There is a hymn. You don't need
to turn there. You know it very well. I thought
about it this morning as I looked over my notes again. Page 431
in our hymn book. I love to tell the story. The
last two verses. I love to tell the story. It
is pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it
more wonderfully sweet. And I love to tell the story
for some have never heard. I think we tend to take that
for granted. Of course, I believe you know
better. To suppose that all people have heard. No, they haven't.
No, they haven't. For some have never heard the
message of salvation from God's own holy word. I love to tell
the story for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsty. to hear it like the rest. And
when, in scenes of glory, we sing the new, new song, it will
be the old, old story that we have loved so long. And the chorus,
I love to tell the story, it will be my theme and glory, to
tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. I love to tell
the story to those who know it best, seem hungry and thirsting
to hear it like the rest. I hope that you will prove that
this morning, that as we hear it again, it will be refreshing
to our souls, that you love the old, old story. You don't want
to hear nothing else, do you? I sure hope not. You've not got
tired of that message, have you? I don't think so. Here in Hebrews
chapter 10, I want to begin by asking you this question. Why
did Christ come? Why did Christ come? And remember
what that involved. For Christ the Messiah, the anointed
of God, to come to this earth, He was God. That required Him
being made flesh. God, we say incarnate. John said we saw Him, the everlasting
Word. God, who made all things. We saw Him, the Word. God. All of God. Made flesh and dwelt
among us. My soul. If that's what was required
to save His people, what a glorious mission He came on, did it not? If it required that. Why did
Christ come? Look at verse 7 again, this is
her text, and this answers the question plainly, does it not? Let's not read the words in parentheses,
but just read the others. Then said I, lo, Christ, this
is Christ speaking to his Father. Then said I, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. What a claim. What a claim. What a statement. Who says such
a thing? Who makes such a claim? Remember, to do God's will, I
come to do thy will, O God. Who makes such a claim? Because,
never forget, God's will is not easy to do. Is that right, Billy? Contrary to popular opinion,
especially the opinion of this religious generation that you
and I live in, the will of God is not easy. As I used to think
concerning my earthly father, when I read how God describes
himself and what his demands are, my heavenly father is hard
to please. But much more than my earthly
father was, I used to think, man, he's hard to please. I thought
it. I didn't say it. I wasn't completely
ignorant. Not in his presence anyway. Oh,
but God Almighty, God the Father, he's hard to please because he's
not easily satisfied. He's just not easily satisfied.
And here's the shocker for this generation. He won't accept just
anything. Will he, John? He won't accept
just anything. Most people think he will. They
think if it looks good to them, if it suits me, if it's good
enough for me, my religion, my whatever, if it suits me, if
it looks good to me, it must look good to God. No. No. As a matter of fact, God
says, this is what it looks like to me. Your righteousness is
plural. This is how I view them. Not
like you. They're filthy rags. They're
filthy rags. And in time, in time, you're
gonna see them as filthy rags and they're gonna fade like the
leaves on the tree in winter and blow away. God is not easily
pleased. And you know why? As we read
here in this chapter, the verses that we read. God's will requires
perfection. Hello, it requires perfection. God doesn't say, do your best
and I'll be satisfied. No. God says, I demand perfection. He cannot accept anything less
than that. He never has. He never has. And he never will. He himself
said, it must be perfect to be accepted. It must be perfect
to be accepted. All my life, I heard men talk
about the simple plan of salvation. I just don't even like the words.
The simple plan of salvation. Now man's plan is, because usually
when you see those words or hear them, they'll also drag you down
the Roman's road. They always take a detour when
they come to that place where it says, it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runeth. Somehow they overlook that part.
But of God that showeth mercy. But God's simple plan of salvation
is this. A, B, C. Is it simple? Is it
easy? Any fool can do it. A, B, C. Accept, believe. Or rather, accept,
believe, confess. That's what they say, right?
It's just so simple. Well, again, That is. Man's plan is. Man's religion
is. But God's isn't. God's isn't. God's purpose is anything but
simple. It's anything but easy. It's
profound. It's majestic. The angels desire
to look into it. They stand in wonder at a redeemed
sinner before the throne. And do they talk to one another?
