Now we're going to be looking
at that passage that Jim just read in Hebrews chapter 10 concerning
the subject of sanctified by Christ. And the title comes from
that last verse that he read, verse 10, when he speaks of by
the which will, the will of God, we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once or once for all. Now, before I get into that,
I want to read a few verses in Romans chapter eight. That sort
of summarized the whole thought that the apostle was led by the
spirit to bring forth there in Hebrews chapter 10. And it's
in Romans eight and verse three. He speaks of the law. When he
says in Hebrews 10, one for the law, And there's no doubt about
what law he's talking about. He's talking about the old covenant
law, the Mosaic law, the law of Moses, the law of sacrifice,
the ceremonial law, the Ten Commandments, all that law. You know, the Bible
does not segment the law or separate it into different facets as if
they could be separated. We can study them. Now, we can
study the moral law, we can study the ceremonial law, the civil
law, the dietary, all of that. We can study it that way, but
we have to keep in mind that it's all one unit. It stands
and falls together. And we need to understand that.
So you can't say, as some religions do, well, this part of the law
is fulfilled, but this part is not. That's not the way the Bible
relates it or describes it. So when Paul writes here in Romans
8, 3, he says, for what the law could not do. Now in Hebrews
10, he writes about exactly that. He delineates it. What is it
the law could not do? Okay. For what the law could
not do and What it could not do, basically, is it could not
put away our sins. It could not justify us. It could not make us righteous. It could not bring forgiveness
and pardon and purging of sins. Now, why is it, Romans 8, 3 says,
in that it was weak through the flesh? It's because of our sinfulness. That's why the weakness and the
inability is not in the law as law. In other words, we're the
problem. The law's not the problem, we're
the problem. The law was a reflection of the
holy character and nature and will of God. But that law, that
old covenant law, was never given as a means of salvation, never
was. It was given as a way of showing
us our sin and our need of salvation by grace through the promised
Messiah, which they saw in the future. through the types and
the shadows. And like he said, the law was
having a shadow of good things. All right, he says in Romans
8, three, in that it was weak through the flesh. Now, what
was God's will and determination then? God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh. Now Christ had a human body,
but he was not sinful, but he came in the likeness He looked
just like we look as a human being, see. He didn't have a
halo as he walked around Judea, there was no halo around his
head. Now he did show his glory to certain of his disciples,
remember the Mount of Transfiguration, he showed them that, that was
a vision. But as he walked around and talked to people, there was
nothing about his appearance that would just set you off and
strike you as, oh my, we esteemed him not, Isaiah said. His visage,
it's not what people think in these Renaissance paintings or
anything like it. That's not Jesus, folks. That's
just some guy's idea of it, of him. But he came in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin, or as a sacrifice for sin, He
came as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people, condemned
sin in the flesh. Now, how do you condemn sin?
You put it away. You remove it. You take it away. You purge it. You settle the
issues. You pay the debt. Verse four
says that the righteousness of the law, the justice of the law,
what righteousness is, is justice. might be fulfilled in us." Now
what that's talking about is in a human body, Christ fulfilled
the righteousness of the law. Now it's revealed to us and in
us when the Holy Spirit shows us the gospel, brings us to saving
faith and repentance and he says, who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit, walking after the Spirit, believing in,
clinging to, resting in Christ. Now that's kind of a summary
of what we have here in Hebrews chapter 10. Go over there. And
he talks about the word, he uses the word perfect here. Look at
verse one, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come.
Now that puts the law in its place. The law was not substantially
anything, but it was a shadow. of something to come in the future. The law pointed to the future.
And what future is it pointing? To the coming of the Messiah.
The coming of Christ. That's what this law is all about.
