Well, come back with me to Hebrews
chapter 9 this morning, and I'm sticking with the end of the
passage that we looked at last week, the verses, especially
13, 14, and 15 of this. I suspect something that I said
last week disturbed some people. In fact, I know it did. I suggested
that it was not Christ's obedience to the law as a man that makes
us righteous before God. Because a lot of people think
that, that it's Christ's obedience as a man under the law that now
is passed over to the people of God, that they become the
righteousness of God in him. I suggested that it was his death
that makes us righteous. Verse 15, by means of death,
we receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Now, let me stress,
this isn't a matter for division. Some of my dearest friends believe
what I question in what I've just said, but we're one in sovereign
grace. We're one in particular redemption. We're one in the doctrines of
justification from eternity, the absolute sovereignty of God,
and so much more. But it is not wrong to seek to
grow in grace and knowledge. Because, let's just remind ourselves,
it's only the revealed Word of God, only the Bible, that is
infallible. Not any of us. Not any of us. Not any of us. So I ask you to
study, to pray, and to determine in your own mind. But I'll quickly
just give you my reasons for saying what I said last week.
First of all, first of all, I believe that Galatians chapter two is
quite clear. Galatians chapter two and verse
16, you know this. A man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we
who have believed that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified. Verse 21, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Nobody is made righteous by law
works, and I would suggest that that includes even Christ's legal
obedience to the law. It isn't that that makes me righteous.
That righteousness of Christ was not to establish righteousness,
but to prove it. Secondly, Christ did not become
righteous by legal obedience. but was righteous by virtue of
his inherent divinity. Hence, he perfectly obeyed. He wasn't righteous because he
obeyed, he obeyed because he was righteous. Thirdly, just
as the Passover lamb was taken, a lamb without blemish and without
spot, and it was examined for 14 days before it was killed
for the Passover, Christ was examined under the law. He made
him, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem those
who are under the law. lived under his own divine law
to prove that he was the fitting Passover lamb. Fourthly, offended
divine justice is only satisfied by death. Offended divine justice
is only satisfied by death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. We sung it in the hymn just before,
I can't find the verse right now, but it was in there. It's by the death of Christ that
his people are made the righteousness of God in him, which is exactly
my fifth point, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. Christ's being made sin,
him who knew no sin, him being made sin and bearing its penalty
is what makes his elect bride righteous. It's his death that
makes us righteous. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. And
verse 14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. It's his death that perfects
his people forever. By one offering he's perfected
forever them that are sanctified. His people are made perfect,
not by Christ's righteous life, but by his one offering. God
became man in order to die, and thus to fit his elect for eternity. We haven't time now, but read
Hebrews chapter 2 again. He became a man not to perfectly
obey the law, he became a man to die for his people. Ah, you
say, what about Romans 5, 19? By one man's disobedience, many
are made sinners. So in the same way, by the obedience
of one man, many are made righteous. There it is, they say. That's
it. That proves that it was his righteous works under the law
that makes us the righteousness of God in him. Now, what was
the obedience? What was the obedience? Philippians chapter 2. He humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. His perfect obedience was simply
the consequence of his inherent divinity and the proof of his
fitness to redeem his people from the curse of the law. So,
think about it. pray but whatever you conclude
I respect your right to disagree with me because in the end of
it all whichever of us is right the people of God are made the
righteousness of God in him and fitted for eternity for that
for that inheritance. So anyway, that's the reason
why I want to linger in these verses in Hebrews chapter 9 verses
12 to 15. I want to think more about the
power of the blood of Christ. That's what I've called it, the
power of the blood of Christ, the superiority of Christ's blood
and his offering and its effect on us as his people. Okay. My first point is this, the purifying
power of animal sacrifices. Now look at verse 13. Look at
verse 13. If the blood of bulls and of
goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth
to the purifying of the flesh, then he goes on to make his point.
