I've probably quoted more from
this passage of Scripture than any other in Scripture. And the
passage is beginning in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 10. And it says, By the witch will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once. Every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Sanctification. is something
that God does that I think sometimes we get a little sideways on and
misunderstand. But to put it simply, sanctification
is being separated and made holy, perfected by God to be an instrument
for God's use only. And it's God's work. He does
the work. The title of our lesson this morning is Separate and
Holy. Separate and Holy. Now this work
of sanctification, hear me, this work of sanctification is the
work of the triune God. It's not anything that we do. It's not even the believer to
do this. This is God's work. I want to start here and I want
to point out some things. I believe they bear out here
in the context of what we've been studying in the 9th and
10th chapter. God the Father sanctified every
believer in eternal election. God set apart a people for His
holy use. And His divine decree, by His
divine decree we are separated unto Him. by His gracious choice."
That's what Jude said in Jude 1. Jude, the servant of Jesus
Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by
God the Father. In chapter 9, we looked at the
vessels that were used there. Back there in chapter 9 in verse
2, there was a tabernacle made. In the first room there was candlestick,
table, and showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after
the second veil, the tabernacles, which is called the holiest of
all, which had the golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid
round about with gold. Wherein was the golden pot that
had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the
covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy
seat. These things were separated by
God to be used for nothing else but the worship of God. That's what they were separated
for. And that's a type, an illustration of sanctification for a believer. When God sets them apart, they're
not to be used for anything else. They're to be used for His service.
These vessels were not to be taken out of that place. They
were not to be used in a common way. He sanctified these vessels. This is a type of how He sanctified
us. You and I, believer, who trust
the Lord, we're set apart for no other use than to serve our
God. That's what sanctification is
about. That's what God chose His people
for, is to serve Him, to worship Him. to give our lives to the
furtherance of this Gospel, of His Word, for the edification
of His people and for the calling out of His sheep. God chose to
set apart a people and He chose to call out that people through
a people He sanctified. And so that's in our bodies. are to be used for no other reason. These vessels are for no other
purpose than that, to serve Him. Period. That's it. And so, secondly,
I want you to see here that God the Son sanctified His vessels
of mercy when He perfected us by His one offering on the cross.
That's what our text says here in Hebrews 10. Verse 10, it says,
"...by the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ, by His one offering." Verse 14
says, "...for by one offering He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified, them that God set apart and gave to Him."
That word, perfected, means to be made complete. All that was lacking in us was
filled up, made complete, made whole by Christ, by what He accomplished
for His people. You're complete in Him, Paul
told the Colossians. The word is in the perfect tense,
that word perfected. In the Greek and English, perfect
tense. Describes an action which is
viewed as having been completed in the past once for all time
not needing to be repeated again It's done and the Lord Jesus
Christ He did it he made God's chosen vessels of mercy mercy
perfect. He made a perfectly holy before
God He completed us in holiness and the context declares that
In Hebrews 9, the blood here, we looked last time in Hebrews
10 there, but the blood of those animal sacrifices, they were
never intended. It was never God's purpose that
those sacrifices would purge anybody of sin. That was never
their purpose. And those priests that were chosen,
they were vessels set apart too. He chose the tribe of Levi, and
from the tribe of Levi he chose the house of Aaron. And they
were to be used for nothing else either. But those priests never
made anything perfect by their offering. It was never intended
for that reason. They were set forth to show us
an illustration of how Christ sanctifies us. It's by His righteousness
that we're justified and sanctified. Now, I want you to see here with
me that what was used in that temple, in that tabernacle in
the wilderness, what was used to God separated those vessels
for his use. But something had to be done
to those vessels. First thing that was done is
some blood was shed. Blood was shed. Because if they're
going to be purged, it's got to be through blood. It's got
to be through life being laid down on their behalf, to purge
them, to sanctify them. Now look here with me, Hebrews
9.22. This is what this whole passage is leading up to here
to teach us about what Christ accomplished. Hebrews 9.22 says,
almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without
shedding of blood is no remission. Now look at Hebrews 10 and verse
4. Those sacrifices were never intended
to put away sin, for it's not possible that the blood of bulls
and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh
into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. And burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me, lo, I come to do thy will,
O God. Now look at verse 10. By the
witch, by that will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all time. It's done. And every priest
standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, this
God-man, the Son of God in human flesh, this man, after he had
offered one sacrifice, not a multitude of sacrifices, one sacrifice,
