Hebrews chapter 10, beginning
reading in verse 14. Verse 14 says, For by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had
said before, 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 will I write them. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say 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, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he
is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works. not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully, after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith
he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite
unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord. The Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God." Now, we're going to stop right there. Of course, we've been for several
weeks on the speaking about what is the crux of the matter of
the book of Hebrews and the point that he is seeking to drive home
to these Hebrews is the superiority of Christ and what He has done
over all of that Mosaic law which was given to the Hebrews and
which they revered and believed that these things were those
practices and religion that set them apart from the world. And
in the purpose of God, as we have looked, as Brother Al has
been bringing to us here earlier, concerning these individual parts
of the puzzle, pieces of the pie that the Lord has made, and
if you take one or two of them away, then they are not complete.
And in the same fashion, We would not be where we're at, nor would
the Hebrews have come to the place where they're at had it
not been that the Lord gave the law to Moses for the purpose
that he did. Paul said, How would I have known
what sin was except the law said, Thou shalt not covet? How could
I have known that? And so it is that the purpose
of the law was given so that sin might be defined, that men
might know what it is beyond the shadow of a doubt, And so
that is the purpose of the law. But the law was never designed
as a means whereby the people of God could be cleansed from
their sin, because the blood of bulls and goats could never
take away sin. And so it is that this is what
he's reiterating to them. And of course, we never get far
from that. I mean, the truth of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the preaching of the cross is that which is
woven throughout the Scripture from the beginning to the end. And you cannot go through the
Scriptures and cause that to be some sort of secondary importance. There is no subject in all of
the Scriptures that could in any way rival the preaching of
the cross of Jesus Christ, the preaching of the redemptive work
that Christ has performed in the behalf of His people. All
the things in the Scripture lead up to that, emphasize that, and
ultimately lead us to that. And if you are led somewhere
else in your study of the Scripture, then you have missed the point
of the Scripture. You cannot go through the Scriptures
and miss Christ and have seen what the Scriptures are about.
Now Donald Trump, he said that the Bible, and I'm not, this
is not a political message because I kind of like some of the stuff
he's saying and doing, whether he is a blowhard or whatever,
you make the judgment on that, but he said the Bible was his
favorite book. But then when somebody asked
him, well what's your favorite passage, he couldn't come up
with one. Now, I'm not trying to criticize him, but I'm just
saying, dear brethren, the Bible is a great book, and I like the
Bible, and I believe the Bible, and I, by the grace of God, study
the Bible. But if you come to the Bible
and you just, your desire or your thing that causes you to
to have reverence for it is just the fact that it's the Bible
and you like it and you don't know what's in it. The Bible
is no different than Moby Dick or Tom Sawyer or any other book
that could be put on the bookshelf. The thing that makes it different
is what's in it. And what's in it is the revelation
of Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners. And so when all these
politicians get up and hammer and talk about believing the
Bible and all that, when they start preaching Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, I believe they believe it. You know? Because that's what's in the
book. Women are interested in a book of rules and a book of
nice stories and things that will help us along life's journey. But the purpose of the book is
to magnify the name of Jesus Christ. That's what the preaching
of Christ is. And that's what we see set forth
before us. And so he says, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And we talked
a little bit about that. Sometimes it's good to go over
these things. How are God's people sanctified? First of all, by the will of
God. But they are sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. One sacrifice that He made forever. He has set them apart. Now He
set them apart in the covenant of redemption. He set them apart
in election. But He has set them apart by
His blood. He has forever paid the price
for their sin, forever. By one offering He has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness, for after that He had said before, this is the
covenant that I will make. Now, the Grace Gazette this week
is on the I wills of God. And here are four I wills right
here. And all of the I wills of God
ultimately bring us to the exact same place that everything in
the Scripture brings us to, and that is to the redemptive work
of Jesus Christ. For he says here, this is the covenant that I will
make. Now who made the covenant? The Lord made the covenant. Now
who signed the agreement? The Lord signed the agreement.
