Turn with me, if you would, please,
to Galatians chapter two. I want to read one verse there,
and then we'll go to Hebrews chapter 10. Galatians chapter
two. I've entitled today's message,
Full Assurance of Faith. It's really part two, last week's
message. Last week's also was called Full
Assurance of Faith. And since we didn't get to that
phrase in in the reading or in the preaching I wanted to continue. There's so much in this 10th
chapter of Hebrews that we could spend several weeks here. I'll
try to get through it at a timely rate, but I want to consider
this principle that's stated in Galatians chapter 2. Before
we do, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
goodness that you would give us your word written and that
you would allow us to look at it and meditate on it and trust
entirely what you've said and for our eternal salvation. Help
us, Lord, to praise you and to worship you at all times by this
grace of faith you've given to us in your word. In Jesus' name
we pray, amen. Galatians chapter two, verse
21, a very powerful statement is made The Apostle Paul, after stating
that we could not possibly be justified by what we do in obeying
God's word or his law, that we must be justified another way,
and that way is by the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 21,
in conclusion of all that, he says, I do not frustrate the
grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. What a horrible thought
that would be. Can you think of anything more
unbelievable, more impossible, and more wasteful, more cause
for God's name to be defamed than that Christ would die in
vain? It's not possible. And so it's
raised up as the greatest impossibility. that Christ could possibly have
died in vain. But notice here what the argument
is. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ died in vain. What must we conclude then? That
Christ's death was not in vain, therefore righteousness didn't
come by the law, but came by his death. You see, so now let's
go on to Hebrews chapter 10, because that's the argument of
the gospel, that's the good news of the gospel, is that Christ's
death was not only not in vain, but it actually accomplished
all that God intended by it. One of the principles of scripture
and the principles of eternity, really, is that God does everything
that he thinks. He never stops and says, well,
that was a bad thought. I've got to change that. Or he
never thinks, well, I'd like to do this, but I can't because
of that. We think that way, of course.
We can't do. any part of what we think, really.
And our thoughts are always so mixed with sin that we're frustrated
even by our own thoughts and motives. God's not like that.
Everything that he thinks is right, it pleases him. It pleases
him to think it. It pleases him because he knows
he will do it. And so that's the point here
is that the intention that God has in everything that he has
ever considered and put down in his will, his eternal will,
never changes, always is fulfilled, and he's the one who brings it
to pass. In Hebrews chapter 10, I just want to go through the
verses of this chapter to help us all see the power of the argument
made here by the Spirit of God through the pen of the writer
to the Hebrews here. He's drawing a conclusion from
all that came before, we're gonna begin at verse one, and he's
driving it to the ultimate conclusion that he's trying to make in the
entire book. And the result of that conclusion
is brought home to us, and I wanna read this to you in verse 22. This is the conclusion that we
ought the practical result of everything that he states up
to this point. Notice in verse 22, he says,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Full assurance of faith. Why
don't we have assurance of faith? Well, I think one of the reasons
is we have doubts that there's something that needs to be done
that isn't yet done, especially concerning myself. That maybe
I need to do something in order to make what God did work for
me. Or that God has yet to complete
His work. Or maybe we might have the thought
that because God chose to salvation and gave his people to Christ
to save, that maybe we were left out in that. I think that's the
greatest concern we have, is that somehow even though the
salvation God has ordained and provided in Christ wasn't including
me, didn't include me. But notice that there's no mention
of that here. Does God ever say to us, now consider the fact
that you might not be one of God's elect, therefore you should
have doubts? Nothing of the sort. In fact,
he says the very opposite. In Isaiah 45, 22, he says, look
unto me, this is Christ speaking, look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none
else. Christ himself, the exalted high
priest and king of glory, commands all men everywhere to repent.
And so therefore, we have the warrant of his own command. Now
we often mistake that to say that, well, I gotta get busy
and do what he said, rather than coming back to him to receive
the grace from him to do what he commands us to do, which is
to look to him. But that in itself is looking.