for sins. Not for his own sins, for our
sins. For the sins of those that God sanctified in him. And for
our sins. He's perfect. He's the spotless
Lamb. He's that perfect, spotless Lamb
of God. The Lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world. The Lamb that John said, Behold,
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. This
is the Lamb that John beheld in the midst of the throne. This
is God's Lamb. This is the one Abraham told
Isaac. He said, my son, God will provide
Himself a Lamb. This is God in human flesh, the
Lamb. God providing His Son, the Lamb,
for sins and offering, His offering. And when He offered it, He sat
down on the right hand of God. That's what you do when you finish
working. Your dad comes home from working,
or your mom comes home from working, a long day at work, and their
job's finished, and they sit down. They're done. They're finished. That's what Christ did. When he finished this work, he
sat down. And from henceforth, expect until his enemies be made
his footstool. His enemies, those that that
hate the gospel, they're going to be made to bow and confess
that He is Lord, that He is holy, and in Him is all holiness. And brethren, we were enemies
in our mind by wicked works. We didn't like God, but we conquered
too. We brought down to His feet,
to His footstool, to bow to Him and say, Lord, what would Thou
have me to do? All His enemies. going to be
brought to bow before Him. For by one offering, here's why,
it has to be, for by that one offering that He offered, He
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He did what none
of the priests could do, what none of the sacrifices could
do, and blood was shed in that law. Blood was shed. A lamb was
brought and blood was shed. And that blood was the blood
that purged those vessels and those priests in that tabernacle
that made them accepted of God, perfect before God. So we're
sanctified by God the Father in eternal election. We're sanctified
by the Son of God when He perfected us forever by His one offering,
through that one offering. Well, something else had to be
done with that blood though. Something else was done with
that blood. And this is where we see an illustration of God
the Holy Spirit sanctifying these holy vessels, His people, in
the new birth and regeneration. Our perfect sanctification not
only involves God doing something for us, and not only involves
Christ doing something on our behalf, but this involves God
doing something in us as well. We've got to be brought into
a union with our sanctification, with Christ our Savior. He's
got to be made unto us sanctification. If we're going to behold where
our holiness is, we've got to be united with Him. Now those
vessels, they were separated, set apart for God's use and for
God's use only. And then they brought a lamb
and they took that innocent lamb, spotless lamb, which was a picture
of Christ. And they killed that lamb. That's
what you do with a sacrifice. You kill it. It's an offering. And they killed it. And then
they took that blood and they took it and they sprinkled it
on all those vessels that God had set apart. And they sprinkled
it on the priest that God had set apart. That's what has to
be done for us to be brought into this holiness, to be brought
into this complete separation and to be made holy for God's
holy use. We won't see that God sanctified
us in His decree of election until we're brought in to see
it. We won't see that Christ is all
our sanctification by His one offering until we're brought
to see it. And the Spirit of Grace brings
us to see this through the Word and through faith. And these
are given in Scripture too as being a part of this sanctification. Through the Word and through
faith that's in Christ. Now, look over there at Hebrews
9, 18. Were these priests perfect of
themselves? No. But because God had separated
them, and because a spotless Lamb was slain in their place,
and because they were washed in the blood in God's sight,
they were perfect. They were perfectly holy. And
that's a type of sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Look here,
Hebrews 9.18, Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated
without blood, For when Moses had spoken every precept to all
the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and
of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled
both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of
the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. That's what
happens when the Spirit comes and creates life within us, when
we're regenerated and this new nature is created that was not
there. It's created in righteousness and true holiness. We've got
to have To worship God in spirit and in truth, we've got to be
created anew in spirit to be able to worship Him. And He has
to do that. And this is what He does when
He does that. This blood is sprinkled and He says in our heart, this
is the blood of the Testament, His Testament, which God hath
enjoined unto you. He said, I'll make a new covenant
with them. I will and they shall. Their
sins I'll remember no more. Moreover he sprinkled with blood
both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry and almost
all things are by the law Purged with blood and without the shedding
of bloods no remission Our text our passage speaks of the conscience
being purged of it being a new us no remembrance anymore the
remembrance now is that sins put away and But we got to have
our conscience purged from dead works. From thinking we can put
them away. From thinking that we somehow
can sanctify ourselves. We have to have our conscience
purged to understand that God's all our sanctification. Christ
is all our sanctification. It's through the Spirit of God
that we're sanctified. Not anything I did. Look, Titus
3. Look over at Titus, to the left
there, the book right before Hebrews, Titus 3, verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. That's
a description of every sinner who's sanctified by the Spirit
of God. What's going to make the difference?
