Our text tonight is found in
the 10th chapter of Hebrews and verse 14 Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
14 for by one offering He has perfected forever them that are
sanctified Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Notice these two pronouns, he
and them. He hath perfected forever them. The reference, of course, is
to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his people, to the whole company
of the election of grace. I want us to bear those two pronouns
in mind as we examine, with God's help, just what the apostle is
saying in this particular verse of scripture. He speaks of the
one offering, for by one offering, he. We are directed then to the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the one that the pronoun
has regard to, but we also have mentioned here of his office,
his work, the offering that he made The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ is so evidently said before us in the chapter. We have, as
we've said, the pronoun in this particular verse, but if we go back to verse 12, we're told
who this is, but this man, this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God
but more particularly the man spoken of there is identified
in verse 10 He says, by the witch will we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. And so we see what the Apostle
is saying and who the Apostle is speaking of, who the verse
has reference to. the he, the pronoun in verse
14 directs us to this man in verse 12 and directs us to him
who is the Lord Jesus Christ spoken of there in verse 10 the
person then of Jesus Christ and he is that one who is the only
mediator he is that one who is spoken of by Paul writing to
Timothy There is one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man. This man, the man, Christ Jesus,
he comes as the mediator between God and men. And how he is fitted
to stand in that place of the mediator when we consider something
of the wonder of his person, because he is both God and man. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Here is one then, who in the
mystery of his person, those two natures, in the one person,
he who is God-man, he can lay hold of God, he can also lay
hold of man. We are reminded then here of
the person of Jesus Christ. But as I said, we also see something
of his offices, something of the work that he came to do. He is the mediator. He is the
Great High Priest. And isn't that latter office
of Christ, the Great High Priest, the theme that runs throughout
this epistle to the Hebrews? how Hebrews answers to the book
of Leviticus in the Old Testament, where we read of the priests
of Aaron and the various offerings and sacrifices that were to be
brought, all that God prescribed, all that was necessary in approaching
him and worshipping him under that Old Testament But when we
come to this epistle we see one who is the priest after a different
order, a priest after the order of Melchizedek and is a never-ending
priesthood. The great theme that runs through
Hebrews then is Christ particularly in his priestly office. And we see something of that,
he is an interceding priest. This was the work of the priest
not only to present sacrifices on behalf of the people, but
also to intercede for them, to pray for them. And we see Christ
as He comes into the world. In that particular office, in
the 17th chapter of John, we have His great intercessory prayer. Oh, there we see Him praying
to the Father, pleading with the Father, and then subsequent
to that, of course, in the following chapters, Chapter 18 following
we see him in his priestly office as the one who makes the sacrifice,
the great sin atoning sacrifice. And so it doesn't surprise us
when we come to this epistle to the Hebrews that we see these
two aspects of Christ's priestly office. He is an interceding
priest. Chapter 7 and verse 25 he is
able also to save them to the uttermost,
to come unto God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. Oh, His life, His resurrection
life is associated there with His intercession, His very presence. His session there at God's right
hand is a constant ploy on behalf of His people. He ever lives
to make intercession. He has entered into heaven itself
in his priestly office. So different to the priest of
Aaron, they would enter into the Holy of Holies here upon
the earth. It was only once in the year,
of course, that the high priest was able to go into that most
holy place only on the day of atonement. And then he must go
with the blood of sacrifice and sprinkle the blood before the
mercy seat and upon the mercy seat. But what of Christ? In chapter 9 and verse 24 Christ
is not entered into the holy place he's made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. What we intercede as
a priest there in heaven, his very presence before the throne
of God, before the throne of grace, is a plea on behalf of
his people. And so the sinner comes and the
sinner enters into that holy place only in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what we read earlier
here in this 10th chapter at 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 save his flesh, and having an high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, and we are beaten
to draw near with a true heart, in full assurance or we can come
you see with boldness to that throne of Christ when we come
in and through him who is our mediator and there we must come
in that way and there we must invoke his name if we would be
hurt he is all our plea when we come to God he is the one
who was a priest into siege for his people but he is also that
priest who has made the great sin atoning sacrifice the words
of the text in verse 14, by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. He has made the sacrifice, he
has sacrificed himself. The reason was he not, why he
came into the world, Back in verse 9, then said he,
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. He has taken away, you see, those
Old Testament ordinances, those Old Testament sacrifices, all
that was contained in the Levitical law. He taketh away the first,
that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering. of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. For it is one sacrifice for sins,
one sacrifice for sins forever. As that one who is the great
high priest, he has come, has he not, to do the Father's will? And this was the Father's will.
