I'm going to be looking over
here in Hebrews chapter 10. I'm going to read the beginning
and the first verse, although we've already actually looked
at some of this, but I will read it again and then we'll make
some comments a little further down in the chapter. For the
law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of those things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Yet that
is a question. Because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those
sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offerings
thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book it is
written of me to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thy wood
is not, neither hath pleasure therein which are offered by
the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. By the witch will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. 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 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 an 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."
Now I want to stop right there. And we'll go back and look at
a couple of things that we've already touched on. And of course,
the Lord is here, or the Rite of Hebrews is here quoting what
the Lord said in Psalm 40, which says, Sacrifice and offerings
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
Now, it was the purpose of God to redeem His people, and the
redemption of His people was not brought about simply by pouring
out a substance that we know as blood. Now a lot of people
spend a lot of time making a big to-do about the blood itself,
that God is somehow appeased with blood. Now you take the
Many of the pagan gods are appeased with blood, are they not? I mean,
the concept of sacrifice and pouring out blood is a pretty
common thing among many religions in the earth. They make sacrifices
of one type or another. because they believe that by
the doing of this, that the deities in their concept are satisfied
when they see somebody died. In that case, such as in the
case of the Mayas and the Incas and all of these pagan, heathen
cultures, they made blood sacrifices. But the Lord is not, even though
He says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission,
it's not the shedding of blood that He has reference to per
se, but rather it is the shedding of the blood of the one sacrifice
that He is pleased with. He was never pleased with the
shedding of the blood of bulls and goats. That was never a thing
that He looked down on and said, man, I'm glad to see this. But
he was pleased with the offering up of his only begotten Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is in that offering and
that offering alone that there is satisfaction unto the Lord. And so therefore in order to
teach us his regard unto this sacrifice, he set forth these
other sacrifices as a means of illustration. that men might
know and understand, that the life of the victim is in the
blood, and the life of the victim is that which he is pleased to
receive, not the blood itself. Now, some would say, oh, well,
you're taking the blood sacrifice away. Oh, no. No, the blood sacrifice
has its significance in the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ
and no place else. There is no significance to the
shedding of blood in the Scriptures except in the shedding of the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the shedding of His blood
was that which manifested the fact that He laid down His life.
If the life is in the blood, then His blood was poured out
for all men to see. There was no doubt about the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross. He was offered up as that one
offering, which the Scripture says, what the Lord was pleased
with forever. Above, when He said, sacrifice
and offering, burnt offerings, offering for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither had pleasure therein. Now any Jew who reads that has
to come face to face with the fact that none of these sacrifices
accomplished anything, because that is not what the Lord was
pleased with, nor will He ever be pleased with it in the future,
which makes so foolish the concept of the reestablishment of the
temple in Jerusalem as a place to offer sacrifices. What do
you need that for? What would be the point of it?
What would be the reason to rebuild the illustration when that which
is perfect has already come and seated upon the throne? So there
is no way of re-establishing of offerings because the Lord
Jesus Christ has made an offering for sin once. Now down here in
verse 10 it says, By the witch will, Now whose will? Verse 9, Then he said, Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, He
came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent
me. Now what he's telling us in that
is that it is according to the purpose of God that all of this
has taken place. This isn't some secondary thing
or something that God decided to do. as an enhancement to the
world, but rather it is the purpose for which He created the world,
that He might manifest the glory of His grace in the giving of
His Son as an offering for the sin of His people. And so He said, I come to do
Thy will, O God. He takes away the first that
He may establish the second. Now the first, that is in the
first of the minds of men. Now we know that which is perfect
was actually preceded that which was imperfect, but in the minds
of men, in the chronology of time, it pleased the Lord to
call the giving of the law of Moses that which was first, because
it did come first in the chronology of things. So that which was
first, he says, is taken away. And that which is second is shown
to be the manifestation of that which was first, simply an illustration. He said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. And remember, the Scripture says,
