We're going to be, we are going
to be back in Hebrews 13, if you would like to turn there. Hebrews 13. And as we come to
the end of Hebrews, we have a last exhortation, a final farewell,
if you would, but he ends it the same way he began it by taking
us straight to the blood, taking us straight to the new covenant,
the everlasting covenant, showing us that salvations of the Lord,
all by the Lord, You can call it the exclamation mark if you
wanted to. That's kind of what I thought it was. I read it.
He just put an exclamation mark at the end of the whole book. This hour I have a simple question,
but it requires complete honesty. Me and you can fool each other,
and know the right words to say, know the right actions to do,
but the Lord weighs the hearts, he knows the truth. And scripture
says, be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap. My hope this morning is that
you'll be able to answer this question honestly. Answer it
honestly for yourself, but answer it before God, honestly. He knows
the truth, he knows the truth. Many will answer and have the
right words, but scary to think how easy our hearts are so deceitful,
how false and full of sin this flesh really is, but yet how
good and how gracious our Lord is on the opposite end of that
spectrum. Unless God teaches us we will
not believe on him, we will believe in ourself, we'll believe on
us, we'll believe the lie, we'll believe the lie. And the longer
I've studied, the more I realized that we are the lie. We worship
self by nature. All right, well, I titled this
what makes you perfect? What makes you perfect? That's
the question that we're going to ask ourselves this hour. What
makes you perfect? I pray the Lord will bless us
with his spirit this morning. Again, Hebrews 13 verses 20 through
25. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make
you perfect and every good work to do his will working in you.
that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. And I beseech you,
brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written
a letter unto you in few words. Know ye that our brother Timothy
is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see
you. Salute all them that have the
rule over you, and all the saints, they of Italy, salute you. Grace
be with you all, amen. Why, or what, rather, And you'd
say, who makes you perfect? Who makes you perfect? But I
titled it, What Makes You Perfect? If God is not the reason that
I'm perfect, then I'm not perfect. If God is not the doer of it,
then I am not perfect before him or before his law. This is
what he demands. This is his standard. This is
his requirement. This is across the board. His
standard is the same. He doesn't acquit the guilty.
He doesn't allow people to hide their sin where it's not seen.
He brings everything out in the open, whether it be good or whether
it be evil. God knows the truth. So how am I made perfect? What makes
us perfect? What makes you perfect? The Lord
is righteous. The Lord is holy. The Lord is
sovereign. The Lord's good. We're none of those things in
and of ourselves. So what makes us perfect? A lot of people believe
that perfection can be attained by what they do or don't do.
We had somebody come one time to this church and was talking
after service with me about progressive sanctification, which is basically
the belief that you keep getting better and better and better
until one day the Lord views you as sanctified and prepared
to go to glory, and that's a lie. It's not in scripture. Christ
is our sanctification. It's not complicated. Christ is our, we're
sanctified right now, but not this old man. This old man still
hates God in every way, The new man has been sanctified, has
been made holy, has been made perfect. Why? Because it's created
in righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ's righteousness,
created in his likeness, were created, made from his seed.
It's the heavenly, it's the heavenly seed, isn't it? So what makes
you perfect? Well, I know this, if you and
I have anything to do with our perfection, we're not perfect. If you have anything to do with
it, or if I have anything to do with it, we're not perfect. So how can
the unclean be made clean? How can that born of a woman
be made whole, be made pure? Lord, do you know what the Lord
said in scripture? That the stars are not pure in
his sight. Think about that. The stars are
not pure in my sight. That's what he said. What about
us, creatures of? Sinful nature. Are we pure? Are
we perfect in his sight? Is there anything we can do to
obtain perfection or to cause perfection to be what we're considered
to be? Absolutely not. That's the truth
of it. We can't obtain that because
we're creatures of sin. How can a sinner be made perfect?
