Let's turn together to Hebrews
chapter 10. If you're taking notes, the title
of my message tonight is A New and Living Way. Everything relating
to this gospel age, everything relating to the kingdom of God,
everything relating to our relationship with God in Christ, Everything
relating to the believer's life in Christ in this gospel age
is described as new and living. Let me remind you how those terms
are used with reference to us and our life in Christ. We are
made to be partakers of a new covenant. We are brought into
the kingdom of God by what's called the new birth. We are
made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We have been given a new
name in Christ. We wear the name of our God.
We have been made to live now under a new commandment by the
rule of a new commandment, the rule of the gospel, of grace
and of love. We have been made the citizens
of the new Jerusalem. God has put in our hearts a new
song, and we look for a new heavens and a new earth. As all things
in Christ are new, so too all things in the kingdom of God
are living. We have hope. Not a meaningless, insignificant,
dead hope of religious dogma, but a living hope. We're made
to drink from that fountain of living waters, which is Christ
Jesus himself. We eat of that living bread which
came down from heaven, Christ the bread of life. We are built
upon Christ as living stones, upon the living stone and the
living foundation. In other words, everything relating
to the believer, everything relating to the worship of God, everything
relating to the knowledge and service of our God in this gospel
age has to do with the heart. They're matters of heart and
of spirit. God is spirit, and we worship
him in spirit and in truth. I can't emphasize this sufficiently. In the kingdom of God, The matters
of meat and drink, that is carnal material things, are insignificant. But righteousness, peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost is everything. The Apostle says we are the circumcision. We are God's true people. We
are truly born of God. We are God's covenant people,
the Israel of God, which worship God in spirit and rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now with that in
mind, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10, and we're going to
look at verses 11 through 25 this evening. If you can remember
four words, you can remember my outline. First, I want to
show you what the scripture says here about redemption, and then
secondly about remission, and thirdly about reconciliation,
and fourthly about responsibility. First, in verses 11 through 14,
The Holy Spirit assures us of the accomplishment of redemption
by our Lord Jesus Christ. Read the verses with me as we
go along. Verse 11. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sin. Now this refers not to the great
high priest, but rather to that great multitude of priests who
ministered every day, standing before the altar, standing before
the door of the tabernacle, offering sacrifices, the same sacrifices
morning and evening, day after day, week after week, month after
month, year after year, but those sacrifices could never take away
sins. But this man, verse 12, the Lord
Jesus Christ, This man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Now there
are three things in this twelfth verse that are absolutely essential.
First, the Son of God became a man. Hold your hands here and
let's look at a couple of prophecies. Isaiah 7 and 14. Isaiah chapter
7 and verse 14. Here's a prophecy concerning
the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, that is, God
with us. Turn over a couple of pages to
chapter 9, Isaiah 9 verse 6. And always as you read the scriptures,
look for the wording of scripture. When things seem to be redundant,
recognize they're not redundant at all. If there is an apparent
redundancy, the redundancy is deliberate, not accidental. Here
in verse 6 of chapter 9, for unto us a child is born. As Mary's child, that man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, was born into this world. As God the Son, he
never was born. Unto us a son is given. Do you see that? He was already
the son of God before he was born, the son of Mary. He came
into this world the son of God. He was born into this world as
the son of Mary. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Now look in Matthew chapter 1. And here we see the fulfillment
of these scriptures. God the Son, the eternal incomprehensible
God became a man. But he who is our Savior is not
merely a man, he is God-man, fully God and fully man. Matthew
121, she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all
this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of
the Lord by the prophet. We read it in Isaiah chapter
7. Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a
son and they shall call his name God with us. Emmanuel which being
interpreted is God with us. This almighty God-man offered
himself one sacrifice for sins forever. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God in our nature. And the second thing the scripture
tells us here in verse 12 of Hebrews chapter 10 is that he
offered one sacrifice for sins forever. Once was enough, once
and no more. The idea that somehow the sacrifice
of Christ is being perpetually made is a denial of the efficacy
of our Lord's sacrifice. When we come to take the Lord's
table, we do not crucify the Lord Jesus again as the papist
would have us to believe in the mass, but rather we celebrate
the one sacrifice he made for sins, that one sacrifice being
itself enough. And this is evident from the
third thing given to us in this twelfth verse. Our Lord Jesus,
after he had become a man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, then he sat down on the right hand of God
himself. Because his work was done, because
his sacrifice was accepted, because all his people were sanctified,
because all our sins were pardoned, he sat down. He could not have
sat down, he could not have gone back to the Father as our mediator
if he had not put away the sins of his people. Now again, let's
look at another scripture, John chapter 16. John 16. He could not have gone to the
Father as our mediator, as our surety, had he not put away our
sins. And this is what we're told in
John 16, the Holy Spirit convinces me enough. When men and women
are born of God, they are convinced Of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. Now listen to how our Lord speaks.