He that looks unto him, shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation? is speaking of that which Christ
has come forth as that Savior of sinners. He is that One and
He is the One to whom we look. He taketh away the first that
He may establish the second by the which will, by whose will? By God's will. By the which will
we are sanctified. Just about any person that you
read, if you read very much about biblical things, books people
have written, practically every book you will ever get that you
read on the subject of sanctification is going to describe sanctification
as kind of like a partnership deal between the Holy Spirit
and the man. The Spirit working in the man,
and man letting the Spirit do what He will, and as he gets
more and more sanctified, he becomes more and more willing
to do what God says. That is not what the Scripture
speaks about, about sanctification. I challenge you to go through
the Scripture and look at the instances where the words sanctify,
sanctified, sanctification are mentioned. And you can't find
that sort of a context or that sort of an idea set forth. And it plainly says here that
we are sanctified by what? By the will of God. Now what does sanctification
literally mean? It just means set apart. It's
the word basically that means holy. If something is sanctified,
it means it is holy. The Lord Jesus Christ, in appearing
unto Moses in the burning bush, said, Moses, take your shoes
off your feet for the ground where you stand is holy ground. He said it is set apart. It is
not just a normal thing. And so the people of God are
set apart. They are sanctified by the will
of God. Now, we know that the Scripture
indicates that the Lord has a people which He chose in Christ from
before the foundation of the world. He sanctified them. He set them apart. They belong
to Him. They are His people. Even as
He sets forth very plainly in the book of Romans, saying, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. He has a people that He has loved
with an everlasting love. They are the people who are sanctified
by the will of God. They are set apart by the which
will we are sanctified, and then he says, through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once. Now, you'll notice that in verse 10, the for all is in italics,
so it doesn't actually appear in the original. But it is put
there to clarify things. But some have taken that phrase
and misapplied it because they've taken what's meant by the for
all there and turned it into something that it doesn't mean
at all. Because if you leave it off,
it's very plain what it means. It means that the Lord Jesus
Christ made an offering for sin once. That's what this whole
chapter is about. He did it one time. Now, the
for all is not talking about the ones who he made it for.
Now, I've heard men preach and they say, see there, the Lord
Jesus Christ made an offering for sin for all. That's clearly not what's being
said here in this passage of Scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ
made an offering for sin once. And it was an offering that satisfied
the law. Now, if it is indeed true that
He died for every man on the face of the earth, then I will
guarantee you one thing. If that is true, every man on
the face of the earth shall be saved. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ did not try to make an offering for sin. But he made
an offering for sin. And if he made an offering for
sin, it was sufficient, dear brethren, for those for whom
that offering was made. He obtained eternal redemption. And so if he obtained eternal
redemption for those for whom he died, of which we have no
doubt whatsoever according to what the Scripture says, if that
be true, Then if it is on the other hand true, which the Scripture
does not bear out that it is, then every man on the face of
the earth would be saved if he died for all men. But he did
not die for all men in that sense. Now I believe this is a true
thing. He died for sinners. He died for those who belong
to the Lord. And they are known by the fact
that the Lord gives them repentance unto salvation. They are known
by the fact that the Spirit of God awakens them and causes them
at some point in time to call out to Him desiring to know Him. He said, My sheep hear My voice.
I know them and they follow Me. Those who desire the way of Christ
are manifested as the sons of God, because why else would they
desire to be the sons of God, to follow Christ, to walk in
His way, if it was not that they were set apart from before the
foundation of the world unto this end? Because, dear brethren,
those that despise Christ and do not bow their knee unto His
way, there is no evidence that there is any regard unto them
before the Lord our God. Now, as Brother Al ably pointed
out there in his lesson there earlier, the world does not hate religion. The world does not per se hate
the concept of God. As long as it's a God that they've
got control over. As long as it's a God that will
do like they want Him to. As long as it's a God that honors
their free will. As long as it's really all ultimately
up to men. Men like a God like that, it's
all up to them ultimately. They just worship Him all day
long. And every religion on the face of the earth We'll worship such a God. Man's
got to be involved in it somehow. And they like that. They like
for man to call the shot. Maybe not totally, but at least
to an extent. Man doesn't like to be, you know,
just totally at the mercy of God. I mean, that's a helpless
place, isn't it? Man doesn't want to think of
himself as helpless before God. Helpless? Oh, no, we're not helpless. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, dear brethren,
before this God of whom we speak, man is helpless. He's blowing around here like
the chaff which the wind drives away. He's like the grass that
withers in the noonday sun. And what can he do about it?
