You might wonder if we're ever
going to get out of the Book of Genesis, but there's really
no need to hurry. I say that for myself more than
you. Today we're only going to focus
on one verse, which means we'll be there for the rest of time.
But I'm just going to take one verse from chapter 7 of Genesis
today and take you through the scripture. Maybe it's something
you've seen before, maybe it's something you've never considered,
but every word of God is tried It says in the Psalms, the Word
of God is tried in the furnace seven times, or it's purified.
I'm not sure it says anything about the furnace there, but
God's Word is extremely carefully written. There's no error in
it, and it's truth. There's no truth besides God's
Word, and it's eternal, so it has to be very, very carefully
put down. The fact is we don't understand
so much of the Bible, but every once in a while we get a glimmer
of the intricacy with which God has written scripture. And remember
this, that like Philip told Nathanael when he told him about Jesus
in John chapter one, verse 45, he says, we found him of whom
Moses and the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth. That's what
we're doing. We're looking in the scripture,
finding him of whom Moses and the prophets have written. So
let's ask the Lord to be with us at this time. Let's pray.
Our gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that you would attend
the reading of your word and the hearing of your word by your
spirit and give us understanding and persuade us of the truth
of it. Persuade us of our condition. Persuade us of your holiness
and Christ's holiness and his accomplishments in holiness.
that we might have assurance of our salvation in his finished
and perfect work. Help us to stand upon your word
and come according to your word, hoping and trusting that your
word will not fail and you will bring us to glory by the blood
and righteousness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We
pray, Lord, that you would help us now. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Look at Genesis chapter 7. Before
I read this verse, I want to just do a little summary with
you of what we've covered. Remember, we've talked about,
we've read through chapters 6, 7, and 8, and I haven't taken
this in a linear order, a sequential order, but I've kind of gone
back and forth through here. It's the way I used to drive
trucks as a kid in the dirt, just back and forth. Well, here
we are, and what we saw first in Genesis 6 is that men, those
who had the truth, compromised the truth, and that is evidenced
by the way they mixed marriages. And God saw the wickedness of
man. So the first thing we see in Genesis 6 is the compromise
of the truth, and the result of that, which is the depravity,
the evil, the wickedness of man. That's a sad condition. God testified
in chapter 6 verse 5 of man's universal wickedness. Every man. The thoughts of every man and
his continuous wickedness were continually wicked. Man was wicked
not only in his thoughts but in his ways. So everything about
man is wickedness, evil, depravity. And so the next thing we saw
in Genesis is that God not only saw this, but He declared His
judgment against it. That He's going to judge the
earth. He said He's going to destroy man in verse 7 of chapter
6. And that's the judgment of God.
God is just. God is holy. God is not going
to allow sin to go unpunished. And all men are sinners. That
leaves us in a hopeless and helpless condition, doesn't it? But in
the midst of judgment, in the midst of all that God said about
the judgment He was going to bring, He saw one man, it says
in verse 8, that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Isn't
that our hope? Our only hope is that God would
find grace, we would find grace in God's sight. But only one
man also teaches us that not only is our only hope to find
grace in God's sight, but our only hope in finding grace is
in that one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. because all of God's
grace is in Christ Jesus the Lord. There is no grace from
God apart from Jesus Christ. So that's the third thing we
saw there. And then we saw over in verse 18 that with Noah, God
was going to make a covenant. And because of his covenant with
Noah, he was going to save not only Noah, but his family and
all these animals that he was bringing into the ark. And so
we saw there God's covenant of grace in Lord Jesus Christ. God has made a covenant with
his Son. And he made that covenant with
his Son on behalf of his people. And what that means is that God
deals with his people through one man, our Mediator, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. And that's a blessed
thing because we have hope because God has chosen, that means He's
chosen His Son to be our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and made
a covenant with Him, solemn promises based on conditions that had
to be met. And when those conditions were
met, all the blessings of that covenant would come to His people.
And Jesus in Matthew 26-28 said, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. The New Testament is the covenant.
And covenants are made in different ways. We know what covenants
are. There's a marriage covenant where a man and a woman commit
themselves together in a bond of matrimony. A solemn bond that can't be dissolved by men. It's
made by God. And it's made between these two
as a two-party covenant. And there's two-party covenants
whenever we make a sales contract. There's lots of things that we're
familiar with as covenants. But there's another kind of covenant.
