Hebrews chapter 10 says, ìFor
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 because that the worshippers 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 of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering
thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offering and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not, neither hadst 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 which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. And every priest daily 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. Wherefore 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 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 sin, but a certain fearful looking-for
of judgment and fire-ending nation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses, Of how much shorter
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, and again the Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. But call to remembrance the former days in which, after
ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions,
partly whilst ye were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions,
and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For
ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the
spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in
heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore
your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye
have need of patience. After that ye have done the will
of God, ye might receive the promise. Yet a little while,
and he that shall come will come. and will not tarry. Now the just
shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw
back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul." Now, we know that the Scriptures have been divided
up into chapters. to make the study of the Scripture
more easy to have references and the numbers of the verses
and all of these things that would make it more conducive
to helping us in a carnal sense at least to see these things
more plainly, but sometimes Because of our conditioning, we get to
thinking that these chapters and verses and all of that sort
of thing and the way it's laid out has some bearing on the meaning
of the Scripture. But it actually doesn't because
these things sometimes need to be read in concert with one another
to get the context and meaning of what's said. As we look back
at verses 27 and 28, it says, And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation for
the law, having a shadow of good things, And not the very image
of the things can never, with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect. And I closed last week in the
message concerning this last verse of Scripture. And I believe
that there is a meaning that is in this Scripture that is
beyond simply the concept of looking for Christ's second coming,
which we do believe that He is coming again, as the angel said
to those there on that day of His ascension, ye men of Israel,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven, this same Jesus, whom ye see
go, shall so in like manner come again." So we do believe that
he is coming again, but I believe that contextually when you look
at what he is saying here, he is not necessarily primarily
speaking about that consideration of Christ coming the second time. But I believe that as you look
at the context of how he is speaking about the high priest and the
patterns of the heavenly things being laid out. Now the patterns
of the heavenly things were given first. Now we know that the heavenly
things existed and were purposed before the patterns so that they
could be patterned after it. Sometimes you have a pattern
in order to make something. I remember my mother used to
sew quite a bit when I was growing up and she would go to the store
and buy a pattern and she would buy some cloth and then she would
take the pattern and by that pattern she would make the dress. Well that's not at all the pattern
that he's speaking about here because that which is a pattern
is that which comes second in this particular case insofar
as the purpose of God. Now we know that the pattern
comes in the minds of men, the pattern comes first, doesn't
it? And in that which has come. So to help us Even though Christ,
as the Scripture says, is a Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world, yet He came in time to perform that which God had
ordained to be done from before the foundation of the world.
And so these high priests and the law was given first insofar
as men are concerned. Now we know that the promise
was actually preceded the law. 430 years according to what Paul
told the Galatians. So that the law, the giving of
the law, could not in any wise overturn the promise which preceded
it. But insofar as the chronological,
easy for me to say, the chronological order in which these things have
played out to men, the law was given and the sacrifices were
given, but that which was perfect, was not yet come, and that came
second, even though in reality it was that by which the patterns
of the things that were heavenly were seen. And so as we think
about that and consider what the writer of Hebrews is saying
here, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And
to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without
sin and salvation." I believe the emphasis of what he is saying
here is not primarily on the fact that Christ is coming back
to the earth, which He is, but it is that He has appeared the
second time and He has taken away sin. Now, if you think about
that, And then you go on and read what he says, "...for the
law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of those things, could never take away sin." They could never
make the comers there too perfect. Why? Because they weren't designed
to do that. Now this is the place where those
who are dispensational in their thinking sometimes go astray. Now everyone who claims to be
a dispensationalist does not necessarily hold to this position,
but there are many who hold the position that the Old Testament
saints were somehow justified by the law, and then when Christ
came, men were saved by grace. Well, nothing actually could
be farther from the truth of what the Scripture says here.
Now, I do believe there are different dispensations in which God has
dispensed the truth down through the ages, but the truth has always
been the truth, and grace has always been grace, and there
has never ever been anybody that has ever been saved, justified
in any fashion other than through the blood and the righteousness
of Jesus Christ by the grace of God. And so there are no dispensations
of God's salvation unto men so that somehow sometimes men are
saved this way and sometimes men are saved that way. If anybody
has ever been saved from the beginning of time when Adam was
created. Now, of course, there's controversy
among folks as to whether or not Adam is one of the elect,
and I won't get into all that because I'm not able to say,
and neither is anybody else. There's good arguments both ways
about that, but it doesn't make any difference whether he was
or not. From Adam, if Adam was one of the elect, and if Adam
was indeed He was saved by the grace of God. Just as surely
as the last person who is brought into the kingdom before the Lord
comes back together, those that are His, they all are going to
be saved by the same sovereign grace and mercy of God with the
basis of that salvation resting in the blood and the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. There is no other way of salvation. That's what the Lord said. He
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to
the Father but by me. That's the only way anybody's
ever been able to make an approach unto God. So to them that look
for Christ, He appears the second time. For those that look for
Him, now what He's writing here to these Hebrews is you see that
the problem that was happening, and this happens, this is the
unfolding of the kingdom of God, it is a common thing that the
seed is sowed. And remember the Lord said that
some seed falls on stony ground and it springs up with joy. You
know, it springs up. And that's like the people that
hear the Word of God and they spring up and they say, man,
we want to follow the Lord. Yes, sir, we want to be saved.