Because depending upon him for grace, looking to him to receive
all grace, to believe him, and seeking and expecting him to
give to us the grace he promised in that look, all of that is
seeking the Lord and coming to him. And he gives us that. If in our hearts we call on the
Lord, then we will be saved according to his word. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, shall be saved. And that's in Romans chapter
10. So our assurance of faith should not consider our own weakness
because it was when we were without strength that Christ died for
us. Romans chapter five, verse six,
when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Our condition is described there
as not as godly, but ungodly. And in his death, Christ accomplished
all that was needed to make us holy before God. Therefore, to
look to ourselves and consider ourselves in coming to God is
a misguided, a misdirected look. There's no assurance in that.
But when we look to Christ, when we take God's word directing
us to Him, and we hear it and are persuaded of it and convinced
that God accepts us and receives us for Christ's sake alone, then
we can have this full assurance of faith. Romans chapter eight
tells us that none can condemn us because Christ died for us.
So the issue of our sin is not an issue with God if Christ died
for us. And since Christ died for the
ungodly when they were without strength, when they were sinners,
when they were actually enemies of God in their mind and by wicked
works, therefore we're confident that the qualifications we need
are zilch. We have nothing that we can bring.
God's own description of us is ungodly, sinners, enemies, and
without strength. So we must come in all of our
corruption to Christ in all of his grace, in all of the accomplishments
of his work, in order to have this full assurance of faith.
In fact, to come without the full assurance of faith is to
do what? Is to come doubting. And what
would we doubt? Well, we would doubt ourselves,
naturally. But since we aren't in the equation of our salvation,
We're not there. There's only two factors. What
Christ did, and what God thinks about Him. And when we eliminate
ourselves in our mind because God never put us in that equation,
that's the whole point of the law. We were in the equation,
therefore the law was weak. It couldn't accomplish anything
because we were there. But having removed us from that
equation, what Christ did, what God thinks, equals eternal redemption. That's where the full assurance
comes from, you see. So we can't consider ourselves,
because God considered the worst we were, and he dealt with it. That barrier has been removed
by God himself. And that's the arguments here,
is to build up to the grand conclusion that Christ has done everything
to save his people from their sins. He is now seated at the
right hand of God in satisfaction, in joy, in pleasures forevermore,
because he is overjoyed with his own work. And now we are
given this grace of persuasion that comes from God in our soul,
our very soul, to see the glory of God in our salvation accomplished
completely without our contribution. And that's what faith is. Faith
completely eliminates itself from that equation. Faith simply
says, look at that. God has balanced the scales of
his justice. He took full responsibility.
He displayed his glory. He accomplished my eternal salvation.
He conquers us by this grace to tell us about Christ. We're
so self-centered. We can't think of anything except
ourselves. But in the gospel, God directs
us away from ourselves. The law itself, God's own law
points away from itself to Christ. That's the message here. So let's
go through these verses of scripture. But I want you to see, that's
the end point we're getting to here. Now God is going to declare
to us what Christ has done, everything in our salvation. And then he's
going to draw out the practical result of that. We should have
full assurance of faith and come to God by him alone. That's the
only way God can accept us. He is the way, and that's the
way God has made for us. Hebrews 10, verse one. 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.
What is the law? The law is being contrasted here.