It's a one-party covenant. And that covenant is called a
will or a last will in Testament. Well, God has made with us a
two-party covenant. And that covenant was made in
Christ. It was between Him and His Son as our mediator. And He made it not only with
His Son, but for His people in Him. And it was a one-party covenant
as well, because it was a last will and testament that depended
upon the One who made it, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had to
die to put it into effect. So God made this covenant with
Christ for His people. And that's signified here by
what God said in verse 18, "...with thee shall I establish my covenant."
And just one more note on that. When God makes a covenant with
anybody, God is the one who determines that a covenant will be made.
God determines the terms of the covenant. He determines who's
going to be in that covenant. And He also never fails to uphold
His end of that covenant. And so this covenant was made
with Christ, and the Lord Jesus fulfilled every condition in
that covenant, and that covenant was made in His blood. So we
read about that in several places in Scripture. But then we get
to this next thing that we saw in Genesis chapter 6, was how
God said that He was going to destroy the world and everything
in it, but He also saved a people for Himself. He saved Noah and
his family and these animals. And so, in the midst of judgment,
in the midst of God's holiness, God found a way to be gracious. He found a way to magnify His
mercy and grace in the salvation of Noah and his family and these
animals. And that's kind of where we are
today, is this difference that God made. In one sense, I've
entitled this message, God's Eternal Purpose in Christ, but
there's another subtitle to that which is the difference that
God has made. A difference that God has made.
It's really a difference that we see, that the law makes, and
the fact that there's no difference because of what God has done.
And so we're going to look at that today, the difference God
has made. So look at Genesis chapter 7,
and we're going to read verses 1 and 2 and focus on verse 2.
He says, And the Lord said to Noah, Come thou and all thy house
into the ark. And when you read that word,
come, just pause over it for a while. And remember what it
says in Revelation 22, 17. Remember what it says, The spirit
and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst,
Come. And whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. Isn't that a welcome word from
God's throne? Come. Come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here God doesn't say, Go
to the ark. He says, Come to the ark. Because
it's the Lord Jesus who is the ark. He is our salvation. He's
our atoning Savior. And that's what the ark represents.
So here he says, "...Come thou and all thy house into the ark,
for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."
The gift of righteousness was given to Noah. Not in himself,
but in his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then look at verse
2. Very curiously it says, God spends
some time talking about this, about this. this gathering of
these animals. He says in verse 2, "...of every
clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and
his female, and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male
and his female." And he goes on to describe how God wants
him to take these animals and the birds and bring them into
the ark. seven pairs of clean and one
pair of unclean. And the first thing you see here
is that there's a difference that God makes. A difference
that God makes. He calls some animals clean and
He calls others unclean. Why is that? What are clean animals
and what are unclean animals? Well, you remember that in the
Old Testament, in the law of God, God made certain animals. He designated them as clean animals. Those were the only animals that
could be offered as sacrifice. Those were the only animals that
could be eaten. And they were called clean. And
if you didn't adhere to that law, then you were unclean. So
God made this difference. Some of the clean animals were
sheep. sheep. Is it any wonder that
God calls his people sheep? Because they're clean in God's
eyes. But naturally we're not clean.
So I want to consider this difference that God makes with you for a
minute. Look at a few verses with me first of all. Look at
Leviticus chapter 10. where we see this difference
that God makes. God makes a point of making this
difference. Here in Leviticus chapter 10
and verse 10 he says, And that you may put difference between
holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean." He talks
about this. He's summarizing this. He tells
them all that they're supposed to do. And he makes a point of
saying, I want you to be able to put a difference between holy
and unholy, between clean and unclean. And this was in the
law of God. So the law of God makes a distinction. The law of God recognizes some
things as clean and some things as unclean. That's the first
thing you see here. And then look at Jeremiah chapter
15. I'll take you to a couple of
verses just to point these things out. Jeremiah chapter 15. Throughout
scripture, God makes this distinction in things. In verse Let's see. Now I've lost my reference here,
so I'm going to have to look it up. Give me just a second
here. Jeremiah 15, 19. He says this. Therefore, thus saith the Lord,
if thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand
before me, and if thou take forth the precious from the vial, thou
shalt be as my mouth, Let them return unto thee, but return
not thou unto them. Take forth the precious from
the vile." God separates, doesn't He? He calls some things clean
and other things unclean. Some things holy, unholy. Some precious, some vile. What
makes this difference? Is it an intrinsic difference?