And I've always been a little bit puzzled by this because we
keep saying that those Old Testament rites are just pictures and they
achieve absolutely nothing. So what's this that it did sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh? Well, we read in Numbers chapter
19. Israel's Old Testament worship,
the pattern of worship given to Moses on Mount Sinai by God,
directly, as a man speaks to his friend face to face, Israel's
Old Testament worship separated them from the other nations round
about. What did it do? Well, number
one, it taught them that which this world seems to know nothing
about in these days in which we live. It taught them that
there is a God who is holy, who dwells in unapproachable light,
who is above all things and before all things and beyond all things,
is the one to whom we must give an account. It taught them God's
holiness. and their need as sinners before
him for an inward holiness without which, as it says later in Hebrews,
without which no man shall see God. If you're not as righteous
as God requires, you will not see God. Oh, well, I'm trying
my best. I'm doing this, that, and the other. Surely he'll be
content with that. No, he won't. Absolutely not. I'm telling you,
he won't. I don't care how good you think you are. You will never,
ever impress God with your righteousness. The only righteousness that makes
us the righteousness of God in him is that righteousness of
Christ. The righteousness of God in him
made ours because Christ has redeemed us from the law's curse.
Under the decree of God he makes his people, by his death he makes
his people the righteousness of God in him. So these people,
these Israelites, were the only ones who knew something of the
holiness of God. I mean, most people living in
those days had a sense of God. It's only relatively recently
that the overwhelming population has swallowed hook, line, and
sinker, the nonsense of evolution and the godlessness that goes
with it. No, most people had a sense that They were the creation
of the living God. And they knew he was above and
beyond all things. But these Israelite people had
the special revelation of God to them. He'd impressed upon
them the need for a sacrifice that would pay the debt of their
sin before God and thereby make them right with God. And so Abraham,
when he was instructed to take his only Isaac, not his only
son, his only Isaac, up the mountain, Mount Moriah, and sacrifice him
there. Take him and sacrifice him. The
one you've waited so long to see, take him and sacrifice him. And they go, and Isaac, who must
have been a fit, strong young man, could have easily resisted
his aged father, but went obediently. They went up the mountain, and
he says, I see the wood and the fire that we've got for the sacrifice,
but where is the lamb? And Abraham says, my son God
will provide himself a lamb for a sacrifice. He's Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord will provide. And so these people were given
certain ceremonies and one which is hinted at here the blood of
bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer. The blood of bulls
and goats refers to the day of atonement, the annual day when
the high priest and only the high priest with the right specified
blood of atonement went into the forbidden part of the tabernacle,
the holiest of all, and went with bull's blood for his own
sins and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. And then he went
in with the blood of a goat, which was sacrificed for the
sins of the people. They laid their hand, there's
that hymn that says, I lay my hand on that head of Christ,
My sin transferred to him that he might pay for it. And it pictured
what Christ would do. And the sprinkling on the mercy
seat pointed to Christ at Calvary. It pointed to him as the substitute
for his people. The substitute doing that which
they couldn't do for themselves. In their place, in my place condemned
he stood. made my pardon with his blood.
He paid the sin debt of his people and made his people the righteousness
that God requires. We read in Isaiah 40, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. Is that the front door open?
Sorry about noises we get because it's summer and the door's open
so we hear funny noises outside. But the point I was going to
make is in Isaiah chapter 40, comfort my people says your God. And he says this, why should
you be comforted? Because you have received of
the Lord for your sins double. In other words, the perfect reflection,
the perfect balance. The justice of God balances the
sins of his people with the double that he's required to pay for
those sins, and that was the blood of Christ. Animal blood
itself is worthless for redemption. We know that. We're told it time
and time again. but it points to Christ's effectual redemption. Effectual, gets the job done.
Effectual, it works. Effectual, ineffectual, doesn't
work. This is effectual redemption. Do you want to know that you
are redeemed from the curse of the law? You need the effectual
redemption accomplished by Christ in his death. It's effectual
It was then, in the Old Testament type, that the priest went in
and they were all, is God going to accept this? And although
they knew that that blood of those animals, the spiritual
worshippers knew that the blood of those animals could do nothing,
but what it pointed to, they looked beyond the immediate picture. They looked beyond to the promised
seed of the woman who would come. They looked to the promised fulfillment
of the picture, the antitype, that which would fulfill it.