In the second Psalm, He said, Ask of me and I will give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance. And He said, I will set my King
upon my holy hill of Zion. The Lord has written the covenant
and He has signed it in His own blood. And it is a unilateral
covenant. It is a covenant that cannot
be broken. It is a covenant that cannot
be overturned. It is a covenant that cannot
be gotten out of. Because the one who made the
covenant is the one who enforces the covenant and the one who
brings the covenant to pass. And so it is. See, in every covenant
that men make between one another, it can be broken. I mean, I can
say, well, I agree to pay you X number of dollars, for a piece
of property. And I can sign my name on the
line, but until you've got the money in your hand, that doesn't
mean anything, does it? Now, you might can go through
some legal process and force the person to do it, but what
if they don't have anything? You can't ultimately do anything
about that. We don't have debtors' prisons,
so you can't put them in jail. But the thing is that this is
a covenant unlike any other covenant that's ever been made, because
this is a covenant made by God according to the will of God,
and it cannot be overturned. He didn't say, I will make a
covenant with you that depends on you to do something. But what
did he say? He said, I will, this is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, I will
put my laws in their hearts." Now, what's wrong with man by
nature? He's in rebellion against the
law of God, is he not? I mean, we see that with Adam. I mean, it was in Adam's nature,
was it not, to eat of the tree that God said, don't eat. He
ate it. So the problem that man has is
he's born with an innate rebellion against the law of God. But what
does the Lord say? He said, I'm not just going to
tell my people the law. You see, that's what He did with
the Israelites. That was a conditional covenant, wasn't it? He said,
now, if you'll do this, I'll do this. Well, they didn't do
it. Why? Because the law was weak
in the flesh. They couldn't do it because of
their nature. So the Lord said, this is the
covenant that I'll make after these days. That is, this is
the new covenant. Now, it's actually not the new
covenant. This is the old covenant. But as far as we're concerned,
it's the new covenant. But as far as God's concerned,
it's the only covenant. See, the Lord does not have two
covenants. Now, a lot of people try to make it out that the Lord
has made all these different covenants and He has changed
His mind and went from one to the other and all of these things,
but there has only really ever been the one covenant that is
that covenant which He intended and purposed to endure, and it
is this covenant right here. He said, this is what I am going
to do. He said, I will make a covenant. And he said, I will end this
covenant. Now think about that. This is
part of the covenant. He said, I will write my laws
in their heart. He said, I'm going to do something
for some people. I'm going to write my laws in
their heart. I'm going to take away the stony heart that's in
their flesh and I'm going to give them a heart that salt wherein
they have regard unto my word. He said, I will do that. Now
if God said He'll do something, you can count on it. Can you
not? He said, I will. He said, all
that the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me And him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out." Why did he say that? Because he said,
I will do this. He said, I will save my people. And he said, every one that the
Father gives me shall come to me. Now, a lot of people say,
oh, well, he just knew who would. Well, he knew who would. Well,
he created the world, did he not? He created those that wouldn't
and those that would. Now what made the ones that would
and what made the ones that wouldn't? The same one. But he said here,
I will do this. He said those people who are
in Christ, I will write my laws in their heart. After those days,
I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write
them. Now the heart is the seat of
the emotions, is it not? And the mind is the seat of the
intellect. And the Lord has written His
law in the place of His people. He has caused them to desire
to walk in it, and He has caused them to know the truth. And he said when he sent the
Spirit of God into the world, he said, and ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now, a lot of people
misquote that, and they say, and the truth shall make you
free. The truth won't make you free. I mean, this Bible is the
truth, isn't it? I mean, but there's a lot of
people that have read this Bible, and I don't know if Donald Trump
is free or not, but evidently he must not have read very much
of it. If he couldn't even come up with some verse, that would
be his favorite. He said it was too personal.
He didn't want to talk about it. Well, man, maybe it was.