John chapter 16 in verse 9. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Convinced of their sin. When
God saves a sinner, when the Holy Spirit gives life and faith
in Christ, He convinces you of your sin. Number two, He convinces
them of righteousness. Righteousness accomplished. Because
I go to my father and you see me no more He says you you who
believe on me you are born of me when the Spirit of God reveals
Christ in you you are convinced of Righteousness accomplished
because I've gone to my father and that's what we're told back
here in Hebrews 10 12 When he had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever. He sat down on the right hand
of God Now all of this is written to show us the excellence and
superiority of Christ as our great high priest. Those priests
of the Old Testament in Israel were many. He is one. They offered
many sacrifices. He offered one sacrifice. They
stood daily. He sat down. Their sacrifices
were just pictures. That's all. They could never
take away sin. His sacrifice is effectual. He
sat down because our sins are put away. All right, look at
verse 13. From henceforth expecting, I love that language, expecting. Yonder seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high is the crucified Savior expecting. He sits in the sovereign serenity
of holy expectation that what he earned he's going to have.
From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Oh blessed be God, all his enemies
shall soon be made to bow down and kiss his feet. All his enemies
and ours shall be brought in subjection under him before God
gets done with this thing called time and creation. Now this is
a direct quote from Psalm 110 verse 1. But I want you to look
at Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah 45. Here, the Lord God is describing
his servant, the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And he's describing
him as God, our Savior. Look at it in verse 20. He's
been describing the false gods and the idols of the peoples.
And now the Lord God says, assemble yourselves and come. Draw near
together, you that are escaped of the nations. They have no
knowledge that set up the world of their graven images. Folks
who worship a false god are totally ignorant of God. And they pray
unto a God that cannot save. Now I lay this charge to this
religious generation. I lay this charge against the
churches of this land and the churches of this town. I lay
this charge against the religious people who live next door to
me and the ones who live next door to you. They pray unto a
God that cannot save. I take the words from their own
mouths. They tell us that he wants to do what he can't do,
tries to do what he fails to do, calls people who don't hear
his voice, redeem people who are not redeemed, and he tries
to save sinners who are not saved. They pray to a God that cannot
save. Then the Lord God speaks again. He says in verse 21, tell
you, bring them near, let them take counsel together. Who hath
declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time,
have not I the Lord, that there is no God beside me, a just God
and a Savior? And so he says, look unto me.
And be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and
beside me there is none else. There is no God other than me.
I have sworn by myself, the words go out of my mouth in righteousness,
and shall not return. Look at it. That unto me shall
every knee bow, and every tongue swear. Every enemy shall be put
under his feet. He earned it, God promised it,
and Christ is going to have it. He must reign, the scripture
says, till he has put all his enemies under his feet. I read
something by John Trapp today that just reproved me and at
the same time inspired me a little. Let me give it to you. Trapp
said, let us both admire and imitate our Savior's patience.
The God of peace will brew Satan under our heel shortly. Our Lord
Jesus sits on the right hand of the majesty on high expecting
God to conquer all his enemies and put all things in subjection
under him and he sits patiently waiting the fulfillment of God's
promise. Let us admire and imitate his patience. Alright look at
verse 14. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now this is why he sat down.
This is why he expects his enemies to be destroyed. This is why
he's at the right hand of God. Our Savior has fully and forever,
perfectly and permanently accomplished everything he came here to do.