From the beginning of time, everyone that had anything to do with
God other than judgment, other than wrath, other than condemnation,
they had to be perfect. They had to be perfect, sinless,
sinless, completely sinless. That's the only way God could
walk with Adam in the cool of the garden in the evening is
because Adam was without sin at that time. The moment Adam
sinned, he fell, it separated him from God. And that's what
the scripture says. The Lord told the children of Israel,
your sins have separated you from me. It's the sin that prevents
us from getting to God. It's our nature that prevents
us from choosing God. And it's our sin that prevents
us from getting to God. So how can we be made perfect? What makes you perfect? It's extremely bad news to hear
that you're a sinner and there's nothing you can do about it unless
you hear the good news of the gospel. If it just left right
there, if we just had the verse, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, There's no hope. If I'd have said that,
that would be the end of it, right? There's no hope there.
For all the wages of sin is death. If he stopped right there, we'd
be in trouble. But he didn't, did he? But the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What makes you perfect?
It's got to be the Lord Jesus Christ. It's got to be this blood,
the blood of the everlasting covenant he mentions right here
in verse 20. The Lord said this. Matthew 6, be
therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is
perfect. How you gonna do that? How you gonna do that? That's
the requirement, perfection. How am I gonna do that? How? Sacrifice more, work harder. Well, the Lord calls that iniquity.
And iniquity equals death. So how is it I can be made perfect
I think he told the way we're offering sacrifices in Leviticus,
he told the priest this, whatsoever offers, whosoever offers a sacrifice
of peace offering unto the Lord to accomplish his vow or a free
will offering in beehives or sheep, it shall be perfect to
be accepted. It's gotta be perfect to be accepted,
flawless, without blemish, without spot, there should be no blemish
therein. Our sacrifice can never do us any good because it's not
a perfect sacrifice, because we're in the flesh. Our sacrifice
can never accomplish anything good, because we're the doers
of it. Sacrificing to the law, it doesn't
make one perfect. Hebrews 7 says, for the law made
nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the
which we draw nigh unto God. The law was given that every
man's mouth would stop. And it all would become guilty
before God. That's the purpose of the law. Anybody that tries
to go to the law for righteousness, thinking that they can obtain
righteousness or perfection, are fooling themselves. It wasn't
given for that purpose. It was given to show us that
we are wretched, vile, ungodly creatures that need a savior.
Need a savior. There's none that were made sinless
under the Levitical priesthood, there was none that were made
sinless under the law of Moses. No, the law came by Moses but
grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ, that's our hope.
That's the only way we're going to be made perfect is if the
Lord does it, the Lord's going to have to be the doer of it. Hebrews 7 says, cannot make ourselves perfect.
That's what He's saying. That priesthood, although it was good
because it was ordained of God, it was to point to another priest,
our great high priest. The tabernacle and worship and
the sacrifices, although they were good because they were ordained
of God, they pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what was
offered in the Old Testament. This is what Hebrews have dealt
with. None of that was for salvation. That was just the way the Lord
said, here I'll meet with you at this mercy seat. This is where
I'll meet with you. And it's a picture of Christ. You want
to be perfect? You have to be in the mercy seat.
You have to be in Christ. You have to be found in him,
not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but having
the righteousness, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Here's the good news brethren.
But God, who is rich in mercy, where in his great love hath
he loved us, He tells us in Hebrews 10, for by one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's past tense,
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I love that,
because we could just go back to that progressive sanctification
or whatever. They says are, that's definitive,
it's already done. Those that are sanctified, not
going to be, not getting that way, they are sanctified. Lord
sanctified his people and he made them perfect by one offering,
by one offering. So what makes you perfect? Well,
if you're in Christ, you're perfect. And if you're not in Christ,
you're not perfect. That's as simple as it can get. If you're
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're perfectly righteous in the eyes
of God. In so much, he says, come unto
me, the table's set. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. Whosoever will, let him come. Take of the water of life
freely. Come and buy without money, without price. Why? Because
the blood of Christ has already paid for it. If you're not in Christ, on the
other hand, you're looking to yourself for some way, you're
lost. You're lost. If I'm holding on to something
other than the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm lost and I'm undone, utterly
sinful. You remember the rich man that
came to the Lord And he said, good master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? The Lord said, why callest thou
me good? There's none good but God. He told him, he said, well,
I've kept, he said, you know the law, honor your mother and
father, don't covet, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't,
remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and the rich man said,
I've done this from my youth up. And the Lord said, one thing
you lack, one thing you lack, go and sell all that you have.