That's why Christ told the Pharisees, he said, Moses wrote of me. John chapter five. Moses wrote
of me. He said, you all think you're
gonna be saved by keeping the law of Moses. He said, Moses
will be your judge. You'll be judged by that same
law and you'll be found wanting. But Moses wrote of me. Had you believed Moses, you'd
believe me, Christ said. And it says it's the shadow of
good things to come, not the very image of the things. That
image means a perfect likeness, a perfect image. Christ is the
very image of God. We read that over in Hebrews
chapter one. Let me just read this to you,
how Christ He's the brightness, Hebrews 1.3, he's the brightness
of God's glory and the express image of his person. Now the
law was not that. Christ is. You understand that? The law was just a shadow, was
a picture. You pick up a picture and you
see somebody who you love and they may be far away or they
may be gone. Wouldn't you rather have them with you? If you love
them. In fact, when they come into
the house or come into your presence, you kind of put down the picture,
don't you? Takes away the first, then he may establish the second.
That's what you do. And so that's what the law was. It was a beautiful
thing. There wasn't anything bad about the law. It was a wonderful
thing. It was a revelation of God. But
in and of itself, it wasn't the thing that we're looking for,
the one we're looking for. It's Christ, the Lamb of God. And he says, it's not the very
image of the things, Hebrews 10 one, can never with those
sacrifices. Now what sacrifices were those?
The blood of animals. Can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year, day by day, week by week, month
by month, year by year, continually make the comers, those who would
bring the sacrifices, those who would attend the services, there
unto perfect. Perfect. Now the idea, the thought
of perfection, when we think of perfection, we most always
go to the issue of morality, moral perfection. And certainly
that would be included in the perfection of the law. Anything
less than perfect righteousness is sin, scripture tells us. But the idea of perfect here
is more to describe something that is complete, something that
is finished, a work done. It's, you see it in various,
translated variously in the New Testament, but it's the same
root word. For example, when Christ was hanging on the cross,
right before he was about to give up the ghost, he cried out
in John 19.30, it is what? Finished. Now we need to know
what was finished. He's gonna tell us. And that's
the same root word as perfect. Bible says in Romans 10 for that
Christ is the end, that word end of the law. He's the fulfillment. He's the perfection of the law.
That's the same word, root word. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. You see, that's what the gospel,
the nature of the gospel is the preaching of a perfect, finished,
completed work done only by one person at one time, and that's
Christ. It's not something you have to
finish. You see, the false gospel is the gospel of due. The true
gospel says done. The finished work of Christ,
that's what it's all about. That's the righteousness of God.
And so when it's used to describe the work of Christ, the word
perfect is used to describe the complete payment of the debt
of all the sins of all of his people, which brings about a
complete pardon, which issues forth in a complete perfect salvation."
There's no such thing in the Bible as an open-ended perfection. That Christ did all that he could
do, now the rest is up to you. I was reading an article by a
preacher this morning, talked about how salvation is conditional.
It is conditional, conditioned on Christ. And he fulfilled those
conditions. And because he fulfilled those
conditions perfectly, God's gonna bring all of his people unto
himself. They're going to be saved. Christ
is the end of the law. And so perfect, when it refers
to Christ, refers to the complete righteousness of the law fulfilled
perfectly by Christ. And what he's starting out here,
this is the first point, what the law couldn't do, Christ did.
What the law could not do. It could not make the worshipers,
the attenders, the comers there unto perfect. It could not perfectly
put away their sins. It could not perfectly, satisfy
the justice of God. It could not perfectly, it didn't
at all make them righteous. The old covenant law, it was
a shadow of things to come, not the very image of things. It
could not make them complete. It could not take away sins. He says that down in verse four,
look at it, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins. The law could show us there's
a problem, There's a problem. What is that problem? Sin. But
the law could not cure the problem. Blood of bulls and goats couldn't
do it. The law could show us what's required, perfect righteousness,
but it could not provide that righteousness for us. The law
was given to show us our sin and our need of salvation from
sin by God's free, sovereign grace given freely based on the
righteousness of one to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's
the proof of the law's inability. Look at verse two. He says, for
then would they not have ceased to be offered? The sacrifices
of animals had to be repeated over and over again. I mean,
somebody said it was a bloody religion. Boy, it was too. The
priest of Levi sacrificed every day, every week, every month.