He has completely cleansed, perfected, and made holy all who were given
to him by his Father, all his sanctified ones, that is to say,
all who were chosen and set apart by God Almighty in covenant grace. Now then, that's the declaration
of redemption accomplished. And where there is redemption,
there is also remission of sins. Look at the next line, verse
15. Here in verses 15 through 18, the Spirit of God describes
the remission of our sins by covenant grace. Now, my friends,
there is no possibility of redemption without remission. And there
is no possibility that there are any for whom Christ died,
any for whom redemption was obtained, but whose sins have been fully
remitted. Look here in verse 15. Wherefore,
or whereof, the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. The Holy
Ghost in the scripture is witness to us. For after that, he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Now these verses
are quoted from Jeremiah chapter 31. We won't look at them now,
but if you want to look at them later, verses 31 through 34,
there the Lord God describes his covenant and the promises
of the covenant. But here just three things are
mentioned. Did I say just three things? These three things are
indescribably magnificent. Eternity will be spent wondering
and worshiping and praising God for these three things. First,
this promise of the covenant involves regeneration. The Lord
God, the God of all grace, declares, I will put my laws in their hearts
and write them on their minds. In the new birth, this is what
God does. He inscribes his law in our hearts
causing us to love it and writes it on our minds causing us to
understand it. Now what does it mean when he
says I'll write my laws in their hearts and in their minds? There are multitudes, the vast
majority of religious people, particularly what are called
reformed people. who would tell us what God does
as he takes the laws written on tables of stone and he writes
them on our hearts so that we want to live by the law. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Those commandments written on tables of stone were
written on your conscience by creation. Read Romans chapter
1. That's what causes all men everywhere
to know there is a God. That's what causes all men everywhere
to recognize that God demands satisfaction for sin. That's
what causes men everywhere to, in some way, worship a God after
their own minds. Because they recognize their
sinners, God will punish sin, and God will demand satisfaction
for sin. Down in Mexico, we went out to
see the Mayan ruins. Some of them at Chichen Itza
just the other day. And there we saw places where men would
take young women and to appease the gods, would sacrifice virgins
to the gods. You say, well what would cause
any, what a barbaric society. Not too barbaric. They understood
that God is. They understood they're sinners.
And they understood that God's wrath must be appeased. And so
they offer whatever sacrifice they thought would appease his
wrath. Now, that's not the law that God writes on our hearts
in the new birth. That's written on the consciences of men in
their state of depravity by virtue of creation so that all men are
without excuse. When he talks about putting his
laws in our minds and writing them on our hearts, this is what
he's saying. He calls his people to love his
will, his ways, and his words. He causes his people to delight
in his will, his ways, and his word. He causes us to say with
David, oh how I love your law, my God. Not just the Ten Commandments,
the whole of it. The whole of it. So that the
believer has been reconciled to God Almighty in the totality
of his beings and in all of his actions. So that the believer
does not any longer set himself up as the judge of God, but rather
as the worshipper of God. His law is written in our hearts
and in our minds. And then he promises here forgiveness. He says that their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. He remembers them no more because
he's blotted them out. He remembers them no more because
justice has been satisfied. He remembers them no more because
they are no more written in the book of his law against us. Our
debt has been cancelled. Turn back to Psalm 130. Psalm
130. looking at this declaration,
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. My mind just
automatically ran back to a message that I heard Brother Henry Mahan
preach when I was a pastor at Lookout. He came up one Saturday
afternoon and preached a message from this 130th Psalm. In verse
3, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand? If God marks sin, there's no
hope for us. And God does mark sin. But, what
a big word, there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared. And Brother Mayhead asked the
question, he says, how can I be sure that there is forgiveness
with God? And he gave these answers. I
know there is forgiveness with him because his name declares
it. Moses said, what's your name? And God said, my name is that
one who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Moses said, show me
your glory. The man said, I know there's
forgiveness with God because his glory demands it. God revealed
his glory to Moses in being gracious to whom he would be gracious,
in being merciful to whom he would be merciful. I know there's
forgiveness, he said, because God's son came here to obtain
it. And he, with his blood, entered at once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. And then he said, I know
there's forgiveness because all the prophets and all the apostles
have proclaimed it throughout the ages. And then he said, I
know there's forgiveness with God because multitudes, including
me, have experienced it. And one other thing is that I
know there's forgiveness with him because he sent me to tell
you about it. Now look here in Psalm 32. Psalm 32. There is forgiveness with our
God. Our God forgives sin. Oh, would to God we could grasp
something of his forgiveness. So fully does he forgive our
sins that he remembers them no more at all. Look here in Psalm
32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Now look at what it says here about this thing of forgiveness.
First, our transgressions are forgiven, our sin is covered,
atonement, and then the Lord will not impute iniquity to somebody,
to his people. Those in whose spirit there is
no guile. Those who are born of God. Those
who have been given a new heart, a new nature, a new will. Those
who walk before God in uprightness of heart and faith are people
who walk sincerely before Him. God declares, where there is
faith in Christ, there is no imputation of sin. Now look at
verse 3. David says, When I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For
day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture turned into
the drought of summer. Now look at verse 5. I acknowledged
my sin unto thee. I confessed it. My iniquity have
I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins. Oh, their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. How can that be? The cause of
satisfaction. Where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin. Justice satisfied demands
no more. The blood of Christ is enough.
