I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Let's see
if we can get at this. Hebrews chapter 10. I am so thankful
for those of you who are visiting with us. I expect the saints
at grace to come out, rain, sleet, shine, or snow. But for those
of you who are visitors, we are so glad to have you with us today. We are continuing in a series
of messages of which I'm not going to spend too much time
going back over it at this present time, the Hebrew writer who has
written a letter. And because it's a letter, it
is really an ongoing narrative of a set of important thoughts
that he wants to share with the community of believers that were
part of his own background and ethnicity, the Hebrews. And he
has persuaded them thus far, he has persuaded them of a better
covenant built upon better promises because of a better priesthood
and a great mediator who has affected that covenant. And he
has argued for the finality of that old system and the permanent
establishment of the new covenant and the enormity of the blessings
that pour out of that new covenant. By the way, for those of us who
teach and preach here at Grace, the new covenant for us is the
gospel. It is the good news of salvation
through Jesus Christ with all of the attendant blessings inherent
in the covenant. The new covenant is that covenant
of which only God could say he puts away sins. He never remembers
them. He casts them behind his back
into the sea of forgetfulness. Now for God who is holy to make
that type of radical claim for sinners like us who are utterly
unholy He must be highly impressed with the mediator of that covenant
for God to throw away my sins And say and say to me, I will
never remember them again It's for him to be very well pleased
with the mediator of that covenant and we have been seeking to persuade
you To look to christ and draw from christ Everything that he
is and everything that he has for you to the degree that we
fail to look to Christ. To that degree, our foundation
is shaky and our ride is full of trouble. But the man or the
woman that is looking to Christ will see in Jesus Christ everything
necessary for life and godliness. Well, the force of argument that
the writer is giving to us in the 10th chapter, particularly
verses 1 through 10, in Hebrews chapter 10 is really simply designed
to affirm the sole singular sacrifice of Jesus Christ's atoning work
expressed in chapter 9 verses 26 through 28. So I want to say
that as we work through our four points today, the objective and
force of verses 1 through 10 in Hebrews chapter 10, the writer
is compelled to simply affirm and strengthen the sole singular
sacrifice of Jesus Christ atoning work expressed in chapters 9
verses 26 through 28 of which we are going to be giving our
attention to as the title of our message is once and for all
once and for all he will turn the corner upon affirming this
subject, nailing it down so that in the mind of God's people,
they never ever have to wonder, will there be a second or a third
or a fourth or a fifth covenant after this? Will there be a need
for another atonement? Will there be a need for another
sin bearer? Will our sins rise up against
us to threaten us with eternal damnation again? The Hebrew writer
says, listen, once and for all. Once and for all. The matter becomes settled with
him. It should be settled with the Hebrew people who understood
intricately this Old Testament satirical system. And for every
believer who trusts that when Christ said it was finished,
it was finished once and for all. So the Hebrew writer says
in verse 26, for then must he have often suffered since the
foundation of the world, but now, what's the word? Once in
the end of the world or the end of the ages, hath He, that is
Jesus Christ, appeared. What that means, ladies and gentlemen,
Jesus did not take on His existence when He took on a human nature.
He was from eternity to eternity, very God of very God, divine
in nature. He is eternal. When He came into
the world, He merely assumed a human nature in order to appear
for us to be the Son of God and the Son of Man to redeem us. So the writer to the Hebrews
is being very theologically precise. Christ did not take on His existence
at His birth. As the prophet Micah put it,
from everlasting of all is one coming who shall be a ruler in
Bethlehem of Judah. This is the son of God, Jesus
Christ. And he hath appeared to us. He came in the form of
a man, in the fashion of a man. And here's why he came. You and
I must get this very clearly, that the coming of Christ in
his incarnation was to put away sins. by the sacrifice of himself. We have to really get a handle
on why Messiah came. He did not come in order to set
up a political kingdom. He did not come to laud his divine
attributes all over the world and get people to simply be amazed
at his capacity to walk on water or steal the winds or raise the
dead or heal the sick. He wasn't some cosmic magician. The goal of the Messiah wasn't
to come and straighten out social orders in the world. He's not
some kind of divine social management person. The goal of Messiah was
to put away sins. That's what his job was, to put
away sins. Now, if this doesn't resonate
with you, you have still yet to have the first work of the
Spirit of God to take place in your heart. If you don't know
it, your biggest problem is your sin. And in the mercy of God,
Christ came to put. away our sins. That gives a brother
breathing room, breathing room. And the Hebrew writer wants us
to understand that the work that he did to put away our sins was
a one-time work that he did by himself. And he argues this point
when he gives us verses 27 and 28. and as it is appointed unto
men what wants to die. But after this, the judgment,
now he gives us our parallel clause. This is a conjunction
that ties the present verse with the previous by way of the analogy
of the previous verse. So in this same manner, Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sins. Point number one, the once for
all time sacrifice that appointed him. What is the writer describing
in verses 26 through 28? He's describing essentially what
we have worked on last week, that by the death of Jesus Christ,
He himself affected God's covenant, the will of God, the New Testament,
of which he argued in the earlier parts of chapter 9, where he
described the death of Christ as bringing into force, bringing
into vitality, bringing into strength the new covenant. Look
at chapter 9, verse 16. This is what he said there. He
says in verse 15, and for this cause he is the mediator of the
New Testament, that is the New Covenant, that by means of what?