He'll perish. Except God, who is rich in mercy,
has mercy upon him and opens his eyes and causes him to see
what he is by nature and who God is in his nature. You see, there are two natures
that a man has got to learn about, his own and God's. And until
a man becomes acquainted with who he is, there is no way under
the sun he will ever know who God is. You see, as long as a
man thinks he has some power, as long as a man thinks that
it's in his will to do whatever he wants to do when he wants
to do it, he'll never come face to face with who God is. But
when God, who is rich in mercy, knocks a man down and brings
him low to see himself as what he is and what he needs, he'll
see God clearly then. Oh God, be merciful. to me a
sinner. Lord, help me. Lord, if you don't
help me, I'm lost. I'll perish. I don't have one
thing that could bring me out of anything. Lord, help me. You see, that's the place that
God's pleased to bring me in. And those who are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, there are those
who will come who, by the grace of God, will be brought to the
place of knowing that. in understanding that. Now, I'm
not saying that ever one of them could stand up and give you a
theological treatise and explain how it is, but everyone who has
ever come to know Jesus Christ has come to know himself to be
without power and without help and without hope except that
Jesus Christ help him, except that he be delivered by the hand
of the Lord. He doesn't strut about telling
you what all he's done for the Lord or where all he's been and
what he can do and what he will do. And brother, I know I'm saved. I can tell you the day and the
hour and all these things when I got saved. Oh, he says, I've
been sanctified through the will of God, through the offering
of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ once. That is my hope. That is my expectation. And there and there alone can
I find a place of refuge. It is what Christ did, what Christ
has done, what Christ is doing in Him and Him alone is where
we find our hope. Through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once, Now, he continually contrasts
that, using that word once, because why? Because in the offering
of the Jewish sacrifices was a what? Continual offering. In the Roman Catholic consideration,
there is a continual offering of Christ. Remember that in Christ? He made an offering once. He
doesn't have to be offered again. In your mind or whatever you
want to call it, He was offered once for the sins of His people. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. Men think that religion and their
activities in that religion are of some use. And they offer the
same ones over and over again. I mean, most prayers that people
pray, in public at least, now, very little praying is done in
public. Most true praying is done in
private. You know, when a man is, it's
not what he's saying, that's not the thing, but it is the
work of God in his soul. causing him to communicate with
God. And the Spirit giveth utterance
that men can't even comprehend. It's groanings. It's that which
God is pleased to work in the man. But sometimes men get concerned
and considerate of their same sacrifices. When I was growing
up as a young boy, in the church I grew up in, by
the time I was about seven or eight years old, I had memorized
how to pray. I knew how to pray, because most
everybody said the same stuff. I mean, I knew what they were
going to say. I knew what was coming out of
their mouth the next time they said it. And they were happy with it.
I mean, it was to them, I guess. I don't know anything about what
was in their mind or heart or anything else, but I know when
I heard it, it was just the same old stuff. It was just, let's
get through it as quick as we can. And you hope that the preacher
didn't call on somebody that might really pray, because you
was wanting to get outside. And if you got one of those,
and it was only one or two, but if you got one, If you called
on one of them that was really going to pray, you just sunk
down in your heart. You said, oh no. Why didn't he
call on this one over here? Because you knew he was just
going to say about four or five phrases and that was going to
be it. But there was just one old guy I remember. And I don't
know really much about him because I was just a kid. I can remember
thinking to myself, now there is something different about
what this man right here is doing, because it wasn't the same old
stuff. You didn't know what he was going to say. But you knew
one day he was going to spend two or three minutes just glorifying
Christ, just praising the Lord for His glory. He didn't believe he could just
run right into the presence of God, but he believed that God
was high and lifted up and seated on the throne. And even though I didn't know
anything spiritually at the time, I knew there was something different
about what he did and what all these other things, because these
other things were just the same old things done over and over
again. And religious men will always
be satisfied In fact, they even like it like that. Religious
men like for things to be under control. They want things to
be under control. They want it to fit into a time
slot. They want it to do a thing just
like they want it to be. They are satisfied with it. The same sacrifices. which could
never take away sins. Why couldn't they take away sins,
these sacrifices that they offered? Because it was never intended
to. The Lord never purposed that it would. The only thing that
He purposed that they would do was do these things so that He
might manifest the glory of His Son in the giving of the one
sacrifice that He was pleased with and show the direct contrast
between that which Christ did and what all of these others
did. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Now, when somebody
sits down, you know they're done. See, most everybody is glad when
the preacher sits down, because they know it's over with and
they ain't got to listen to any more. When he sits down. Well, when Jesus Christ sat down,
dear brethren, it meant he was done! Because you see, the high
priest, and I mentioned this before, he had bells sewn around
in the hem of his garment. He never sat down in the holy
place. He was continually moving around. The bells stopped ringing. They
knew he was dead. But rather than the bells stop
ringing, when the Lord Jesus Christ sat down. And there was silence in the
heavens. Because this one who went into
that holy place, he made an offering for sin that had never been made
before. You see, he went in there and
he actually accomplished something. He did something. He wasn't just
going through some motions, but he paid the price for the sin
debt of those for whom he went into that place for. And he accomplished
something after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever. There is not another one. He sat down from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. He is waiting till
his enemies be made his footstool. Now wait a minute. Aren't his
enemies already made his footstool? Well, sure they are. But you
see, it has not been made manifest yet to the world as it shall
be. The Scripture says every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Now, there is not any doubt in
the minds of God's people who have been brought to a place
of worshiping Him that He is that supreme ruler and they gladly
worship Him and confess that He is the Lord of all. But this
world in which we presently dwell is certainly not on that same
wavelength, are they? They cannot. They can't see it.
That's right. The mystery of iniquity does
already work. It is behind the blinds of the
multitudes, religious and non-religious. See, the Lord, He's not coming
back together the religious, He's coming back together those
whose blood, whose sin was expiated and paid for in that one sacrifice
that He made for sins forever. But the world has not yet seen
that. But the day is coming when they
shall. expecting, waiting, till his
enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Now, he has made his enemies
his footstool. Because you see, what God does,
He does forever. The Lord Jesus Christ was a lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, but it was necessary
in the purpose of God that in the time appointed that He come
forth. and be made that sacrifice for
sin, and in the same fashion there is a time appointed, the
times of the restitution of all things, when God shall manifest
the fact that Jesus Christ has put down all rebellion. Now,
we know it is true in the spiritual sense now. We know it has come
to pass. There is no absolute doubt about
the fact that Jesus Christ rules and reigns in the present moment. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." There he says it again. He's
perfected forever those that are set apart, those that are
his. He made them perfect. He's made
them exactly what they're going to be. He's already done that. Well, I sure hope we get perfected
before we go to heaven. Well, brother, if you're not
perfect in Christ, you can't be more perfect than that. And
if you've been perfected in Christ, then dear brother, that's as
far as you need to go. As far as I want to go. Do you want to go any further
than that? I don't want to go any further
than that. There's not any place you can go that's further than
that. Some people, they act like they want to go further than
that. For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He made us perfect before the
throne of God in all ways. Now, how were we made perfect?
Now, the Lord, He has loved His people with an everlasting love,
the Scripture says. That elect bride which He gave
to Christ from before the foundation of the world has never been a
time or a moment when He did not love her, that He did not
love His people. The Scripture never says that
we are the children of wrath. It says that we are by nature
the children of wrath even as others. By having the same nature
and the same manners and the same thought process and everything
about us, it is not a bit different than the children of wrath, but
we are not appointed unto wrath according to what the Scripture
says, but to receive the mercy of God. Now, dear brethren, Who
maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? And if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst done it yourself?" It's the mercy of God. It's the
grace of God that has set His people apart. And he said, Herefore, by one
offering he has perfected forever. So if the Lord always loved His
people, and they have always been seen in Christ, and they
have never been outside of Christ, what does it mean they have been
perfected? Well, it simply means, is it
pleased God to subject that which He loved unto vanity? Now you
can question him. You can try to figure out why
he did that. I don't know. I just thank God
that he did what he did. Worship at his footstool. But
he subjected his own unto vanity. He put his people under the law. In Adam we became under the law. Cursed by the law. Outcast according
to the law. Now the Lord could have just
overturned the law and said, well, I'm just not going to have
the law anymore. But He didn't do that because it didn't fulfill
His purpose because in His purpose He set forth to justify His people
according to the same law that He subjected them to. And the
same law that breathed out threatenings and slaughters to us, the same
law that condemned us, Jesus Christ didn't come into the world
to condemn the world. Why? Because the world was condemned
already. Why? Because it wasn't in Him.