Then, there was the ceremonial cleansing, and we read it earlier
in Numbers chapter 19. Numbers chapter 19 speaks about
a red heifer. Take a red heifer, and this is
for the high priest, and he's to take it outside the camp,
and not he himself, but another is to slay that red heifer before
his eyes, and then they're to burn it, and to keep the ashes,
and to mix it with water for cleansing. Red? Why a red heifer? Red speaks
of guilt. If you look at Isaiah chapter
one and verse 18, God says this to us. He says it to you. Come
now, let us reason together. This is God saying to you and
me. Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins
be as scarlet red. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. They shall be cleaned completely
away. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool, like white sheep's wool. They shall be white,
they shall be white. The heifer, the red heifer, was
speaking of guilt, the guilt of sin. But this was a heifer
without spot. So itself wasn't guilty. It was
a clean, without spot, perfect heifer, but red. So it pictured,
it was a picture. It pictured the guilt of the
sins of the people of God on the spotless Lamb of God. This
heifer, you might remember from when we read it, had never been
yoked. It never had, you know, the yoke
is the thing they put on it so that it bears its burden, it
pulls its plough, it does what it needs to do. This heifer had
never been yoked. It had never been constrained. It had never been constrained.
So Christ, fulfilling the picture, wasn't constrained to go to the
cross. He went willingly as the offering
to God. And he went not within Jerusalem,
but outside Jerusalem, outside the camp. This was to be done
outside the camp. It was outside the camp that
the heifer was to be slain. And there's that old hymn that
says, there is a green hill far away without outside a city wall
where the dear Lord was crucified, who died to save all his people.
And so in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 10, we read this, Hebrews
13 and verse 10, we read, we have an altar. Sorry, is that
the right verse? No, I don't think it is. I don't
think that's the right verse. Oh, no, verse 12, sorry. Wherefore
Jesus also, that he might sanctify, make holy the people with his
own blood. Notice what makes the people
holy is his own blood. He suffered without, outside
the gate. That's the fulfillment of the
picture of the red heifer. He didn't kill himself. Jesus
didn't kill himself, but he submitted himself to the Jewish rulers
and to the Roman forces and under their hands he was killed as
that red heifer was. The blood was sprinkled seven
times, it's perfect, seven speaks of divine perfection. It was
burnt whole with cedarwood and with hyssop and scarlet, and
the ashes of it all were to be kept clean and dry. It was to
be put in a clean place, which I think means keep them clean
and dry because they're to be used repeatedly for a ceremonial
cleansing. What happened was this. Under
the Old Testament law, the leper was pronounced unclean. Under
the Old Testament law, a woman in the days following the birth
of a child was considered ceremonially unclean. A menstrual woman was
considered unclean. Anybody that had any contact
with any dead person or even any dead animal was ceremonially
unclean, and they were barred from coming into the camp and
having social contact with the others. How were you to get out
of this restriction that you couldn't mix with others? You
were to wash. with water, running water, containing
that red heifer's ashes. And then, if you did that, you
would be pronounced clean. And what was the end result of
it? You who were banned from mixing with everybody else were
readmitted to the congregation. That's what it means at the end
of verse 13, where it says that that rite, which in and of itself
doesn't do anything, but at least it did this, the people that
were ceremonially unclean were allowed to come back into the
camp. and mix with everybody else as if they were clean. It's
sanctified. It made holy to the purifying
of the flesh. It's sanctified to the purifying
of the flesh. It's a strong, strong picture. In itself, it's ineffectual for
spiritual blessings. The spiritual blessings only
come by faith, looking beyond the picture to the fulfillment
in the Messiah who was to come. So if that worked, if that made
it that somebody unclean because they touched a dead body, they
went and washed with this water, with these ashes of this heifer,
and then the priest would say, right, this person's clean from
now on. It was the decree of God. They can come and mix in
the camp. If that worked, if that was effective,
how much more? Verse 14, how much more shall
the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, how much more shall that purge, clean
your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? The
picture is fulfilled, and the theme of Hebrews of better is
continued. You know it says in chapter 1
that Christ the Son is better than the angels. It says in chapter
3 that he's better than Moses and all that system. He's better
than the Sabbath day because he is the fulfillment of the
Sabbath day. He's better, better, better. The legal system was weak. The
system of that first, that Mosaic covenant was weak. It could not
purge, cleanse the conscience from dead works. It could accomplish
only ceremonial, social cleansing, but it couldn't secure the promise. What promise? Look at the end
of verse 15. Look at the end of verse 15.