and give your gifts unto the poor and take up your cross and
follow me." And what did the rich man do? He went away weeping
and crying because he had much. See, he believed that he was
perfect the way that he was. Do we see that? And the Lord
knew that his righteousness came through him by those earthly
treasures. He thought he had God's approval on him because
of all of his earthly treasures. Think about that. That wasn't
the case at all, was it? No. No, this man was told, go
sell what you have and follow me. You wanna be perfect? You gotta follow Christ. Don't
follow things, don't follow people, don't follow each other, we follow
Christ, don't we? That's where perfection is and
the only place it comes from is the Lord Jesus Christ. Am
I saying everybody should go sell everything that they have?
No, not the physical. But we do sell all of the false
beliefs that we had before we know in Christ. We don't believe
that anymore. We don't believe the the corn cobs that the swine
feed upon. We sell all we got rid of all
that. You see what I'm saying? That's what that's the picture
there. That's the picture there. Did this man's earthly possessions
make him perfect? Were they his righteousness?
Was he his God? How is that? What was he? He desired the praise
of men more than the praise of God. Christ tells us plainly
the remedy for this. You want to be perfect? He tells
us plainly the remedy. The Lord speaking to his father
and the His prayer to his Father for his people, intercessory
prayer, John 17. He says, I in them, talking about
the church, and thou in me, talking about the Father, that they may
be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me and hast loved them, and thou hast loved me. What makes you perfect? Oh, I
must be found in him. Must be found in him. One with
him, one with the Father. That's what makes his people
perfect. He made his people perfect, sinless,
undefiled, because that's who he is. And as our substitute
on the cross, putting away our sin, he gave us his righteousness.
Righteousness has been imputed to his people. Perfection has
been imputed to his people. Somebody said, well, I don't
feel very perfect. I make a lot of mistakes. Not how God sees it. Not if you're in Christ. No,
if you're in Christ, you've never sinned one time, not once. You
and I know we can see our own sin, can't we? We feel it, we
loathe it, we are sorrowful from it. Lord don't see it, he sees
the blood. He sees the covering. The promise,
when I see the blood I'll pass by you, I no longer see your
sin, I no longer see your unbelief. I see perfection because I see
my son. I see my son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's our perfection. What
makes you perfect? He does, not me, he does. You want to be perfect, you've
got to have Christ. You've got to have Christ, must
be found in him. He by himself, he by himself
saved his people from their sin, making them the righteousness
of God in him, bearing our sin upon his own body in the tree,
putting it away with a sacrifice of himself and God poured out
his wrath. Justice was satisfied, the law was satisfied. Scripture
tells us clearly there's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
anymore. Why? Because you're perfect in his
eyes. The peculiar people loved of the Father. How else is God
gonna love you unless you're perfect? He loves perfection,
doesn't he? That's the truth of it. And we
see it. And the only reason we believe
it is by the faith God gives us. Because if we're talking
about it with each other, you're saying I'm perfect. We would never say that
to each other without immediately pointing to Christ and say, no,
he is. And my hope is that I'm in him and that when he died,
I was in him. So therefore, he has made me perfect. It's not
me. There's nothing good and nothing good in me. It's all
him. It's all him. Oh, what makes you perfect? It's
the blood alone. It's by grace alone. It's the
blood of the Lord Jesus. It's the grace of God alone.
He must make me perfect. Or I lack the most significant
thing, to approach God. If I approach God any other way
other than being perfect, other than being righteous, other than
being as holy as he is, the only thing I'm gonna get is condemnation
and judgment. Damnation, that's all that awaits
for someone outside of Christ. But oh, if I'm in Christ, he's
made us accepted in the beloved. He says you're joint heirs with
God. Joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. Can you imagine that? Being an heir of the one
that created everything? The one that created everything.