Was there something intrinsically clean about some things and not
others? Well, evidently in God's sight
there was. And God describes it in the Laws
that the animals that were clean had to part the hoof. They couldn't
have one hoof. They had to have a hoof that
had two parts to it. And they had to chew the cud.
And those things point to the evidence that they were clean.
Because parting the hoof means to part our way. And to chew
the cud means to have a distinction in what we eat. And that's what
God's people do. But these animals, it's curious
when I look at this and think about this, God tells Noah, take
these, some of these things are clean and some of them are unclean.
What does this mean? Is God just trying to say that,
you know, when you look at the world, there's certain animals
that are clean and some are unclean? You need to make sure you don't
touch those unclean things? Is that the point here, or is
there something more important than that? Surely there's something
more important than that here. And that's what the scripture
reveals, is that this difference that God makes, that He makes
in His law, is a difference that points to something much more
significant than that. And the fact of the matter is,
is that if we think about it, the law makes a difference. And
I just read to you from Leviticus chapter 10 and then Jeremiah,
the law divides. The law reveals and exposes between
godly and ungodly, holy and unholy, obedient and disobedient. And
the law does something else. The law exposes our state, our
condition. All men are found, under the
law, as unclean. By nature, we're unclean. We're
unholy by nature. We're ungodly by nature. All
men, as God said in Genesis 6, 5, when He said He saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
or the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, that's
God's law speaking. This is the way God finds us.
All men, without exception, are guilty before God. There is none
that doeth good, no. Not one. There's none righteous. No, not one. They're all together
become unprofitable. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that understandeth. This is a universal statement
of God's law. The law divides and finds men
to be. He divides between the holy and
the unholy, but the law condemns all men as guilty. We know that
whatever the law says, it says to them that are under the law
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. So that's what the law does.
And the other thing the law does is it finds us there and it leaves
us there. The law can't change us. God's
law can describe the holy and the unholy and the clean and
the unclean, but it actually can't make us clean. It can't
change us from unholy to holy or from ungodly to godly. Because
we're corrupt in our ways. We're corrupt in our mind. We're
sinful, guilty, and helpless to do anything about it. We won't
do anything about it. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. But what is impossible for man,
and what is impossible for God's law, is not impossible for God. All things, according to Luke
1.37, with God, all things are possible. Now think about that. God made
a difference. When we think back about Cain
and Abel, we saw there a difference, didn't we? Cain did not know
God. He came to God with the works
of his own hands, a mixture of what God had done and what he
had done, trusting that God would accept him by what he found in
Cain and by what he brought his offering, which was a mixture
of his works and God's. And that will never work. And
then Cain went on and hated and envied his brother Abel and killed
him. And then he even found fault
with God. All that Cain did was abominable. And we look at that
and we think, what a louse, what a scumbag, what a vile man he
must have been. Man, I'm glad I'm not like him.
Actually, that's exactly what we are by nature. You all were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We walk that
way in the course of our life, fulfilling the desires of our
mind. and our flesh. And that's exactly the way God
finds us. But God made a difference between
Cain and Abel. And here's the thing I want to
drive home for just a minute. Think about this. If there was
a difference, and God made it, and God only can make that difference,
then what should you and I do? Shouldn't we go to Him and say,
Lord, make a difference. Make a difference with me. And
that's what we find in Matthew chapter 8. Look at this in Matthew
chapter 8. I want you to see this. Because
here was a man who was recognized by everybody as unclean. The law itself called him unclean. And he himself knew that he was
unclean before God and before God's law. But he didn't stop
there. He came to Christ. Look at this.
Matthew chapter 8. And verse 2, he says, And behold,
there came a leper. Now what was a leper? Unclean. Remember they had to lay their
hand upon their mouth and say, unclean, when people would come
by. Unclean! Don't come near me! Unclean. That was what God's
law required them to do. Tell everybody what you are.