Oh, how can this be? Oh, that night in the manger,
when that one they knew was their God, their creator, they looked
upon as a little baby in the arms of his mother, they said,
oh my soul, what is this? What a marvel, what a wonder. Oh, it's profound. God's purpose in sending his
son The mission of the Son of Man. Anything but simple. It's high. It's holy. It's out of my reach. With men,
as our Lord Himself said in words that can only be misunderstood
deliberately, He said, with men, this is impossible. I hope you remember, and I'm
sure you do, the context of those words. The disciple said, who
can be saved? Who can be saved? And he said,
with men, plural, it is impossible. Impossible, but not with God.
The reason anyone thinks that it isn't impossible with man
is because they've lowered God's standard. That's what religion
does. They lower God's standard down
to where they think they can meet it. But they only think
they have. You don't lower God's standard.
You may deceive yourself into thinking you have, but God doesn't
lower His standard. When Adam fell in the garden,
he fell, he died just as God told him he would. He died that
moment, spiritually. He changed. That's obvious in
the way he reacted when he heard the voice of God. He could no longer do what he
was commanded to do. Love God with all your heart.
Don't sin. Obey God perfectly. Adam couldn't
do that anymore. He was fallen. Did God lower
his standard? Did God come and say, Adam, now
because you've fallen, and you can't meet my demands, I'm going
to bring my demands down so you can meet them. I'm going to lower
the standard. Before it was a fence so high,
but now I'm going to lower the fence so you can step over it.
No, no. A thousand times no, God never
lowered his standard. He still demanded of Adam perfect
obedience. It wasn't God's fault he couldn't
render it, and it's not God's fault today that a sinner can't
render it. But God demands that he do so,
and we will hold him accountable for not doing so. In Romans chapter
2, or chapter 10 rather, you remember what Paul said? He knew
people that had lowered God's standard. Proved it. Speaking of his brethren, his
kinsmen after the flesh, he said, they, they, and this broke Paul's
heart. He mentions that in the previous
verse and in chapter 9, but he says, for they, my brethren after
the flesh, the Jew, they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
And going about to establish their own righteousness. Paul
didn't deny this. He didn't turn a blind eye to
it. He didn't pretend it wasn't so. But it broke his heart. But he said this is their case.
Going about to establish their own righteousness they have not
submitted. They've not submitted. They've
not bowed down. Submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. I remember in high school, perhaps
grade school too, did you ever see some smart aleck stick a
sticker on somebody's back that said, kick me? Y'all never did
that? Boy, y'all went to a better school
than I did. Or put something on the back
that was insult. I'm stupid. You wouldn't know
it was there, of course. Let me tell you something. that
does what Paul said his kinsmen after the flesh were doing. You
see anybody that's trying to establish their own righteousness,
trying to build a foundation of acceptance before God, the
very fact that they're doing it is evidence, is proof that
they're ignorant of what God Almighty demands. It's just as
Glowing, evident, as if they put a sign on their back saying,
I'm ignorant. I'm ignorant of God's righteousness.
They think they've lowered God's standard, but not so. Remember
what God said, and oh, how true this is of our generation. In
Psalm 51, remember? Psalm 51. Psalm 50 verse 21,
God says that that generation, and it's true of this generation,
you thought, you thought that I was altogether such a one as
yourself. You thought that. You've been
deceived, but you think that. And in thinking that, that's
why you bring the standard down lower and lower and lower. But
you'll find out, I'm not like you. I'm God. I'm high, holy, lifted up. Paul gives us, we won't turn
there, but in chapter three of Romans, Paul gives us the verdict
on man by nature. And this is what God said. Paul's
quoting from the Old Testament. He says, there's none good. I'm
going to jump outside of that circle. I'm going to take an
exception to that. No, I'm not either. I don't care
how far I jump. No, there is none good. There's
none that understands. There's none that seek after
God. How about that? You ever hear
a preacher say, you know man is born with this thirst inside. He's got a thirst for God. Really? If he does, God has to put it
there. No, he doesn't. He doesn't have
a thirst for God. He's got a thirst for everything
else. There's no man that seeketh after God. They have all. That's the whole shooting match.
They've all gone out of the way. They're all unclean. There is
no fear of God before their eyes because they think their God
is like them. Nothing to be afraid of. And
Paul concludes in that chapter, we're all unprofitable. We're
all guilty. We're all unclean. If someone,
if someone, and that's just a fact. That's the fact. That's the truth.
