Hebrews chapter 10 this morning. Hebrews chapter 10. Now here
in our text, we find our great God and savior seated as the
successful redeemer of his people seated as the soon coming king.
This is how he's viewed here in our text. But we also see
him as doing something that's not mentioned very often in scripture. He's expecting something. He's expecting something. Let's
read this, just the three verses, Hebrews 10, 11 through 13. And
every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. That word henceforth means remaining
or resting. He's resting. And that word expecting
means to receive, to accept, and to wait for. Understand this,
that before time ever began, the father rested in the son,
the Sabbath, and the son rested in the father. The son trusts
the father to not allow him to see corruption. You remember
the scripture tells us that he wouldn't allow his holy one to
see corruption. What does that mean? The Lord wasn't gonna leave
him after he had died. He was going to be resurrected
because he was successful. The whole thing, the whole, Glorious
truth about the Lord is, is they are all three of the triune Godheads
are one and they trust in each other. They rest in each other
and we trust in them and rest in them as for all of our salvation. Here we see the Lord. The Lord
is expecting. the Father to honor his word.
He said, sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. And the son sat down. He's trusting
in the Father. He's trusting in the Father.
I've titled this message, Things Expected. Things Expected. On the day that the Lord makes
the enemies of Christ his footstool, that will be the day that every
knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. One you can expect that
you can expect that to happen. The Lord said it's going to happen.
But one glorious truth that we know is that the Lord tells some
to bow in this life. He gives repentance and faith
in this life, to bow to him, to confess Christ is all right
now. You don't have to wait. If you
bow now and confess it by faith, you're gonna have no problem
doing it whenever you get there. There's my Lord and my God and
my Savior. King of kings, the one I've been
desiring seeing. Everyone else that gets there,
they will bow and they will confess. They will never have done it
in faith, but they'll confess and give all glory and praise
unto God. You can expect that to happen. How is it that we
can expect certain things to happen? Well, you can expect
me to, usually we have patterns in life, things that we do. My
wife expects me to take care of her. I expect her to take
care of me. We take care of the children.
You know, that's expectations. And those are good expectations
to have. I was talking to somebody recently
about conflicts within families and conflicts with different
people. And something I've learned is that if you lower your expectations
of people, you won't be let down near as much. But with God, he
cannot lie. So if he said it, you can expect
it to the fullness. You don't have to lower your
expectations with God. He's not a man like you and I
are. God is a spirit, and they that
worship must worship in spirit and in truth, the scripture tells
us. So if he said, I'm gonna do something, he's gonna do it. He's gonna do it. You can expect
it. The question is, is what can we expect because of Christ
Jesus' expecting of the Father? What can we expect from that?
You can expect everything God has purposed to come to pass.
You can expect everything God has purposed to come to pass.
He is the sovereign creator and sustainer of all life. He is
the alpha and omega in life, in salvation, in time, and in
eternity. He's the beginning, He's the
end, He's the first, He's the last. Think about it this way. Somebody said, there's a verse
of scripture, Can't remember, maybe, I think it's in Job, but
I'm not sure, so I'm not gonna guarantee that. We can look it
up after if you wanna know it. But it says that God hath measured
the waters in the hollow of his hand. Now that used to blow my
mind in false religion, that his magnitude was as he measured
the water in the hollow of his hand. But as I've been studying
and I've been reading, I limited our Lord by that verse. That
was just a simple, that was one of the things the Lord did when
he spoke to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Well, that didn't
make any sense. So he said, that which is born of the flesh is
flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So what is
he saying about the water being measured in the hollow of his
hand? You think you know God and how big he is, how awesome
he, we don't have, but a little understanding of the magnitude
of our God. No, the universe is in Him. The
whole universe is in Him. It's not that He's this big. No, we can't fathom. We can't
fathom the magnitude of our God. Everything He purposed will come
to pass. You can expect that. You can expect that. None can
stay His hand, means you can't stop Him. None can say, what
doest thou? He controls everything. I like to say that he controlled
everything before time. He put it in motion. Everything
is now just falling into place. Everybody knows what dominoes
are. It'd be like dominoes. One hits and the next one keeps
on going. He's the one that started it and he's the one that's gonna
make sure and see to the end of it, whatever he's purposed. Whatever
he's purposed, you can expect, is going to come to pass. You can expect that nothing never
will or is ever going to take him off guard, catch him by surprise,
cause him to fret, cause him to worry, cause him to panic,
cause him to doubt. That's what we do, he don't do
that, he's God. He's God. There's nothing that's
ever confused him. I love that, don't you? He's
never been confused. How many times have you been confused? I'm confused
about every day over something. I'm trying to process information,
figure out this, figure out that. How are we going to fix this?