They which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. When you think about your mortality,
It's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment. When
you think about your mortality, there is nothing more important
in this world or in eternity. than the promise of eternal inheritance. But that legal system couldn't
secure the promise of eternal inheritance. Constant repetition
was required. It was annually that the high
priest carried out the rites of the Day of Atonement. It was
regular. Daily, the ordinary priests killed
the sacrifices in the holy place. Constant repetition. What does
constant repetition suggest? that it didn't work the first
time, so you have to repeat it. The Levitical priests remained
standing because the work wasn't finished. The Levitical priests
didn't sit down in the holy place and then in the holiest of all,
couldn't sit down because the work was not finished. But Christ,
when he had finished his work, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, when
he purged our sins, sat down. He sat down. He cried it is finished. He finished the work and he sat
down, meaning the work is finished. The pictures stimulated a sense
of God. but separating sin, that sin
which separates, your sins have separated between you and your
God. That separating sin was not purged, was not cleansed. Look at chapter 10 and verse
1 to have this underlined. For the law, the Mosaic law,
having a shadow, a picture, a type, having a shadow
of good things. What good things to come? Of
being right with God. It had a shadow of it, but not
the very image of the things, not the reality, can never, with
those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually,
make the comers thereunto perfect. Couldn't make them the righteousness
of God. Couldn't make them what God requires,
because sin was still outstanding. If it had worked, verse 2, they
would have ceased to offer it. They would have sat down because
it was done. But no, they couldn't. They had to remain standing.
And like most religion today, most of what calls itself Christianity,
the outward motions of it satisfy social appearance, a sort of
a ceremonial cleansing, But anyone made spiritually alive by God's
Spirit knows the deficiency of it all. Knows that you're going
to church and you're going through the rites and ceremonies and
the liturgies that they pronounce does nothing for you in terms
of your standing with God for eternity, but contrast the blood
of Christ. Contrast the blood of Christ
which fulfills the picture, which fulfilled that Old Testament
picture. Because that blood of Christ,
it says there, He offered himself through the eternal Spirit. He
who was without spot offered himself to God. He who was God
offered himself to God. How much shall that blood purge
your conscience from dead works? That blood of Christ purges the
conscience, the dead conscience, wounded conscience, the bad conscience,
the conscience that is loaded with the sense of sin, with its
dead works, its works which lead to death and separation from
God. It purges the conscience from dead works. What is it about
blood? Why is there all this talk of
blood? I've said before, I remember John Betjeman, who was poet laureate
in this country when I was growing up, He's written some lovely
poetry, and I love some of his poetry, but I always remember
him talking about the hymns in the Christian religion, and how
he loved some of the poetry in them, but he couldn't stand the
idea of blood. So many of them had blood in
them, and he couldn't stand the idea of blood. This is what the
blood is about. Leviticus, chapter 17, and verse
11. What's the significance of the
blood? You keep hearing about blood. What's the significance
of blood? Verse 11 of Leviticus 17, the life of the flesh is
in the blood. And I have given it to you upon
the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the
blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Atonement, atonement,
makes peace with God. It is the blood that makes peace
between the sinner and his offended God. It is the blood that makes
peace. Therefore I said unto the children
of Israel, no soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any
stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. The life is in
the blood. The blood of Christ, and I've
got to be careful, because we're dealing with such profound, profound
things. And if I make a mistake in any
way, you know it's completely unintentional. I seek the will
of God to say that which is right. But the blood of Christ was the
life of Christ. He was the life of, now let's
examine this a bit more. What is it to say it was the
life of Christ? It was the life of the God-man. It was the life of God-made-man. You know, at Bethlehem, God became
what he had not been before. God became a man at Bethlehem. He had not been a man before.