He's the mediator of the new covenant that by means of death,
you and I learned eloquently and clearly last week that the
father and the son drew up this covenant before the world began,
which is called the will of the father of which will the son
himself voluntarily offered himself up to affect that covenant by
his death. Is that not right? And they both
twain walked between the pieces. and told Abraham of a surety
your seed will be the cause by which multitudes of nations will
be blessed and brought into the gospel covenant. And that seed
is whom? Christ. And so the Hebrew writer
is saying this grand will of God under the metaphor of a last
will and testament was affected by the death of the Son of God. His death affects it that by
means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the first testament they which were called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance for where there is a testament
as the writer says there must also of necessity be the what
death of the testator profound this is why the father and the
son walked through the pieces this is why the son came to die
as a representative of the Father on the behalf of God's people
who were in the covenant for which God said, I am willing
to bleed for you to have the blessings of eternality with
me. This is absolutely astonishing.
But this also shows us how intricately woven the unity and the oneness
of the Father and the Son are. For the Father is becoming a
testator for his elect and the Son is becoming the mediator
for them. And they're both sacrificing themselves as it were, the one
for the other on the behalf of us who believe the gospel. This
is huge. This is why there's no God in
the universe that compares to our God. None. None. And this is the thing that ought
to excite your soul, sinner. that there's a God in glory who
drew up a plan by which He would have you for Himself for all
eternity, willing to lay down His life for your soul. I'm done. I'm done. I am done. This is an absolutely magnificent
reality of which the sinner has... See, and this doesn't matter
to you if you're not a sinner. It only matters to sinners. who
see themselves plunging in the depths of hell and realizing
only a God who can go that deep in His love for me can reach
down and encompass me and bring me back. Love lifted me. That's the epitome and the formation
of love on the part of God the Father and God the Son. What
is the love of God? It is the expressed work of Jesus
Christ. for the salvation of our souls
in this great scheme of redemption, of which I have an interest in
this will. I don't know about you, but I
have an interest in this will. This last will and testament,
I want to hear it publicly announced every week. And let me know when
you're going to do it because I want to show up and hear the
reading of it. I'm interested in not only the reading of it,
but the explanation of it. I want to hear every jot and
tittle of it. I want to hear the promises.
I want to hear the principles. I want to hear the conditions.
I want to hear everything that that last will and testament
has to say. And finally, I want to hear where
my name is in that testament. I have an interest in that will.
Do you? I have an interest in that will.
This is why we love the gospel. See, for us, the will of God
is from Genesis to Revelation. And the work of the third person
is to open up that will and show you whether your name is written
in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world.
And to help you just laud and revel and marvel and humble yourself
before God so glorious as the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost who was the porter into these things. So what we are
saying is the once for all time sacrifice is that which Christ
did in order that he might be appointed, appointed heir of
all things. You and I have looked into that
reality. Christ is the heir, is he not?
The opening of this covenant, the opening of this will, the
bringing into force this will is to establish his heirship.
I've told you this before. We talked about it last week.
You and I are not the heirs. This is between the father and
the son. You and I are co-heirs, joint heirs, attached by right
of privilege and mercy, not by something we have accomplished
or done. I'm so glad for that little word co, aren't you? Now
co gets us in trouble in this life. But on God's side of the
equation, coal works for me. See, I'm a coal laborer together
with him. I'm a coal heir and coal joint heir with him. I don't
mind at all being the coal on the end of that heir. Because
I know that God himself is able to handle the whole thing. He's
just letting me in on the ride. You too. I'm a coal. Just call
yourself a coal. I'm a coal. I'm a coal. By his
grace, I am coaling up to everything he got for me in this covenant. His death was necessitated in
order for the will to be effected. That's verses 9 and 10 of chapter
10. I want you to see this. Some might argue whether exegetically
I can draw the conclusion that this testament in Hebrews 9 is
really the will of God. Well, Hebrews 10 tells us very
clearly, as Jesus screams it through the whole of the scriptures,
since we believe that biblical theology is history according
to whom? That's right. Lo, I come in the
volume of the book is written of me to do that. What? That's right. Verse nine. Then
said he, lo, I come to do your will. Oh God, who's talking here?
The son. Whose will is it? The father's.
And we're taking away that old covenant is what we're trying
to tell folk. That old covenant is gone in
order that we might establish Firmly establish the once-for-all
new and eternally new and for all eternity new covenant You
understand the word kynos means a newness of kind that will never
get old So what you might do as a child of God is take all
of the little words new any you Anyw and run them all the way
through the scriptures and see what that means in terms of your
blessing Like we are a new man in Christ and we do have a new
nature Because it's based upon a new covenant with new promises
with new blesses and I am part of a new Jerusalem You understand
what I'm giving that there's a whole lot of new stuff going
on in this new covenant That's what I'm saying. I want to learn
about that Because I'm used to old stuff You are too But but
it's great to have something new that never gets old See the
gospel has never been old It's still as efficacious and powerful
today after 2,000 years of being preached as it was the day that
it was initially preached by John the Baptist and by Christ.
