Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Hebrews in the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 10, and my main
text for this message is verse 14. Hebrews 10.14 which reads,
"...for by one offering heath," referring to Christ and His one
offering, "...hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."
Hebrews 10.14. And the title of the message
is, Justified and Sanctified. Justified and Sanctified. Now the blessing Blessings of
justification, justification before God, and sanctification
are both the product, the fruit of God's free and sovereign grace
that is founded upon and found in the glorious person and the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be justified before
God, to be sanctified by God, These are not works that a sinner
accomplishes or completes by his efforts or his will. They
are totally the work of God, the product of His grace, based
upon the righteousness, which is the merits of the obedience
unto death of Christ, based upon the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's a verse over in 1 Corinthians
1, It's verse 30, which says, of God are we, that is believers,
we're made of God in Christ, or Christ is made of God unto
us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In other words,
everything, and that covers the whole realms, all the realms
of salvation. The beginning of it in the eternal
wisdom of God, which was before the foundation of the world.
For example, the book of Proverbs chapter eight speaks of that,
but the whole Bible speaks of it. And then righteousness, wisdom,
righteousness. Righteousness is justification. The word righteous and the word
just are virtually the same word, just translated differently in
different contexts. but virtually meaning the same
thing, righteous and just, before God now. And then sanctification,
Christ has made my sanctification, and then redemption. Of course,
we know that Christ redeemed the people of God, God's elect
on the cross. He paid the price. He came to
this world and walked as the surety, the substitute, and the
redeemer of his people. having their sins, all the sins
of God's chosen people, imputed, charged to Him. And He went to
the cross and He paid the sin debt with the price of His own
life, His blood, His death on the cross. And so He purged away
the sins of His people. And therefore, he redeemed them.
But then there's also another redemption that the Bible speaks
of, which is the final glorification of God's people. That's called
a redemption. And what he's talking about here
is because of what Christ did on the cross, every one of God's
people, every one of the elect, every one of Christ's sheep,
will be saved and ultimately glorified. And those are all
blessings of God's grace. Salvation is not something that
a sinner earns or contributes to earning. It is totally free
grace. And that's a glorious thing if
you understand. If God ever shows you your sinfulness
and your depravity, you'll certainly be grateful that all of salvation
was conditioned on Christ and He fulfilled those conditions.
But this justification, being justified before God, and being
sanctified, sanctification by God, are both blessings of God's
grace. In the book of Hebrews chapter
10, the whole book of Hebrews is the Word of God that is describing
the greater glory of Christ His glorious person, His finished
work on the cross, His redemptive work, His blood, His righteousness,
the greater glory of Christ and His finished work, over and above
the old covenant sacrifices, the old covenant priesthood.
Those things were temporal. They were earthly. And they were
temporary. They were never meant to, it
was never intended that those things continue on forever and
ever and ever. They were typical. They were
types, they were symbolic. They were shadows of something
better to come, and that's Christ. And back up here in Hebrews chapter
10, look at this in verse one. He says, for the law, having
a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the
things. You see, the law was, the old covenant law, the law
of Moses, was given as a shadow, a type, a picture. of something
better to come. And he says, that law can never,
with those sacrifices, the animal sacrifices, which they offered
year by year, continually make the comers, the worshipers, those
who engaged in it, thereunto perfect. Couldn't make them perfect. Now what does that mean? It means
it couldn't complete what they needed. It couldn't finish the
job, that word perfect. Doesn't mean morally perfect.
We know the law cannot make any sinner morally perfect. All the
law can do is show us our sinfulness. The law cannot make us righteous.
The law can show us what righteousness is and what we need, but it cannot
make us righteous. But the completion of wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption could not be found
in the law. And look at verse 2 of Hebrews
10. It says, for then would they
not have ceased to be offered. If the law could have finished
the job, the work, then those sacrifices would have ceased.