How are we going to be brought into this union with our God
the Father and God the Son? But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by the works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost. which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This is what I'm talking about. That sprinkling of that blood,
that's the washing, that blood and that water, that's the washing
and the renewing of the Holy Spirit within us with Christ's
blood, through Christ's blood, that makes us created anew, that
gives us this new life, that makes us behold Christ as all. He is truly everything. And when
the Spirit of God does this, as I said, He gives us a mind. He purges the mind. He gives
us an understanding that we can truly spiritually comprehend,
spiritually understand God's Word. Now we see what God said
in His Word. Before we couldn't. We were deceived.
We hear God's Law now. Before we couldn't. Sin took
occasion by the commandment, deceived me. My sin deceived
me. The law didn't deceive me. My
sin deceived me. Made me think I could do something
to perfect myself by the law. But when the commandment came,
when God came in the power of the Holy Spirit and I was washed
in regeneration and renewed by the Holy Spirit, the commandment
came and sin revived. It became alive to me. I saw
it. And all my righteousnesses, everything, I died. I died. So, that's what we're seeing
here in Hebrews 10, 15. Look here with me. And faith
is in this thing, faith comes in this thing, and it's through
this work of the Holy Spirit. And we believe, we trust God,
we trust Christ, our sanctification. Look here at Hebrews 10, 15.
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'm going to enjoin
my testimony, my testament with them, unto them. I'm going to
put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write
them. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." Now where remission of these is,
there's no more offering for sin. No more offering for sin. There's no sense, brethren, listen
to me. There's no way, no part whatsoever
in which the sanctification of the believer is in any way bound
up in the believer that he's something he does by his works.
It depends upon and is totally accomplished fully by the work
of our holy God, our triune God. We grow in grace. but not holiness. We grow in knowledge and understanding,
but not righteousness. We grow in maturity and patience
and long-suffering and these things. But we don't grow any
more perfected than perfected. We don't grow any more sanctified
than sanctified. We are sanctified forever through
His one offering. And it's because God put us in
Him that He made that offering. And because God put us in Him
and He made that offering, Christ applies the blood of that offering,
and we see we're complete. We see that we're perfected forever.