And one time a year, you had the Day of Atonement. Remember,
that's when they slew the lamb on the burning altar, and the
high priest took the blood, the basin of blood, and he took it
into the Holy of Holies one time a year for the sins of the people,
for his own sins and the sins of the people. And then he came
out. Well, if they could have made the worshipers perfect,
forgiven, righteous, then there wouldn't have to have been repeated.
If it has to be repeated, it's not a complete work. It's not
a finished work, that's what he's saying. So that proves that
the law couldn't do that. And then he says, because, verse
two, that the worshipers once purged. What is it to be purged?
It's to be cleansed from sin. Now, they had ceremonial washings. under the old covenant, which
were types and pictures and shadows of the real kind of purging and
washing we need, which is a legal purging, a legal washing, which
means our sins paid for, literally taken away in that sense. Christ,
when he took our sins away, he didn't put them in a big bag
and walk off with them. He simply gave himself an offering. And that's how he put them away.
John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world. And the world, there's his people.
God's elect. And so he says that the worshipers,
once purged, should have no more conscience of sins. Now notice
he doesn't say should have no more consciousness of sins. You
see, even as believers, even as sinners saved by the grace
of God, we are well aware of our sins, aren't we? Every day. Aren't you aware of your sinfulness? Somebody said, well, I don't
sin anymore. Well, you're a liar. That's what
the Bible says. Does that offend you? If we say
we have no sins, we make him a liar. We call God a liar. And
that's worse. Not only are we a liar, we're
calling God a liar. Because he says we're sinners. But what does it mean no more
conscience of sin? The conscience there, as I've
often said to you, the conscience is like the courtroom of your
heart. courtroom of your mind. It's where you tell the difference
between right and wrong. This is right, this is wrong.
I'm gonna do this because it's right, I'm not gonna do that
because it's wrong. It's the courtroom whereby you
either accuse or excuse yourself and others. And by nature, every
person's conscience is defiled, the scripture says. Just like
the heart. And what that means is this.
We have a moral compass whereby we can learn to get along with
each other. We know it's wrong to murder,
wrong to steal, wrong to do this, wrong to do that. But the conscience
is defiled in this way, and this shows the total depravity of
man. When it comes to salvation, when it comes to a right relationship
with God, what it takes to please God, Our conscience is totally
defiled. We don't know the difference
between right and wrong. We're spiritually insane. That's why
the conscience has to be purged. And what is it purged from? The
guilt and the defilement of sin that would bring condemnation.
Over in Hebrews 10 and verse 22, he talks about an evil conscience. You know what an evil conscience
is? It's a guilty conscience which guilt brings condemnation. It's a legal conscience that
drives us to seek ways out of that condemnation that are dishonoring
and displeasing to God. For example, salvation by the
works and the wills of men. That's an evil conscience. Here's
a person, he says, I'm gonna do my best to keep the law in
order to make myself righteous before God. That's an evil conscience. That has to be purged, you say. The blood of bulls and goats
couldn't do it. If they could, they'd have no more conscience.