I don't know. But you know, he's called God's
people to love his Word. as He's written them in their
heart, but He's also caused them to know it as He's written them
in their mind. He said, I will cause you to,
you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
He said that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God. How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not
heard? Now how shall they hear except
they have a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Now, dear brethren, all of these
things are in the purpose of God. He brings things to pass
according as He sees fit, and He causes His people to hear
His Word. But not only to hear it, but
to love it. See, not only to say, I believe
that's the truth. See, Peter confessed it. He said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thy is the words of eternal life. He said, Lord, I believe that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, Lord,
I want to follow you. The Lord said to Peter, Peter,
do you love me? And he said, Yea, Lord, thou
knowest that I love thee. How did the Lord know Peter loved
him? Now, Peter didn't feel like he loved him, did he? He felt
like he was pretty much of a failure at that point in time. He was
ashamed to say that he loved him. Do you ever feel ashamed
to tell the Lord that you love him? I know you do, because sometimes
you look at yourself and you say, Man, if I loved the Lord,
acted like that, I wouldn't have done that, I wouldn't have thought
that. But dear brethren, you see, this is about what God will
do. He said, I'll write my laws in your heart. And there's not
a power in earth or hell that can take away that which God
is pleased to put in the hearts of His people and cause them
to despise the Word of God if He's caused them to love it. Now sometimes we think we don't
believe the Word of God. But dear brethren, I'm telling
you, God causes you to believe it. You can't get away from it.
David thought he didn't believe it. But he did, didn't he? Because he said, Lord, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. Now how did he know that? How
did David know that he had sinned against the Lord? Because the
Lord gave him a love for His Word. He gave him a hub for the
truth and he wrote it in his mind and heart. He said, Thy
word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
You see, the Lord is pleased to do that and bring that to
pass. He said, I'll put my laws into
their hearts and in their minds will I write them. And then he
said, and their sins and iniquities Will I remember no more?" Now,
he said, I will not remember their sin. That's a glorious thing. If we
just paused and thought about that for a moment. He said, I
will not remember their sin. Because you see, Christ has put
it away. The work of faith, the operation
of faith, and the operation of the Spirit of God in God's people
is bringing them to the place where they really see that to
be true. Now we believe it, but yet we
don't believe it, do we? Because we get to thinking about
what we are and we get to thinking, well, I don't know if it could
be true for me. But he said, I will remember
their sins no more. Sin is a heartbreaking thing
to the child of God when it is revealed to him. Now, you know,
sometimes because of the hardness of our hearts by nature, it is
hard for us to see it. But when the Lord is pleased
to reveal it to us, then we see it for what it is. But he said,
I don't remember it. Even when he's convincing us
of sin, he doesn't remember it. Now what does he mean? I mean,
God knows all things. Does He know you're a sinner?
Of course He does. Well, what does it mean here? It means that
it's not laid to your account. It means that His regard to you
is just the same as if you had never sinned at all. His love
for you, if you belong to Christ, and if you're one of these of
whom He's speaking of here, His love for you is not diminished
in one bit, because of anything you ever say, do, think, or whatever. He loves you unconditionally.
Why? Because He said, I will do that.
I will remember their sins no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Now if these things
have been put away, then how were the sins of God's people
put away? Now on the one hand, we understand
that God being absolutely sovereign, He has no regard to the sin of
His people in the covenant of grace because He loved them before
sin was ever in the picture. Let me say that again. The Lord
loved His people before sin was ever in the picture. Before any of us ever fell in
Adam, He loved us with an everlasting love. That's the basis and grounds
for which He chose us in Christ. You see, that's what foreknowledge
is. Now, a lot of people read where the Scripture speaks about
that election is according to foreknowledge, and they say,
yes, see there, God knew ahead of time who would believe and
who wouldn't, and that's the basis upon which He loved them.
That's a bunch of baloney. God's not a fortune teller. He's
the ordainer of all things. And yes, he knew who would believe.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. He wasn't looking into the future
and predicting something. He was stating the fact. He said,
These people are mine and every one of them that belongs to me
I will bring. And they shall come to me. And
the ones that come to me I will no wise cast out because they
are the very same ones whom I have loved with an everlasting love.
And he said, I will do this thing. And there is no more offering
for sin. Because Christ has paid it all.