There'd be no more need to repeat them over and over again. He
says in verse 2, because that the worshipers once purged That
means once cleansed from all their sins. The law could not
put away sin. The law could not pay the debt
of sin. The law couldn't do that. The
animal blood couldn't do that. He said if they could, they would
have ceased to be offered because the worshipers, verse two, once
purged, should have had no more conscience of sins. Now that
consciousness of sin doesn't mean an awareness of sin. My
sins have been purged away, cleansed. I have been perfected in Christ,
but I'm still well aware and knowledgeable of what I am in
myself, my sins. But the conscience there, you
see the word conscience and how it's spelled, has to do with
the seat of judgment within our minds and our hearts by which
we accuse and excuse, know the difference between right and
wrong. And what he's talking about here is the guilty conscience,
the condemned conscience. That's what he's talking about.
In other words, what he's saying, if the law, the animal blood,
could have purged my sins away, they would have stopped, they
wouldn't have to be repeated, and my conscience would be cleared
of condemnation. But the law couldn't do that.
Look at verse three. He says, in those sacrifices,
there's a remembrance again made of sins every year. In other
words, it's kept bringing them back up. Legally, see. And it says in what? Verse four,
for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sin. They couldn't do it. They were
types, but they were types and pictures and foreshadowings of
someone and something very much greater who could put away sins,
and you know who I'm talking about, that's Christ. And the
rest of Hebrews chapter 10 shows that, how Christ, God sent Christ. He said, a body hast thou prepared
me. Christ, who is God, the Son of God, the second person of
the Trinity. Well, there was a human body
prepared for him in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy
Spirit. because he had to come and die. That's why he had to
be a human. He's God and man in one person. Man cannot create, give, and
sustain life, but God can, so he had to be God. God cannot
die, but man can, so he had to be man. He's God, man. He's God
manifest in the flesh. And in his coming and in his
obedience unto death, verse nine says, he took away the first,
that is that old covenant, he abolished it by way of fulfillment
that he may establish the second, that's the new covenant. You
remember he told his disciples when he instituted the Lord's
Supper, this is the new testament, the new covenant in my blood. That's the finishing of the work.
And so he says, look at verse 10 of Hebrews 10. He says, by
the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once. Now the words for all were not
in the original. It was added by the translators
for clarification. But it could mean once for all
time. And that's what our text says in verse 14. By one offering
he hath perfected forever. and so once for all time, and
it could be once for all of his own people. He didn't do it for
everybody without exception. That's a heresy. The death of Christ was not for
all people without exception. It was for his sheep, and his
sheep hear his voice, and they believe in him, they follow him.
That's believers. And so he says in verse 11, of
Hebrews 10. He says, and every priest standeth
daily ministering, offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. Now that's the old covenant priest,
all the Levites. They would offer the sacrifices
all over again. It had to be repeated because
they could never finish the work of purging the sins away. Verse
12, but this man, this person, Christ, after he had offered
One sacrifice for sins forever. See, his one sacrifice forever
sat down on the right hand of God. Now that means all that
he did in his obedience unto death, he died, he was buried,
he arose again the third day, he ascended unto the Father.
That's a completed, finished, perfect, successful work. And he sat down, he finished
the work. You know, in the tabernacle of old and in the temple, there
were no chairs, because that work was never finished. But
Christ, the high priest of his people, the sacrifice of his
people, the lamb, the substitute, the surety, substitute, the redeemer,
when he did his work, in John 19, 30, he said, it is finished. It's perfected, it's completed. And when he ascended under, and
the proof of that was he was raised from the dead, and he
ascended under the Father, and he sat down at the right hand
of the Father. This man, this person. And so
look at verse 13, it was a victorious work, because he says, from henceforth,
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. He will not
fail, he has not failed, he can never fail. People today, they
say, well, if you don't accept Christ, he died for you in vain,
oh no. If you don't accept Christ, if
you don't believe in him, if you're not brought to faith in
Christ, that means he didn't die for you. He didn't fail. But look at verse 14, now this
is our text. For by one offering he hath perfected, he completed
the work. That refers to our justification
before God. Forever, them that are sanctified,
that's our sanctification. Now, what is it to be justified?