We're his heir by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Oh,
he demands perfection. And we have a substitute, surety,
that was certainly perfect, that is certainly perfect. And he,
by himself, purged our sins and made us perfect in him. Scripture tells us that we live,
we move, and we have our being in Christ. Did you know that?
We live, move, and have our being in Christ. You know what that
means? That we're seen as perfect all the time when it comes to
the things of God. That amazes me. That amazes me. It also amazes me that it wasn't
something that I did to make that happen, because I would
have messed it up. It also amazes me that I can't mess it up even
now. I can't become unperfect because I'm in Christ. He can't
fail. I love that. So are you telling
me, preacher, he did all of it? Yes, and he's gonna continue
to do all of it. And the Lord's people say, thank
you, Lord. Truth, Lord, I am a dog, but can I have a crumb
from your table? That's what we pray. Oh, he's
our perfection. He's our perfection. The Lord's
people are seen as him, in him, covered by his blood. Therefore,
you're perfect right now. I was gonna go put different
points on it like I did the first hour, but I never get around
to doing it that way. But the next question would be, when
am I perfect? If you're in Christ, you're perfect
right now, right this second. And it's, you're never going
to become more perfect than you are right now in him. Think about
that. One day you'll be glorified and you'll drop this flesh, then
you'll see the glory of God that's in you and experience glorification. But you it's in Christ in you
the hope of glory right now. Right now he sees Christ in you
right now. No, it's not my works that did
this. It's his. That's what makes us
perfect. Not our blood, but his. Not the
life we live or the sacrifice we made, the life he lived, the
sacrifice he made. He was well pleasing to his father. He satisfied his father to make
us righteous, to make us one with him. What makes you perfect? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. We're gonna sing that song here
in just a minute. Seems like that's, I've been leaning towards
that one more lately. I don't know, it's like the third
time, I think, in the last month or two. But it's the truth, isn't
it? What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. That's plain and simple. That's plain and simple. That
doesn't involve works, it involves Him. He has to do the washing,
it's His blood. For those who desire this perfection,
remember, do not look to please God by yourself. Look to the
Lamb of God, whom he is well pleased with. If you desire perfection
before God's throne, before his law, if you want to be justified,
look to Christ. Don't look to self, what you
did, doing, or going to do. Look to Christ. Look to Christ,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only therein will you find perfection.
Only therein is there perfection. Scripture says, neither is there
any name given under heaven whereby men must be saved. No other name
given. He's the only one, he's it. He is the way, he is the
truth, and he is the life. Without him there is no way,
there is no truth, and there is no life. He is perfection. He is perfection, believe on
him. Don't look around you to justify yourself. Don't justify
yourself with others. We used to do that religion a
lot. We would had our nose sticking up. We'd see ourselves as better
than others. So I don't know if all of you
did. I did. It's embarrassing. Don't glory in that. But oh,
when the Lord showed he's the high sovereign King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, and the whole earth
is refuted as nothing to him, armies of the earth, they're
nothing but dust. That moment when the Lord shows
you you're a sinner, you don't have your nose up at anybody.
I don't have time. My head's hanging down. I'm praying
with the public and have mercy on me, the sinner. That's the
change, isn't it? That's the change. We don't justify ourself by looking
around. We look to the substitute surety that actually justified
his people. That's where justification comes
from. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our sanctification,
our wisdom, our righteousness. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ
who is our perfection. He is our perfection. Don't try
to be perfect. You'll never be perfect if you
try. But look to Christ who is perfect. Did you know he didn't
have to try to be perfect? Think about that. He was born
perfect, he lived perfect, he died perfect, he's in glory perfect.
One time did he become unperfect? Perfect sacrifice, perfect high
priest, perfect everything. And the Lord's people are in
Him. Perfect. Perfect. What makes you perfect? We'll answer this carefully.
Very carefully and honestly before God about self. It's life and
death. You have to answer it in your own heart. What are you
looking to to make you perfect? What makes you perfect? Let's
pray. Father, we come before you again
thanking you for the time that you've given us together. Pray
that you'll bless your word to our understanding. It's in Christ's
name we pray, amen.