This is why the body was prepared for him, that he might offer
himself. in the room and stead of his
people. He says, whilst here upon the
earth my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish
his work. I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will but the will of him that sent me. This offering
just now is what the Father willed. He is the great anti-type of
all those Levitical types. He is the fulfilment of all that
was foreshadowed there. In Him we have the substance,
as there we have but the shadow. And that offering, as I said,
is one offering, once for all. And now it's emphasised, we have
it, the guiding verse, Twelve, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever. Again in verse 18, there is no more offering for
sin. Christ has made the sacrifice
and that sacrifice is not to be repeated, it cannot be repeated. So Christ was once offered for
sins forever. Now we see the awful blasphemy
in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Mass. Rightly it is
spoken of in Article 31 of the Church of England, referred to
as a dangerous deceit and a blasphemous fable. Presently we will observe
the ordinance, that holy supper that Christ himself instituted. We see it, do we not, as a gospel
ordinance. Those of us who come to the table
should desire that we might see beyond the elements. beyond the
sign that we might discern, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11,
discerning the body and blood of Christ, but not in some carnal
fashion as is taught in the doctrine of transubstantiation, as if
the wafer is turned into the actual body and blood, the soul
and divinity of Christ. And so the wafer is elevated
and the wafer is worshipped in the Romish mass. But we do believe
that there, as we come to remember Christ in all His sufferings,
we desire that we might spiritually know a real communing with Him
and a partaking of Him, a feeding upon Him by faith, just as we
feed upon Him here in the Word of Truth. So there, in the Ordinance,
we desire to meet with Christ. and to eat his flesh and to drink
his blood. But all the dreadful blasphemy
of the Romish mass where they imagine that as the priest salivates
the wafer and the wafer is in some magical fashion changed
into the body and blood, the soul and divinity of Christ so
the priest is able to constantly sacrifice. They call it the sacrifice
of the mass. It's a repeated sacrifice. It's
a bloodless sacrifice. Nevertheless, it is a real sacrifice
according to their teaching. But I say, friends, it is contrary
to plain reason. It is contrary to the plain teaching
of the Word of God. Christ's sacrifice was once forever,
never to be repeated. He has made that sacrifice. He has fulfilled all that was
prefigured in those Levitical laws. See, what we are told concerning
the Old Testament, every priest, standard, daily, ministering
and offering often times 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. All those
Old Testament sacrifices, they could not remove sin. It is not
possible that the blood of bulls and of goats would take away
sins. No, Christ has come and has made that one offering, one
sacrifice. For by one offering, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. So besides the offering,
what do we read of here? We read of the perfection. What has he accomplished by that
offering? He hath perfected forever, it
says, them that are sanctified. Go back to the opening verse.
We read there, the Lord having a shadow of good things to come
and not the very image of the things, can never with those
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make
the comers thereunto perfect. Those Old Testament sacrifices
could not make those that offered them perfect. There was imperfection
in them. that Christ has perfected the
work of salvation. All Christ, you see, has accomplished
salvation and accomplished a complete salvation for his people. This
is what the text is declaring to us. The salvation is accomplished by one offering. He has perfected
them forever. He didn't just die to make salvation
a possibility or a probability for his people. No, he perfected
their salvation. He has died therefore for a people
whom we call a particular people. He has not died for all in order
that all might have the opportunity or the possibility of being saved,
no, he has died and accomplished a definite salvation for a particular
people. Now I know if we go back in the
epistle to chapter 2, there at verse 9 Paul writes, we see Jesus
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honour, that he by the grace
of God should taste death for every man." Ah, some would say,
does he not say quite clearly, he has tasted death for every
man. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
is a universal atonement. There are no exceptions, so they
say, And they appeal sometimes to these words in chapter 2 and
verse 9, by the grace of God he tasted death for every man. Therefore, all can have an interest
in that death if they will but claim their interest in it. But
what are they saying? They are saying that Christ's
death did not really accomplish anything. It made salvation a
possibility for all, for every man, but it made nothing at all
certain for any man. However, if we look a little
more closely at what the Apostle says there, he goes on, does
he not, in the following verses to explain just who every man
is. every man is identified and see
how every man is identified in verse 10 many sons verse 11 the
sanctified is brethren that's how he describes it so every man is many sons
in verse 10 is the sanctified and his brethren in verse 11
then in verse 12 we have reference to the church and in verse 13
those children that God had given to him so clearly in the context
we understand who is spoken of back in verse 9 every man, he
says every individual It is an innumerable component. And Paul,
of course, the great apostle to the Gentiles, is reminding
the Jews that there is salvation yet for the Gentile world. That's
why he uses such language as every man in verse 9. But then
he carefully goes on to explain who the reference is to. Christ's
death, you see, was such that it accomplished salvation. and
accomplished for that people that the Father had given to
Him a perfect salvation. By one offering He had perfected
forever, perfected forever them that are sanctified. It's an
accomplished salvation and it is a complete salvation. Salvation in its completeness,
salvation in its entirety, is in the work that the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished upon the cross at Calvary. And this is
the gospel that is to be preached. One in which Christ is able to
present every man as perfect. This is the gospel of the apostles,
is it not? Paul writing at the end of Colossians
chapter 1 says, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching
every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus. Oh, there's a complete salvation
here, nothing wanting. There's no perfection in the
flesh, there's no perfection in anything that we can do, We're so imperfect, are we not?