God requires no more than this. My conscience requires no more
than this. There is no more offering for
sin. Why? Because Christ has put away
our sins. Where there is an absolute remission,
complete forgiveness, a total cancellation of penalty, There
is no longer any offering or sacrifice to be made. If we are
in Christ, redeemed by Christ, it is dishonoring to our Savior
for us not to rest in His grace. It is dishonoring to Him for
us not to believe what He says. It is dishonoring to Him for
us to continually bear about the conscience of sins, and it
is an expression of a lack of faith, not of confidence or humility. This is what Scripture says.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Now sometimes, more often than not, I feel as
dead and lifeless as that desk. I'm just honest with you. More
often than not, I feel languishing, not reviving. More often than
not, I feel emptiness, not fullness. More often than not. But my hope
and my confidence with God has nothing to do with what I feel.
Do you understand that? My hope and confidence with God
has nothing to do with what I feel, but rather with what Christ has
done. That's all. That's all. In the
teeth of my sin, in the teeth of my coldness, in the teeth
of my indifference, in the teeth of all that I know about me that's
wrong, I believe God. And I rejoice that there is therefore
now no condemnation to this sinner in Christ Jesus. That's what
faith does. Faith looks to Him. Alright,
where there is redemption and remission, there is reconciliation. Look at verses 19, 20, and 21.
These verses describe the blessedness of reconciliation in Christ.
You see, we are all by nature enemies to God. We are all by
nature at enmity against God and our hearts are enmity against
God. But God has reconciled us to
himself in Christ. And in the new birth, he comes
to sinners who are rebels against him and causes us to be reconciled
to him in our hearts and in our minds. Reconciliation is what
gospel preachers proclaim. We proclaim reconciliation accomplished. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world of his elect unto himself, not imputing our trespasses unto
us, but rather he has imputed our trespasses unto his son.
Now we proclaim reconciliation accomplished in Christ, and we
seek to persuade sinners now to be reconciled to God, to quit
fighting against God. Look at verse 19. having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest
over the house of God." What a word, what a word. In Christ,
every believing sinner has full freedom and confidence To enter
into the presence of God by the blood of Christ. By the merit
of His blood. How can I come to God? I'm not
worthy. No, you're not. But preacher,
I don't feel worthy to call His name good. Good. But I don't
feel worthy to approach the Lord good. If you think you're worthy,
something's bad wrong with you. How do we approach Him? Our worthiness,
Rex, is the blood. Our worthiness is the righteousness
of His Son. Our worthiness is Christ Himself. Not us, but Him. When our Savior
died at Calvary, the veil in the temple was ripped into, all
the ceremonies and sacrifices being fulfilled forever were
abolished, and the way into the holiest of all is made open for
sinners by the blood of Christ Jesus the Lord. Now we come to
God. With boldness we approach the
throne of grace through our great high priest. With boldness, what
on earth does that word mean? It doesn't mean boldness like
you see these fellows on television, they're going to twist God's
arm and get him to do something he wasn't in the notion of doing
to start with. Sometimes people think of prayer, they think,
well, somehow if we'll just bombard heaven enough and we'll get enough
people together, we'll all at one time just bombard God, we'll
get him to do what he planned to do. That's nonsense. Prayer
is walking before God with confidence, pouring out our hearts to Him,
seeking His will and His glory as best we know how. It's coming
to Him with confidence, boldness, boldness. coming to Him through
the blood and righteousness of His Son in the name of Christ,
that is, coming to Him worshiping His Son, believing His Son, coming
to Him seeking His honor, coming to Him through Christ Jesus,
I have no question, God in heaven embraces me, receives me, accepts
me, and hears me. That's what boldness is. It's
the kind of boldness that your child would have when he comes
to his father with a great need. He recognizes he's got some difficulties
and he doesn't know how to take care of them. So he goes to his
dad with respect and honor. He goes to his dad understanding
that his dad is always open to Him. Children of God, our Father is
more anxious to hear our cries than we are to utter them. Come
to Him then boldly through Christ Jesus. Our worthiness is Christ
Himself. Now then, let me address our
responsibilities a little bit. You see, we have great, great
privileges. But where there is great privilege,
there is great responsibility. And here in verses 22 through
25, the Holy Spirit addresses our responsibilities, at least
some of them. These responsibilities relate
to ourselves, to our God, and to one another. First he tells
us in verse 22, draw near with a true heart, in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from evil conscience, and our
bodies washed with pure water. Let us come to our God with a
true heart. A heart that's true, what is
that? It's a heart truly and entirely
given up to God, delighting to do his will, desiring rather
that God's will be done than my own. A heart that desires
that God may be glorified more than I be gratified. A heart
that acknowledges that his alone is the kingdom and the power
and the glory. Come to God with a full assurance
of faith. I don't know how to address this
matter of assurance. We do have our doubts and fears.