That means no more condemnation. Doesn't the Bible say for every
one of God's children, there is therefore now no condemnation
in Christ. Do you believe that? I do. It's because the conscience has
been purged. We know it's not our works that brings us out
from under condemnation. We know it's not our sincerity. It's not our decisions. Only
one thing it brings us out from under that condemnation that
we deserve and have earned, the blood of Christ. So if the blood of animals could
have done it, there'd been no more guilt, condemnation of sin. Verse three, it says, but in
those sacrifices, there's a remembrance, again, made of sins every, just
keep bringing them up. Now, somebody might accuse me
of that. Well, you say we're sinners every Sunday. Yeah, I
do it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and Saturday
if you meet here. But I'm not here to lead you into the slew
of despond. You ever heard that term? Go
read Pilgrim's Progress. I'm not here to put you in the
slew of despond. I'll talk about our sinfulness,
but I'm always gonna talk more about the remedy, the cure, the
blood of the crucified one. And so under that old covenant,
it was just raising them up year after year, remembrance. You
remember, we'll see this more next week, But if you look over
at verse 17 of Hebrews 10, God says, where sinners are led to
Christ for perfection, He says, their sins and iniquities, well,
I remember no more. Now we know God doesn't change,
He doesn't forget things, but what does that mean? It means
He won't hold them against us. He won't bring charges against
us. He won't impute our sins to us. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. You see that? That's
a blessing, isn't it? God will not charge his people
with this. Why? He charged them to Christ and
Christ purged them away. We're charged with his righteousness. His righteousness is imputed
to us, see? That's comforting. And so he
says in those old covenant sacrifices, it was raised every year. But
verse four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins. Well, here's the second point. What the law couldn't do, Christ
did, sanctified by Christ. Look at verse five. Wherefore,
for this reason, When he cometh into the world, when Christ came
into the world, he saith, and here's a quotation from the Old
Testament, from Psalm, Psalm 40, sacrifice an offering thou
wouldest not. The blood of animals wouldn't
do it. They wouldn't get the job done,
that's what he's saying. God would not accept those things
as any type of perfection or forgiveness or righteousness.
They were types, they were pictures, they were shadows. God ordained
them for that purpose, but not to bring perfection, not to take
away sins, but a body hast thou prepared me. That's speaking
of God in human flesh, Jesus Christ, the word made flesh.
He had to have a human body. You can read about that in Hebrews
chapter two, especially those last verses. He had to be made
like unto his brethren without sin. Christ was every bit man
and every bit God. Every bit human, just like us,
except without sin. But he had to have a human body.
Why? Because he had to die. He had to pay the debt. That's
the sin debt, is death. The soul that sinneth must die.
Christ didn't sin, but he had our sins charged to his account.
He was made our sin offering. And so God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin as a substitute,
a sacrifice for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. This is his
qualification, you see. A body thou hast prepared me. And that body was prepared by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin, conceived in the
womb of the virgin, without the aid of man. A body thou hast
prepared me. That's what it's all about. Look
at verse six. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast
had no pleasure. Now, God ordained those things
and he accepted those things in a temporal ceremonial way. And in that sense he took pleasure,
but the pleasure that he's talking about here is that completeness
of perfection that puts him away forever and ever. You know how
God describes that? He said they're as far away as
the east is from the west. Never meet. He said, I cast them
behind my back into the depths of the ocean. They can never
be brought up again. You see, if Christ died for my
sins, I can never be lost eternally. That's how important his death
is, his blood is, his righteousness. And they can't be brought up
again. These people who say, well, you can be saved and then
lost, they don't know the gospel, folks. They don't know. They don't know what he's talking
about here. He says, God takes pleasure in the death of his
son. It pleased the God. It pleased God to bruise him,
Isaiah 53, 10. That doesn't mean God takes some
kind of a sick, sadistic pleasure out of pain. It means that God
is satisfied. Just like when God created the
world in six days, he was satisfied and he rested on the seventh
day. That doesn't mean he got tired and had to re-energize
like we do. It means he was just satisfied.
He finished the work. Well, God is satisfied with the
work of his son. He was never satisfied that way
by the blood of bulls and goats. He commanded them and they used
them. And if they didn't, he would have brought punishment
down on, but it could never put away sin, could never bring perfection. And so he says, when he said
to Christ, he said about Christ, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. Verse seven says,
then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written
of me. What book is he talking about? He's talking about the
book of God's eternal decrees. This is an amazing thing. This
was God's plan all along. I've heard of people saying,
well, you know, when Adam fell, God tried this way and it didn't
work. So he tried another way. And
then finally he got to the law and it didn't work. Now he said,
no, It was God's plan all along to send his son into the world
to put away the sins of his chosen people. Second Timothy chapter
one, verses nine and 10 talks about a salvation which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. This was no plan
B. This was no contingency. It says
here, it says in verse eight, to do thy will, O God, in verse
seven. And look at verse eight, above
when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not, those things didn't get the job done.
Neither hath pleasure therein which are offered by the law.