He says the law had certain qualities, certain things it required, certain
things that it either did or did not accomplish. The law was
the old covenant. The law was what God gave to
Israel, the nation of Israel at Sinai. The law is what all
men are held accountable to fulfill. The law is what all men have
failed to fulfill. The law demands from us, but
provides nothing for us. The law curses us and gives us
no way of escape. The law is always directing us
away from itself as sinners. No confidence, you will find
no confidence in the law except a damning condemnation. But the
law means anything that we need to bring to God in order to be
accepted by God, to find favor or obtain blessings and life,
even to be accepted to worship God, to know God. Everything
the law demands of us, we have failed to fulfill and cannot
fulfill. We're opposed to it. And that's
what the law does. It exposes us. And the law also
does something else. It serves as a shadow to point
to the one who would do all that the law requires, would actually
take away sin. would actually satisfy God, would
actually fulfill all righteousness, would actually obtain eternal
blessings, excuse me, and eternal life. The law, in all that it did as
a shadow, anticipated, anticipated what Christ would do. It anticipated
our need for Christ and his accomplishments, excuse me, This continual offering, the
demands of the law on us, all these things that the law had,
continually brought to light our need for something other
than the law. But we don't have that natural,
we don't have the ability to have that insight to realize
that. The law is like a austere prison
master who holds us under until God comes and frees us by Christ. So the law is what's being talked
about here. The Old Covenant, the Old Testament, what God told
Moses that we had to do to avoid eternal damnation and to obtain
any blessings from God. But he says it's a shadow. A
shadow does nothing. You know that. A shadow actually
serves to obscure. But a shadow can't accomplish
anything. There's no strength in a shadow. You know, people's
shadow box, it's because it doesn't hurt. Sometimes though, when
we see a shadow, it tells us about something about to happen.
Have you ever been outside and you see the shadow of a bird?
You don't notice the bird until you see its shadow. It tells
you there's a bird there or a plane. I just saw the plane go by. The
shadow just passed by us so quickly. So you look up and you see the
bird or the plane. That's the way the law was. It
was a shadow. Didn't accomplish it. You can
have a plane fly right over you with a shadow. You don't even
feel it. Or an eagle. But if they actually touch you,
then you feel it. Well, the law was that way. It
was just a shadow of something coming. It anticipated that. But because it was only a shadow,
it couldn't accomplish anything. So all of the Old Testament laws,
both the requirements and the sacrifices, all the services,
the priesthood, everything in that law was but a shadow of
good things to come. He says, for the law having a
shadow of good things to come. What are the good things to come?
Well, we know this, whatever they are, they came when the
image that made the shadow came. If the bird that made the shadow
lands right there on your shoulder, then that image has come in the
shadow that made that bird cast. Now you don't think about the
shadow anymore, the image has come. The good things to come
came when Christ died. What came when he died? Well,
we read about it in Hebrews 9, 10, 12, that he entered the holy
place once with his own blood and he obtained for us eternal
redemption. Eternal redemption. So the good
things to come are what? All that he obtained when he
offered his blood to God, that eternal redemption. Our liberty
from sin, death, the condemnation of God's law. Every consequence
of sin was undone and all of God's blessings were given to
us when Christ offered himself. So the law didn't do that. It
was but a shadow. It could do nothing. It couldn't
produce the good things to come. But it talked about, it pointed
towards those things and anticipated them. It kept reminding us of
the need of them and therefore it illustrated as a picture or
a figure or a pattern the things that would come. And it illustrated
an atonement that would be made. It illustrated a priesthood that
would bring us to God. and all the things that came
with that law. So he says, 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. So he's really restating what
he already said earlier, that the law is just a pattern and
a figure. but he's reiterating it in order
to build up to the next step in the argument to reach the
climax, the conclusion, that glorious jewel in the crown of
the gospel of Christ. But in order to get there, he
has to remind us of this, and he actually shows us how that
the shadow of the law served not to accomplish what we needed,
but to remind us of the total failure of it to reach that goal. So he says here, 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, the repetition of the sacrifices
actually serve to remind us that sin was never removed. In fact,
he says, they were offered year by year continually. They cannot
make the comers thereunto perfect. So what were the good things
that would come? The comers would be made perfect. But the law,
because it was a shadow and because the sacrifices kept being offered,
it only pointed to the good things to come and never brought them.
And the sacrifices themselves serve to remind us, you're still
a sinner. You can't come to God. You're
under condemnation. And yet God has provided a way. And that way is yet to come.
The one who would provide and accomplish that way is yet to
come. That's what you need to look to. Look away from the law
to Christ. That's the message here in verse
one. And it's part of this argument to build up to that conclusion.
So he says, the law was weak because it depended upon our
sinfulness to fulfill it. You must obey, but I'm a sinner.