James tells us if a man should keep the whole law and yet offend
him one point, he is guilty of all. If we transgress in our lives
just once, just once, that's the end of perfection. And I'm
sure none of us would say that we've only offended once. All friends, alas, are not as
sins multitude. Many sins. Sins of thought, sins
of word, sins of deed. Even this day, guilty of many
sins we are. There is no perfection in the
flesh. There is only perfection in the
Lord Jesus Christ and that work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. At the end of Ephesians 5, Paul
speaks of the duties of husbands and of wives. And what a standard
he sets before the husband. Love your wives, he says. Husbands,
love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it. that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious Church, not having spots or wrinkles
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. All the perfection of the Church
is altogether in Christ. He presents the Church to himself.
By one offering He has perfected His Church forever. Remember
the language that we find in the Song of Solomon, that word
addressed to the bride, Thou art all fair, my love. There
is no spot in the earth. Spotless. How so? Only because of the work of the
bridegroom only because of what Christ himself accomplished.
It's a complete salvation that he accomplished. To finish the
transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation
for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness is
the language that's used in Daniel chapter 9 to describe what Christ
has done. It's finished. It's complete. There's nothing wanting in it.
Satisfaction for sin. Perfection of righteousness.
And it's all found nowhere else but in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Avima ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This is the he
then, you see. And what the he has done? He
has made the offering, one offering. And by that offering he has protected
forever. And who has he done it for? For
them. And so let us turn, before we
conclude this evening, let us turn to those who are referred
to by this pronoun them. Now notice the language, the
grammar that is used here. It's them that are sanctified. And it's the present tense, not
the future tense. It's not what they're going to
be. It's what they are. It's what they are. By one offering He has perfected
forever them that are not those that shall be, those that are
sanctified. Sanctification, you see, as part
of this salvation, is the work of all the persons in the Triniton. And in that sense, their sanctification
is past, present and future, it's forever. It's the work of the Father,
is it not? And when we think of sanctification in terms of
the work of the Father, do we not see that it is an eternal
sanctification? It's an eternal sanctification.
The opening verse of Jude's Epistle, we read of them that are sanctified
by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Now, the calling, of course,
that's spoken of at the end there, is the effectual calling, that's
the work of the Holy Spirit. And before ever they are called,
even when they are in a state of unregeneracy, they are preserved. are preserved in Jesus Christ.
John Kent says it, does he not? Preserved in Jesus when my feet
may haste to hell. And there should I have gone,
but thou dost all things well. Or can we not, friends, remember
those days previous to our regeneration, those days when we were yet dead
in trespasses and sins, and when we were bent so often on sinning?
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, children
of wrath even as others. And yet even then we were preserved.
Even then we were preserved. In the midst of all our folly
and all our sin we were preserved. Preserved in Jesus Christ. And
then in the appointed time called the efficacious grace of God,
the work of the Holy Spirit, ineffectual calling, all the
time that God has appointed comes. And that sinner who has been
preserved all his days is called and saved. But we go back further,
you see. Before ever they are preserved
in Jesus Christ they are sanctified. Sanctified by God the Father. Preserved in Jesus Christ and
called. When was it that the Father sanctified
It was from eternity. What is sanctification? It's
their setting apart. They were set apart. Set apart
by the will of God, set apart to be saved in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We read much of that will of
God in the previous part of this epistle. In verse 9 then said, I come
to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the first, that he may establish
the second, by the which will we are sanctified. All is sanctified
by that will of God. What God willed in the covenants
in regard to him who was to come in the fullness of the time.
