I'd like to ask you to open your
Bibles to the 10th chapter of Hebrews. We're going to spend our time
this morning in that chapter. We're in a series of messages
looking into nine different characteristics in which our great God bestows
his grace on his elect. The first of which that we looked
at was the life-giving grace called regenerating grace. We saw by God's loving grace
that some are born again by the life-giving spirit. who is life
and gives life. It says ye must be born of the
Spirit and of water. Only God can give life, and He
gives it to whom He will. In the 9th chapter of Romans,
verse 15, it says, For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. So then it is not of him that
will it, it is not of him that will it, You know, that's got to be repeated
over and over again. You know why? Because that's
the fight. That's the battle of this world, the battle between
man and who they think they are. In the world, it's all about
who you are, your power, your free will. God declares right
there in that very verse, it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth. You see, people were trying to
do that even back in the beginning, all the way back in the beginning
of time. That's what Cain did, wasn't it? He did it His way,
not God's way. Not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God gives
life to whom He will, and whom He will, He hardeneth. By the
power of His word spoken by the prophet Ezekiel, we saw the valley
of the bones and how it came to life. The whole house of Israel
is what God said the Valley of Bones was. God's chosen people,
the elect of God, all of those for whom the God the Father gave
to God the Son before a star ever twinkled, before the very
foundation of time itself. This power belongs to him who
sits on the throne of glory. It belongs to that sovereign
king we spoke of a moment ago. It belongs to Jesus Christ, the
Lord. In the 17th chapter of John,
we read this, These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes
to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy
son, that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him
power over all flesh, That He should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given Him. That's the Word of God. I like
that. Because I know that if it was
left to me, I'd still be running around with the crowd that I
was running around at the age 40. I'd still be off watching football
and getting drunk on a Sunday. Just to get through the hangover
of drunk on Saturday night. Some of you know what I'm talking
about. I like election. I like His election, not mine. As Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him, and this is life eternal, that they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. I have glorified Thee on earth, and I have finished the
work which Thou gavest me to do. O, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was." Christ has always been King. God has always ruled. Secondly, we saw the grace of
justification. Justifying grace, we called it.
We looked at how Abraham was justified by God-given faith. Faith that was given to him as
a gift. Not of works, lest men should boast. For by grace ye
are saved through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. It's very clear. The works of men is tainted with
sin. It's what we are. We can't help
it. Thank God for Jesus, our Savior. Thank God for the One who is
perfect in every way, who didn't falter at all, who took every
one of our sins into the grave when He died, every one of them,
and left them there when He was raised from the dead. And we are only given that gift
because of the precious blood that was shed on the cross by
our Savior, Christ Jesus. A.K.A., we are justified through
His blood and God sees our sins no more. In Psalms 32, it says,
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile. Or in Psalms 85 too, it says,
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people, Thou hast covered
all their sin. Is that not good news? Can you
not take that to the bank? Justified. Just as if I'd never
sinned. Oh, to have the blood of Christ
on the doorpost of my heart. Today I wish to visit the characteristic
of sanctifying grace. Are you with me in Hebrews? Let's
begin at verse 28 of chapter 9. Verse 28, So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. for
the law 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. The blood of animals never saved
anything, but it was a picture of the one who could. He who
was offered up once and once was all it took, The blood shed
was that of God Himself, and all power is His to wield. In Hebrews 10, we read verse
2, it says, For then would they not have ceased to be offered,
speaking of those animal sacrifices. If they had done any good, they
would have done it. It would have been over with.
But they had to do it every year. Because that the worshippers
once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. If those
animal sacrifices would have worked, they would have had no
more sin on their conscience. But in those sacrifices, there
is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, came here to put away sin because
there was no other way for sin to be put away. The most amazing
thing in all the world is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, should condescend to become a man that he might
live and die in the place of sinful men as our substitute
upon a cursed tree. I hope I never, I hope I never
get over the wonder of redeeming love. I don't see how as a child of
God one could, especially knowing how we are
in this world So often when I speak of the
wonderful, wonderful news of our Lord Jesus Christ, it brings
a tear to my heart. I don't always hold it back because of the magnificence,
the grandeur of my Savior's love for me. That's not forgetting. That's
remembering. That's remembering of the wondering,
redeeming love that He has for me, His child. Yet when I meditate upon this
great fact, the fact that the Lord of glory came here to live
and die for me, to be made sin for me, to bring in everlasting
righteousness for me, to put away my sin by being made sin,
to give me life by laying down His own life, that He came here
to save me? I am compelled to ask this question
with very reverent astonishment. Why? Why did Christ come? This question is answered in
many, many ways and throughout many places of the Holy Scripture,
but it is not answered more fully, more clearly in any single passage
than it is right here in Hebrews chapter 10. Here, the Holy Spirit
tells us specifically why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this
world and died in our room instead. The blood of animals wouldn't
do it. It couldn't accomplish it. Sin dead is too great for anything
to accomplish it other than God Himself. Christ had to come and
bear the sins of His people. Otherwise, we would all spend
exactly where we deserve in torment and hell. That's what makes His grace so
wonderful. We know that we deserve what everybody is going to get.