And yeah, all the way back to the beginning of the prophets
still has power, still has force, still has efficacy because it
remains vital because God is behind it. So he has affected
this will because he is the heir and we are joiners. And the Hebrew
writer wants us to understand this will is opened up once for
all. Listen to what he says in chapter
10 verse 12. But this man, after that he had
offered one sacrifice for sins, did what? Sat down on the right
hand of God. Sat down on the right hand of
God. From henceforth, expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath what
perfected forever them that are sanctified. See this new thing
goes on into eternity ladies and gentlemen. Now in this, what
the writer is doing, he's arguing again from the inferiority of
the Old Testament system with its repeated sacrifices over
and over and over again. You see that in that old system
they offer sacrifices in the morning, sacrifices at noon,
sacrifices in the evening. They continue offering sacrifices.
because the sacrifices could never ever put away sin. And I'll say what I've said for
years just to help you grasp the importance of this concept. What's the difference between
the old covenant and the new? The blood. The blood of bulls
and goats is what occupied that old covenant. But the blood of
bulls and goats and heifers and lambs and sheep and turtle doves
and whatever other kind of blood that was offered in that Old
Testament system could never put away the sins of one man. What then is the difference between
the Old Covenant and the New? It's the blood. The New Covenant
is affected by the blood of the God-man Jesus Christ. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? What we said last week was when
we finally come to the establishing of the new covenant, it wasn't
because there was so much blood that was shared. And God said,
OK, that's enough. We've got enough blood. No. The
reason you and I are operating in a grace principle is not because
of how much blood, but whose blood, whose blood is shared. Are you hearing me? It's the
blood of the God-man. And by the way, understand that if a
person is going to have to pay for their sins and they're going
to do it through a substitute, that substitute must be just
like you. For as the law was laid down
in Genesis 9, 6, if a man shed man's blood, by man must his
blood be shed for restitution to be established. In other words,
the sinner that's going to be saved by the grace of God must
have one who is a fellow like Him to be a substitute. This
is why the Hebrew writer said your conscience could never be
at peace so long as you are offering an inferior sacrifice. Your conscience
cannot be at peace so long as you are offering God something
inferior to what He requires for your soul. Your conscience
cannot be at peace so long as you're offering God your good
works. Your giving, your tithing, your service, your labor, your
toil, your sacrifice, your faith, your knowledge, your wisdom,
as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Listen, if I have
all faith and if I have all knowledge, if I understand all mysteries,
if I have full understanding, if I give my body to be burned,
if I sacrifice myself to the nth degree, it can't help me
and it can't help you because we are sinners. and thus unqualified
to atone for one's sin. But as God had told Noah in Genesis
chapter 6 verse 9, if a man shed men's blood, by man must his
blood be shed. You know what that means? The
devil didn't send you and me to hell. The devil didn't bring
us under the judgment. The devil didn't put us in a
culpable state of having to face God on the last day. We did. We shed our own blood. The devil
simply instigated it. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
You will never see the devil in the judgment. Sinners will
not be arguing with God over why the devil made them do it.
You might as well stop now. Your problem is your sin against
the Holy God. And you can blame Adam and Eve
all you want to. But if you had been there, you'd
have done the same thing. I would have too. And we would
have done it faster than them. We'd have been talking to snakes
and turtles and frogs, making them equal to ourselves like
dumb people do now. I know you love your animals,
but they are not equal to you. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
But this man, the text tells us, by one sacrifice has perfected
forever all those that are sanctified. What a sacrifice. What an absolutely
massive and enormous sacrifice. The implications are absolutely
fabulous. And I'll tell you what, when
we talk about good words in the old system and the offering up
of bulls and goats, and you see it in third world countries where
folks try to appease the God with chickens. Chickens. Ring the neck of a chicken. Cut
the throat of a chicken and pour out the blood of a chicken. Right? Y'all know that. Some of my kinfolk,
I got kinfolk way down in Louisiana. That's how they play it. Chickens.
See, that's the distortion of man's conscious and will and
understanding as to the dignity to which we had when God made
us. That we think we can appease
God by killing a chicken. See, this is a distortion. But
the conscious will never rest on those type of sacrifices.
And it will never work with your own good works. There must be
a man who is both perfectly man and perfectly God, able to bear
the wrath that you and I justly deserve. And there's only one
man in the universe that fits that script. Who is that man?
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what David said in
the Old Testament. Sacrifices and offerings you did not desire. Isn't that what he said? Look
at a chapter 10 verse Four and five, for it's not possible that
the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Not only
take them away in the judicial sense of God's wrath and judgment,
but take them away in the conscientious sense of the worshiper being
satisfied that that sacrifice would merit what was necessary
to reconcile them to God. Wherefore when he came into the
world, he said sacrifice and offerings that what is not but
a body Have you what prepared me and burnt sacrifices and burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin? You had no what? Listen children of God all spiritual
persons. I'm talking about all believers
because in this present generation when you hear a person say I'm
spiritual Most of the time they're kooky When I say, no, I'm not
Christian, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. For us, that means
you're mystical and you're ignorant of the glory of God in Christ.
Don't ever be ashamed of Jesus. Don't ever be ashamed of calling
yourself a Christian. There is the greatest dignity
in the world when you attach your little I am to Christ. Do you understand that? Don't
ever be afraid to say you're a Christian. Now you and I have
to clean up all of the mess Christians have done to jack up that name. But you can do that in short
order by telling people to stop looking at us and look to Christ.
Because in Him is no sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin. There was no sin in Him at all.