I'm unclean, before God's law. And he says, Behold, there came
a leper, and worshipped the Lord Jesus, saying, Lord, if thou
wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now that is a phenomenal thing
to say. Here, a leper. unclean before
God, before God's law in himself, it was a disease that went in
deeper than the skin. And it was evident. And he could
do nothing about it, but he came to the Lord Jesus, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. That's an amazing thing. He worshipped
the Lord Jesus Christ. With God nothing shall be impossible. I find hope in that. I see myself
in Cain. And I find hope that God can
make the unclean clean. And so I say that these animals
point to people. point to people and God's distinction
among men. And I want to show this to you
because look at Acts chapter 10. This is how I know that this
is what is being taught here in Genesis, is this distinction
that God makes. God makes the difference. God
makes the difference. That's the lesson here, is that
God makes the difference, and we better have God make the difference
in us, or we cannot make it ourselves. But in Acts chapter 10, if you
were to read this, I'm not going to read all of it, but a certain
man named Cornelius, who was a Gentile, a Roman centurion,
not a Jew, but a centurion, an angel visited him and told him
to send for Peter. Now this is a big, big thing
in the book of Acts. And it's a big, big thing in
history because this is actually an unfolding, an unveiling of
God's eternal purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here this
man was, a Gentile, a centurion, someone who was outside of the
nation of the Jews. And yet an angel appeared to
him and said, send to Joppa to Peter. And here Peter was in
Joppa and what he was doing there is he was on top of the roof. He was waiting for them to fix
lunch. And while he was waiting he fell into a trance and God
appeared to him in a vision by letting down this sheet from
heaven, a vessel that was like a sheet from heaven. And in this
vessel were all kinds of what? Animals. These animals were unclean
animals. A mixture of animals in this
sheet that was let down from heaven. And we're going to pick
it up here. In verse 12, he says, wherein
were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild
beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there
came a voice to Peter, and said, Peter, kill, rise, Peter, kill,
and eat. In verse 14, Peter said, Not
so, Lord. For I have never eaten anything
that is common or unclean." You see here, Peter understood the
law. The law said, no, only those animals that part the hoof and
chew the cut are clean. Everything else is unclean. The
grasshopper was clean. Some insects were clean, but
not all. You could eat those, but no, I'm not going to do that.
That's against the law. But God is teaching a very, very
big lesson here. And the voice spake unto him
again the second time, and listen to what God said, What God hath
cleansed, that call not thou common. That's a big statement,
isn't it? What God has cleansed don't you
call unclean. Now, this was a vision of animals,
but it was teaching something spiritual, which is what Noah
is taught when he's told by God, I want you to gather together
these animals by sevens, the clean, and by twos, the unclean,
and bring them into the ark. How could Noah do that? It took
seven days and he filled the ark with all these animals. How
could Noah, a man, gather all the different kinds of animals?
How could he convince the animals to come and find them? I mean,
this is a huge task. Don't you know that God actually
gathered those animals to Noah? Remember when God brought the
animals to Adam to name them all? He brought them to Adam
to name them. And so God himself would have
brought the animals to Noah and then Noah would have brought
them into the ark. So God told him what to do, but
God himself actually accomplished the work he gave him to do. But
here God is teaching that when these unclean animals are let
down in the sheep, and he tells Peter, rise, kill and eat, and
Peter says, no, the law forbids that, basically. And the Lord
says, what I have cleansed, don't you call unclean. Now, this has
to do with the centurion, the gentile, Cornelius and his household. In fact, it has to do with all
of the gentiles. Because the law made a difference
between men. The law said, if you're a Jew,
if you're born of Abraham, if you're circumcised the eighth
day, If you're a descendant of Abraham and circumcised, and
if you keep the law, if you're part of Israel, then you're clean.
But if you're not, you're outside, then you're unclean. The Gentiles
were called dogs. But Israel were called sheep.
That distinguishes, doesn't it? They're unclean. And remember
in Luke 15, when the prodigal son went out and he was in that
far country, he came to a man who raised pigs. And he went to that man, a man
of that far country, who raised swine. He was obviously not a
clean man. And his animals represented the
kind of people that he associated with. The unclean. So all these
things teach us the law made a difference between men. And
it described that difference in the Old Testament between
the Jews and the Gentiles. A huge, huge racial barrier. God set it up. But He didn't
set it up in order to teach racial separation. He did it because
the law itself is a revelation of God's assessment of what is
holy and unholy. So the law is God's pointing
out the difference between wicked and pure, between holy and unholy. So God made that difference.