The law gave me no power. It didn't enable me to do what
it required. You can only come to God if you're
without sin, but the law didn't take away sin, so it left me
sinful. The law gave me no, it didn't take away my guilt, it
didn't take away the power of sin, it didn't take away any
consequences of sin. In fact, it reminded me that
I was under sin and under the consequences of it. I was a slave
to sin and I was under. I had a bad record in heaven
and I have a bad heart. And God must therefore judge
me. And the law was a constant reminder and is a constant reminder
to that. Even in our daily lives now, all that God requires bears
on our conscience, doesn't it? Moment by moment in our lives,
our conscience bears witness to the fact that we violate what
we know to be right. And that's why the blood of Christ
needs to be sprinkled on our conscience to teach us that we
could never do what God requires. We can never take away one sin.
We could never obtain the blessing, but Christ did alone, and he
did it all by himself. So in verse two, he shows that
what he just stated has to be so because he said, for then,
if the comers were actually made perfect, then they would not
have they would have ceased to be offered. He said, for then
would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers,
once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins? How
can you have no conscience of sin? I mean, real. How can you really have no conscience
of sin? We're used to hardening our conscience. We do something we know is wrong.
And the first time as a child, when you see things, that people
do, you're so shocked. You couldn't believe that that's
what, I can't believe that people would do that, be so gross, be
so cold-hearted, so hard-hearted. You see that when you're growing
up and it shocks you as a little child. But as you grow older
and you experience more and more of it, what happens? you get
a little calloused to it. Pretty soon you allow yourself
to do things that you knew were wrong. Pretty soon you actually
enjoy doing them and you don't care that they're wrong. That's
called the hardening of our conscience. But that doesn't cleanse our
conscience, that calluses it. How can our conscience actually
be cleansed? How can we appear in the presence
of God and be at peace and have joy? How can that happen? Only
one way. If we are confident that God
is actually pleased with us and he has joy, with us in his presence,
in all of his holiness. And how can that be? Well, it
couldn't happen by the law because the sacrifices kept being offered.
And because God required those sacrifices to be continually
offered, therefore, what did that mean? We were never made
pure. We were never, our conscience
can't be clean because God's not satisfied. Until we know
that God is satisfied and at peace and joy with us, we can't
be at peace. Our conscience is foul, it's
dirty. We have all of the filth in our conscience that we brought
on ourselves because God hasn't taken it away. And so he's saying
the law couldn't do that, therefore, And we know it because they were
continually repeated, and God required it, so therefore we
were never cleansed. And our conscience, therefore,
can't be clean. He said, for then would they
not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sin. If God's not
satisfied, I can't be satisfied. But if God is satisfied, then
I am satisfied. That's what faith enables me
to do. Verse three. But in those sacrifices, there
is a remembrance made again of sins. A remembrance again made
of sins every year. Every year they kept offering,
the high priest would enter the holy place in that physical earthly
tabernacle to make atonement, but he never accomplished it.
It was never made. It never happened. Because it
only served by being done repeatedly year after year to remind me
that God was never satisfied, that I was still a sinner before
Him. And I had to wait in anticipation for Christ to come. In history,
historically, Christ came. But in my own personal experience,
the same thing has to occur. I live under the guilt, the darkness
of my own sin and God's condemning law, and I know in my conscience
I'm guilty before God. I cannot come to Him. I can't
tell Him about myself. I can't know Him. I'm constantly
afraid. I view God only with an attitude
of fear and hatred because he condemns me, and rightly so.
But I can't tolerate that. If he's against me, I must hate
him. And I hated him anyway. So the whole thing, it leaves
a remembrance of this. You see, those sacrifices actually
serve to bring my sins to remembrance. And that was never a good thing.
Why would I trust something that does that? Why would I continually
go back and try to go to the law, my own personal obedience,
in order to make myself pleasing to God? I could never do it.
But it's saying something else here, that when the sacrifices
actually ceased, what does that prove then? That God was satisfied
with me, a sinner. Go on, verse four. For it is
not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins, not the blood of animals. He could never take away sin.
