Hebrews chapter 10, beginning
in verse 14, the Scripture says, For by one offering he, Christ,
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 in their hearts
and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where the remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. 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 an high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart of full
assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." The
title of the message is Boldness, Access, and Representation. Boldness,
Access, and Representation. Now, the apostle having fully,
fully revealed the necessity of a high priest, the necessity
that every one of us stand in need of a mediator between us
and God, having fully expounded that Christ is that only Great
High Priest, he now has come to the crescendo of his message. He is now coming to the high
point, the summation of His message. And what we have here is a transition. The transition of the Scriptures,
as we see the apostles always writing, they begin with the
doctrine and transfer into the practical. They show the practicality
of doctrine. Doctrine is not in and of itself
or by itself. without exercise, without actually
living it out. So, the apostle begins to show
us how this is effectual to us. And so, we have before us this
first and great principle, the highest principle and reason
for our assurance. It's found in verse 14. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." The anointed high priest of God, to whom all
the elect were given, Jesus Christ, is made unto his people wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In this one verse
of Scripture, all works and free will religion are destroyed. In this one verse. There are
many that destroy them. But this one verse here, that
Jesus Christ actually perfected forever those that are sanctified. Those that are sanctified. This
gives works religion no value. No room to boast. This is the
only acceptable sacrifice. This is the only offering that's
effectual. Effectual. When you hear that
word, effectual, all you need to think about is, it gets the
job done. It's powerful enough. It's effectual. It works. It's
done. Not just to make perfection possible. That's not what He did. When
Christ died on the cross, He did not make perfection available. He perfected. He has accomplished
perfection. Perfection by His one offering. He actually accomplished and
completed absolute perfection and holiness for all those whom
He died for. And not one of them is not made
perfect by His offering. Not one of them will ever be
lost. Not one of them will ever stand
before God guilty because He bore their guilt. He bore their guilt. Colossians
2 and verse 9 tells us that you are complete. In Him. Now, I'll tell you what, I don't
feel complete. Well, that's because it's not
over yet. You see, I've still got this
old nature hanging on to my neck. But it's done. It's complete. I'm complete. In Him, I'm complete. As He sits holy and righteous
on His throne, so do I in Him, my representative, my Savior. We are complete in Him. Well, who's complete? Well, the
Scripture here says those that are sanctified. It does not say
those who sanctify themselves. Those that are already sanctified
of God. For a sinner to be sanctified
or made holy, it is only by the sovereign, eternal grace and
power of God that anyone is sanctified. The Scripture nowhere speaks
of what people are talking about progressive holiness, progressive
sanctification. People are assuming that they
can make themselves holier. Well, if they're lost, I imagine
that they can, by their conduct, make themselves appear holier. But I know this, every believer
in Christ, when we do good works, it adds nothing to our perfection. We love to do good works, but
our good works don't count for anything. Why? He hath already
perfected us. He hath already sanctified us,
made us holy. There are many scriptures that
can be given concerning this matter of sanctification. I'll
give you just a couple in a second. If there were such a thing as
progressive sanctification, wouldn't that nullify the first part of
that verse? If He hath perfected, then why
are you trying to sanctify yourself? How can you be perfect and yet
not yet perfect enough? No. It nullifies the effect of
the first. Because if you're perfect, then
you don't need any more perfection. Otherwise, it's not perfect.
If you are holy, you need no more holiness, otherwise you're
not holy. You see, holy is not in stages. Holiness is not stages of holiness. You are either holy or you are
not. There is no almost holy. There is no almost righteous.
There is only righteousness and unrighteousness. There is only
holiness and there is unholiness. There is perfection and then
there is imperfection. There is no middle ground. There
is no degree of this. Therefore, those that are sanctified
are God's elect, chosen people, given the promise of eternal
life before the world began. Go to 2 Thessalonians, chapter
2. Verse 13, But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Why are
they beloved? Because God hath from the beginning
God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. How? Through sanctification of
the Spirit and belief of the truth. God hath from the beginning sanctified
us through the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 1.30, I quoted it
earlier, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Nobody would dare suppose that
we would have to give ourselves wisdom No one would dare suppose
that we would give ourselves righteousness or redemption.
How is it that people think that they can progress in sanctification? No, Christ has made our sanctification. He is the reason we are holy.
