I know I can certainly say that
now I owe to the Lord Jesus everything. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
I am constantly constrained to be. It's a sobering thought, it's
a humbling thought to think that I have actually been purchased
by the blood of God. by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, God in human flesh. And I've been
thinking about that for a little bit. We ought to think of it
a whole lot. I have been purchased. He has
bought me from the clutches of the law, paid my debt. I owe nothing. the debt has been
paid in full. And that to me ought to be something
that ought to astound me every day, and someday it will. Someday it will when I lay this
body down, this body of sin and And when I have no more sin,
the presence of sin is gone. I'll worship Him, praise Him
and sing to Him as I ought to. And you will too. You will too. Now, the title of the message
is The Redemptive Will of God. The Redemptive Will of God. I
put my introduction in the bulletin. I put my introduction in there.
I have done that a few times. I realize that my introduction
a lot of times works pretty good for a bulletin article. So I
did it this time. I've been thinking about the
redemptive will of God And one of my first thoughts was this,
God has a will. You wouldn't think He did listening
to the modern day religion. You wouldn't think God had a
will, would you? Or that His will serves our will. It doesn't. It doesn't. God has a will and
His will is pure and holy and what He wills is right. He can
will no wrong. HE CAN WILL NO EVIL! GOD'S WILL
IS WISE BECAUSE HE HAS INFINITE WISDOM. EVERYTHING GOD WILLS IS AFTER
THE COUNSEL OF HIS OWN WILL. HE DOES NOTHING BY THE SPUR OF
THE MOMENT EVER, EVER. HE TAKES EVERYTHING INTO HIS
WISE COUNSEL. and then wills it to be so, and
it will be so. Whatever it is, He wills. It
is by His will that everything exists as it is. He wills everything in providence.
Nothing just happens, not even to the least degree. Nothing
happens in this world that God did not will. nothing. We were born into this
world by the will of God. We were born in this country
by the will of God. We were born to the family we
were born in by the will of God. Our nationality is by the will
of God. It s by the will of God. We experience
everything in this life by the will of God. We all have different
experiences. We were sitting around the table
of Donna's and Craig's the other day and we were talking about
different experiences and just telling different stories. And
as I sat there and I listened, I thought all this life experience
we have and we rarely even sit down and talk about it. But we
have all this life experience and we have it by the will of
God. Even before I knew Him, He willed
my experience. The psalmist wrote this, My times
are in thy hands. My time to be born, October the
11th, 1955. I'm not telling you that to give
you my birthday, but that was by the will of God. And my day of death is by the
will of God. I don't know when I'm going to
die, I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I have no desire
to know when I'm going to die. I'm going to die by the will
of God, and I'm going to die the way God has willed me to
die. We have a death to die. We have a death by which we are
to glorify God. For some it's a difficult death,
which is not a death to the believer, but you know what I'm talking
about. And for some it's like Darwin Pruitt's father, he was
sitting in the chair If I remember the story right, but he was just
sitting in the chair and they came in the room, he was just
slumped over his head, just went out quietly, just quietly, just
went right out, went home to be with the Lord, Herman. Our times are in His hands. Our
times of happiness are by the will of God. Our times of sorrow
are by the will of God. Our times of prosperity, our
times of poverty, It's by the will of God. And they could not,
I tell you this, David said, my times are in thy hands. They
couldn't be in better hands. I'm glad they're not mine. I'm
glad they're in God's hands. And God's will is sovereign.
He takes counsel with no one. HE DOES EVERYTHING ACCORDING
TO HIS WILL, AND THE ARMIES OF HEAVEN, AND AMONG THE INHABITANTS
OF THE EARTH, AND NOTHING CAN STAY HIS HAND OR SAY TO HIM,
WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Elihu said this, and I?m going
to paraphrase it, he said to Job, ?Why do you contend with
him?? He gives no account of any of his matters. God?s not
going to answer to me or you why He does what He does. He
never apologized to Job when he spoke to Job. He didn't say,
I'm sorry, I took your 10 children. I had a point to prove. He didn't
say that. God never apologizes. You only
apologize when you're wrong. He told Job, he said, you gird
up your loins like a man. I'll demand of thee and you give
me an answer if you got one. And Job never had an answer.