And when a person can get their eyes off the Christians and on
to Christ, they can find some peace. But I'm here to tell you,
I am proud to be a Christian. I'm as proud as a peacock to
be a Christian, because I know to be a Christian is a work of
grace. Of Him am I in Christ, who of God was made unto me everything
that God might call me a Christian. I'm a Christian. I don't care
how folks have jacked it up in the church. I know we got jacked
up churches too. I know that. But every church
ain't jacked up. I know we got jacked up marriages,
but they're not all jacked up. Now watch this too. And some
of our churches are and some of our marriages are, but one
day they're going to be fixed, aren't they? Because we have
an anchor to him who is our head and our husband and we are his
bride. And one day it's going to all
be all right. Even though it's messed up now. This is why the
gospel is a hope to us. It's a hope. The new covenant
brought in a better hope. Now, hope is not seen. Hope is
something that we anticipate based upon promises that God
has given us that we have received by faith. Faith allows us to
have hope. Am I making some sense? And then
we live accordingly because a life of hope is able to walk by faith
and not by sight, believing that the end product is worth the
suffering that we go through now. I believe that, don't you?
My God, just telling my brothers last night, we came from a wonderful,
that's why I'm probably feeling good right now, because I ate
well last night. That's why I'm probably feeling
good right now, I ate well. And me and my wife were coming
home and she just kind of blurted, I don't know why I had to work
through this after she said it, because you know how wives are
with all these codes and stuff. But she said, she said, you know,
there's suffering in everything. There's suffering in everything.
In everything we go through, you have to suffer. Do you understand
that? There's suffering. And until
you embrace that principle, you're not going to walk well with God
in this world. And the nature of the gospel is to answer the
difficulties of this present time with the cross work of Jesus
Christ, of which when the believer gets it, the believer actually
can do suffering well. Do you hear what I'm saying?
We can do it so well, we can glorify God in our sufferings.
That's why Paul says, I'd rather glory in my infirmities that
the excellency of Christ might be manifested in my life. And
so when the Christian gets a hold of suffering and learns how to
redeem it according to the cross work of Christ, it means they
see the end. They understand this whole thing
is going to turn into glory one day. And then I said to myself,
do you mean everything's a suffering? You mean I'm a suffering for
you? See, I had to draw that out. See, I thought maybe she
had gotten mad at me or something, you know, driving home, just
come out, you know, everything's a suffering, you know. There
I go, I'm in trouble again. I said, I'm a cause of suffering. The Hebrew writer wants us to
understand that the once for all sacrifice of Christ was in
order to appoint him and establish him as the one who is the high
priest who is not standing and daily offering sacrifices. He
is the seated and completed expecting high priest of our soul. Did
you get that? Seated, completed, expecting
high priest of our soul. I'm getting ready to get into
that on the side of the nature of the sacrifice here in a moment.
Our high priest is not in heaven offering up his blood to God
every time you sin. Stop it. He's not up there trying
to persuade God to put you on probation for a season until
you straighten up. Stop it. There's no point in
time in this new covenant where God is contemplating your sin
and mine as true believers on a judicial level. They are gone. They are all gone. This great
and glorious high priest is there for the believers or the elect
who shall enter into the covenant by virtue of regeneration, of
which when we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to have
already forgiven us and to have already justified us and to have
already cleansed us means heaven already did it. But upon conversion,
you and I realize it. because it's a once for all work. My master's not sweating in heaven.
His work is completed and he is seated expecting until his
father makes all of his enemies his footstool. He's poised in
a position of absolute free contemplation enjoying his father, his father
enjoying him because they have secured for all eternity everyone
who will believe the gospel. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
A seated. and complete it and expect it. Hyde Priest, which brings us
to our second point of which the Hebrew writer wants us to
grasp this again. One death and one judgment. You guys see that? This is the
analogy that he wants to draw because he said it in chapter
9, verse 26. But now once in the end of the
world, he's come and as it is appointed unto men, what? Once
to die. See, everyone's going to die
one day. And when you die, that's it on
this side of the economy. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
No reincarnation. No, no, no, no, no coming back
from the dead physically for most people. It is a one-time
death. And the only thing you and I
have to expect after that is the what? The judgment. So you
know, we were talking again last night about folks who see their
mama and see their daddy roaming around the room and up and down
the street after they die. You know, I swear that was Uncle
Bob and Cousin Joe and Aunt Sally and Grandma look just like them.
It is appointed that the man wants to die. And after this,
the judgment, are you hearing what I'm saying? And when men
die, they go somewhere. They don't roam around. I know
your pagan mystics and all these nuts talk about, you know, we
got folks here because they aren't content with some stuff that
they needed to finish. So they need to stay here and
harass you and bother you until they get some stuff finished.
And you can release them. You have the divine authority
to release them and send them to the other side. Right? But see, those of us who are
biblical, Believing Christians whose worldview is confined by
Genesis to Revelation. And we are not ashamed to say
our thesis is the Word of God. Because we are sure that our
thesis is unassailable. That if you come to our thesis
with an honest heart, you can't find anything in that book of
which you can say is wrong. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And so when you get your thesis right, you can immediately discount
a lot of this garbage going on. Folks rising from the folks going
to hell and seeing what hell is like coming back to write
books and make millions of dollars. It's amazing what's going on
in our time. People are unhinged. The Christian must be grounded
and rooted and clear. That there is a demonic world
that spends all its time denying the truth claims of scripture
That's all it does is seek to assail the testimony of that
book Now either we are ignorant of the book and we need to gain
knowledge or we need to ask ourselves Do we actually believe the book
or if we're unhinged from a clear and absolute commitment to divine
Immutable unchangeable truth if we're unclear about that our
problem is faith, isn't it? Listen, I don't care if my, if
my, my uncles and my cousin popped up right now in front of my face. I mean, right now I wouldn't
believe it for nothing in the world. Are you hearing me? I'd look at them and I'd remember
what Hebrews chapter nine 26 says, and I would say to all
y'all, you're lying. Go back to the pit from which
you came from. because you're simply putting
on a facade, you're putting on a form, you're putting on an
image. You are demons who have been around for thousands and
thousands of years. You know how to deceive the whole
of the world. As for me and my house, we believe
thus saith the Lord. It's just a wonderful thing that
happened and I just need to lock this in to develop this doctrine.