Well, justification refers to the legal aspect, what I call
the legal realm of salvation. I wrote a book called What is
Salvation? where I divided salvation as it's portrayed and as it's
described and revealed in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation
in four realms. And I call them realms because
it's the kingdom of God and he's the king. Christ is the king.
And we have the eternal realm, which refers to God in his eternal
presence and nature. That before the foundation of
the world, God chose whom he would save and gave them to Christ. 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. There is an eternal realm. Christ
was made the surety of God's people in the covenant of grace
made before time began. Then you have the legal realm.
That refers to our justification. I'm coming back to that. Then
you have the spiritual realm. That refers to sanctification
by the Spirit. And then you have the glorified
realm. Those are the four realms of salvation. Well, to be justified
is the legal realm. It's like standing before a holy
God in a court of law, having been accused of a crime of which
we're guilty. What is the crime? The crime
is sin. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. It's iniquity. We fall short. That's what that means. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The word sin
there means miss the mark. Come short of the mark. What
is the mark? The mark is perfection. It's
righteousness. And so what happens? Well, man
by nature, as we are naturally born, what do we do? Well, we
try to work to make ourselves righteous, but we always fall
short. Paul in the book of Romans chapter
nine talks about Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness. but they did not attain righteousness.
Why? Because they sought it by works
of the law and not by faith. That is, not by looking to and
resting in Christ. So this is what it's about. To
be justified means this. It means legally in the sight
of Almighty God to be cleared of all guilt and condemnation. Now here I stand before God,
a sinner, who deserves and earned nothing but damnation and death. How can God, how can I appear
before God and God look at me, God who knows my heart, knows
my thoughts, how can God honestly and justly look at me and declare
me not guilty, cleared of all charges? How can he do that and
still be true to himself? He cannot sin. He cannot be a hypocrite. He cannot act like he's doing
something. He cannot just call something what it's not. If God
declares me not guilty, cleared of all charges, then I must be
really not guilty and cleared of all charges. How is that possible? And that's the issue, that's
the mysterious question that man by nature, in all the religions
of man, cannot answer. That's the mystery of mysteries,
but the answer comes from God alone in the revelation of the
gospel. And the gospel says this, remember
Paul wrote back in Romans 1 verse 16. He said, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek
also. And in verse 17, here's your
answer. For therein, in that gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Now that's, the answer is the
righteousness of God. Well, what is the righteousness
of God? Well, in 2 Corinthians 5.21, Paul wrote this. He said,
for he hath made him, God the Father, hath made God the Son,
to be sin. And that word sin there is the
same word for sin in Romans 3.23. It's missed the mark. For he
hath made him to be sin for us. And it says who knew no sin.
That's not referring to us. That's referring to Christ. For
he hath made him to be sin for us, for his people, all God's
elect, Christ who knew no sin, he was not a sinner, he never
became a sinner, he was not made a sinner, but he was made sin
in what way? Well listen, God hath made him
to be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. So how does God justify
sinners? How can a sinner be just with
God? How can a man born of woman in
sin be clean? The answer is in the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace. It goes like this in Romans 5.21.
For as sin hath reigned or ruled unto death, sin demands death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. And here's what he said. This
is the gospel that declares Christ to be my surety. And that means
this. That means that Christ had put
upon him, he was made sin, in what sense? The Father charged
my sin debt to Christ. And Christ willingly took that
sin debt upon himself. Put it on my account, I'll repay
it. That's what he said, basically.
My sins were imputed, charged, accounted to Christ. So that
God does not impute them to me. That's why David wrote in Psalm
32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. The Bible says in Romans 8 and
verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. So to
be justified is to be in Christ who is my surety, who came to
earth and stood as my substitute and went to the cross and took
my punishment to redeem me from sins. He paid the debt in full.