And there's rejoicing then. Well, I want to give you a verse of
Scripture. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. I want you to see
every bit of this in one verse. I said we're sanctified by God
the Father, sanctified by the Son of God through His one offering,
His holiness. We're sanctified by God the Holy
Spirit in regeneration. We're sanctified, made to see
what His Word says through His Word. by Him giving us faith, we're
sanctified by faith that's in Him, in Christ. Now look here,
two verses tell us all this. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, But
we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. That's of God, or you're in Christ
Jesus. And this is through sanctification
of the Spirit. Christ has to be made unto us
something. And that's done through the Holy
Spirit. Sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
And belief. We believe, don't we? Trust that
He's our sanctification. We just believe anything. No
belief of the truth. The Gospel. Where unto He called
you by our Gospel, by His Word, to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This glory, this perfect standing,
this holiness, this righteousness of God, where is it? It's in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, through faith, through His Word,
He brought us unto the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
I've got one more question for you. How does a sanctified person
serve God? How does one who is sanctified
serve God? Let me make something clear to
you, and you listen now. We don't serve God and become
sanctified thereby. The fruit of having been sanctified
by our gracious God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is that
we serve God. You got that? We don't serve
Him to be sanctified. The fruit of having been sanctified
by Him is we serve Him. That's what Paul said. He said,
I want you to be turning to Romans 12. But Paul said, when we were
in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did
work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now
we're delivered from the law. I'm reading Romans 7. I'm just
quoting this to you while you turn to Romans 12. That sin in our members, they
work fruit unto death. But now we're delivered from
the law that being dead wherein we were held, now we should serve
in newness of spirit and not the oldness of the letter. What
fruit had you then in those things? Where of you now shame? For the
end of those things is death, works by the law. But now we're
made free from sin and we become servants to God. And you have
your fruit unto holiness, unto sanctification, unto Him who
is our holiness and our sanctification. He's our ruler. He's our reigner.
He reigned. He's conquered us. And our fruit
now is unto Him. It's not to make us sanctified,
because we are sanctified. You see that? Well, look here
with me. Romans 12, verse 1. I want to
read all of this here down to verse 12. I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. What is that good, acceptable,
perfect will of God? What is it to present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God? It's to not be conformed
to this world. It's to be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Who renewed us? The Holy Spirit
did. He renewed us. He washed us.
And through that, brethren, now we're sanctified. We're set apart
for His use. Don't go back to the world. Don't
go back to the law. Don't go back to bondage. Don't
go to looking at these things that we do and say, this is my
holiness. Christ is my holiness. I do these
things because He is my holiness. He is my sanctification. He set
me apart for His use. And what He set apart is going
to be used for His use. By His irresistible grace, it
can be used for His use. And here's what it is. For I
say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think soberly, 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, so we being
many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of
another. Having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us, whether you've been given
a gift of prophecy, then let us prophesy according to the
proportion of faith. Or ministry, let us wait on our
ministry. Or he that teacheth, Engage yourself in teaching.
Or he that exhorteth, only exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it
with simplicity. He that ruleth, with diligence. He that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. hypocritical in this thing. If
we're doing this thing because we think these things is what
makes us holy, that's hypocrisy. That's dissimulation. Abhor that
which is evil. I abhor that. And cleave to that
which is good. Be kindly affection one to another
with brotherly love in honor of preferring one another, not
slothful in business, fervent in spirit. And this, brethren,
is serving the Lord. This is serving the Lord. This
is that good, acceptable, perfect will of God. This is what's serving
God. Rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the
necessity of saints, and given to hospitality. Now brethren,
that's That's the use that God has separated His people for. That's serving Him. That's what
serving Him is. And our whole life now, if the
blood's purged your conscience and you see Christ as He's been
made unto you, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
He's your all. And you glory in Him alone. And
brethren, Let's don't give ourselves for any other thing. When we
start giving ourselves to trying to get more of this world, just
for the sake of consuming it upon our lusts. When we go out
and we're worried and brought down and travailed because we
just, we want and we want to have, we want our way. That's
not serving God. Serving God is whatever it is
we want. Whatever it is that He gives
us. Use it for His glory to glorify this holy name whereby you've
been made holy and perfected. And use these things because
God's going to use you and me that He sanctified. He's going
to use us for this use to call out His sheep, those others that
He sanctified. And He's going to do it through
His Word. And He's going to do it in a
place like this right here. And this is why he called us
out. This is our purpose, why we're
here making our journey through this wilderness, is for this
purpose. Any other endeavor we're engaged
in, if our motive for it is not unto him, to serve him for his
good, for our good, for the edification of his people and the glory of
his name, it's from a wrong motive. He set us apart for His use,
so let's be used of Him. Let's be spent. Let's spend and
be spent for His sake. That's what it is to be sanctified,
brethren. And it's just like every other blessing,
like all spiritual blessings, it's in Christ. So I hope this clears that up
a little bit. It was a blessing to me to study
it, so I hope it was to you too.