So we're at our brothers and sisters house and And they have
some background in Hinduism and all that. So this stuff comes
up. Y'all know this stuff comes up. Don't act like what I'm saying.
Don't come up. They come up in your house, too.
You be wanting to ask your husband, honey, you know, my cousin told
me they saw, you know, such and such. He'd been dead for five
years. But you don't have a reference point. You don't know where to
develop this. And one of our friends has stated that they
moved into their grandparents' house and and uh they started
uh seeing doors opening and and windows rattling and stuff was
getting thrown around the room and stuff and the husband said
uh well maybe his grandma just trying to get our attention because
she had just died you know there was a presence there for sure
there was a presence there and one of our sisters at the table
in a sane and a sober and in a clear voice said to the lady,
let me help you understand something. That was not your grandmama. And what you need to do is go
home, open the Bible and read from the word of God and tell
that thing to get out of here. We sitting there eating all this
gorgeous food. I'm loving it. And so now at this point, I'm
the Bible answer. So pastor, what what do you say to that?
What do you say to that? You know what I say? That sister
has been taught the word of God. She got it right. She wasn't
moved. She wasn't she wasn't contemplating and entertaining
all of these foolish notions like King Saul. She got it right.
And she told this woman what to do. God rules. These folks are ostensibly calling
themselves Christian. Read the book. and tell him to
leave. And guess what? She said, Pastor,
they left. Never been back. And all she's
doing is working through the fear of her ignorance because
the goal of demons is like terrorists to shake you up and to get your
mind unhinged from biblical truth. God is good, isn't he? It is
appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment.
Once to die, and after this, the judgment. For the true believer,
for God's elect, judgment day for sins, for our sins, for the
true believer, has passed. Do you believe that? See, I am
not worried about facing God in judgment for my sins. The
Bible is very clear in the gospel of John chapter 5 verse 24. Verily, verily, he that heareth
my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into judgment. That's the word judgment. The man that believes on Christ,
trusts Christ, relies on Christ will never face God in the judgment
for their sins, for they have passed from death to life. Are you born again? Are you a
living creature of God? Has God quickened you by his
spirit? Then he's raised you from the dead. You can only die
one time when you're in Christ and you live forevermore. Am
I making some sense? You live forevermore. The judgment
is passed for me. It's passed for me. And thus
I hear the apostle declare in Romans 8, 2, there is therefore
now no more condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who
walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. One death, one judgment,
one time. Do you believe that? And so I
would call your attention to the Old Testament with our brother
David to nail this home. great type of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The whole book's about Jesus.
But in first Samuel chapter 17, this is that epic event where
King David, he's not even a king yet, he's just a little serving
boy, minding his own business, but being driven by his father.
That's a great type right there to go see about the welfare of
his brothers and to go take them food to eat. Daddy Jesse says,
go see about your brothers. They're in a battle. They are
in a war. They are in a engagement with our greatest foe. Go see
how they're doing. And God the Father sent his son
into this world to see how we were doing. And by the way, take
them bread and vituals because they'll need it. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is the bread of life for our soul. And he brought
down that bread to our soul. But just like our Lord Jesus
was misunderstood by his Jewish brethren, so David was misunderstood
by his brethren. They got mad at him. Now we know
you, little boy. We know you. We know you love
getting in people's business. Get on out of here. This is man's
work. And David said, what? What? I'm just here doing my
father's business. And while he argued with his
big brothers who did not know who he was, David heard the giant
running off at the mouth. David said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine
defying the Lord's army? Who is he? And David looks back
at all of these whimpering, crying, whining grown men, even the king. And David turns to his brothers
and say, isn't there a cause here? Isn't there a cause? Shouldn't someone stand up over
against this nut? David was something else, wasn't
he? Shouldn't somebody stand up against this nut? And David
heard the man's charge. You know what the Philistines
said? He said, am I not a Philistine? This is Goliath. Am I not a Philistine? Whoop-dee-doo. And are we not
a great army? You send one man, that's first
Samuel chapter 17, verse eight, nine, and 10. You give us one
man. And if your one man can beat me, you can have our whole
nation. And if we beat you, you will
become our servants. Do you understand the conditions
here? One man for all. One man for all. One man for
all. One man for all. And David looking
and ain't nobody showing up. David said, I'm the man. I'll
do it. Do you remember that? David said, I'll do it. So him
and the king negotiated because King Saul was out the lunch.
He didn't care. He wasn't going to take up the
job. He looks at David and say, you can have my armor. You can
have my gear. Go get him, boy. Go get him. And David looked
at the man's gear and said, you know what? This won't work. Cause
I haven't proved this stuff, but I tell you what I have proved.