God, in the essence of his spiritual nature, could not redeem sinners
from the curse of the law. He had to become a man to pay
the price of justice as a man on the behalf of other men and
women. By the eternal spirit, he was
conceived in Mary's womb. You see there it says, how much
more shall the blood of Christ You see, what made this special? Who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God. Christ who offered himself
without spot to God. By the eternal spirit, he was
conceived. in the womb of Mary. He was clothed
in flesh in the womb. God was clothed in flesh in the
womb of Mary. You know, there's a psalm, and
we apply it to ourselves so much, and it's fine to apply it to
ourselves. It says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. But I'm
sure the pinnacle of that statement refers to Christ, when by the
Spirit of God, he was clothed with flesh in the womb of Mary. fearfully and wonderfully made
by the Eternal Spirit. He was equipped for his ministry
at his baptism when the Spirit descended upon him as a dove. Through the Eternal Spirit, here
he is, equipped for his ministry as the Passover Lamb of God.
It descended on him at his baptism. He was energized as a man And
though sinless, yet he was in the weakness, he suffered tiredness,
he suffered hunger. All of these things that we experience
in the flesh, yet without sin, but he was energized as a man
in the weakness of his flesh. He was made for a little while,
a little lower than the angels. That's what chapter two of Hebrews
tells us. God, who is supreme, from whom the cherubim and seraphim
hide their faces, crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord, was made
for a little while lower than the angels. He was energized
as a man What did he do? He communed with the Father.
He, in the flesh, and we know the weakness of the flesh, prayed
to his Father. He, through the weariness of
his earthly life, pressed on towards his hour. My hour is
not yet come. What was that hour? The hour
that he'd come for, to accomplish the will of his Father, that
of all that the Father had given him in eternity, he should lose
none, but should raise them up at the last day. to fulfill the
father's will of redemption. This, through the eternal spirit,
Joseph Philpott likens the spirit's role as the perfume of a flower. We've got Growing up the fence,
a brand new honeysuckle, and it's a very beautiful thing.
And you look at it from a distance, and you think, well, that's a
nice thing. But you get up close to it. You put your nose right
next to that flower. It's overwhelming. It's amazing,
the perfume of the flower. So it is that the spirit perfumes
the flower. the redeeming ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The sacrifice of Christ, it says,
again and again, was a sweet-smelling savour in the nostrils of God. God smelt a sweet-smelling savour. It satisfied his justice. That sacrifice of Christ satisfied
the justice of God. In chapter 8 of Hebrews, in verse
3, it says, every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and
sacrifices. our praise and worship, and sacrifices,
our payment for sin. Wherefore it is necessary that
this man, this person, this Lord Jesus Christ, this God-man, he
must offer something. In the deal, and I'm using these
words carefully, I'm not trying to be irreverent, but in the
deal, to secure the promise of internal inheritance for the
people he called, that's it in verse 15, the promise of eternal
inheritance, the mediator of the New Testament, the new covenant,
the new deal, in the deal to secure the promise of the internal
inheritance for the people he called, his elect multitude chosen
in him before the foundation of the world, God, offered the
sacred humanity of himself in Christ. God offered the sacred
humanity of himself in Christ. It says in Acts 20 verse 28,
God purchased the church, how? With his own blood. How can God
who is spirit that no man can see by becoming man? God as man
purchased the church with his own blood. in his holy body in
which dwelt, we read Colossians 2 verse 9, in that body of the
man Jesus of Nazareth dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. His soul, his infinite being
paid in his lifeblood to satisfy the demands of divine justice.