But the law also used this separation in order to point to the Lord
Jesus Christ Because in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him alone,
are His people clean. And so when God tells Peter here,
rise, kill and eat, and Peter says, no. The Lord says, what
I have cleansed, don't you call unclean or common. And then look
over at verse, same chapter, Acts chapter 10. And Cornelius
ascends for Peter, Peter goes to Cornelius, and they came together,
and then verse 28 he says, And Peter said to these men, he's
gathered there at Cornelius' house, a Gentile, which was unlawful
for them. He says, he said to them, you
know how that it is unlawful, is an unlawful thing for a man
that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation. But God has showed me that I
should not call any man common or unclean. Now, It doesn't mean
that all people are now clean before God. That's not what this
means. But what it does mean is that the distinction made
in the law between clean and unclean is not the distinction
that determines holy and unholy. The law makes outward distinctions. It's not your birth to Abraham
that makes you holy. It's not your circumcision, your
outward circumcision in the flesh, that makes you holy. It's not
even your keeping of the law, your own personal obedience,
that makes you holy before God. Because you're a sinner. And
no man keeps the law. Not a little bit. Not even a
little bit. No man loves God with all his heart, soul, mind,
and strength one time. I heard the radio message this
morning by Joe Terrell. He said that, he said, if you
have one, take the best thing in your life, and Brad pointed
this out to me the other day, take the best thing you've ever
done in your life, that very best thing you've done, if you
take that and you depend upon that in coming to God, then you're
going to come on the basis of sin. Because the best that you
do is sin. And so, The law makes a distinction. It makes a distinction to show
that God sees the difference between holy and unholy. And
His law makes that distinction. And it also makes a distinction
because that law points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, in
whom His people would be made holy. And that's what God is
talking about here. You see, God has an eternal purpose. And in that purpose, He was going
to have a people for Himself. And that people would be, He
would make a difference between them, and that difference is
His difference. He makes it. It's called sanctification. And I want you to look at a couple
of things here about how God makes that difference in men.
First of all, look at the book of Jude, chapter 1. In Jude chapter
1, he says this. This is the difference that God
the Father made. Remember, what did God tell Peter? What God
has cleansed, don't you call common or unclean. But in Jude
chapter 1, we see this difference here. Let me get there. A little tiny book just before
the book of Revelation. He says, "...Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them," listen, "...that
are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ,
and called." Sanctified by God the Father. What does it mean
to be sanctified? It means to be made holy. Holy
how? Holy in this sense, God set apart
those people for himself. When God sets apart a people
for himself, it's called sanctification. God set them apart. God chose
them. Look at Jeremiah chapter 1. Jeremiah chapter 1, he says this. In verse 5, "...before I formed
thee in the belly," this is the Lord talking to Jeremiah, He
says, "...before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee,
and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." So the Lord
God, God the Father, chose Jeremiah to be a prophet even before he
was born. And it was that choice of God. It was that determination by
God to have this one for Himself that made that one holy. Look
at John chapter 10. This was an act, this is the
act that Jesus refers to that God the Father did of Himself. John chapter 10. in verse 36,
he says, Say ye of him, speaking of himself,
he's the him, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and
sent into the world, thou blasphemous, because I said I am the Son of
God. God the Father set Christ, set his Son apart to be the Lord
Jesus Christ to save his people from their sins. He set him apart.
When? Before he came into the world. That's what he says here.