By the which will we are sanctified. set apart in Christ. We have
it here, of course, in chapter 2 and verse 11, both he that
sanctified and they who are sanctified are both of one. That's what
it says, chapter 2, verse 11, he that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified, they are bound up in Christ. sanctified by God the Father
in terms of eternal election. According as He has chosen us
in Him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world. That's when God set them apart,
when He gave them to Christ in the covenant, when He made choice
of them and committed them into the hands of His Son. who would
in the fullness of the time come to redeem. There is then that eternal sanctification
when we think of the work of the Father. But then there is
the work of the Son, the work of the Son in sanctification. And are we not here to recognise
that this is what has happened in time? In that sense there
is an historical sanctification. See how Christ's offering is
linked to their sanctification. By one offering he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified, it says. And then again previously
in verse 10, by the which we are sanctified and through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We are sanctified
through the offering, through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the shedding of his precious blood. And so we are sanctified
by blood. Chapter 13 verse 12, Wherefore
Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood
suffered without the gate. You see God the Father set them
apart, set them apart to salvation, set them apart to holiness. How were they made holy? only
by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ by the shedding
of his precious blood and that occurred of course in the fullness
of the time again look at what he says in chapter 9 verse 13 if the blood of bulls
and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctified to the purifying of the flesh 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. All that set apart to holiness,
you see. If those Old Testament sacrifices,
the blood of bulls, of goats, the ashes of a heifer, could
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, set them apart to
holiness, how much more was the blood of Christ. That's what
Christ accomplished, you see, when he shed his blood, when
he died. There is that historical aspect
to their sanctification. Yes, the Father sets them apart
in eternity, but they are those who are sinners in their very
nature, and they are bent on sinning. And Christ comes, and
Christ makes the great sin-atoning sacrifice. and sanctifies them
by His blood. And then there is the work of
the Holy Spirit. As I said, this sanctification is a part of salvation. It is the work of all the persons
in the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 15 and verse 16
being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. sanctified by the Holy Ghost. How is that? Titus chapter 3 verse 5 He saved
us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. That's what God, the Holy Ghost
has done you see. That's the great work of regeneration. The sinner is born again, born
of the spirit. He becomes a partaker of the
divine nature, says Peter. And that divine nature, that new nature,
can never sin. When you're born again, when
you're born from above, That nature, that new nature that
is the work of regeneration can never sin. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And here is the conflict you
see, here is the evidence of sanctification. The flesh lost
us against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and
these are contrary one to the other and she cannot do the thing
that she would. This is the experience of the
sanctified. Outfall knew it all, wretched
man that I am, he cries out, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? He is all nature. Where is deliverance? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Oh, how the Spirit constantly
bears testimony to him, directs us to him by one offering. He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. What a comfort it is, friends.
This is no progressive sanctification, you see. Oh, tormenting that
is to the child of God. Oh, we feel that our old nature
never improves. In fact, the more we grow in
grace, the more we feel the awfulness of what we are in our fallen
nature. So we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. The more we grow in grace, the
more we desire to know of Christ. For it is in Him that all our
salvation is to be found. He is the One who is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
that he that glorieth as it is written, let him glory in the
Lord. Oh, it is a comfort, isn't it, now, when we discover that
here is the mark that we are the sanctified ones, when we
feel something of that awful conflict that was so real in
the life and the experience of the Apostle, as he makes so plain
in a chapter like Romans 7. I said at the outset we have
these two pronouns, the he and the them. The work of Christ, the person of Christ, by one offering, he has perfected
forever and you are the ones that he has perfected and the
sanctified ones. how we have to come and how we
have to look to ourselves and examine ourselves and prove ourselves
and test ourselves and try ourselves constantly by the word of God.
Oh friends, are these things true of us? Do we bear these
marks of those who are the Lord's sanctified ones? We know something
of what Paul speaks of when he speaks of those two natures,
the flesh and the spirit and how they lost one against the
other, how there is this constant conflict, this warfare and how
increasingly we are those who are cast upon Christ and have
to look to Him who has made the one offering, who has perfected
salvation, accomplished salvation, the complete salvation, all our
salvation is to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well
God grant that we might know it and rejoice in it. Amen.