He couldn't answer him one thing, not one thing. And God saves
whom He will. This is a point of real contention
with the natural man, with the religious lost. They hate the
fact that God saves whom He will. I talked to a man years ago about
God's sovereignty and salvation and he said, You mean that God
might save one of my children and not save another one? I said,
Yes. He said, No, I don't believe that. I don't care whether you
believe it or not, it's so. ME BELIEVING SOMETHING OR NOT
BELIEVING IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE TRUTH. THE TRUTH
IS THE TRUTH. Listen to the Word of God in
Romans 9, He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and
whom He will harden. He hardened Pharaoh's heart,
that's what it says. Pharaoh hardened his heart and God hardened
His heart. Now the part of God's will that
I want to look at tonight is His redemptive will as we go
through these verses. Now He says in verse 1, For the
LAW, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very
IMAGE of the things. You see, a shadow is not the
very image. A shadow is being cast BY the
image. You see, the Lamb that was slain
back in the Old Testament was a shadow of the Lamb of God.
Christ was foreshadowing that Lamb, or that Lamb foreshadowed
Christ. But Christ, He is the REAL! He
is the REAL IMAGE! It says there in Hebrews 1, He
is the IMAGE OF GOD! He is the REAL IMAGE of God,
He is the REAL IMAGE of the Lamb, He is the REAL IMAGE of ALL THE
SHADOWS! He is! But listen here, and not
the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually make their comings
thereunto perfect." Now remember who He's writing to. He's writing
to us, but He's writing to the Hebrews who are struggling with
not going back under the law or letting all of it go, because
I'm sure they want to keep some parts of it. Let's keep circumcision.
You know, we can have faith in Christ and circumcision. No,
you can't. Not if you do it for purpose
of salvation. Not if you do it for purpose
of acceptance with God. If you do it for purpose of hygiene,
go ahead. But not for salvation. And they wanted to hold on to
that. They wanted to hold on to it. You see, the Mosaic Law
was only a shadow and not the real. Israel's problem was trusting
in the shadows. They were trusting in the shadows,
they couldn't get out of the shadows into the sunlight, S-O-N
in light, they couldn't get out of the shadows, they couldn't
get out of that into the sunlight Christ. And these things that
spoke of Christ were not the very image of the things to come,
they were just shadows of it. Christ is the full image and
embodiment of the good things to come. All the fullness of
God dwelt in Him, all the fullness of that covenant was in Him,
and all the good things to come were in Him. And these good things
to come are SPIRITUAL things, spiritual things, not carnal,
spiritual things, things such as justification. You've got to be justified if
God's going to have anything to do with you. How can God be just and
justify the ungodly? That was asked back in Job. PARDON, FORGIVENESS, PEACE, REAL
FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. Have you ever stopped and think
about having real fellowship with God? To really take a day or just
some time and get off to yourself and think upon the Lord and speak
to the Lord and seek fellowship with the Lord. How would you
like it if you had a son or daughter that never wanted to fellowship
with you? That would be bad, that would be bad because there's
a lot of parents that have had that. But to have fellowship with Him
and eternal life. Eternal life is in Christ. If
you have Christ, you have eternal life. If you have Him, you have
eternal life. And we also have in Him, we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice we need, the blood
we need, and the mediating priest that we need. We have it in Him. We don't have it in the shadows.
You see they was trying to hang on to the shadows, trying to
hang on to a shadow. Try to reach out and grab a shadow.
See how long you can hold it. There's nothing in it. What you
need to do is turn around and look at what's casting the shadow.
See they didn't turn to Christ because Paul said if they turned
to Christ that veil would be taken away. If they had turned
to Him and quit staying in the shadows, THESE SHADOWS WERE GIVEN,
LISTEN, THEY WERE GIVEN TO EDUCATE! THEY WERE THE BLUEPRINT, BUT
NOT THE HOUSE! You know, you can have a blueprint
of a house, but you can't live in a blueprint! What can you
do with a blueprint? The OLD COVENANT WAS A BLUEPRINT! But Christ is the REAL! Christ
is the REAL! The shadows were just to educate,
to point to Christ. They were, as Paul said in Galatians
3.24, our schoolmasters. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith has come, and you can write in that in
Galatians, now that Christ has come, these things are done away
with. They re not necessary. If you
build your house, you don't need the blueprint no more, do you?