Before he came into the world, he was set apart. Did that act
on God's part make Christ holy in the sense where we think of
Him as pure? No, He was already holy in Himself. But it set Him
apart for God's purpose. He would be Christ. He would
be the mediator. He would be the head of that
covenant. He would save His people from their sins. And so we see,
look over in Ephesians chapter 1. This is God the Father sanctifying
His people. He sanctified His Son. He sanctified
Jeremiah, which was actually a reference to His Son in prophecy. Here in Ephesians chapter 1,
we read this. Look at this. In Ephesians chapter
1, this is at verse 3. the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love." That is how God
the Father sanctified His people. He made them holy. He set them
apart. How did He do that? He chose
them to be His own. And from eternity, He chose them
and He gave them to His Son. He gave His people as sheep to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 10, 29, the
sheep that the Father has given me. Let me read that to you,
because I am not quoting it quite right. John 10, verse 29, the
Lord Jesus said this, He said, My Father which gave them Me,
He's talking about the sheep, is greater than I. So the Lord
God the Father gave the sheep, those He chose in Christ from
eternity, to His Son. And that act of God the Father
set them apart before they were born, just like Jeremiah, to
be His. I will be a God to them, and
they shall be My people." That's God the Father in His will, in
His covenant with Christ, putting His people in that covenant with
Him and making them holy by that act. That's God the Father. That
made them clean. God the Father did that. What
God has cleansed, don't you call unclean. And so there's another
thing here. We're sanctified not only by
God the Father, but we're also sanctified by God the Father
in Christ. As I just read in Ephesians,
we are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame. We can't be holy apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no holiness, there's
no righteousness before God except in Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. In 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2, he
says this, "...unto the church of God, which is at Corinth,
to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus." They're sanctified. They're set apart by God the
Father in Christ. And look at verse 30. Verse 30, the same chapter, he
says, "...but of him, of God the Father, are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God..." This is God's doing. "...is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification," or holiness,
"...and redemption." So God the Father chose us to be holy and
without blame before Him in love. And how did He accomplish that
will that He would make us holy? He put us in Christ. has set His Son to be our mediator. All that God looks for His people,
He finds it in His Son. And all that God requires and
demands of us, He receives it from His Son for them. And all
that God would bless His Son for in reward for His obedience,
He gives it not only to Him, but to His people in Him. So
that everything God has for His people is in Christ. He treats
His people and His Son, the Lord Jesus, as one. They're the same
in God's dealings with them. That's what it means to be one.
And so that's why He says we're sanctified in Christ. And we're
set apart by Christ Himself. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. This is how God does it. How
does God make us holy in the Lord Jesus Christ? How does He
make us clean? How did Christ make the leper
clean? Well, He touched the leper. But
how did that make him clean? Well, because the Lord Jesus
did something. He says here in Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews chapter 10, He's talking
about sacrifices and how all the sacrifices of the Old Testament
did nothing to put away sin. And on that, at that point in
time, in verse 7, then the Lord Jesus said, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. And what was that will? Well,
read on. Above, when he said, Sacrifices
and offerings, and offerings, burnt offerings, and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not, neither has pleasure therein, which are
offered by the law, Then said he, the Lord Jesus, lo I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, all
those Old Testament sacrifices, that he may establish the second.
Thus the eternal will of God, by the which will we are sanctified,
how? Through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. How did God the Father accomplish
our sanctification? How did He cleanse us? By the
blood of His own Son. The Lord Jesus Christ obeyed
that will of God to offer Himself. But He didn't just offer Himself
in isolation. He took our sins. He who is holy,
who had no sin of His own, took our sins. Was made sin for us. And with our sins, God poured
out His wrath upon them, and He made satisfaction for them.
So that God's holiness, His justice was satisfied, He received from
Him all that He demanded from us. Because we were in Him, and
by that one offering, one offering, offered once, for eternal benefit
for us, we're sanctified. And look at verse 14. of the
same chapter, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." To be perfected means the full, all of the requirements
of the law are fully met in perfection in the Lord Jesus Christ by his
one offering. God chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world. That made us holy by God's designation. And Christ actually accomplished
it before God. We were made holy by the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He perfected forever
them that are sank by one offering. Now, don't ever think that we
make ourselves holy before God by something that we do. Because
Christ did it here. If we could make ourselves holy
before God, then why did Christ die? And if we could do it, then
why does God say, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight? But only God could do it. Because
only God can take the unclean and make it clean. Only Christ
could take the leper and heal him. Job said it this way. He
says, can any bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No. Not one. Job 25 verse 4. It can't happen. But there's another thing by
which we're sanctified and set apart by the Lord Jesus. Not
only were we set apart in eternal election and by the blood of
Christ, but we're set apart by that work of the Spirit of God
in us. Because here we see the work
of God's Spirit taking that eternal will of God, accomplished by
Christ, and applying it to us. Look at 1 Peter 1. And verse 2, Peter's writing
as the apostle of Jesus Christ, in verse 1, to all those strangers
that are scattered throughout these different places, Gentiles
and Jews, and he says in verse 2, he says, elect you strangers,
strangers in the eyes of men, strangers by nature, but now
made brought near, he says, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, That sets us apart right there through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied. So how does God sanctify us?
Well, first of all, God the Father by eternal election in Christ. Second, by Christ's redeeming
blood. And third, that blood which makes
us holy before God actually is given to us by the Spirit when
He gives us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called the
sanctification of the Spirit. He takes the things of Christ
and gives us life from His Word, because it's by the preaching
of the Word, and in that life He gives us faith in Christ.