I proved the sling and I proved the stone which by the hand of
the Lord, I was able to slay a bear and slay a lion. And the Lord delivered me both
times as I delivered his sheep out of the mouth of the bear
and his sheep out of the mouth of the lion. And God will deliver
me from this uncircumcised Philistine too. And Saul looked at him, he looked
at everybody else, he said, go for it, go for it. And I'm telling
you, the spirit of God was on David in such a mighty way. Chapter 17, around verse 48,
look at it with me. Chapter 17, verse 48, you listen
to these words after David is mocked by this Philistine. Who? Why are you sending out a boy
to fight a man? David said to him, you'll see
here in a minute. Here's what David said, verse
45. Then said David to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and
with a spear and with a shield, but I'm coming to you in the
name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel,
whom you are defying. David had let him know, I'm not
fighting this battle the same way you are. Are you hearing
me? You're fighting it with flesh and blood. I'm fighting it by
the authority of God and by the power of God. You understand
that my confidence is not my youth, it's not my vigor, it's
not my strength, not my exercise, not my wit, not my will, not
my capabilities, not my agility, not even my history. My confidence
is the God of glory. That's the way I'm going to win
this battle. Watch it now. Watch it now. This
is why God loved him from David. He loved him some. David was
zealous this day. Can you imagine? This man is
about 11 feet tall, 600 pounds, massive head, spear that's 600
pounds itself. David is talking to this guy
like he's a done deal. Because he was. Now watch what
he says. This day will the Lord deliver
you into my hand. Not tomorrow. This day. And I will smite you I will take
your head from you and I will give your carcass to the at the
carcass of the host of the fillings Philistines this day unto the
fowls of the air now boy either David is boasting or God just
gave him an explicit revelation and to the wild beast of the
earth that all the earth not just our country everybody might
know that there is a God in Israel Watch it now. And all this assembly
shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for
the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands.
And it came to pass when the Philistina rose and came and
drew near to me, David, that David ran. Boy, is that something? See, you know, most of us in
strategies of fighting, we step back for a second, parry a little
bit just to make sure we get some space. that philistine ran
toward david started running towards him see what we're talking
about is the nature of a faith-filled heart that is completely committed
to a god that's going to keep him there wasn't one point at
which david was halting or hesitating or doubtful or fearful he ran
towards the philistines He was so zealously committed to slaying
this absolute fool and defiance of the true and the living God.
And that gives you an insight to the love of God in his heart.
See, David was fighting for God's glory. And that's the only real
thing to fight for is the glory of God. David was committed to
the death. See, either God was true or God
was a liar. And we know that the God we serve,
He can't lie, He can't fail, and He can't change. David knew
he was going to win this battle. And he was just as ready to get
it over with as fast as he possibly could. You know when you've got
to fight a battle and you're a little doubtful? You want to
delay the fight until you get a little bit more prepared. David
was as prepared as he could be because he understood that with
God all things are possible and it's impossible for it to him
fail listen to what he said and David put his hand are you ready
in his bag and he took this a stone and he slung it and he smoked
that Philistine in the forehead that the stone sunk into his
forehead and and he fell on his face to the earth. Do you understand
what's happening here? David is now using inertia on
his side. He's running toward the enemy
with his sling, slinging the rock while the enemy is coming
towards him and he's trusting the living God. Are you hearing
me? With one sling and one stone,
with one throw at one time to destroy the biggest foe in our
lives. One throw, one sling, one time. Do you hear me, saints? One throw,
one sling, one time to destroy the biggest foe in our life.
Did he destroy him? One act, one effort finally and
completely destroyed our foe. Now, I need you to understand
this. This giant, this Goliath, ladies and gentlemen, is not
your fears. It's not your shame. It's not
your guilt. It's not your debt. It's not
your greed. Are you hearing me? This is not
the giant of fear and debt and greed. You hear all this stuff
all the time. Your greed and your shame and your guilt and
your addictions and your problems. You've got problems, but your
problems aren't the things that you do. Your problem is the fact
that you are by nature a sinner. And Christ did not come to deal
with your symptoms. He came to deal with your core
problem. The Philistine in this text does
not represent your fears, doubt, shame, guilt, addictions, debt,
whatever that case may be. The Philistine represents your
fallen nature. Because it's your fallen nature
that's your biggest problem. Our problem is our nature. Are you hearing me? This is why
he's called the uncircumcised Philistine. The Philistine in
the Scriptures represents the flesh. The flesh. The flesh. This is why David
despised it as we all should. Because there is no good thing
in the flesh. Our fallen nature is enmity to
God. But it's the greatest enemy we
have. Our greatest enemy is not the
devil. It's our fallen nature. But see, the devil knows how
to get to our fallen nature and to tantalize our fallen nature
and to wrap our fallen nature up in the guilt and condemnation
of the law. For the strength of sin is the
law. And if David can entice, our
Satan can entice our sin nature and then heap upon us law, he
can bind us. Am I making some sense? But when
Christ came to die for our sins, he put away our sin nature by
his death on Calvary street. He killed our sin nature. He
took that sin nature as he was circumcised for us. Putting it
on his cross kneeling it to his cross and took away our sin nature.