Something more is needed. And this is very important. What
we're about to see here is very important. What God is going
to do here, He's so far, by the writer of the book of Hebrews,
He's showing that by the statements he's made here, the logical statements
he's made here, previously in the book and right here, that
the law couldn't do these things. But now he's gonna go to something
even more convincing. And what is that? He's going
to take the law itself, its own testimony, and prove from that
scripture, that the law itself was saying, it couldn't happen,
the law can't do it, Christ must do it. And so he quotes from
the Psalms. The Psalms are part of the Old
Testament. They look forward to what God would do. And so
he quotes that here. At the closing statement in verse
four, it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sin as he says it, wherefore, when he cometh into the world.
So he's saying, I'm about to tell you from scripture why what
I just said must be so. The revelation of God himself
in the Old Testament shows this, proves it. He says, wherefore
when he cometh into the world, who is the he here? It's the
son of God. He came into the world. God sent
his son. Why did he send him? Well, he
explains it right here and in many other places. But listen,
he quotes it from the Old Testament, Psalm 40, verses 6 through 8. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith two things, a negative and a positive. First,
sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not God did not want sacrifices
and offering, but a body thou hast prepared me. This is a revelation. Not the sacrifices, they were
shadows. What was the substance? What
cast the shadow? The body God would prepare for
his son. The son of God is God himself.
He has all that God is, his son is. and yet he didn't have a body
until he came to do what the law could not do. He had to do
it by himself. The way he would do it is with
the body God prepared for him. God was never pleased with the animal sacrifices, never
pleased for putting away the sins, our sins, by all of the
offerings in the Old Testament. It proves that he would provide
another way, that he would actually provide a way after that old
way had been in place, because he's talking about this in Psalm
40, after the law was there, after they were carrying out
all the services of the law, the priesthood was in place,
the sacrifices were constantly offered. God says, I never wanted
that. I never wanted that for the purpose
of putting away sin, because it never accomplished what I
wanted. It never made the comers perfect.
It never put sins away. It never brought satisfaction
to God's justice. It never fulfilled His righteousness.
It never obtained the blessing. It didn't glorify His Son. That
was God's eternal purpose. The only way that sins could
be put away, the only thing God ever required, the only thing
that satisfied God, the only thing that would fulfill His
righteousness is what He says here. Thou a body Thou hast prepared
me. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ,
why did God require a body, a human soul, a human body to put away
our sins? Because we sinned in our bodies,
didn't we? It was in our human nature, in
our mind, in our thoughts, in our will, in our emotions, in
our body with our words. All that we are is part of our
body. And when he says body, he doesn't
just mean a body without a soul, he means a human nature, a human
soul and a human body. It was in our human nature that
we sinned against God. Therefore, a human nature had
to come to make satisfaction for sins. A human nature, one
in human nature, a man must fulfill the law. A man must glorify God. A man must make satisfaction
to God's law and His justice. A man must be a Redeemer. The
Redeemer had to be the near kinsman. He couldn't be an animal. An
animal has no relation to a man. So he had to be a man. So it
had to be a human, a man, who would stand before God and do
this. But of course there were no men
that could do that, none born of Adam. So God prepared a body,
not for Adam or someone born of Adam, but for his own son. He prepared a body for him. And
that body had no sin. That was a human nature that
had no sin. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He could stand now as a new.
as a second and a last Adam. He could stand as the new covenant
head, the covenant head of the new covenant, the New Testament.
And he could offer his blood and make that covenant, put it
into force, fulfill all of its conditions for us, and obtain
all the blessings in it. He could do that as a man, but
he couldn't do it not as a man. In his body, he carried our sins
up to the tree. Remember 1 Peter 2, verse 24?