Injustice In the justice of God, there is no sin of his elect
multitude, which is unbalanced with precious blood. Just quickly,
Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53. I won't read it all, but just
come down to verse 10. Isaiah 53, verse 10. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. Why did it please the Lord? Because
there's no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That doesn't mean
that God doesn't like punishing the wicked. His justice demands
it. But it pleased the Lord to bruise
him because it satisfied the justice of God. The death of
the wicked doesn't bring any satisfaction to the justice of
God. It goes on eternally. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He has put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, that's his agony
on the cross, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. How? For he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great. There it is. This is what God
did in Christ to accomplish the redemption of his people. This
is what he did. Believer, your conscience which
senses dead works. There it is in verse 14. Purge
your conscience from dead works. Your conscience senses the dead
works of sin in your flesh as long as you live and feels defiled. But it is purged, not just ceremonially
as the ceremonial types of the Old Testament, but actually is
purged by Christ's blood. And so we have that Him, my sin,
oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part,
but the whole, is nailed to his cross and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh, my soul. Purged to serve
the living God, purged to serve, purged from guilt to serve in
newness of life. I'll be quick in finishing Romans
7 and verse 6. Romans 7 verse 6, but now, following
our death with Christ at Calvary, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, says Paul in Galatians 2. But now we are
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held.
The law held us, but we died with Christ, so we're delivered
from it. To do what? That we should serve in newness
of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. The blood has
purged his people clean, as the ashes of a heifer made them clean
enough to be accepted socially in that Old Testament order.
The blood of Christ has really, truly, actually purged his people
clean from sin. So that what? When it comes to
the judgment day of God, and we must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ, and what do we read? Romans 8 verse
1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according
to the spirit. God has healed his people's sin disease. Psalm
103, when you read these blessed Psalms, Psalm 103 verse 2, He
doesn't just sweep them under the carpet, He's paid for them. He's satisfied
His justice with the blood of His Son. He heals all your diseases. who redeems your life from destruction,
who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies
your mouth with good things, so that you're not under the
yoke and burden of law condemnation, but your youth is renewed like
the eagles. youth renewed like the eagles,
caused to know his blessedness, the blessedness of the man whose,
as Psalm 32, 1 and 2 say, whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered, and so released from the burden of sin's condemnation,
freed from the slavery of sin, leading to eternal condemnation.
The believer is liberated into a relationship with God of The
love, the respect of a child for a loved parent. It's a filial
fear, the fear of a son. We don't fear God under the dread
and threat of judgment and condemnation. We fear God because he's our
loving Heavenly Father. It's a relationship of love.
It's a relationship of trust. It's a relationship of rest.
And in verse 15, it says, that for this cause, he is the
mediator, because he shed his blood, he is the assurance of
the completion and the accomplishment of the deal, the mediator of
the New Testament, that by means of death for the redemption of
the transgressions, it was his death that redeemed us from the
transgressions that were under that First Testament, meaning
that were defined by that law given at Sinai, they which are
called. He's the mediator of the... that
by means of death, his death, they which are called You know,
he's called his people in eternity with his name when he united
us with his son, that we might receive the promise of the eternal
inheritance with our transgressions redeemed, paid for, discharged. As again, I often keep thinking
about some of the choruses that we used to sing in our minion
days and thinking how trivial they were. And the more I think
about some of the lines of some of them, I think, actually, they
were incredibly profound. Gone, gone, gone, gone, yes,
my sins are gone. Now my soul is free and in my
heart's a song. Gone, gone, gone, yeah? We used
to sing it because we loved the tune and the noise of lots of
people together singing it. But look at the truth of it.
Can you say that when you face death? When you face the end
of your life, gone, gone, gone, gone, yes, my sins are gone.
God in Christ has mediated the deal by his death, which guarantees
they receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Eternal inheritance? I hear some of you say, that's
not for me. I don't know anything about that.
I get on quite happily in this life like that. Do you know Ecclesiastes
3, verse 11, a good translation of it, or an acceptable translation
of it, is that God has put eternity, or this whole creation, the world,
and this sense of God, God has put eternity in the heart of
man. Is there a glimmer of that in
you? If you say, this eternal inheritance is nothing to do
with me, has he put a glimmer of eternity in your heart? Or
can you see nothing beyond this world? If so, how empty, how
blind, how pointless, how much on that broad way that leads
to destruction and not on the narrow way that leads to life.
all that God would give you, soul sight, to sense it, and
to seek the eternal things of God. Jesus promised, seek and
ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. Amen.