He is the reason we are wise unto salvation. He is the reason
we are redeemed. He is the reason that we are
righteous before God by His one offering. The perfection, and this perfection,
verse 15 says, was witnessed by the Holy Ghost in His Word,
in the Scriptures. It says, Wherefore, the Holy
Ghost also is a witness to us. 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 in their minds will I write
them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Friends,
this word that we are reading, that we are studying, is absolutely,
completely the inspired word of God the Holy Spirit. These
words that we have here, they are infallible words because
they are the words of God. Now, I'm not talking about this
King James translation. There are many ways that these
words are better used. I'm talking about the original
translation. When these men put it to pen,
and what we have before us, I'd say that this is the best translation
that we have of the Scriptures, if you have a King James version. My friends, His Word is infallible,
unchangeable, immutable. We have 66 books over 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 years. Different men in different countries
speaking different languages, all talking about one man, the
Savior, the Messiah. And they all say the same thing. Why? Because the Holy Ghost inspired
these men. They were moved by holy inspiration. It says all Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. And so this witness, this sacred
witness that we have, we have the witness of the Holy Spirit. I have the witness of the Holy
Spirit in me. You see, the Holy Spirit, He
is the one God sends in power to give us life and He dwells
in us so that this Word becomes effectual. This Word that He
speaks through the preacher or by the reading and prayer of
the Scriptures when He speaks to us. It is the Spirit that
bears witness to the truth of it. The Spirit of God. You see, friends, I know this
is true. I'm not debating or questioning
it. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified, and God the Holy Spirit in me testifies
to this fact. This is true. What is the result of this? The promise of the Holy Spirit
says, I'll write My laws in their hearts and in their minds. And
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. What's the
result of this perfection? What is this to us who have been
perfected? What is it? Verse 18. Take in the beauty of this. Because
he has been talking about sacrifices and comparing and contrasting
the sacrifices of the Old Testament with that sacrifice of Jesus
Christ for many chapters. He's been dealing with that Old
Testament sacrifice. Now that he's come to the point,
he said, by his one offering, he's perfected. What's the result
of his perfection? He says, now where remission
of These, what are these? Sins. Iniquities. Where there
is remission of these, there is no more offering for
sin. Praise God. There is nothing
else. for me to offer. He hath perfected us forever. I'm so thankful every morning
I don't have to go out and offer a sacrifice. I am so thankful that these sacrifices
God has done away with them because they affect the conscience. Sin
is remembered over and over again by these sacrifices. But now,
there's no more sacrifice for sin. You see these people lost,
blind, without hope, and you pity them because they're offering
sacrifices that God doesn't want. that do nothing. Oh, today I'm
going to sacrifice. I'm going to not eat chocolate. There is my offering. Oh God, no chocolate for me today. Are you serious? You're blind, you're dead, and
you're ignorant. Did you suppose God would want
a sacrifice like that? Believe on Christ. He, by His
one offering, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. All our offerings, all our sacrifices
are offerings and sacrifices of praise for what He's done. Even those don't come from ourselves. They come from the Spirit of
God within that testifies these things to us. Friends, I am not going to be
judged regarding my preaching. If I were, I would go to hell. Because I did not honor God enough
in my preaching. There's no way. There's no way. My only hope is that He has perfected
me forever. And this thing that I'm doing
here, I'm not sacrificing anything. I'm not sacrificing anything
to God for my acceptance. I'm not doing this for my acceptance.
I'm accepted. I'm doing this for your comfort.
