Join me if you would in the book
of Hebrews. We're in Hebrews chapter 10,
and we've looked at the verse 5 through 10. or through nine
we've looked at verses five through nine and you recall a couple
of weeks back we spent our time talking about how the lord god
had provided his son a body and we weren't just talking about
the physical body the very body that christ needed and required
to give himself as a sacrifice but he also provided a people
a body the body of christ he's the head And all of us are the
fingers, toes, and arms, and legs, and whatever he may use
us, however he may use us. So we spend our time with that.
And now we come to verse 10. But I want to begin at verse
9 and read through verse 14. So read with me, if you would,
verse 9 through 14 of Hebrews chapter 10. Then said he, Lo,
I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. By the witch will we are sanctified,
made holy, set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Now, I want to stop there for
a moment. I've got to say this. We were sanctified and I'm stressing
this to you because there are those around us who want to teach
and preach about Progressive sanctification that means that
you get better now that you're a Christian You're going to get
better than what you were before and we all know as Christians
as those who believe God that just is not true This flesh does
not get any better this flesh will get better when the Lord
takes us out of this flesh and gives us a new body. And even
the flesh won't get better. I said that wrong. I said the
flesh will get better when the Lord takes it out. It'll be put away. The only thing better about us
in the flesh will be that new body when the Lord gives us here.
There it is. I said it right that time. We are sanctified
once. And it's done. Can I stress that
any harder? It is finished, is what the Lord
Jesus Christ says. It is finished. We are sanctified. You can't get any better than
what God has already made us in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's perfect, is He not? Does
it not say over there that He is perfected forever in verse
14? For by one offering He has perfected
forever them that are sanctified? Well, that's what it's talking
about here. By the which will we are sanctified? How? Through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Verse 11, and every priest standeth
daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins, but this man, oh, what a man
we're talking about. the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of
God. How? Why? Because he's God Almighty
in the flesh, and what he does is effectual. It is sufficient. His sacrifice was sufficient
for the sins of his people. He only had to do it once. He
sat down at the right hand of God, verse 13, from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Brother
Don Fortner wrote this. He says, tis done. The great
transaction is done. It's already done. It's past
tense. Remember that time, I've shared this with you before,
where he reached over here and he grabbed a chair? It's done. It's finished. He writes this,
he says, that tis done, the great transaction. I have my Lord's
and He is mine. Redemption work is done, completely
finished. Nothing is to be added to it,
to make it complete. If we attempt to add anything
to it, we make it of none effect to ourselves. And he refers this
to Galatians 5, chapter 1. Look with me at the first four
verses. Stand fast. Don't let anybody talk to you
about, if they start telling you, oh, there's progressive
sanctification, you're going to get better. Stand your ground,
saying, I'm already better than I can get in my Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty which we're with Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That's all progressive
sanctification is. It's works of men. It's like,
you've got to do better now. We want to see it. We want to
see you be like us. Come on. You can be better. The
bondage. The bondage of sin. Verse 2,
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. That's talking about circumcision
of the flesh. Verse 3, For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole
law. Don't just get circumcised. You've got to walk the law perfectly.
You've got to do it all perfectly. You have to love God with all
your heart. Verse 4, Christ is become of
no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified by the law,
you have fallen from grace. You have fallen from grace. When
our Lord Jesus Christ cried, it is finished, He had finished
the work that He came here to do. He had redeemed His people. He had finished the entire will
of God He came here to fulfill. This is the entire basis of our
faith. Our confidence is in Him as our
Savior. It is Christ's finished work.
of redemption as the sinner's substitute, which the Holy Spirit
declares over in chapter 10 verses 9 through 14 that we just read.
He came to do the Father's will, as we read back there in verses
5 through 9. The Lord Jesus came here to die
at Calvary to redeem God's elect. That's what 9 through 10 is telling
us. It's telling us that He came and did what He came to do as
the will of the Father, just as every priest By the witch
will, we are sanctified to the offering of Jesus Christ once
for all. Carry these two verses with you
as you make your pilgrimage mates through this world. When so-called
Christians come to you and say, aren't you going to get baptized?
Aren't you going to do this? Aren't you going to do that?