You see, the world was condemned already. It was already condemned
when He came in it. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
hurt anybody. The world was condemned already
because the world loves the way of sin. the way of unrighteousness. And the Scripture plainly says
the wages of sin is death. But you see, men are not running
to try to escape it, are they? By nature. I mean, until the
Lord saw fit to awaken us to what we were by nature, we had
no hope. Nothing was slowing us down.
We were pursuing the thing that we wanted. And every man on the
face of the earth is going to get what he wants. A man that does not want to bow
down before Christ and worship Him, he is going to get his desire. But he is going to get his desire having the foot of God upon his
neck, as he does. give homage to Christ. And he'll want to in that day.
He'll want to because he'll be made to want to. He'll be made
willing. But yet, you see, the world's
condemned. See, God can do whatever he wants
to. Now, people don't like that.
A lot of people will come right up to the edge of believing in
an absolute God. But then they'll say, but God
couldn't do that. That would be wrong. You come
up, you figure on it all you want to, and then you come up
and tell me something, God would be wrong if He did. You see,
God doesn't do things because they're right. Things are right
because God doesn't. You see, He's an absolute God.
He does according to His will in the army of heaven among the
habitants of the earth. Now that makes some folks mad.
Average man gets mad. Buddy, you tell average man that,
he's going to get mad. I don't know no God like that.
And they don't. But oh, by the grace of God.
Oh, I want to worship at the feet of the God that does according
to His will in the army of heaven. Don't you? I want to worship
at the feet of Him who says, I will do all things according
to my good pleasure. Because He is the true God. And
there is none else. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever." So how are we perfected? We are perfected in every way
that we could possibly stand in need of a perfection, and
that was according to the law. We have been made perfect according
to the law. We were already perfect in Christ
insofar as The love of God towards His people was concerned, but
you see, it's pleasing to subject this to vanity. But then subjecting
this to vanity, He delivered us from it according to His mercy
by the one offering of Jesus Christ once forever. Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness
to us, for that He said before, this is the covenant that I will
make with them. After those days, 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. Brethren, if the Lord Jesus Christ
has taken away our sin, then there can be no more offering
for sin. No more sin. Exactly right. And what Scripture said, those
that look to Jesus shall He appear the second time. How? Without
sin. How do we see Christ? Without
sin. How do we see ourselves in Christ? Without sin. Now, is it through
something we did? You know the answer to that?
No. You see, every one of the true children of God know intuitively
Because the Spirit of God is burned into their heart. They
might not fully be able to articulate it out of their mouth, but they
know in their heart of hearts that the perfection that they
have is in Christ and Christ alone, and they have no expectation
of any other. Christ is our perfection. And he has indeed, dear brethren,
fulfilled that covenant. He said, I will remember their
sins no more. He didn't say, I will remember
some of their sins no more. He didn't say, I'll remember
their sins no more as long as they act right. But buddy, when
they quit acting right, he said, I'm going to remember their sins
as long as they don't have any doubtings and fears. I'm going to forget their sins
as long as they don't question some of the things I've said.
So there are no ifs. There are no ifs. The most glorious thing for the
sons of God to remember is that there are no ifs in the promise
of God. He said, I will remember their
sin. Now I ask the question again
last time we got together. If the Lord has forgotten our
sin, why don't we? What are you doing? Why do you keep banging it up
and beating yourself over the head with it? What purpose do
you think that is going to serve? is an offering for our sin, and
He has paid it once, dear brethren, He has accomplished the task.
And there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. What a blessed and glorious thing
it is to be reminded of that which Christ has done completely
and fully without any gifts, ands or buts, no conditions,
only that which Christ performed. There is, brethren, a conscience
which is made clean as we look at Him and see Him as that perfect
offering.