And what did he do? He established a righteousness,
not the righteousness of a mere man, but the righteousness of
the God man, the righteousness of God, which God has imputed
to me. So to be justified means to be
legally declared not guilty based on the blood of Christ, justified
by his blood. It means to be legally cleared
of all charges because Christ took my charges and paid my debt
in full. He satisfied the justice of God
in my place. That's why it's called justification.
That's what a propitiation, you heard that term? Propitiation,
that's what that's all about. A sin-bearing sacrifice who brings
satisfaction. He paid the debt. in full. He purged away my sin. In what
sense? He paid the debt in full, drank
damnation dry, fulfilled the law, and brought forth an everlasting
righteousness, which God has imputed, charged, accounted to
me. I stand before God, not in a
righteousness that I made, but in the righteousness that Christ
made. And that's what verse 14 says, for by one offering he
hath perfected forever. That's right. In His death, He
finished the work of purging away all the sins of all His
people, given to Him by the Father before the foundation of the
world. He cleansed them. He brought forth righteousness,
a completed righteousness, not a partial righteousness. He didn't
just get me started, then I finished the work. And it's not that he
died for me and then my believing or my accepting him kicks it
in or finishes the work. No, he completed it. It's a perfect
righteousness. Paul quotes David in Romans four
and verse six, says, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without words. So who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's, now that's to be justified. justified. That's the legal aspect of that.
For by one offering, he hath perfected forever. not just part
of the way. If we're truly saved, we cannot
be lost because He perfected that work forever justified before
God based upon His righteousness imputed. Who did He justify? Who did He perfect that work
for? It says in verse 14, them that are sanctified. Sanctification is a wider term
than justification. Justification is the legal realm
of salvation, and justification shows us the ground upon which
God saves His people. The ground upon which God forgives,
the ground upon which God justifies, the ground upon which God blesses
His people and receives them. But sanctification has a wider
reach as far as the whole realms of salvation. For example, there's
sanctification by God the Father when He chose His people before
the foundation of the world and gave them to Christ. The word
sanctify and the word holy and sanctified are the same thing,
basically. It means to be set apart. When God chose His people
before the foundation of the world in sovereign, unconditional,
electing grace, He set them apart. He chose them. Why did He choose
them? Nobody knows other than God.
It wasn't because of anything in us or good or bad or in us. It wasn't for any foreseen cooperation. It was totally unconditional.
And then we were set apart by God the Son on the cross when
He died for the sins of His people. Sanctified by Christ in redeeming
grace. and then sanctified by the Holy
Spirit. This is where most people understand
or try to understand sanctification. We're sanctified by the Holy
Spirit in the new birth. When the Holy Spirit separates
God's people for whom Christ died, he separates them out and
brings them under the preaching of the gospel And what does he
do? He gives them spiritual life
that he raises them from the dead. You see, by nature, we're
born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, having fallen in Adam,
ruined by the fall. But having been chosen by God
and redeemed by the blood of Christ, we must be regenerated,
that's the term, and converted, that's the new birth. You must
be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of God. And so the
Holy Spirit sanctifies us when He separates us out, brings us
out from under the world and brings us under the preaching
of the gospel and gives us spiritual life, spiritual eyes to see,
spiritual ears to hear, a new heart, the Bible calls it, a
new mind, a new spirit. And how do you know that you
have that? Because you hear the gospel in a different way. Whereas
before you heard it without any concern, maybe even hatred, you
hear it with the eye of faith. He gives us faith to lay hold
of Christ and believe in Him and rest in Him for all salvation,
for all justification, for all sanctification, for all forgiveness. And He causes us to turn away
from ourselves, to repent of our dead works and idolatry.
and that's sanctification by the Spirit. For by one offering
Christ hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's
what it is to be justified and that's what it is to be sanctified.
I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.