If you don't do that, you're not saved. If you don't do this,
you're not saved. When they come to us and say
that, Take them to these two verses and say, look here, by
the witch will we are sanctified, made pure, made holy, set apart
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for
all. When Satan roars against you and your heart trembles because
of your own sin, remember that the Lord God here declares in
His Word for your soul's comfort. Rejoice in these blessed facts.
Roll them over in your heart. Worship God and give Him thanks
for these great gospel truths that He reveals to our heart.
The Lord God, Son of God, came into this world in human flesh
to offer himself as a sin-atoning sacrifice to God at Calvary.
He came here to die as our substitute by the will of God the Father.
He came here specifically to die in the room and the place
of His elect, as our great substitute. And He has successfully, effectually
redeemed All God the Father gave God the Son by the sacrifice
of Himself. That's what we read in verses
11 through 14. For by one offering He hath perfected. Let me read that again. For by
one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Not only has He perfected them,
He's done it forever. That's the same word as eternal.
That means eternally. There's no possibility that even
one of those who were sanctified by God the Son, who were made
perfect by His blood, shall ever be charged with sin. Look over at Romans chapter 4.
Come over to Romans chapter 4. You already know what it says
in Romans chapter 8 verse 1. Just in case you don't know,
it says there is therefore now no condemnation. No condemning. You can't condemn one who's already
been condemned, and God's people have been condemned in His Son,
the Lord Jesus. Over in chapter 4, we read these
words in verse 8. Look at verse 8. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. What a blessing that is for one
who gets up in the morning and looks in the mirror and sees
nothing but sin in the flesh. I can go about my day, you know,
I could, I've said this before, it's worth repeating. I could
never understand suicide. I've had several in my world
commit suicide over time. Some that were very dear to me,
very dear. And I never could understand
it. The thought of suicide has never gone through my mind. But
knowing what I know, what God has revealed to me about what
the depth of what sin is, if I didn't have the hope, if all
I had was the troubles that sin do to me in the flesh, And I
had no hope of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. I can
understand committing suicide. Why would I want to continue
to live if that's all I've got to live for? I'll tell you why.
God has given me the hope in my Savior that my sins are paid
for. We're going to talk a little
bit more about that in the next study. But right now, I want
to tell you about my hope. Where is my hope? My hope is
the basis of my soul's hope and comfort and expectation. I have a hope of eternal life.
I expect to stand accepted before God. What? On what basis? On the basis of my Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Do you have that hope? Do you
have that hope? Oh, if you're putting any hope
at all in what you see when you get up and you look in the mirror,
then you're missing it. You're missing it completely.
There's only one hope. I have a hope for God because
the Son of God stood as my surety in the covenant of grace before
the world began. By His own oath from which He
will not repent, the Lord Jesus Christ was made a surety of a
better testament. That's what we read back in Hebrews
7 verse 22. You can also read about that
surety in Genesis 43, 8 through 9. and Job 33, 24. But we're going
to go on today. In that covenant, the Son of
God agreed to satisfy the law and the justice of God for his
people, for you and I, and bring all the hosts, all of his elect. When he says in his word, all
that the Father giveth me, all that the Father giveth him shall
come to him. Not one shall be lost if one
could be lost in What is our God? How can we call him God
if if one could be lost for whom he shed his blood? in that covenant
The son of God he agreed to satisfy the law perfectly and he did
He satisfied it perfectly He also satisfied the justice of
God perfectly for His people. And He brings all the hosts of
God's elect safely to glory. God the Father trusted His elect
people in the hands of His Son as a surety. That's what we read
over in Ephesians 1 verse 12. Let me read that for you. He
says that we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in the Son in Christ. God the Father trusted his son
before the world was. That's why we read in Revelation
he was seen as the lamb slain from before the foundation of
the world. It's always been God's plan for his son to come to the
world and shed his blood for his people. That's always been
the plan of God. Christ came as our surety. And
he will continue in that role without wavering till all that
the Father gave him come to him, and he has raised them up at
the last day, presenting them to the Father. He says this,
behold, I and the children of God, which God hath given me. That's in John 6, 37. The fact
that God the Son came into this world as a man gives me hope. It gives me hope. Why? Because
that man who died on the cross 2,000 years ago, just over 2,000
years ago, that's God in the flesh. That's my hope. I know
it was perfect. I know that he perfectly satisfied
the law of God. He perfectly satisfied the justice
of God, which I deserve. Therefore, I am justified as
you are in Him. It says in John 3, 17, for God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved. This is good news indeed. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us in John 1, verse 14. I have hope before God because
the Lord Jesus Christ obeyed the law as my representative. Though I am a sinner without
any ability to produce righteousness in this flesh, I have hope before
God who cannot accept anything less than perfect righteousness.