who his own self bear our sins in his own body, up to or on
the tree. That we, notice, that we being
dead to sins, how did we die to sins? His body died to sins
and God made it by His eternal election. He put us in Christ
in a covenant relationship established from eternity. We were placed
in a covenant with Christ as our head so that He became our
surety. He ensured to God that everything,
all obligations laid on us would be met by Him. And God looked
only to Him for that. We were joined to Him in that
eternal relationship in God's electing purpose. He chose us
in Christ. And having chose us in Him, there
was a legal basis for God to impute our sins to him and to
impute his righteousness to us because we were joined to him
in eternal election as our covenant head. As in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive because in his own life
and death he fulfilled all righteousness. It was a body. And what happened
to his body? He was taken by the hands of
wicked men and hung on a cross, a cruel cross, a cross of cursing,
and put to death. Why did God require him to be
taken by the hands of wicked men in his body and put on the
cross? Well, first because the cross
was the symbol of cursing and he came under the curse of God.
but also because the hands of wicked men, notice what men did
when they hung Jesus Christ on the cross. What did they do?
First, they acted injustly. They took him without any just
cause. Second, they acted in envy because they crucified him
out of envy. They envied the fact that God
delighted in him and his people loved and followed him. They
envied him, so they hung him on the cross. But they also hung
him on the cross because they hated both him and his father.
And they hung him on the cross because they are mercilessly
cruel. And they beat him, they whipped
him, they shamed him, they mocked him. They pushed the crown of
thorns into his head. They opened his back so the bones
could be seen by the whip and the bones in that whip. And they
spit in his face and they stripped him. They made him naked. and
they acted like they were bowing to him in pretense to shame him
and mock him by his claims that he was a king. They did everything
they could to possibly, everything possible to humiliate him and
to make him suffer. Why? Because God is showing us
what our sins did to our Savior. Thou hast prepared for me a body
in order that I might endure all that their sins deserved,
that I might satisfy for them and make known God's justice
and righteousness in that suffering, His holiness and His grace, because
He did it not for Himself. He wouldn't do it. He saved others,
therefore He could not save Himself. All these things were done in
a nature of a man. As a man, he trusted God. As
a man, he loved God with his whole heart, soul, mind, and
strength, his body. God prepared for him a body.
It was not by the offering of animal sacrifices that God ever
desired or was pleased with, but it was with a body of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who endured, who took our
sins and carried them in his own body up to the tree, therefore
suffered what our sins deserve. We put him there. I crucified
him by my sins. It was my wicked hand that put
him there. He died and he prayed this, Father
forgive them for they know not what they do. He was offering
himself to God for our sins and praying on the basis, the righteous
basis of that, Father forgive them. It was in a body prepared
for him by his father. It was the will of God God did
this. God required it. God was never
satisfied with them. He was satisfied with him. That's
the argument here. And he quotes it from the psalm
to show that the Old Testament itself directed our faith away
from itself to point us to Christ, who would do it. Not in all the
sacrifices of slain beast, but in Christ's body. He says, in
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, though I come in the volume of the book, it is
written of me. All of scripture from the top
of the scroll to the bottom of the scroll, it is written of
Christ. He came, he did the will of God,
nothing else did. I come to do thy will, O God. Why are we made perfect? How are we made perfect? By the
will of God. Notice, he says, above, when
he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which
are offered by the law, then said I, lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. And he draws a second conclusion.
Christ's coming was to do the will of God. What was that will?