Now, get back to my original thought. The Lord loved His people
before they ever sinned. And most assuredly, He could
bring them unto Himself at any time He wanted to without there ever being redemption.
But you see, that's not the picture. That is not the way the picture
of the puzzle is painted, is it? You see, it pleased the Lord
to create the world that He might demonstrate the glory of His
grace. And it pleased the Lord to subject His people unto the
vanity of this world. And He created us in Adam. And we fell in Adam. Now you
can argue with him all you want to about the ramifications of
that if you think that maybe that does not fit your line of
thought. But the fact of the matter is
that he created his people in Adam and they fell in Adam into
sin. And he has demonstrated the glory
of his grace in redeeming those same people that he loved before
they sinned. Now, brethren, that's a glorious
thought. But we don't need to be too caught up in that because,
see, we live in the real world, don't we? Now, if you went back
and talked to Raghu or Ryu or whoever that was these descendants,
and you told them about all that was going to happen down the
road and all of that, That didn't really matter to them, did it?
Because they were living their life right then and there, were
they not? And you see, we are living our
life right here and now. And right here and now, we know
that we are sinners. Now, we can't blame anybody else
for our sin. I'd like to. I get to thinking
sometimes it's other people's fault. I mean, I wouldn't be
the way I am if it wasn't for Curtis. I mean, if he'd act right,
I'd act right. I mean, that's just common, isn't
it? But you see, the fact of the
matter is that every one of us are like we are because that's
the way we are. We don't want to admit it. I
can't be like that. I'm not like that. I'm a nice
person. Well, they made me mad. They
made me mad. I wouldn't have got mad if it
hadn't been for them. Oh, no! You can't blame other
people for what you are. You are what you are, whether
you like it or not. I hope you don't like it. Because
you get to liking yourself and seeing what you... That's what
everybody wants to do nowadays. That's what you read all these
books and stuff. These psychologists tell you
they want you to like yourself. Well, dear brethren, the Scripture
tells you don't like yourself. Because you see what you are
by nature when the Spirit of God is pleased to work in you
and you see yourself as a sinner. But oh, the glorious thing is,
dear brethren, that as we see ourselves as sinners by the grace
of God in the gospel of Christ, He has shown us that what we
are by nature doesn't make any difference if Christ has paid
the price for our sins. And you see, this is the basis
upon which all of our hopes is built. Now, election is a proof
divine and great blessings there we see, but that in itself is
not the source of our blessing. The source of our blessing is
always and must ever be the redemptive work of Christ because you see,
that is where we live. It is where Christ has come. into this world in which we are
presently dwelling. And he has demonstrated himself
to be our Redeemer, putting away our sin as far as east is from
the west, and there is no more offering for sin. And that's
the message that the rite of Hebrews is getting across to
these people, that Christ has come and satisfied the claims
of the law. Now listen, he says, Now, why do we have boldness? Because of what the Lord did.
We don't have boldness because we've got something good in ourselves. When we look at ourselves, it
causes us to be timid, does it not? I mean, if you look at yourself
as what you are when you come before the Lord, you come there
in fear and trembling. Now, that's not necessarily a
bad thing, but that's nonetheless how we look as the Spirit of
God convinces us of sin, righteousness and judgment. But you see, John
said, below it, if your heart condemn you, God is greater than
your heart. He said, Beloved, if your heart
condemn you not, then you have confidence with God. Now old
brethren, you see, that's what he's speaking about here. He
said we've got boldness. Now why do we have boldness?
Because he said, I will remember your sin no more. Brethren, we
have boldness to enter into His presence. Why? Because he said
you can come in. Who? Me? Come in? And He's thrown the
door open. And He's made manifest that He
will receive sinful men. Now, does He receive sinful men?
