you are, and every
little way that you can possibly help to do this. This is our
work now. This is it. But we got so much
going on, we can't do that. And essentially what we say is,
we're saying, Father, I'll get to you. and I'll get to your
house just as soon as I can free up some time from my own work."
Isn't that what we say? I've said it a thousand times
over. A thousand times over. Now, when our children do that
to us, when we say what we've set them apart for is to do something
we've given them to do, and our children say, Father, I'll be
with you as soon as I get to time, I'll be with you. We deal
with them. Usually, according to the sinners,
we are. But our Father, thankfully, doesn't
chasten us in unholy ways, because He's teaching us holiness. But
He does this, verse 10, Hebrews 12, 10, but He, for our profit,
that we might be partakers of His holiness. He separates us
from that which would separate us from Him. That's what He does.
How does He do that? He does it just like He did it
in the beginning. Our gracious Heavenly Father, He sends Christ
our head, who sends forth the gospel to us, and on a cold night
when we just thought we were just going to hear any other
message and just not pay it much attention, and go back, get back
to what we were doing, the Spirit of God comes into our heart and
starts talking to us. and won't leave us alone. And
he says, verse 12, Hebrews 12, 12, he says this to us, lift
up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, make straight
paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of
the way, but let it rather be healed. And he starts to guide
us into truth. He says to us back up there in
verse 1, lay aside every weight and that sin that's so easily
besetting you, and run straight to Jesus, the author and finisher
of your faith, who sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. And he says to us, he whispers in our heart, verse
15, Now you look diligently to Christ, lest you fail of the
grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up start
to trouble you, And thereby, that's how many are defiled,
lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who
for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. He said, lest you
be found to be one who's willing to trade all these riches of
my grace, And all these riches of eternal blessings that I've
given you that will never perish and never fade, never go away,
lest you be found to forsake all those riches for these temporal
riches and this temporal bread you've been running after. And
He says to us, now draw near. He says to us, now remember,
I've washed you. And I'm a high priest over the
house of God for you, to ever live to make intercession for
you. And he says, so now come near to me, verse 18, for you're
not come to the mouth that might be touched, and that burned with
fire, nor into blackness and darkness and tempest. I know
you think that if you come to me, I'm going to bring you back
under the law, and I'm going to scold you, and I'm going to
whip you, and I'm going to make your life bitter with hard bondage.
But that's not the case. My ways are not your ways, and
my thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than
you, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher
than your thoughts. So return unto me now, and I'll
have mercy on you, and I'll abundantly pardon you. Verse 22, no, you've
not come there, he says. He says to you, verse 22, he
says, but you've come to Mount Zion. You've come to the city
of the living God. You've come to heavenly Jerusalem.
I have an innumerable company of angels to help you. You've
come to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn,
which are written in heaven. You've come to God, the Judge
of all. I discern what's going on in
your case. I know everything that's happening in your situation,
in your life, that's so private you won't even tell your own
spouse. I know everything that's going on in your life." That's
what he tells us now. and to the spirits of just men
made perfect." And look at this, and you've come to Jesus, the
mediator of that new covenant, that everlasting covenant. You've
come to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than
that of Abel. And he says to us in Hebrews
13 verse 12, he says, now you remember now, Jesus also, that
He might sanctify you, that He might make it so you're without
blame. With His own blood, He suffered without the gate. He
went outside of the camp and suffered for you. And He says,
verse 13, Go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing
His reproach. For here have you no continuing
city. You're seeking one to come. He
said, turn from all these temporal things and go to Him now. Go to Him. Well, I'm going to
suffer if I do that. Bear the reproach and go to Him.
Go to Him. You probably started out, He'll
tell you, you probably started out in this way with good intentions.
You probably started out in this way thinking you could better
serve Christ. But He says now, return to Christ. Verse 15, He
says, By Him, therefore, offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually. That is, the fruit of your lips
given thanks to His name. He says, verse 16, Do good and
communicate. He says to us, you see, all this
sorrow and all this worry and all this turmoil you've been
having in your heart is because you've become so entangled in
this world that you're worried and really all you're serving
is you and yours. And our eternal happiness and
our eternal peace, having the Spirit of God, is to serve the
Lord and to serve our brethren, to be given to them. And we stop
that. And we become bitter and bondage
and we become heavy laden bogged down. He says, for with such
sacrifices God's well pleased. And we may have to walk around
with it for a while. We may have to be stripped a
lot. And it won't be pleasant, but afterward it's going to yield
the peaceable fruit of righteousness because when our gracious God
has once again, as it were, translated us out of darkness into His marvelous
light all over again, then we'll start walking in the
light. And as He's in the light, and then we have fellowship one
with another. Fellowship with God and fellowship
with His Son. And fellowship with our brethren.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all
sin. You see? That's how we're kept. He keeps us separated from the
separation into Him. And He keeps washing us and keeps
us in His light. And in the midst of all our cares,
He gives us this peace of reminding us, by reminding us that the
government's not on my shoulder. The government's on the all-powerful
shoulder of my head, who laid down His life for me, who served
for you, who made you holy without blame, who's at the right hand
of the Father, working all things together for your good. And the
weight rolls off of you then, and you see, He's got it. And your hands are strengthened,
and you're able to do as that Scripture said, and lift up the
hands that hang down and the feeble knees and help somebody
else by telling them what He's done for you. And finally again, you're rejoicing
in Him. Whereas before, everything has
just become drudgery. and you're rejoicing in Him again.
And once again, serving Him becomes reasonable service. How many
times does this happen in our life? Over and over and over
again. Doesn't it? Brethren, holiness
and righteousness is of our triune God through the blood of Christ.
And we who He's washed and made honest, given a true heart to
speak the truth, We know right now that if our faithful Father
didn't continue to keep us in Christ our holiness and our righteousness,
if Christ didn't continually keep speaking this Word to our
weary soul in season, if the Spirit of God didn't keep applying
it to our hearts and washing us and renewing us over and over
again, we would become fully conformed to this world in a
heartbeat. In a heartbeat. Hebrews 13, 20. Hebrews 13, 20. Now, to the God of peace that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great
shepherd of the sheep, that great prophet of the sheep, that great
bishop of our souls who's leading us by his gospel, that great
shepherd. And he did it through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. He says, that very God make you
perfect. in every good work to do His
will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight,
through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Anybody that has a problem with
God in Christ getting all the glory for sanctifying His people
and making us righteous and keeping us, they've got a problem with
God. and got a problem with God. I'm
thankful. Aren't you thankful? I pray he'll
bless that to our hearts. Amen.