Look back at Acts chapter 10. I want to show you this in Acts
chapter 10, how that Peter did this. fulfilled this when he preached
to Cornelius and all those in the house that gathered there
to hear his word. He says in verse This is Cornelius describing
what happened. In verse 32, he tells what the
angel told him. He said to Cornelius, the angel
said, Why didn't God just tell Cornelius what he wanted him
to know by the angel? Because the angels weren't, they
were not given the gospel to preach the gospel to men. Men
were. Christ told his disciples, and
what did he tell them after he rose from the dead? Did he tell
them, now I want you to go back to the Jews and tell the Jews
what I've done? Well he did say that, but more
specifically he said, go ye therefore, because all power is given to
me, go ye therefore and teach all nations. whatever I've commanded
you, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit." That's what he said. But here he says,
"...when he cometh, he shall speak unto thee. Immediately
therefore I sent to thee, Cornelius sent for Peter, and thou hast
well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here
present before God to do what? To hear all things that are commanded
thee of God." And that's when Peter opened his mouth and preached
the gospel. Look at verse 36. He says, And
he goes on and describes the Lord Jesus, but look at verse
44. And while Peter spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on
all them which heard the word, These are people who were actually
saved. Actually, the Spirit of God fell
on them when they heard the word, and they of the circumcision
which believed were astonished, and as many as came with Peter,
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift
of the Holy Ghost, sanctified by God the Father, sanctified
by the blood of Christ, and set apart by the Spirit of God. in
the hearing of the gospel. That's the point here. How does
God set us apart by the Spirit of God? When the gospel is preached,
God gives life to us. That Word, like the Word of Creation,
is commanding us to life. The Spirit of God makes it effectual.
He accomplishes His will in us when that Word comes to us. He
opens our eyes. He translates us from the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. He gives birth to
us by His Spirit. He creates us in Christ Jesus.
He raises us from the dead. He does all these things through
His Word, the Gospel, by His Spirit. That's a power. That's
the work of God in us, and that work in us is giving us His new
nature. And I'll read this to you from
Ephesians chapter 4, verse, Ephesians 4, 24. He says, and you, and that you put on
the new man which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness." That's Ephesians 4, 24. So here God is saying
what the Spirit of God accomplishes. He gives us life, and He creates
in us a new man, and that new man is created in holiness, and
true holiness, and righteousness. and that is the Lord Jesus Christ
actually living in us. Now look at one more verse here
in Acts chapter 26. This is the Lord Jesus himself
talking to Paul, sending him to the Gentiles. He says in Acts
26 verse 17, he says, I'm going to deliver you from the people
and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee Why is he sending
them? "...to open their eyes, to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to
God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Now you
see here how this sanctification by the Spirit of God actually
works in some detail. Because God not only gives us
life, but this sanctification is giving us faith. When we're
given faith, we see. that our only approach to God
is through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we come
to him that way. We're like the leper. Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. And this faith sets us apart. It shows that we're God's sheep. Jesus said, my sheep hear my
voice, and they follow me. That's what faith is. He sanctifies
us. He calls his own sheep by name,
and they follow him. That's the sanctifying work of
God the Spirit. And so we see how this works.
And so in 1 Peter chapter 1, if you want to return there with
me. I'm going to close this down just a second here. 1 Peter chapter
1. Look how Peter says it to those
who believe the truth. Which is what he's been talking
about in the first part of chapter 1. He says in verse 14, 1 Peter
1 verse 14, "...as obedient children..." Given the fact that you believe
the Lord, that trials work this faith in you, they exercise this
faith. He says in verse 14, "...as obedient
children, therefore, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lust in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written,
Be ye holy, or I am holy." How are we holy? God made us holy.
What are we to do? Because God made us holy. How
did He do it? By the blood of His Son. And
by the work of His Spirit in our heart, making the gospel
of Christ our only hope. Making Christ Himself our only
hope. And what are we to do? We are to be devoted to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are to be devoted to Him in
all that we do, in all that we say, in everything, in every
part of our life. We are to be set apart for Christ
who purchased us with His own blood. That's when He goes on
to say here, you know you weren't redeemed with corruptible things.