My hope is the Lord our righteousness, as Jeremiah puts it in chapter
23, verse 6. The Lord lived in this world,
the Lord Jesus, he lived in this world in perfect obedience to
God as my representative. And he brought in everlasting
righteousness for me. It is this righteousness, the
righteousness, the righteous obedience of Christ, which God
has imputed to me, and he imputes to all who believe in him. Listen to the words of Romans
5, 19. For by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, that
speaking of Adam and all the rest of mankind, so by the obedience
of What? The obedience? What was that? Then said I, he
says in verse 9, Lo, I come to do thine will. He's obedient to what the Father's
will was. What was that obedience? Turn
over to Acts chapter 2. Let me show you what the Word
of God says about his obedience here in Acts chapter 2. Look
at verse 23 with me. Acts chapter 2 verse 23. Him,
speaking of the Lord Jesus, the very one, this Jesus of Nazareth,
a man that was approved of God among you by miracles and wonders,
as it says in verse 22, which God did by Him in the midst of
you. It says Him, in verse 23, Him being delivered by the determinate,
that means He determined to do so. This is talking about the
covenant that was made between the three and one before the
world began. The determinant council. and
foreknowledge of God. This one who came willingly under
the determinate counsel of foreknowledge God, ye have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain." Back in Hebrews chapter 10. What
is it he did? He did the Father's will. He
came to fulfill the Father's will and he is sanctified his
people through the offering of the body of himself, Jesus Christ,
once and for all, verse 10. But before righteousness could
be lawfully imputed to me, my sins had to be both atoned for
and put away. People say, well, if Christ was
the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, why did he have
to die? Because blood had to be shed. The body that was prepared,
the body of flesh that was prepared for Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, was so that he could shed his blood and die for those who
deserve to have their blood shed and die. When I read for you
a moment ago, there is therefore now no condemnation. There's
no charge that can be laid to God's elect as we read on at
the end of verse of chapter 8. Nothing can be laid to the charge
of God's elect. Why? Because all those charges
have been put on Him. That's where our hope is. In
Hebrews 7.25, our hope in this one who is called Emmanuel, God
with us. We read these words, he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Let me close with these words
about faith. I'm confident that Christ has
done all this for me as my surety, my representative, my substitute,
because I honestly acknowledge my sin before him. Stop. Let me make sure you understand
this. I'm not talking about going into
the closet and saying, Lord, I'm sorry for that thought, although
you need to do that. Lord, I'm sorry for the words
of harshness that I spoke to somebody today, although you
need to do that. I'm talking about going into
the closet and speaking as the publican who's over in the side
of the temple and he's pounding on his chest, crying out for
God to have mercy on him today. This is crying unto God and admitting
what our sins are. This is what I am, Lord. Forgive
me for being sin today. Forgive me once again in your
Son, the Lord Jesus. I honestly before Him in my heart,
and only you can tell whether you do that or not. Don't come
to me and say, oh, I do that too, John. No. You tell yourself. You ask yourself, do I do that?
And then answer to yourself. Do I go to my Lord, my substitute,
because I honestly acknowledge my sin before Him and trust Him
alone as my Savior? Folks, our faith does not save
us. Our faith does not save us. Jesus Christ is the only one
who can save, but I believe, and that's my faith. I believe
that he can and will save all of those who call upon his name. I have been saved by his grace,
through the righteousness, and the shed blood of my Savior,
the Lord Jesus. Let's close with 1 John chapter
5. Turn over to 1 John chapter 5. You have 1 John, 2 John, 3 John,
and then you have Jude in Revelation. We want 1 John, or, yeah, 1 John
chapter 5. And look with me if you would,
just a couple verses. Verse 10. 1 John chapter 5, verse
10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God made
him a liar. Oh, I don't know that I can believe
that God has a few elect. I think God loves the whole world.
No, he doesn't. He says clearly in his word,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. That's believing God. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar because he believeth not the record. that God gave
of His Son. And this is the record that God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Amen.