That's the truth of God's word. There's the problem. And if someone
is not found worthy enough, righteous enough, holy enough, pure enough,
accepted by God enough, someone who is able and willing to do
God's will, listen to this, nobody will be saved. That's exactly right. If somebody
doesn't satisfy every claim of the Holy Lord God, every jot
and tittle of His law, if somebody doesn't satisfy God, nobody is
going to be saved. Oh, with that background, do
you not rejoice in these words, thinking of that? Then read this. Then said I, lo, I come. Oh, I come to do thy will, O
my God." That's good news. That's the only good news. Then
said I, then said I, when, when, as the chapter tells us, the
context of the verse tells us, when all those legal animal sacrifices
for all those many, many years, had been offered and shared and
sacrificed again and again and again and again, and had proven
insufficient to take away sin. Is that not what we read in verse
4? For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sin. Then, then, Christ says, Lo,
I come. Galatians 4 don't you love these
verses? When the fullness of the time
had come The fullness of the time God's time God's purpose
One the fullness of that time had come God sent forth his son. Oh my soul Emmanuel Emmanuel
God God with us Rejoice the angels told the shepherds we bring you
glad tidings of great joy Because the night there is borne unto
you what a Savior a Savior Christ the Lord when the fullness of
the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made
under the law To try to do something to if he could find somebody
to willing to do it for No, no, we don't read that trash. God's Word doesn't know anything
about that sort of thing. God sent forth His Son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem To redeem. We're going to celebrate this
morning if we know the Savior. We're going to celebrate redemption
accomplished. Redemption attained. Not redemption
made possible. Not redemption attempted. Not
a redemption that needs my help to make it successful. Oh no,
that's not good news. If that was true, we just might
as well weep while we take the bread and the wine. But oh, we
rejoice. Because Jesus Christ obtained
eternal redemption for us. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Lo, I come. I come. We come to the Lord's
table, the Lord's supper, reverently, prayerfully, humbly, praying,
God, help me come as I should. Remembering the one, the only
one who came and did God's will. And we rejoice, we rejoice. Because
if he didn't, I'll never be accepted by God. If Christ didn't do God's
will, there'll never be a sinner justified. As we said, there'll
never be a sinner saved. Because there would be no foundation
God would have no foundation for God to be just when He justifies
a sinner. There would be no foundation.
As Brother Scott Richardson used to say, and I've repeated this
to you many times, but he would put it this way, as only Scott
could. He'd say, God must do something for Himself before
He can do anything for you. Most people today, most professing
Christians, don't have a clue what that means. If you would
make that statement to the average church member, the average Baptist
this morning, they would look at you like Donny Bell would
say, like a calf looking at a new gate. What? What does that mean? What do you mean? God must do
something for himself before he can do anything for you. Paul
tells us in Romans 3, that Christ was set forth to be the propitiation
for our sins. Why? So that God could be just
in justifying a sinner. God Almighty must be just. God's mercy because of the foundation
that Jesus Christ laid, the foundation of satisfying God's justice.
Mercy now to a sinner is just as much a matter of God's justice
as His grace. God's faithful and just. It wouldn't
be just for God not to forgive a sinner whose sins His Son bore
away. That just wouldn't be right!
Oh, but now God, with no infringement of his justice, no setting aside
his demands, but completely fulfilled, completely satisfied, now he's
just when he says to a guilty sinner, you're justified. As
our Lord said concerning that publican, oh, do you see that
man, he said, that those who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous, that's why he spoke the parable. Oh, it must
have shocked him. Must have shocked him when he
said, I imagine most of them were thinking he's going to say,
the Pharisee, the Pharisee. Don't you reckon? That he described
praying thus with himself, you know the story. The Pharisee
went home justified. No, he didn't. He went home self-righteous,
just like he came. The publican, the last one they
would have thought. It must have knocked off their
religious halos when Christ says, I tell you, he, the publican,
the despised publican, the hated publican, the lowly publican,
the one the Pharisee wouldn't even get close to. And he, the
publican himself, didn't feel like he was worthy to come near. Christ said, I'm telling you,
he's going home justified. Oh, my soul. My soul, listen. If you know Jesus Christ, you
believe on the Son of God, that's true of you. Go home and may
the echo of those gracious words just ring in your heart. I'm
justified. I'm justified. And no matter
what the doctor says, I'm still justified. No matter what comes
my way, I'm still justified. When the billows roll and this
world is tossing me like a ship upon a sea, I'm still justified. As long as I live in this world,
I'll be justified. When I leave this world, I'll
be justified. When I stand before God Almighty,
I'm going to be justified because Jesus Christ came to do God's
will for me. Is that not good news? Is that
not good news? Is that not worth celebrating? Again, one of Don's many hymns. Let me share it with you. It
is finished. This is not the same hymn that's in the Songs
of Grace book. These are some others. He's got
several by the title, but they're all not exactly alike. It is
finished. It is finished. Sinners hear
it. Hear the dying Savior's cry. Hear the Lord Himself declare
it. Justice has been satisfied. It is finished. All is over.