That's a true thing in the one place. He came to save sinners,
and He does receive sinful men in one sense. But in one sense,
He does not receive sinful men. He receives perfect men. But
you see, we've been made perfect in Christ. And we keep trying
in little measures to come to the Lord in our own righteousness. Everybody does it. You get to
thinking, well, I've got to measure up to this. I mean, I can't expect
to go to the Lord and Him hear me if I'm going to do this, that
or the other. So I've got to quit that and
then I've got to come to the Lord. No. No, He said, Come unto
Me. All you that labor and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. You see, he said the publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before the righteous religious
men. Why is that? Because you see,
they have boldness to enter in to the holiest by the blood of
Jesus. Now you know, a man that doesn't
have anything, if somebody If you open up a soup kitchen
out here and you put up a big sign that you're giving away
free food, now there's a lot of people that's just going to
drive right on by that they're never even going to look at it
or they'll say, oh, well, they're giving away free food. I don't
need any free food. Who's going to come get the free food? You're
going to have some people that's going to come. You know, they're
people that need the food. Or maybe they're just people
that want a free meal. I don't know, but they just,
you know, there's going to be some people that's going to come
and get the free food. Why? Because they don't have
any shame. Now, you wouldn't go down there
when they were giving away the free food. Well, most of us wouldn't,
you know, if they were giving away the free food. We're not
coming. Why? Because we don't want anybody to see us down there
getting free food. We're ashamed. But you see, a
man who knows himself to be what he is, he doesn't have any shame,
so he just goes up there and does it. He gets it. Well, brethren,
we are beggars before God, and He said, He said, the table spread. He said, my hands are wounded
for you. My side has been pierced for
you. And he said, the table spread,
come and dine. The Master calls. Have ye therefore, brethren,
boldness, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now why
do those people come to get the food? Because somebody said the
food was free. And they've got boldness to enter
in simply because the person said the food was free and they
believed it. And they went up there and they
got the food. So we have boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, not because we think
that we have earned the right to come there. But I knew a living way which
He hath consecrated for us through the veil. That is to say, His
flesh. Now if you read that, you might
think that it's talking about the veil is His flesh. That's
not what it's saying. It says, let me read it like
this, "...by a new and living way which He hath consecrated
for us by His flesh through the veil." In other words, He has
given us access through the veil, that is, into the holiest place.
Remember we talked about the fact that there was a holy place
that had a curtain around it and nobody could go in there
but the high priest under pain of death. But He said there has
been a way made through the veil. That is, you can go into the
holiest place of all in the very presence of God now because of
that which Jesus Christ did in His own flesh. And of course
that was manifested quite clearly in the day of his crucifixion
when the veil of the temple was read in twain from the top to
the bottom signifying that the way into the holiest of all was
made, that is to say, his flesh. And having a high priest over
the house of God, we have a high priest over the house of God. We have one. How do we know we
have one? Because he said, I will do this. We have one. He has done it. He said, I will be unto you your
God, and you shall be unto me my people. And having a high
priest, now here is what we listen to. Having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith. Let us draw near in true assurance. Now why is it that the man who
doesn't have anything just walks right up there to the food place
and gets his food? Because he just believes they
said they were going to give the food and he just believes
that they really meant that. Dear brethren, that's how we
are to come to Him. in full assurance of faith. I
mean, he said it. He didn't say, now, if you'll
do certain things, I'll let you come in. He said, I will do these
things. And having, therefore, brethren,
a high priest over the house of God. Do you believe you have
a high priest over the house of God? Do you believe that the
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin? Do you believe
that? Does that strike a chord of joy
in your heart when you hear somebody talking about the fact that Christ
paid the debt for sinners? I want to ask you a question.
If that be the case with you, how on earth did you ever come
to that place of knowing that? Why did you ever have any sort
of a love for the consideration of that? Because the Lord has
written in your heart. And in your mind is lost. And he says to those who have
that love of the truth and who delight themselves in Jesus Christ
alone, he said, come boldly to the throne of grace. We have
an high priest over the house of God and we can boldly enter
therein. So let us draw near. Now, am I speaking presumptuously? No, I'm just telling you what
he said. That's what he said today. And if you know yourself
to be a beggar, the table's spread and the food's ready. He said,
come and dine. It belongs to you.