This is what it means ladies and gentlemen to be born again
This is what it means to be born again, it's our sin nature. So
Romans chapter 8 verse 3 He says for what the law could not do
in that it was weak through our sin nature Christ did Assuming
the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? See the work of the
gospel is to subdue our fallen nature Which if it continues
to have the mastery on us will bring us before the judgment
On the final day and we will have to answer to God for the
things that we have done in this body Whether they be good or
bad Are you hearing what I'm saying? One time, by one sling,
with one stone, this one brother slew our greatest enemy as our
substitute. Remember the conditions? If you
beat me, you can have all the Philistines. We'll be your servants. That's what they said. We'll
be your slaves. You know what Davis and I don't even want you
for my servant We're gonna kill you and give your carcasses to
the birds of the air. Do you understand what that means?
There is no good thing in the flesh Our job is not to make
the flesh our servant. Our job is to kill it Because
God takes no glory in the flesh. I It must die and what that means
is that when Christ died on Calvary Street for every one of God's
elect He secured for all eternity the new nature. This is why in
the new covenant I told you you got to get it. The new covenant
is about regeneration. It's about illumination and it's
about justification It's about regeneration. I will take out
that stony heart the flesh. I And I will put in a heart of
flesh, the spirit, and I will write my laws in their hearts
and their mind. That's the new nature. Am I making
some sense? It means to be authentically
born again. That means God kills that uncircumcised
Philistine in your behalf. Watch this now. And you didn't
do it. Christ did it. You and I can't put away sin,
but Christ has. And I want you to get this. When
he put away my sin, typically, Typically in David, guess what? As all those Israelites were
depending upon David to win that battle. So all of God's elect
were depending upon Christ to win that battle. For when Christ
fought that battle, I fought that battle in him. And when
Christ won that battle, I won that battle in Him. And when
Christ rose again from the dead, I rose again in Him. Do you believe
that? Listen, we call this union with
Christ. Union with Christ. For once,
for sin, our Savior died. The wrath of God was satisfied. His justice met. His mercy freed. His grace can now deliver me. escaping all accusing thoughts
of perfect righteousness He has wrought, which lifts me to a
glorious throne, for every one of my sins are gone. And in His
perfect love I stand, because of Him at His right hand. And
as He is, then so am I. Is He the apple of God's eye? I cannot boast of what I've done,
since all the victory he has won, but as my high priest and
my king. So we are one in everything. Do you see him? Then you see
me. For without me, he will not be,
since all of his is all of mine, and all of mine was all of his. My peace, my joy resides in this. One death, one judgment, new
life, all bliss. And we say with the hymn writer,
what wondrous love is this? What wondrous love is this? Did you get it? What wondrous
love is this? Point number three in our outline.
Christ wants for all sacrifice going back to our text. Christ
wants for all sacrifice of himself. I just want to share with you
a few more things and we'll wrap this up. You need to, you need
to grasp this. This is very important. When
Christ died on Calvary street and shed his blood to set us
free and we use the doctrine and the terminology of the blood,
the blood, the blood, but we're not talking about that physical
corporal plasma in his body. You do understand that that would
be purely pagan. for you and I to assert that
there was something super magical, there was something unique in
his blood, and that he was a sinless human being. But the blood of
Jesus Christ is not what Christ has offered to God in heaven.
Listen, the blood of Jesus Christ is not what Christ offered to
God in heaven. He offered himself. The blood represents him. You
see, the Levitical code said, in Leviticus chapter 17, I believe,
or verse 11, the life is in the blood. So understand the doctrine
here, because I want you to grasp this before we go on, because
we have to rid ourselves of paganism. Because you know how we love
to plead the blood. First of all, give me a Bible verse. Secondly,
the blood is always a doctrine. And it speaks to the death of
the incarnate Son of God, as a sacrifice for our sin. So when
we talk about the blood, we're merely affirming his human nature
because God by nature is spirit. So if God is going to offer up
a sacrifice essential to a human life, Christ had to shed his
blood. Am I making some sense? But now watch this, ladies and
gentlemen, the risen glorified son of God who is in heaven as
our great high priest is not offering up to God a bowl of
blood as was the Old Testament saints. Why do you say that preacher? Because flesh and blood cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven. That's an old system paradigm. Christ is the new man and we
are new in him. First Corinthians chapter 15
verse 50 says flesh and blood cannot enter into heaven. So
Christ is not there with his physical blood. He's not even
there in his own nature, our own order of humanity. He's not
there in the old physicality of his human nature, though it
was without sin. Christ is in heaven as a glorified
man. He is called in 1 Corinthians
15, the quickening spirit. The quickening spirit. Pastor,
what does that mean? He is not operating out of a
need for blood to flow through his veins to keep him alive like
you and me. You see, when he rose again,
he let his disciples know that. He said, touch my hand, touch
my side. Blood's not in there. A spirit
doesn't have flesh and bone, not blood, flesh and bone. When
he rose again, the blood was gone. Where was the blood? The text tells us in John 19,
when he hung on Calvary's tree, that the soldier took a sword
and pierced his side and all the blood drained out to the
ground. His sacrifice was for us down
here. His blood was shed for us as
a witness to us of the actual death of the God man Jesus Christ. So we read in first John chapter
five verse eight. There are three that bear record
on the earth. The water and the blood and the
Spirit, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Spirit. The record being born down here
is the testimony of the blood and the water that came out of
his side. It affirmed his humanity. It
affirmed that he was really a man. It affirmed the authenticity
and qualified his sacrifice. It affirmed that he had died.