Jesus drank damnation dry. What a Savior! What a Savior!
See Him now exalted high. It is finished! Look! Behold
Him! Seated at His Father's side,
yonder on the throne, behold Him, Christ our substitute who
died." Don't you like that? Don't you like that? When Christ
came to do God's will, He did it completely. He did it perfectly. Complete perfection and perfect
completion. God required that not only the
penalty of the law, the soul that sinneth it must die, it
had to be satisfied, and he did so in his death, the Son of God,
but the precept of the law. Now listen, this will help you.
The precept of God's law, God's broken law, it had to be kept
too. It had to be satisfied too. That's
what Christ did in his life. I come to do thy will, O God.
He said, I didn't come to destroy the law. I didn't come to destroy
the law. I didn't come to set the law
aside. I didn't come to make God's law void or to lower God's
standard. Oh, no, no. I've made God's standard.
I've not come to destroy the law. I've come to fulfill the
law. The honoring of God's law that
had never been done before. Christ says, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God, in answer to that. I come not to destroy,
but to fulfill. To fulfill, not set aside. Fulfill,
not pretend to. Fulfill the very highest standard,
standard of God Almighty that the law represented. Christ says,
I come to do that. I'm going to honor God's law.
I'm going to meet God's law head on. And from the first breath
I draw when I enter this world. until the last breath on Calvary,
when I cried, it's finished. I've come to do thy will, O God."
Everything, everything that God's law demanded that you and I broke,
that you and I never kept, and God demanded it must be kept.
Jesus Christ did it as our representative. How about that? You ain't gonna
hear no better news than that. I don't care where you go on
Christmas. What gifts you receive, you ain't never gonna hear no
better news than that. Christ satisfied it, all of it. That's why he came. Did he succeed? Well, my soul. God the Father
said hundreds of years before, behold my righteous servant,
Isaiah 42. Behold, my righteous servant,
he shall not fail. Larry Criss has never done anything
but fail and still does. But my son, the son of God, he
shall not fail. Remember in John 17, right before he went to the garden
where he was betrayed, He's praying to his Heavenly Father, what
we call his high priestly prayer. You remember what he's saying?
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, 17 in 1 of John,
that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him
power over most flesh. given him power over all flesh,
saved flesh and lost flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him, and this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have glorified thee on the
earth in the life that he lived under God's law, made under the
law. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I finished, I finished the work that you gave me to
do. I've honored your law. I've magnified your law. My soul,
what a blessing. I like how one hymn writer put
it. He said, concerning Christ's death upon the cross, satisfying the curse of God's
holy law. He said, complete atonement thou
hast made, and to the utmost farthing paid, whatever thy people
owed. Billy, I think you included this
in those papers you gave me, those things you wrote about.
If I'm not mistaken, you had this in there. Complete atonement
thou hast made, and to the utmost farthing paid, whatever thy people
owed. Nor can God's wrath on me take
place, if sheltered in thy righteousness, and ransomed with thy blood. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
my God. And then, the penalty of the
law. It demanded payment too. I finish
the work concerning fulfilling that law, and then he goes to
the cross as the subject of his people. I love that passage. John, I think it's one of your
favorites too. In John 18, knowing concerning the Son of God, we
read, knowing all things that should come upon him, he stepped
forward. He stepped forward. In front
of his sheep. He's the shepherd of the sheep.
The sheep are behind him. He steps out front. He leadeth
his sheep. And said to that bloodthirsty
mob, Whom seek ye? Who are you looking for? Who
do you want? Who are you going to murder?