You've been washed in the blood of Christ. You've been set apart
by Him. Noah was commanded by God to
bring these animals into the ark, the clean and the unclean.
God is showing that He Himself is going to bring into Christ
from all nations, Jews and Gentiles, His people, and He's going to
cleanse them in the sin-atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because that's what the ark represents. That's what 1 Peter 3 said, the
ark was a figure to point to Christ and our atonement by Him
and in Him. And so this is the work of God.
He makes us, He takes us, by nature we're the unclean. He
brings us in His eternal election. He puts us in Christ and sets
us apart for Himself. And then in time, He washes us
by the blood of Christ and sends His Spirit to us to give us faith
to see that Christ is our all. And He brings us to Christ and
we find in Him all of our salvation. And this is the work of God.
Sanctification, this cleansing, is all God's work. He does it. God told Peter, He says, what
I have cleansed, don't you call unclean. And we, by nature, we
have this, we make a distinction. because we're sinful, we take
the law and all that it requires, and we make a distinction between
men. We say, see there, you didn't do that, I did, and you're not
like this, and I am. And so we make a distinction,
outward distinctions. And God says to Peter, no, the
law doesn't make anyone clean. And no unclean man separates
himself from God's saving grace. God Himself makes the difference.
Isn't that what 1 Corinthians 4 says? Who makes you to differ
from another? It's God. What do you have that
you haven't received? God gave it to you. So look at
one more scripture in Romans chapter 15. This is a comforting
thing, because we're the Gentiles. By nature, we were without hope. Aliens from the promises of God.
Without Christ. Without hope in the world. And
listen to these blessed promises in Romans 15, starting at verse
7. Wherefore, because God has done all this, Wherefore, receive
ye one another, as Christ also hath received us to the glory
of God." This is Christ, the Holy One of God. who received
us by his own grace, by his own precious blood, washed us from
our sins and received us to the glory of God. He says, now I
say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God. He's referring to the Jews, outwardly
circumcised. He was a minister to them for
the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.
Because he was the seed of the woman who came through the nation
of Jews. And he was sent to them first.
And, verse 9, that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. As it is written, this is a prophecy
from the Old Testament. For this cause I will confess
to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. That's Christ
speaking in prophecy. This is what He's going to do.
I'm going to confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto
thy name. Do you remember all the Gentiles
that were healed by Christ? The woman from Syrophoenicia,
whose daughter had a devil, she comes to him. He says, I'm not
sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It's not
right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. Truth,
Lord, but the dogs, the little dogs, eat the crumbs from the
master's table. And he healed her daughter. She
was a Gentile. Remember Cornelius? Remember
the centurion whose son was sick, or whose daughter was sick? All
these Gentiles were being healed. Remember what Jesus told them?
He says, There were many widows in the days of Elijah, but God
only sent Elijah to one, a woman of Sidon, a Gentile. And there were many lepers in
the days of Elisha, but he only healed Naaman the Syrian, the
Gentile. And so he says here, I'll confess
to thee among the Gentiles and sing to thy name. And again he
saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise
the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud him, all ye people. And
again Isaiah said, There shall be a root of Jesse, that's Christ,
and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall
the Gentiles trust. Isn't that a blessed promise?
Were it not for the fact that God the Father made us clean
by His choice in Christ and gave us to His Son, and Christ died
for us and washed us from our sins, and the Spirit of God raises
us from the dead in our soul and gives us faith in Christ,
we would be lost, and deservingly so, outside of the ark to perish
under the wrath of God. God told Noah, gather these animals,
and he brought them. Just as in the gospel preaching,
God gathers his people through the preaching of Christ. The
Gentiles and the Jews, what God has cleansed, don't you call
unclean. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that in
your mercy and grace you saw fit to save and to redeem and
to bring your people into the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you
for this grace that you saved your people in Christ. You set them apart from eternity,
washed them from their sins in his own blood. And then you sent
your spirit to give us this life and create us in Christ and create
Christ in us. and to give us this precious
faith that sees him as such and enables us to live on him, to
eat from him who is our sin offering, eat from him who is our life,
and take freely of the water of life because he earned it
by himself. Lord, we live only by him, and
we pray, Lord, that you would make a difference in all here
today, that your word would enter our hearts, and take away the
stony heart by your spirit and give us a new heart that we might
live to you and be constantly living to you. In Jesus' name
we pray, amen.