You don't need it no more. The house is finished. And those sacrifices, he says
here, could never make the comers thereunto perfect because they
were never more than a shadow, and they were never meant to.
They were not given for the purpose of taking away sin. There are
three things evident here in this portion of Scripture about
the Law, having a shadow of good things to come, but not the very
image of those things, and they could NEVER make the comers there
unto perfect. First is the inability of the Law, the Old Covenant,
it could never make perfect. What did God say? It must be
perfect to be accepted. It couldn't do it. It couldn't
do it. and then the inability of the
flesh. It says in Romans 8, verse 3, For what the law could not
do, in that it was weak through the flesh. We couldn't keep it,
couldn't keep it at all. We've never kept the law ourselves,
personally, in any way, shape, or form. We've never had. No one ever has except Jesus
Christ. He's the only one that has. And
then thirdly, THE NATURE OF THE SACRIFICE. BULLS AND GOATS. THEY DIDN'T BREAK THE LAW. MAN DID. ADAM DID. BY ONE MAN'S
DISOBEDIENCE MANY WERE MADE SINNERS. I WASN'T MADE A SINNER BY SOMETHING
AN ANIMAL DID, I WAS MADE A SINNER BY WHAT? A MAN DID. BY A MAN CAME DEATH, BY A MAN,
A MAN, THE MAN, JESUS CHRIST COMES TO RESURRECTION FROM THE
DEAD. not some animal. He says in verse 2, For then
would they not have ceased to be offered these sacrifices,
they would have ceased to be offered, because as the worshipers
once purged, should have no more consciousness of sins. If they really purged us of our
sins, they wouldn t be offered anymore, would they? What did
it say in the very first chapter of Hebrews? Turn over there.
The very first chapter, go back to the very first chapter. Verse 3, Who being the brightness
of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins. Thousands, probably millions
of animals because it's morning and evening, ALL THE ANIMALS
WERE KILLED, NOT ONE OF THEM COULD PURGE US FROM SIN. IT DIDN'T
PURGE ANYBODY FROM SIN. BUT CHRIST BY HIS ONE SACRIFICE
HAS PERFECTED FOREVER THEM THAT ARE SANCTIFIED IS WHAT IT SAYS
DOWN IN VERSE 14 OF CHAPTER 10. And as they would have ceased to
be offered if they had been effectual, their continual offerings every
day revealed their ineffectiveness. That's what it revealed. The
comers would have been free from the guilt of sin. Sin would have
had no more dominion over them, had those offerings been effectual. Well, what a message He's given
to these Hebrews who have believed on Christ! What a message He's
There is no epistle written in the New Testament that reaches
back to the Old Testament more than Hebrews does, and just clears
up all those types and pictures so, so beautifully, so beautifully. Now, it says there that they
should have had no more conscious or consciousness of sins. This
doesn't mean that they or we are no more aware of our sins.
We are. David said, My sin is ever before
me. We are aware of our sins. The Holy Spirit convicts us of
sin. We know that. But it's no more
guilt, the condemning power of sin, or the dominion of sin. it see my sins which are many
cannot condemn me they cannot condemn me the lord jesus christ
put them put them away they were dealt with in him he bore our
sins in his body on the tree So I know that I know my sins,
something of them, and I'm aware of my sins, and I'm aware of
my thoughts. Thoughts that I have I shouldn't have. Things I say
I shouldn't say. Things I do I shouldn't do. And I would to
God I didn't do them, and you too. But God has put them away. God's put them away. The condemning
power of them is gone. I FEEL THE CONVICTING POWER OF
HIM BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. HE CONVICTS US OF SIN CONTINUALLY
BECAUSE WE CONTINUALLY SIN AND HE LETS US KNOW IT BUT I CAN'T
BE CONDEMNED NOT IF I'M UNDER THE BLOOD NOT IF I'M UNDER THE
BLOOD BUT IN THOSE SACRIFICES THERE'S A REMEMBRANCE MADE AGAIN
OF SINS EVERY YEAR And those sacrifices that were
offered every year, there was, listen, there was a reminder,
not a removal. There was not a removal of sin.