And then said he, look at verse nine. Then said he, lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. The first there is that old covenant
law, it was first in time. The second there is the new covenant
established in time by Christ that came afterward. But the
new covenant was the establishment of an eternal everlasting covenant
made before time. In other words, when God instituted
the law on Mount Sinai, it was never intended to last forever. It was always set up. to be fulfilled,
and abolished he taketh away the first by way of fulfillment
that he may establish the second. And so that brings us to verse
10. By the witch will, by God's will, we are sanctified. What does it mean to be sanctified?
It means to be set apart. If you know what biblical sanctification
is, You'll know that God chose a people, gave them to Christ,
sent Christ into the world to put away their sins and work
out a perfect righteousness for them that would ensure and demand
their eternal salvation. Set apart, set apart from who?
Set apart from the world. That's what it means. How are
we set apart here? Through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. That's his sacrifice, that's
his blood, that's his death on the cross. They're set apart
by his death. And he says once. Now if you,
in your King James version, you see the words for all are in
italics. That means they weren't in the original manuscripts.
But the translators added them for clarity. Some say that means
once for all time. That's good. One offering, he
doesn't have to be killed every Sunday. That's why we don't have
mass. We meet to celebrate the death
of Christ that he accomplished in one offering. We don't crucify
him every Sunday. Or every Saturday or whenever.
Once for all time. That's how important, how valuable
the blood of the God-man was. It's over! What's over? Our sins are put away. Did you
hear what Jesus said to me? My sins are all taken away. Your sins are pardoned and you're
set free. They're all taken away. And then
others say it means once for all of his people, all his sheep,
all his church, all whom the Father hath given to him. That's
right. They were all set apart. We're
sanctified. Now next week I'm gonna get into
a little bit more concerning the issue of justification. We're
justified. What does it mean to be justified?
It means to be forgiven of all our sins on a just ground. What is the ground? The blood
of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. It means to be declared
righteous legally in the sight of God. On what ground? The righteousness
of Christ imputed. Sanctification means to be set
apart. Sanctification is a wider term
than justification. It reaches every realm of salvation. From before the foundation of
the world, we were sanctified, set apart by God the Father when
he chose us in Christ and gave us to Christ. Sanctified by the Son when He
died for us on the cross, we were in Him. He's our representative.
He's our substitute. He's our surety. Our sins were
imputed to Him, His righteousness to us. He's our Redeemer. He
died for His people. He gave His life for the sheep.
They were set apart in Him on the cross. When He died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. In him, see, not personally, but in him. And then we're sanctified
by the Holy Spirit when he brings us under the preaching of the
gospel and gives us life in the new birth and brings us to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works. That's sanctification. How's all that come about? through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. Again, that speaks
of the perfection accomplished by Christ, one offering of himself
for the salvation of his people. Look at Hebrews 10, 14. I'll
be dealing with this next week. He says, for by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Oh, I'll
tell you, perfect. Again, when it's used to describe
the work of Christ, that's his complete payment of all the sins
of all his people, which brings about complete pardon. It's the
complete righteousness of the law fulfilled perfectly for us
in him. We have a righteousness that's
complete, perfected, that cannot be taken away, that cannot be
contaminated. It's the righteousness of Christ
imputed. As our surety, Christ took our
sin dead upon himself. He was made sin. As our substitute,
Christ took our place under the wrath of God and he died. As
our redeemer, he paid our debt with his death perfectly. He
took away our sins. He purged our sin. And it's not
our believing that guarantees the success of his work. You
know what does? His one offering, once. We do believe. But that's part of the gift of
God that comes from the life of Christ. We don't seal the deal. We don't
make Him successful. He makes us successful. Understand
the perfection of His work. Once for all, one time for all
of God's chosen people, once for all time. Either way, it
shows us that His one offering is the guarantee of the complete
salvation of all for whom He died who are sanctified in Him. And God will not impute our sins
to us. He's imputed righteousness. God
will not remember our sins anymore. Oh, He sees them, but He doesn't
hold them against us. He's the God of all grace, sanctified
by Christ. All right.