And they start off down the journey. And boy, they're just excited.
Well, two weeks later, something happened. And the excitement
waned. Or maybe a year later. Or maybe
two years later. Or maybe five years later. It
doesn't matter the amount of time. You know, there are people
that maybe they're in that condition for most of their life, but they
come to a place where they, Now, what he says here is we
receive the promise if we endure to the end. Well, why is that?
Because you see, if a man does not hold those things that he
has been shown, if indeed he is one of God's children, if
he cast it off, what would be the basis upon which he would
stand before God? In other words, if a man doesn't
stand in the righteousness of Christ, now we don't get in the
righteousness of Christ by anything that we do, nor do we stay in
it by anything that we do, but we are in the righteousness of
Christ, and He does teach His people. He said, My sheep hear
My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. And so He said here
that we have, we receive, What did He say down here at the end?
He said, cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great
recompense of reward. Don't be like them. Now why does
the Scripture exhort the children of God? If we are kept by the
power of God and we can't perish, then why does the Scripture exhort
us to Carry on. Why does the Scripture exhort
us not to be turned aside? Because, you see, those who are
awakened by the Spirit of God are the only ones that can hear
their exhortations. The man who is dead and trespasses
and sins, though he may have been somewhat enlivened to hear
some of the things of the gospel, and he may for a season follow
the Lord, he doesn't heed the warnings. It's not a big deal to him. I
mean, he can take it or leave it. It'll give him a little religion.
It's like today is probably the heaviest church-going day of
the year in general. I mean, most churches, they're
loaded up today because people come and they get all they need.
They get all they need for the whole year. And that's all they
need. But you see, I don't know about them. I give
up trying to figure it out. I can't figure it out. I know
this, though, that those who are born again by the Spirit
of God hunger and thirst after righteousness. How do I know
that? Because the Lord said that He
would write His laws upon their heart And they would not teach
every man his neighbor know the Lord, for they would all know
Him. When the Lord spoke to His disciples
and He said, when many had gone away, He said, Will ye also go
away? What did Peter say? He said,
Lord. He said, O shall we go? You've got words of eternal life.
I mean, basically He said, You've got the food that we want to
eat. I mean, we don't want something else. We want what you have. Now, that's who the children
of God are as far as I can understand from what the Scripture says.
Now, I'll let everybody else theorize about who is and who
isn't and how they got that way or whatever. But I know this,
that a man that's born again by the Spirit of God, he desires
to follow Christ. according to what I understand
from the Scripture. That's just the way it is. So
what's the point of exhorting men to do that if the children
of God are going to do that? Well, it's kind of like, why
would we preach the gospel to men? It's like the old saying,
you know, well, if I believe what you believe, I wouldn't
even preach the gospel because there wouldn't be any need because
they think that what men do is the important thing. You see,
we exhort one another while it is yet day because we know that
the Spirit of God uses the exhortations and admonitions of the Word of
God to stir up the people of God to seek after Him. Because,
brethren, let's face it, we're cold-hearted people. I mean,
if it wasn't for the Spirit of God that works in us, both the
will and the do of His good pleasure, we'd depart from Him tomorrow.
And so why would we exhort, just like He goes on to say, and I'm
trying to get way ahead of myself, let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and to good works. Why would we do that if
the Spirit of God was working us? Because it is through those
exhortations that the Spirit of God works and prints our mind.
And that is, as he goes on to say, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together. Why do we do that? Why do we
meet together? For the benefit of our brethren.
Now most people think that they're supposed to meet together for
the benefit of their self. But I'm here to tell you that's
not what Scripture teaches that we meet together, the brethren,
for. It's to meet for the benefit
of one another. That's what He said right here,
that we might provoke one another to love and to give words. If
we forsake the assembling of ourselves together, how are we
going to do that? And so there is that exhortation. But getting back to what I started
off with here, concerning those that look for Christ. Now, if a man is looking in the
law, then he is going to miss the truth. The law came by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so he said, "...them
that look for him shall he appear." The second time He is going to
come as the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies with
the blood of bulls and goats, to those that look for Christ,
He shall appear. They will see Him as that One
who went into the Holy of Holies the second time. And it is the
second time that Christ went into the Holy of Holies that
is the important thing. And you see, those that look
for Him shall He appear. the second time. You see, we
see Him as that One who did go into that place the second time. He went in there as that One
who would take away sin. Because then He goes on to say,
for the law having a shadow of good things to come, it couldn't
do us any good. And not the very image of those
things could never take away sin. But Christ, did because
in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sin every
year. Now keep this in mind. When the high priest went into
the Holy of Holies to make offering for sin, he was doing a two-fold
thing. He was offering for sins that
were past, but he was also offering for sin's future. You see, the
concept of the offering of sin was not that. They offered for
the sins that were passed totally without any consideration of
the sin that was to come. Remember when Job said that he
had made an offering for his sons, and Kay said committed
sin? In other words, he was paying
it forward as the saying goes. He was looking ahead. And so
the high priest went into the Holy of Holies with the mind
and understanding that sins were going to be committed. And rather
than the mind being that they would stand until next year without
the sin paid for, they paid it ahead. Well, dear brethren, Jesus
Christ has indeed paid for sin. He paid for sin's past. He paid
for sin's present. And He paid for all the sin to
come. And to them that look for Him
shall He appear without sin. Because He is our High Priest.