There was a reminder of sin. But when we turn to Christ, there's
a removal of sin. His blood removes our sins. Past, present, and future. If I live to be a hundred, All
those sins are gone. Now those who do not understand
grace will go crazy over this. If they don't understand grace,
they're going to say, you're given a license to sin. Well,
I can't, you know, I've learned over the years, I can't do anything
about ignorance. You can't cure ignorance. But if God ever teaches
me or you or anyone else what grace really is, then we'll understand
THAT THIS IS NOT A LICENSE TO SIN, I TELL YOU WHAT IT IS, IT'S
THE FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD. IT'S THE FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD
ALMIGHTY. WE ARE NOW WHAT? THE SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
AND NOT SIN. Now he says in verse 4, IT IS
NOT POSSIBLE THAT THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND OF GOATS SHOULD TAKE
AWAY SINS. THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN OBVIOUS
THAT THE BLOOD OF AN ANIMAL COULDN'T PUT AWAY THE SIN OF A MAN. That ought to be obvious. Now
for many people that would be all right. No, it's not all right. who are afraid of hell. They're
afraid of torment. They're afraid of hell. Some
preacher has scared them to death with hell, the torments of hell. They don't care how they're saved
from it, just as long as they're saved from it. But you do. I
want to be saved from God's wrath in a just way, in a way that
honors God, and I don't ever have to be concerned about anything
coming after me. I don't have to be looking over
my shoulder. And we don't have to if we're
saved by the blood and righteousness of that man, Jesus Christ. Now,
wherefore, verse 5, wherefore, seeing that these cannot take
away sin, when He cometh into the world, where was He before? In the bosom of the Father. That's
what He said. He was in the bosom of the Father.
Here's the beauty of this. THE REAL SACRIFICE HAS ALWAYS
BEEN BEFORE THE FATHER. CHRIST HAS ALWAYS BEEN BEFORE
THE FATHER. THE LAMB OF GOD SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
HAS ALWAYS BEEN BEFORE THE FATHER ON OUR BEHALF. ALWAYS. OR WE'D BE IN TROUBLE. GOD TOOK
CARE OF THAT MATTER BEFORE HE CREATED HEAVEN AND EARTH. BEFORE
THE FIRST MAN WAS CREATED THERE WAS A SAVIOR BEFORE THERE WAS
A SINNER. God did that. He saith, when
He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not. Now over in Psalm 40 where this
is quoted, He says, Thou hast opened mine ear. Thou hast digged
mine ear. And here is translated as, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not. A body hast thou fitted me. THE
BODY OF CHRIST, THAT BODY, THAT SOUL OF CHRIST WAS BEGOTTEN BY
THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD IN THE WOMB OF MARY. ADAM'S BLOOD, ADAM'S SIN, ADAM'S
SEED HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH JESUS CHRIST. HE'S THE SON OF GOD. AND THAT
MAN WAS A CREATION OF GOD. THAT BODY, THAT SOUL, THAT MAN,
THAT MAN. unto us a child is born unto
us a son is given the child is born but the son's given he's
eternal he's not born he's God but the son is born or child
is born WHEN HE COMES INTO THE WORLD,
HE COMES NOT TO OFFER THE SAME SACRIFICE FOR SIN. Listen, even
if the Lord Jesus Christ had offered the blood of bulls and
goats, it still wouldn't have saved us. That's a pretty bold statement,
isn't it? I wrote it down and then I thought about it, and
I highlighted it because it's important. Even if He offered
it, which He wouldn't have, but even if He did, just IT WOULDN'T
HAVE SAVED US. IT HAS TO BE HIS BLOOD. IT HAS
TO BE PURE SINLESS BLOOD. THAT'S THE KIND OF BLOOD IT HAS
TO BE. CHRIST CAME TO TAKE TO HIMSELF A REAL BODY AND SOUL
IN WHICH TO OBEY THE LAW, AND AS A MAN, DIE IN OUR PLACE, AS
THE GOD-MAN. He didn't quit becoming God when
they nailed Him to the cross. That's the God-man hanging there.