But God is merciful to us for some reason. And the only reason
we can think of is because His Word says He has loved us from
everlasting to everlasting. What a great love. Do you see that love for you? Do you see that magnificent love
God has for His people? How could anybody say that God
loves everybody and yet still some would go to hell? What kind
of love is that? If God loved everybody, then
nobody would go to hell. Otherwise, He's not God. What
He has done is accomplished. He said, it is finished. It's
done. The Holy Spirit tells us specifically
why the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and died in our
room, in our stead at Calvary. Verse 5, Wherefore, when he cometh
into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,
but a body, but a body thou hast prepared
me. God became flesh. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
was manifest in the flesh. It became flesh. In burnt offerings,
verse 6, in sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Our Lord became flesh because
there was no other way, no other way to pay for the sins of those
for whom He has loved from eternity past. A body was prepared, a
body that would bear the weight of sin on its shoulders, even
though it knew no sin of its own. He who is perfect was made
to be sin. That's God's Word, not mine.
Oh, the sadness. The sadness that we see at what
was done to this man who committed no sin. Spat upon by his own
creation. Whipped. The flesh was torn off
of his back. He carried the burden of that
heavy wood as far as his body would go. He was 100% man and 100% God. Oh, what sadness we see when
we look at what was done to this man, but yet, but yet, what joy
we have that it was accomplished in our stead. Think about that for a moment. It's kind of strange. We see
the sadness of it, but yet it brings joy to our heart. Joy
knowing that our Lord loved us so much that he gave himself. By his stripes, we are healed. Coming to the table of remembrance
and going into the waters of baptism, going to services faithfully,
tithing regularly, serving others, these things cannot save. And
neither did the sacrifices of animals. Only the blood of our
Savior satisfied the justice of God, and this is satisfaction
of the debt paid, and it sets those for whom it was sacrificed
for apart. Apart from all the rest of the
world. It's like as if He took us out
of the world and put us in the family of Christ. That's exactly
what Scripture says, isn't it? This world is not my home. I'm
just a passing through. If heaven's not my home, then
Lord, what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's
open door. And I don't feel at home in this
world anymore. Only the blood of our Savior
satisfied the justice of God. All have sinned and deserve the
wrath to come, yet there are some, though, who are sanctified,
set apart from the punishment of sin, for one took their place. The Old Testament talks about
a scapegoat. We have a scapegoat. We have a scapegoat. His name
is Emmanuel, God with us. He shall be called Jesus, for
He shall save His people. That's God's Word. Not maybe,
not if, not possibly, but shall save His people. That's a God
you can count on, folks. I don't see how anybody can count
on a God that's a maybe. That's a little God that doesn't
have any power. But the God of Scripture has all power in heaven
and earth. Everything belongs under the
foot of Jesus. And if He says He shall save
His people, is there anybody who's going to stop Him? Here's news for you. I can't stop Him. In the day
of His power, He will make us willing. In the day of His power,
He will make each and every one of His people willing to come
to Him. Because we can't come on our
own will. Verse 7, chapter 10, verse 7,
Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written
of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law,
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. Christ fulfilled
the law of Moses perfectly, and he is perfect in all that he
did and does. This is why God's preacher preached
Christ in him crucified. There's nothing else that matters
to a sinner. Good works is not going to get
us anywhere. It's great that we can do them.
It's a blessing that God gives us the power and the ability
to help others. But that's not what saves us. Christ and His
blood is what saved us. His perfect blood that was shed
on the cross. The works of Jesus the Lord fulfilled
the law. Because He has loved His people
from before the world was, He came and established a new covenant. A covenant of grace. That's what
we're studying. The nine characters, nine different
characters of grace. The covenant of love. You see,
that's what grace is. Unmerited favor. We receive what we do not deserve.
Why? Because Christ loved His people.
God loved His chosen people. And there is no other way but
to send His Son to that cross for us. And the more we see that
great love, the more we praise and give thanks to our Lord Jesus
Christ for what He has done for us. The more we see that grace
expand and how big it gets. He, the sign, came to do His
Father's will, that which will, that sanctified us through the
blood of Christ. Look at verse 10. By the which
will, by His will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. How long? Once and for all. When He says,
I love you, I've loved you with an everlasting love, it goes
on forever. It began before time began. Time
was probably created. I'm sure time was created because
He loved us. I may have stepped out on a limb
with that, but I think that's pretty accurate. Only the blood of God can put
away sin. There is an added blessing to
this word sanctified. Not only does it mean to be set
apart, to be brought out of, but it also means to be made
holy. Because He was made sin for us,
we are made righteous in Him. Because God the Father sees the
blood of His Son, He sees each and every one of His blood-bought
children as holy as He is. I know, I just can't wrap my
mind around that, because I'm still here in the flesh. But
once again, this is our Lord's Word. He's the one who says that. If some man had said that, I'm
pretty sure I would not believe it, but God has said that, and
I believe in God. I believe His Word. I've been
given the gift to believe. There was a day when I didn't. Was there a day when you didn't
believe? So you kind of understand what I'm saying, don't you? I
believe God. I'm as holy as He is. But not
for this, not for what you see standing before you, for my Savior's
sake. Because of Him. If you're a child of God, you're
just as holy as God is. He doesn't see your sin anymore.
It's put away in His Son on the cross. He went into the grave. He sees no sin in us. Oh! Do you understand? What a wonderful gospel that
is to preach. Is that a wonderful gospel to
hear? To your heart? By the offering of Himself, we,
God's chosen, God's elect, are set apart from death and destruction. A death and destruction that
we definitely deserve of the flesh. By the shedding of His
own blood, we are made holy in His sight. All that we see will burn up
in the day of His return. But, but, for the sanctifying
grace, there go I. But for God's grace, I'd be right
there along with all that's burned up. But for the grace of God, there
go I. Stand with me if you would, please.