It's the witness down here. The blood is for us. It's not
for God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? It's the testimony down here. Christ does not have to
offer his blood up there. Besides, didn't I tell you a
little while ago to get to my last point? He's not working
up there. He's seated. Completed. Expecting. Seated. Completed. Expecting. Y'all got
that revelation? Ain't no blood in heaven. Not
where the Father is, not where the Son is, not where the Holy
Ghost is. The blood is down here. It's a testimony to you and me.
Now the blood's important because the blood is what justifies us.
The blood is what sanctifies us. The blood is what reconciles
us. The blood is what purges us.
The blood is what cleanses us. And the blood is what perfects
us. But it has to do with us! It doesn't have to do with the
glorified son of God in heaven as our mediator and high priest.
Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? So we're not hoping that Jesus
don't waste some of the blood. That's a good truth. That's a
good truth. And finally, the last glorious
truth that we need to grapple with, because see you why I approached
encroached upon that topic is because you will hear in theological
circles that Christ is still offering Himself and his blood
as a sacrifice for our sin as you do in the Catholic system
Are you hearing me and that could never be the truth? And it would
mess up all kind of theological truths as I'm getting as I'm
helping you comprehend now it would mar the distinction between
the old and the new and In the new heavens and the new earth,
you will not need physical blood. You too will be overwhelmed by
and subsumed by the quickening spirit of which you have now
in principle in your soul. Are you born again? Then you
have the Spirit of God. And if God wanted to, He could
stop your blood from flowing and you would still be living.
If God wanted to, He could allow you to walk through these doors
like Jesus did when He rose again from the dead. Why? Because Christ
already died for you. The judgment is passed. If God
wants to, He could give me all of the inheritance of that new
covenant and I could walk in a state of full glory right now. There's nothing holding me back.
There's nothing holding us back from experiencing that blessing.
It's ours right now. Are you hearing me? This is why
God could do miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle in
the Old Testament because Christ was the lamb slain Already before
the foundation of the world so God could insert into human time
and space as we know it the miracles that we call and they would be
Legitimate miracles based upon the past finished work of Christ
in our behalf in the mind of God the Father See, we're free
to go. I don't even have to die See
there's a day coming with some of us won't die because Christ
has already died once for us. Are you hearing me? I'm just
sharing with you some of the blessings of the covenant. So
then pastor, why do we physically die to glorify God while we're
here? Am I boring you? I'll give you the last point
here in a second. I just want you to grasp this. The covenant is
perfected. When the text says in verse 14
of chapter 10, he has by one sacrifice Perfected all those
who are set apart that means in God's eyes. There's nothing
lacking for you You don't have to die The only reason you and
I die is to follow through this earthly pattern in order to help
men and women understand That you've got to face the judgment
and what that means is for us when we die and we're children
of God You don't get the right you don't get the right to die
how you want to die. I Folks it now when I got this
is what I want you to do I want you to burn me up and I want
you to put me in an urn and I want you to fly over the San Francisco
Bay and I want you to pour me out all over the bay You're not
Christian when you think like that Are you hearing me? See the Christian understands
that he has been bought with a price lock stock and barrel
every fiber of his being, the whole of his person has been
bought. All your hair, all your toenail, all your skin, all your
follicles, even the stuff falling down to the ground, that's going
to get resurrected one day. God owns it all. You know what
that means? In the same way that you live by faith and you live
to glorify God, guess how you die? You die by faith and you
die to glorify God. This is why we bury our brothers
and sisters, to let the world know there is a resurrection
coming. There is a day coming when all
that are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God.
And they who have done evil will rise from the dead to the judgment
of the damnation. And those that have done good
will rise to the just judgment of God, which will bring them
into eternity. There is a judgment coming. And
so we lay our loved ones in the grave, not because we are whining
and crying about where they are. They're in glory. This is why
you stop, listen, stop talking to them. I have to do so much theology
when I do funerals because the paganism rises up in us. They,
hey, honey, you know, I love, you know, I just wanted to say
this one last thing. No, they're not there. They're
not there. They're not there. Now that is
their body. That is their body and that is
the body that's going to be reunited with their spirit and renew.
Am I making some sense? But quit talking to them. Watch
this because they're not there and they're not listening to
you. They're not listening to you. This is good theology. I'm
just being a little humorous because I'm getting ready to
get out of here because I'm hungry, but I'm just telling you this is
good theology. Will you hear me? Our brothers
and sisters are not sitting up there looking down on us. Every
time we get to the funeral with I know she looking down. I know
he looking down on us I know he can see he must be proud of
us. No, he's not even looking He's not looking Are you hearing
me? They do not Spend any interest
of time looking down here on your sinful life. I They don't
want to watch you digging your nose. They don't want to watch
you taking a bath. They don't want to watch you
lying on your taxes. They don't want to watch you
cheating on your husband. They don't want to watch you scam.
That would mess heaven up. I'm getting it right. I'm getting
it right. Whether you like it or not, I'm getting it right.
I'm getting it right. And I'm doing this for your comfort.
So, I'll be sitting there while they go, you know, I know she's
looking down on us and they do this everywhere. No, they're
not looking down on you. That great cloud of witnesses that
we're going to get to next chapter, it's not about them looking down
on us. It's about us looking back on them who already ran
this race, who already got their certificate, who are already
sitting in their place in the kingdom and they're cheering
you on to make sure you finish this race by looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of your faith. Is that right? Listen,
I'm done right here. We're going to have a large table.