To know that you're accepted. You're accepted. If you've believed
on Christ, lay down and rest on Him. He's done it all. The Scripture
says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. To who? Everyone that believes. Even me. Even you. There is no more offering for
sin. Friends, our Savior has so far
put away our sins that God can't find them. One of my favorite verses is
Jeremiah 15, verse 20. It says, "...the iniquities,
the sins of Israel shall be sought for and not be found." Do you know that God's law and
justice smile on you? I know that's not how you feel. But this is the witness of God
the Holy Spirit, that all our sins and iniquities are gone
by His one offering. And now then, in verse 19, He gives us the practical application
of this. The wonderful privileges that
this perfection provides. First of all, boldness to enter
in the presence of God. If we are perfect, what then
stands between us and God? As He is, so are we in this present
world. When I approach to my Father,
I approach with boldness. Now, boldness is not irreverent. It's not that you kick in the
door of heaven and put your feet up on the desk and tell God what
you want. That's not boldness. Boldness,
that's stupidity. That's not boldness. We come
before God and we reverence Him as a son comes to a father in
need. We come to our Father in boldness
and reverence and humility. we may approach. Now this, I
don't think we grasp the full weight of this as it was to these
Hebrews, because they had always lived in a religious society
that said there was no one that was able to go into the holiest
but one. There was nobody able to approach
that close to God. And now you're telling me that
I can go in that I can enter in and speak to God as a man
speaking to another man? Yes. That's what he's saying. You should have boldness. Whereas once no one was allowed
but the high priest, now everyone that believeth that hath been
perfected, there's no more need for blood, there's no more need
for an offering, Christ is already applied the blood. Christ's blood
has already been accepted. So the only thing for us to do
is come in. Come in. Boldness. There's no restrictions. But I don't feel. No, your feelings
have nothing to do with this. When we feel like we are We don't
feel like we should pray. We feel guilty at times where
we don't even feel like God would hear us. That is foolishness. That's our old man. That's the
old nature. That's especially the time we
should come to God when we don't feel like it. We should come
in. Because there's no restrictions.
His blood has perfect made us perfect. We are in the presence of God heard because we are in union
with Jesus Christ. Is there any time that God will
not hear him? Then there is never a time God
will not hear you. He says, you will call unto Me
and I will hearken to your voice. Is that not gracious? that we may come boldly into
the presence of the living God. Now, what's that song? Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requireth
is Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. I don't even feel your need for
Him. I feel that need, but I know
this, my feeling had nothing to do with it. It's because of
the blood and righteousness of Christ I'm free to come. boldness, confidence. Second
of all, let us know that we have access to God. We have confidence
because of Christ's blood. We have access by a new and living
way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say, His flesh. Christ didn't go around the law
to make this happen. He went through it. He obeyed
it. absolutely perfectly to the letter. And therefore, when He presented
His blood, the veil that separated man from God was rent from the
top to the bottom, and that was His flesh. When His flesh was
rent and He died, death could not hold Him. He
rose again on the third day and is now seated at the right hand
of God for you and for me. He is seated at the throne of
heaven making intercession for us. We have access. Not by the old way. Not by the
old and dead way. We have access because He lives. You see, this is the proof that
he satisfied God's justice when God raised him from the dead. When God raised him from the
dead, he told everybody, I approve of his offering. And everyone in him, everyone
that believes in him, has access. You don't need to make sure that
everybody's out of the room. You don't need to clean out a
closet space and put a little pad down and get ready and warm
yourself up to pray. Some people, you see those, the
Muslims, they throw out their little mat and they get ready.
You know, they got to have this guy singing in the tower and
they've got to have No, instant access. I have instant access
to God. I don't have to go through anyone
but Christ. I've got direct access to Him. Isn't that wonderful? I have direct access by a new
and living way. Is this true? Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Is that not true? How could anyone
say Jesus is a good man and then read that and tell him it's not
true? Either that's true or this whole
book is a lie. There's no middle ground. That's
true. He is the way to God. He is my access to God. So therefore, when I go to God,
I don't go to God because I'm so great. You see, that's the
reason why we would stay away from God, if we look to ourselves. But if we come through Him, we
have access. We have access. Because he ever
liveth to make intercession for us. And this brings us to the
last, a living representative. When the high priest went into
that Holy of Holies with the blood, you know he had all that
breastplate, and he had the stones on his shoulders. They had the
names of the children of Israel. He went in representing. Christ went in to death representing
us, dying for us, and when He rose again, He came out of that
tomb with us on His shoulders, on His heart. And even so now, He has us engraved
upon His hand. Go to Isaiah 49. We'll close
with this. Verse 15. Can a woman forget her sucking
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? You ladies are mothers. Could you throw away your child? Could you discard your child? God says some people can. He
says, yes, that's possible. Yes, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands. Friends, we have a representative
that will never forget you. His wounds for me fleed. So when I ask for forgiveness,
God is faithful and just to forgive me my sins. Is that not great? Boldness. access by Christ. And a representative
stands for me. Pray that God would bless this
to your hearts.