to make the comers perfect, to make satisfaction, to give to
God what God desired, to please God, so that God could receive
the worshipers and could make himself known to them and they
could enjoy being in his presence with full access, without any
barrier, and God himself would be pleased with them and joy
over them. That was the will of God. And
the one who did it was Christ. He said, when he said that, the
Old Testament was in place, therefore he was talking about something
that would come, the substance, the image, that that shadow only
cast. I mean, that only cast that shadow
of the old. Verse nine, then said he, lo,
I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first. When
the substances come that makes the shadow, we no longer need
to look at the shadow, do we? If the person comes who is pictured,
the picture serves no more purpose. They're in the room now, you
can talk to them directly. You can see them. By the witch will, by God's will. Notice verse 10, by the witch
will, we are made holy, we are sanctified. God set us apart
for himself. God set us apart to himself. We were made vessels of mercy
in God's eternal election. We were made holy by the offering
of the blood of Jesus Christ. We were made holy to God by his
precious blood. Right here it says it. It's plain
as day. It can't be denied. We were sanctified according
to the will of God through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once. Period. That's it. In chapter
13, verse 12, he reaffirms it. Wherefore Jesus also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. So the Lord Jesus Christ sanctified
us. God set us apart when he chose
us to salvation in Christ. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
4 says it this way, According as he hath chosen us in him,
in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. What greater delight,
God in full, unimpeded love, making himself known, because
he made us holy and without blame in Christ. That's what he's saying
there. And here, God the Father chose us in Christ and set us
apart to himself then. Having set us apart to Christ,
we were never again never again to be used for any other purpose
than God's eternal purpose to glorify himself in our salvation
by his son. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and he made us holy by offering himself to God. In John 17 and
verse 19, he says, I sanctify myself that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. He sanctified himself when he
offered himself to God. His offering as our high priest
made us holy too because we were in him. Because God looked upon
all that he did and he accepted us as he accepted his son. That's what he's saying here.
By one offering he has, by the will of God, the witch will,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. God's will was that Christ offer
himself to make us holy, and that's what he did. That's what
this is saying. And verse 11, and every priest
standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sins. In the Old Testament,
there were many priests. In the New Testament, there's
one. In the Old Testament, the priest died. In the New Testament,
the priest lives forever. In the Old Testament, they were
sinful men. In the New Testament, it's the Holy One of God, the
Son of God in our nature without spot. In the Old Testament, they
offered many sacrifices. In the New, Christ offered one.
In the Old Testament, they offered the animals. In the New Testament,
Christ offered Himself. In the Old, they never made the
comers perfect. In the New, Christ made all things perfect by His
one offering. In the Old, they never made things
holy. In the New, Christ made all holy
by the offering of Himself. All of His people were made holy
then. When He offered Himself to God, He made them holy. And
what happened when he died? Remember that event that took
place when he died? One of the events that took place? There
was a separation in that temple between the first chamber and
the second, between the sanctuary and the holiest of all. And what
happened? There was a veil, and that veil was torn from the top
to the bottom. A heavy, thick veil that men
couldn't have possibly torn. And it wasn't torn from the bottom
to the top, it was torn from top to bottom. And it happened
at the instant that Christ died. And what did that say? The way
to God is made open by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Access. The shadow was the veil, the
substance, the body of Christ, torn, broken, that we might come
to God by Him. And so the Old Testament had
to be put away and it was put away. The sacrifices under it
ceased. Therefore God was satisfied.
He required no more because he received the one offering that
actually made the commerce perfect. And so he says this. Though they
stood, Christ sits. Though they ministered, they
continue to minister and offer often, Christ offered himself
once and is seated. Though they never took away sins,
Christ, one offering of himself, took away sins forever. And so,
verse 12, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Look at
Psalm chapter 16. I want to point out this text
of scripture to you. It teaches us a great deal about
what it means to be in the presence of God and what that therefore
must mean here in the context of Hebrews 10. Psalm 16, verse
11. This is the words of David, spoken
in prophecy, and the words are put into the mouth of the Lord
Jesus Christ in this prophecy. Verse 11, thou wilt show me the
path of life. In thy presence, and he's talking
about the resurrection, the path of life, in thy presence is what? Fullness of joy. At thy right
hand, there are pleasures forevermore. Who is at the right hand of God?