We struggle with them. We do. But we ought not. It's absolutely inexcusable,
Lindsay, for you or I to question our God. Absolutely inexcusable. Absolutely inexcusable that we
should fail, if we're His, to believe Him. Full assurance. I'll tell you where we're missing.
I promise you. I promise you. If you're God,
that goes for Alvin and Don, for you ladies, you men, for
all of us, if we're His, every time we have question, about
this business of assurance is because we're looking in here
for something to give us assurance. Every time. We're looking to
ourselves. Our praying, our reading, our
devotion, our giving, our sacrifice, whatever. I've told you before,
it's a true story. Various groups of monks during
the dark ages, and I guess it's still true today, I don't know,
I try to stay away from those idiots, but they used to do all
kinds of strange things. All kinds of strange things.
To improve their spirituality. They'd beat themselves. Literally. Take quips, strip off their robes
and beat themselves. Silly. They'd do all kinds of
torturous things. One group used to sit in their
cells all day to pull their robes up. And they'd squat down and
look at their bellies. Look at their navels. Because
they thought they were going to gain something spiritual by
looking in themselves. Almost all religion would have
you believe that you'll get something spiritual by looking in you.
You'll get nothing spiritual, but only carnality, only a show
of humility. We gain assurance looking to
Him. The anchor of our souls, Wes,
is outside ourselves, it's yonder in glory. He is our assurance. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, that is, having the witness of the blood
of Christ on our hearts, And our bodies washed with pure water,
being born again of his spirit. Then he tells us in verse 23,
let's continue in the faith. Continue in the faith of the
gospel. Continue, hold fast the profession of our faith, because
God's faithful. I recall as a young man, shortly
after God saved me, going through some difficulties, I began to
had some serious struggles. I thought they were serious at
the time, they were just child's play I guess, but a 17-year-old
boy, I was going through some difficulties and I thought surely
I'd come to the end of things. And
the Lord God set my heart on this word from Him. Faithful
is He that calleth you who also will do it. He's faithful. He's faithful. And bless God,
His faithfulness doesn't depend on mine. Mine depends on His. Now look at verse 24. Let us
consider one another. Oh, children of God. Let us consider
one another. to provoke one another to love
and good works. Let us ever be considerate of
and give consideration to one another. When you go about your daily
life, give some consideration to Bob Duff, will you? And consider
this. Every time you think of him and
think of him often, every time you seek to call his name before
God in prayer, call his name before God in prayer all the
time. Consider that he's a frail, fickle, sinful piece of human
flesh. That ought to make you have a
little pity. And consider that he's your companion
and your brother in Christ and in the tribulations you endure
and in the conflicts you face in this world. and in this hostile
world with you. And as we consider one another,
we won't have much time to grumble and complain about not being
considered ourselves. Consider one another, one another,
not look out for yourself, but consider one another. And then
we're told in verse 25 that we must never forsake the assembling
of God's saints. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves with the saints of God. How come? Well, there are lots of reasons.
I'll give you a few. I'll probably pick up on this
and give you a few more next time. God has appointed this place
of worship. And our Lord promises that where
two or three are gathered in His name, there He is. If there's anything on this earth,
I want to be. I want to be where He is. He
promised to be here. Sometimes He makes Himself known
and sometimes He hides Himself, but He's always here. Sometimes
He speaks and sometimes, for our good, He doesn't speak, but
He's always here. And if He speaks, this is the
place where He's going to speak. He speaks to his own by his word,
by his spirit. And we need the edification of
his word, the edification of one another. We need the relationship
of the assembly of the saints. And besides that, there are some others who yet
must be called. And we meet together for his
honor to worship him, meet together to edify and strengthen one another,
and we meet together praying that he may be pleased to call
out a sinner or a multitude of sinners for his namesake, and
he shall. Our Father, bless now your word. We thank you for redemption in
Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of our sins, Oh, blessed, blessed forgiveness
from our God, the great forgiver. Teach us to forgive one another. We thank you for reconciling
us to you, for breaking the rebellion of our hearts. And we thank you for the privileges
and responsibilities you've given us in this world. as we walk
before you. Give us grace. Give us grace, our God, to persevere
in the faith. Give us grace ever to walk before
you with confidence. Give us grace to consider one
another. For Christ's sake, I pray. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, let's sing
a hymn and we'll be dismissed with whatever you choose.