He is our offering for sin. He is not just a pattern. He
is not something that has to be done again. And so it is that
we are those that find our place of rest in Him. He is the hope
of His people. Now, religion, serve some purpose. I've not really discovered any
good purpose that it serves, but it does serve a purpose. But men, the bad thing about
religion, I don't care what kind it is, it doesn't matter. It
becomes a thing that men have confidence in. It becomes a thing
that men look at and they take pleasure in. Forms and things. They give an air of respectability.
I mean, if you go in a meeting like they had in Corinth and
you walk in the door and you said, well, where is the order
of service? I would like to see what is going
to happen today. They say, well, we don't know what's going to
happen today. Now, see, that's not respectable,
is it? Because you've got to have a,
you know, you need an usher standing back by the door passing the
program out so people will know. You know, you don't want people
to be wondering what's going to happen next or if anything
is going to happen. And so whatever. I mean, that's
kind of a caricature of the situation, but the point is that it doesn't
make any difference. You don't have to go to that
extent. You can have confidence in your religion and trust in
your religion even if it doesn't have any of those things. And so what are we looking for? What are we looking for? Are
we looking for somebody to run the program like we want it?
Or are we looking for somebody to do things like we want it?
Or are we looking for Christ? Those that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin. You see, that's the place
I want to be found looking, is looking for Him in everything. Seeing Christ and Him crucified,
I'm convinced this is what Paul meant when he said, I determine
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why do you have to say that?
Because inquiring minds want to know, don't they? I mean,
that's the way of the flesh, is it not? We want to get off
into all sorts of stuff. And that's not to say that none
of those, because Paul definitely talked about a lot of things,
but he didn't ever stray very far from this central message,
and that was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's what
it is to look for Him the second time without sin unto salvation,
is to see Him as that One who is the sum and substance of the
gospel. in everything that we see and
do. I appreciated that so much in
Brother Al's message this morning of seeing Christ in those things. Now a lot of people read those
things and they only see the natural lesson of it. And the natural lesson is important.
If you don't get the natural lesson, you can't get the spiritual
lesson because it is the natural lesson that illustrates the spiritual
lesson. But if the only thing you get
is the natural lesson, then you've really missed it. And if you
see Christ, if you see the things that the high priest did in the
temple, but you don't see Christ, then you've missed it. It doesn't
make a difference what else you might see or get or whatever. So he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. Now he didn't just prop it up,
did he? He didn't say, I'm going to leave
it in place, but I'm going to go ahead and make this sacrifice
of myself. But I'm going to leave all of
this in place. No. What did he do? He established
the second and he took away the first. He fulfilled it. He satisfied it. By the witch's will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
You know, that's a glorious word, sanctified. And the word simply
means made holy. Made holy. Now, a lot of people
think that there is a process that goes on called sanctification. Now there is the sanctifying
work of the Spirit of God in the people of God, but God's
people are not being sanctified. God's people have been forever
sanctified in Jesus Christ. They are made holy. Now there
is a continual work of the Spirit who works in them, both are willing
to do of His good pleasure and shall until the day of the Lord's
appearing. But that word sanctified, being
sanctified, where are we? We are made holy through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Now some think about the word
saint, and of course the word saint comes from the word sanctified. A saint is somebody who is holy.
Now, we know that the Roman Catholic Church, they make a big deal
out of having these people that are saints. A lot of times you'll
hear people talk about somebody who's a real pious person and
they'll say, oh, well, he's a saint. Well, dear brethren, all of God's
children, all of those whom the Lord Jesus Christ has went to
Calvary's cross in behalf of and made an offering for sin,
they are saints. They have been sanctified. They
have been made holy. By what? By the offering of Jesus
Christ. That's what He said. By the which
will we are sanctified. How? Are we sanctified by praying? Are we sanctified by reading
the Bible? Are we sanctified by doing works? Of any kind, no, we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now, you could put, that does
not mean once for everybody. It means, the term is once, we
might say once and for all, meaning an emphasis on it has been done. He has made a sacrifice once
for all. is never going to be repeated.
It doesn't have to be repeated. Because when that which is perfect
is come, the Scripture says, that which is in parts gone away.
And all of those patterns of the things that came under the
first covenant, they were, or under the Mosaic covenant, they
have passed away because they were imperfect. But when that
which is perfect is come, dear brethren, That was impartial
in a way and we look for Christ, do we not? As that one who has
come the second time without sin unto salvation. What a glorious thought to be
reminded of Christ and all that He has accomplished for us and
that we might give Him praise.