Don't ask me to explain that, I can't, but that's the God-man
hanging on that cross. BURN OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES
FOR SIN, THOU HAST HAD NO PLEASURE." God had no pleasure in those
sacrifices in and of themselves, only as they pointed to His Son,
only as there was a shadow of His Son. GOD CAN'T TAKE PLEASURE IN SOMETHING
THAT DOES NOT SATISFY HIS JUSTICE OR HONOR HIS LAW, AND THE LORD
JESUS CHRIST, THE LAMB OF GOD, MAGNIFIED THE LAW AND MADE IT
HONORABLE ON OUR BEHALF. And as far as God is concerned,
I did too. I honored the law, I fulfilled the law, and I honored
the law. But I tell you this, Those sacrifices
gave him no pleasure, but the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ
sure did. In Isaiah 53, 10, Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He is not a failure. He shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. It is pleased God to make you
His people. That's the pleasure of the Lord.
and it's prospering. Don't ever think the church is
defeated. There's not one member of the
body of Christ that will be missing. There's not going to be one limb
missing. There's not going to be no amputee. There's not going
to be a body with a missing part. No, she's going to be put together,
His bride, His body is going to be put together, and it's
going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. Go over in the Song of Solomons
and read how SHE is described. That's US! That's US! Jesus Christ is to God the sweet
smell of satisfaction. And over in Ephesians it says
it's a sweet smelling savor unto God. Isn't it amazing how God
made us to have all these senses so that we might be able to relate
them in a spiritual sense? HE SAID TO THOSE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE,
YOU ARE A SMOKE IN MY NOSE. BUT CHRIST, HE SAID, IS A SWEET
SMELL TO GOD. Then said I, here is His redemptive
will, and I'm going to try to wind this down. Then said I,
LO, I COME IN THE VOLUME OF THE BOOK OR THE SCROLL It is written
of me to do thy will, O God. Here's the redemptive will of
God. God's will is to save a multitude
of sinners, a number the Scripture says no man can number. And they
are going to be saved by one man, Jesus Christ. They are going
to be saved by His blood, by His righteousness, by His person. That's God's redemptive will.
That's why the heavens and the earth, as we know it here, is
still here. That's why God created it. He
didn't create this in vain. He created it that He's going
to populate a new heaven, a new earth, with a people just like
His Son. And He loves them every bit as
much, and this is phenomenal, that He loves them every bit
as much as He loves His Son. God loves me, in Christ, as much
as He loves Jesus Christ. That's beyond me. He came into this world to do
the Father's will. He didn't come to straighten
us out. He didn't come to die and then throw it to the dogs
to see what they're going to do with it. He did not die on
Calvary's tree, shed His blood, SUFFER GOD'S
WRATH AND SEE WHAT A BUNCH OF GOD-HATING REBELS ARE GOING TO
DO WITH IT! HE TOLD US NOT TO CAST OUR PEARLS
BEFORE THE SWINE, DIDN'T HE? DO YOU THINK GOD IS GOING TO
CAST HIS PEARL BEFORE THE SWINE? NO! NO! HIS BLOOD IS GOING TO PURCHASE
EVERYONE IT WAS SHED FOR! Everyone. And those who wind
up in hell, they're there by their own fault. Seriously. They didn't want Jesus Christ.
They didn't want to be saved. They don't want to be saved from
their sins. They want to be saved from torment. Anybody in their
right mind would want that. But they don't want to be saved
from their sins. Here's the real difference when it comes to salvation.
What do you want to be saved from? Torment? Or your sins? You want to have fellowship with
God or you just want to go to heaven like at some vacation
resort. There's a difference between
wanting to go to heaven when you die and wanting to be with
the Lord when you die. There's a real difference. The
difference is life and death. Those who are alive, they want
to be forgiven of their sins, they want to have fellowship
with God, they want to be made one with their Creator. I want
to know God. I don't know anything about heaven,
but I know something about Christ. And wherever He is, is heaven.
He is heaven to us. We're going to dwell in Him.