The Lord Jesus Christ, having offered himself once and obtained
our eternal redemption and having made us perfect, sanctified us
with his own blood. And what does he experience because
of that? Pleasures forevermore. He is in the very presence of
God where nothing can possibly deviate from his pure holiness. And God himself is at peace and
joy and Christ himself is at peace and joy. He knows the fullness
of joy, it can't be added to, nothing can take it away, and
he has pleasures forevermore at the right hand of God. And
here in Hebrews chapter 10, this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. What else needs to be done if
God is pleased then by his holiness, we can know that nothing needs
to be done. Everything is made perfect and
holy in his presence. And verse 13, from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Christ's
enemies will be made his footstool. Every man, every tongue, every
person on earth will one day bow to Christ the Lord. In Psalm
110 verse 3 it says, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. We either bow to him in faith
now or we will bow in fear later. We either bow to him in faith
and enjoy the peace and joy of knowing that Christ is our all
in our salvation or we will bow in terror later, knowing that
we must submit to him who holds our eternal damnation as a judgment
over our head and will surely execute it. Look at 2 Thessalonians
chapter one. 2 Thessalonians chapter one says
this. To you, verse seven, he says, to you who are troubled,
because the believers were troubled by the persecution they experienced
for their faith in Christ. To you who are troubled, rest
with us. Rest means just wait. Be at peace. You're troubled by all that's
outside in this world. But to you who are troubled,
rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power. when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints. You know what saints means? The
Catholic Church makes a mockery of the truth. They call some
people saints and then they encourage people to worship them or to
trust them. There's no such thing. Saints
are those sanctified ones. And how? By the blood of Jesus. Every believer is a saint. all
believers are equally holy because their holiness was made by the
blood of Christ. So he says, when he shall come
to be glorified in his sanctified ones and to be admired in all
them that believe because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. So the obedience to the gospel
he spoke about in verse 8 is that faith in Christ. All those
who have that shall not come into condemnation, but have already
entered, have passed from death to life, entered everlasting
life. But all those who don't obey the gospel are going to
bow to Christ anyway, but will be at the time when he comes
again to take vengeance on this world. In his first coming, he
didn't come to condemn the world, but to save it. But in his second
coming, he will come to judge the world. And that's the message
of the gospel. Both are true. And so he says
here, by one offering, I mean, he's expecting till his enemies
be made his footstool, either in faith or in fear. If we are
willing, because God makes us willing in the day of his power,
then we gladly embrace Christ. We want him to be exalted, don't
we? We want him to have all the glory
in our salvation. We're happy that God is sovereign.
We're happy that he looks to Christ alone for everything he
requires from us. We're so happy that he justified
us for his righteousness sake and not our own. We're so happy
that he made us holy in his blood. We're very happy and we gladly
submit to him. We want to be everything Christ
is. When Rommel was talking about
love one another as I have loved you, what would we want to do? Why would we want to do it most
of all? Because our master, that's his heart and we love our master. This is what the Lord has done
for us. The one who saved us is the one we love. He overcame
us by his grace. He didn't hold a club over us. He saved us. And then he told
us what he did. and our hearts were melted because
he gave us that grace to believe in. So he says, this is the grand
conclusion. This is the crown jewel of the
gospel. Verse 14, for by one offering
he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. It's done.
The comers were never perfected. Now they are. Not by the law,
but by Christ alone. By himself, he's done it all.
By his one offering. He did it when he offered himself.
It was done then. Therefore, all for whom he did
it must already be perfected. They're given life now, they're
sanctified by the Spirit now in believing because they were
given salvation from the beginning and he saved them. And verse
15 he says, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
Even the Spirit of God testifies to the accomplished work of Christ.
When he says this, 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, and in their minds will
I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. God's own promise fulfilled there. Where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin. That's when he branches
into this conclusion, having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, underscore,
underscore, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated
for us through the veil of his flesh, and having a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart.
in full assurance of faith. Our hearts are true, because
we see Christ is all. God did it. He made us agree
with that. And we'll finish this next time. Let's pray. Lord,
we pray that you would so convince us of our sin and Christ's righteousness,
and that we would trust him only. We wouldn't consider one thing
of ourselves, but we would look to him for all, and we would
come to you on the basis of your word and your will, that Christ
accomplished everything for us in perfect accord, in perfect
fulfillment, and is now seated in glory in fullness of joy and
pleasures forevermore because he made us holy with his own
blood and he sees us there now without fault blameless before
him in love and all of heaven rejoices when by that same power
that he wielded over our enemies he sends his gospel to us and
makes us willing and we're fully persuaded and fully glad to embrace
him in full trust in Jesus name we pray amen