Knowing all things. Jesus of Nazareth, I am he. I am he. I am he. He had to say
it a second time. And he added this, if it's me
you seek, you gotta let these go their way. And that's what, when the sword
of justice, the sword of God's holy justice, that red hot burning,
scorching sword of God's justice, demanded satisfaction. God said,
smite my son, stick it in the heart of my son, smite the shepherd,
and he did. He did. And after doing so, his
son said, now, in regard to the penalty of that broken law, I
come to do thy will, O God. And he said, it is finished. It is finished. It is done. Oh, glorious, glorious proclamation. Let me wrap this up. And now we come to observe the
Lord's supper. And this blessed ordinance that
God instituted, that Christ instituted, it points in both directions,
doesn't it? It points back to eternity past,
when in the everlasting covenant of grace, the Son promised the
Father that in the fullness of time he would come and give his
life a ransom for many. The blood of the everlasting
covenant. And it reaches forward, doesn't
it? to eternity to come. We read in the first Corinthians
11 the words, you do show the Lord's death till he come. Till he come. We won't need this
then. We won't need this reminder then.
Oh no. We won't need reminder. We won't be distracted. When we hear, call His name Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. And it gets no response from
my cold heart most of the time. It's only going to be that way
until He comes. Until I go to be with Him. Oh,
when I see Thee as Thou art, and love Thee with an unsinning
heart, oh, then Lord, shall I fully know Not to then, how much I
owe. You've probably heard this story,
but I think it's worth repeating. Dear Fannie Crosby, I think that
lady lived until she was 94 years old. She only had sight for six
weeks of her life, so there never was a time in her life that she
remembered ever having sight. She wasn't born blind. She became
blind, I think, about six years old. She wrote so, or six weeks,
I'm sorry. She wrote so many of our good
old hymns, so many of them. Look in the hymn book, she wrote
thousands, thousands. One time, there was a preacher,
knew the family was visiting her house, and he said, fanny
across me, he said, I think it's, It's sad. It's sad that even though God has obviously
gifted you, blessed you, that He didn't give you sight. That He didn't allow you to retain
your sight. And this just shocked me. Because
she said, you know what? If I had had one request to make
of God, just one, if he would grant me just one, I would ask
him that I be born blind. Hmm. That was a shocker. That would have shocked me. And
he said, how can you say such a thing? How can you say such
a thing? She said, because when I get to heaven, The first
thing my sight shall behold, the first thing I'll ever see,
is the face of my Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is on
page 512 of our Hebrew book. She wrote this one. Someday the
silver cord will break and I no more as now shall sing, but all
the joy when I awake within the palace of the King. And I shall
see him face-to-face and tell the story saved by grace. And
I shall see him face-to-face and tell the story saved by grace. Man! Why, Billy, I sometimes fancy that I have
a pretty good imagination. Not always in a good sense. But
I have tried to. Imagine. Imagine. I mean shut out all the distractions.
Get alone. Get alone. And just think. When I read, they shall see his
face. Father, when I hear him pray
on my behalf, I will that they also whom you have given me be
with me where I am that they may behold my glory. And I try
to think, oh, what will that be like? What will it be like
that first instant? I was going to say the first
moment, but we'll be where time shall be no more, but when I shall see his face. I just can't imagine. But in
the meantime, In the meantime, this do ye as often as you do
it, till I come. And in the meantime, the words
of our Savior to you is this. Fear not, little flock, for it
is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Along
that line, this will be in your bulletin in a few weeks, but
let me share this with you now. Luther's favorite preacher, do
you know who it was? Martin Luther's favorite preacher.
This was the text. Behold the fowls of the air,
they sow not, neither do they reap, neither gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father knoweth
them, feedeth them, I'm sorry. Are ye not much better than they?
And Luther said, I have one preacher that I love better than any other
on earth. It is my little tame robin, the
bird. Who preaches to me daily, Luther
wrote. I put some crumbs upon the windowsill,
especially at night. He hops onto the windowsill when
he wants his supply and takes as much as he desires to set
aside his need. From thence, he always hops to
a little tree close by, lifts up his voice to God and sings
his carol of praise and gratitude. Then tucks his little head under
his wings, and goes fast asleep and leaves tomorrow to care for
the things itself. He's the best preacher I have
on earth." That's pretty good, isn't it? Till he comes. The last two verses
of Don's hymn, I read a couple of them to you, but let me close
with the last two. It is finished, hear him pleading,
as our advocate on high, his own blood's great merit pleading,
pleading justice satisfied. It is finished, can you hear
him? All the work is fully done. Now
believing, looking to him, we are saved. by God's own Son. Amen. Amen. God bless you.