We're going to dwell in God. We can't comprehend that. I'm
over our head, I know that. You know right, Jane? I'm over
her head. She told me the other night I
was over her head. I was going through Hebrews. I'm over my
head, I told her. I said, I'm over my head. But he's going to bring, listen,
he's going to bring this multitude of sinners to heaven without
blemish and without spot. NOW ABOVE, WHEN HE SAID, SACRIFICE
AND OFFERING, BURN OFFERINGS, AND OFFERING FOR SIN, THOU WOULDEST
NOT, NEITHER HAD PLEASURE THEREIN, WHICH WERE OFFERED BY THE LAW
IN THEMSELVES, THEY GAVE HIM NO PLEASURE. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN
CHRIST THAT HE FOUND PLEASURE IN. WHEN GOD SPOKE FROM HEAVEN,
IN MATTHEW 3, 17, HE SAID, IN LAW, A VOICE FROM HEAVEN, SAYING,
THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. He never said
that about a ram or a goat or The sheep, he never said that
about them. He never spoke from heaven and said, this is my lamb
here, or goat or whatever. No, but whenever his lamb came,
he spoke from heaven. He said, this is my son, and
whom I will please, hear ye him. And then said he, lo, I come.
Christ is speaking here. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. He takes away the first and may
establish the second. Here s the will of God to take
away that old covenant. It s done! It s done! It s served
its purpose! It s time to retire the schoolmaster because the real teacher has
come. It is the Father s will to take
away that first covenant for it s obsolete. Christ fulfilled
His purpose, and now they are no more. They are no more. How clear could the writer of
Hebrews be to the Hebrews he's writing to? Wow, I mean, I was
sitting today doing this, and I'm thinking, he's writing to
these Hebrews who lived under this. And how clear can the gospel
be than what he's given right here? I mean, how beautifully
the Holy Spirit ties and brings this all together. and by the which will verse 10
by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all by the will of God it starts
listen this all started by the will of God your life your existence your
salvation started by the will of God but now there's got to
be an offering See the means, God's willed all this, now here's
the means through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
You know, sanctification is spoken of in three ways. First of all,
it has to do with to set apart for God's use, to take something
common and ordinary and set it apart for God's use. We are chosen
of God. Yes, you're chosen of God. And
then it's to regard as holy. You know why God would not let
Moses enter into the Promised Land? He said, You didn't sanctify
Me in your heart before the people. You didn't regard Me as holy.
He said, You didn't believe Me. Over there in Numbers 20 and
12 and 27 and 14. He said, You didn't sanctify
Me. You didn't sanctify Me. Listen, when we come here on
Thursdays to worship, when we come here on Sundays to worship,
we are to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, regard Him as
holy. This is a holy service. This is a real holy service. It does matter how we conduct
service here. It matters. Moses is a prime example of not
sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts. In his heart, in our
hearts, this is a solemn occasion to come here together. We need
to sanctify the Lord God, regard Him as holy, bow before Him when
we come into this service. And then the third aspect of
sanctify or sanctification is when the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, we are born of God, we have a new nature, we have a new nature
that is holy and it is sinless and it does not sin. That new
nature that is born of God does not sin. Why would God give me
another nature that can sin? I got one. Now that new nature,
he said, it is born of God in RIGHTEOUSNESS, and that new man
is born of RIGHTEOUSNESS and TRUE HOLINESS. That's what the
Word of God says, that's what His Word says. Now to close here, by the which
will we are sanctified, by the will of the Father we have been
chosen and redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. By the will
of the Father, the cross was by His will. The Father willed
the cross. He did, He willed the cross.
It was not an attempt to rescue the human race. It was the will
of the Father, He willed the cross to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself once and for all. Sin will never happen
again, never. And then it is by the will of
the Father to show how effectual the blood of Christ was and is. He says once for all, one time,
once for all, never happen again. Christ crucified will never happen
again. His sacrifice was so effectual it was one time and done, one
and done. And then by the will of the Father
we are eternally sanctified in Christ and we need no more offering
for sin. In Christ, listen, I can't give you better news
than this, in Christ we are complete. That's it. That's the redemptive
will of God.