God doesn't compute. We do. God doesn't. He just is. He just does. He just purposes. And that's
how it's going to be, because he's purposed it. He's not threatened by us. He's
not threatened by Satan. He's not threatened by politics,
governments. He's not threatened. How are
you going to threaten him? Nothing can threaten God. He's
seated. He's seated. He is successful. He's the successful
seated God. And we use the term sands of
time. And I don't know if that's a good way to put it. It puts
a visual in our mind about how time is ticking away. So for
this particular analogy, I'll use it. He controls every grain
of the sands of time. Every time a sand tick goes by,
it drops. God did that. He purposed that. He purposed that. All things
bend to his will. All things bow to his purpose,
whether they want to or not. Aren't you glad, as the Lord's
people, we want to bow? We desire to bow, desire to worship. We don't kick, you remember whenever
Paul, the apostle, he was Saul at the time, he was going with
papers charged to kill some believers, some of the true church. And
he's going down there to persecute them, and the Lord shone forth
his glory, and the blinding light came forth, He said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? And struck him blind, knocked
him off of his high horse, put him in the dirt, dropped him
down on his face before God. He had a thought that he knew
who God was, but he didn't know who God was. Lord had to strike
him blind before he fell, and that's what he does for his people.
It gives us the ability, gives us the ability to bow to him.
What would you have me do, Lord? What would you have me do? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm Jesus whom thou has been
persecuting. He said, it's hard for you to kick against the pricks.
That's what he told him. Those pricks are the pricks of
the heart that the Lord sends to us before we come to the knowledge
of the truth. And then truly after, we still
get pricks in the heart, don't we? When we see our sin and our
heart's grieved and it's sorrowful. And the Lord says it all over
again, seek the Lord, seek you my face, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, come unto me and I'll give you rest. It's like
the disciples, they said, Lord, we've tolled all night and haven't
caught anything. He said, well, you've been fishing
on the wrong side. Cast your nets on the right side. And they
did. And the scripture says that their
nets were so full they couldn't even get back into the boat.
See, if we're doing it ourself, we're going to toll all night
and not accomplish anything. But at the word of his command,
all things are purposed will come to pass. All things that
are purposed will come to pass. Most amazing part, not only are
we made to bow, but we're made to bow because God, before time,
chose to elect some of his created creatures to eternal life. What a glorious hope in seeing
that it wasn't determined by you, it wasn't determined by
me, it was determined by, the scripture says, the determinate
counsel of God. by the determinate counsel of
God. Well, who did he counsel with? Himself. Himself. You remember in the beginning,
the Lord said, let us make man in our image. He wasn't talking
to the angels. It was a conversation between
himself. That's exactly, he counsels himself.
He doesn't look to us. When did he ask us for our advice? When did he ask us for our input
whenever he was gonna create the universe? Whenever he was
going to bring about salvation, when did he confer with you and
I and say, hey, do you think I should do it this way or I
should do it this way? We think too highly of ourself,
don't we? No, he comes to us and says, I have redeemed you.
I have bought you. I have saved you. I've did it
all. You're mine. You're mine. Everything
God has purposed will come to pass. You can expect that. You
can expect that. So he elected his people first,
then he made time. created everything according
to his goodwill and pleasure. And I love that the way the scripture
words is it says a body thou hast prepared for me. He had
to create the body that he was going to indwell. Have you ever
thought of that before? He had to create that body. The
Lord prepared a body for him to go into in order to die so
that he could redeem his people. Then he lived a perfect life,
died the perfect death, redeeming everyone that he died for. This
is what God purposed. God's purpose came to pass according
to his will. God's purpose will continue to
come to pass, and there is nothing that no one can do about it.
Now, those that love God's truth say amen to that, and those that
do not, they'll kick against it. They'll kick against it.
They don't like that kind of God because they're not in charge
or in control. But I promise you this, on the
authority of the word of God, everything that God has purposed
will come to pass. will come to pass. You can expect
it. The second thing you can expect
is that everyone he died for will come to the knowledge of
the truth. He'll come to the knowledge of
the truth. Not because you decide to, not because you choose to,
not even because you want to. He gives you a new want to, don't
he? He has to take out that old want to, because that old want
to is stubborn. He takes that one out and gives you a new one.
That's what he does. Gives us a brand new want to.
Then we want to come to him. Takes out our heart of stone,
and then gives us heart of flesh, and we love him. We love him
with that heart of flesh. John 6, all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and all the kind being, he said, I won't
lose one. I'm not gonna lose one. That tells us that you can
expect everyone that Christ died for will come to the knowledge
of the truth in his time. It's not possible that he loses
one. Who's gonna snatch one from his
hand? Who's gonna take it from his hand? He said, my sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. But as it stopped
there, he said, my father which gave them me is greater than
all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
I and my father are one. He confirmed it by saying, not
only are they not gonna perish, here's why. They're in my hand
and they're in the father's hand and no man can pluck them out,
no one can. Therefore, you can expect everyone
he loves to be born again in time, to be conformed to his
image You can expect every person given to him bears his glory
right now and one day after a while it will be revealed in them.
When we shall see him, we shall be made like him for we shall
see him as he is. You can expect that. You can
expect that. It's a promise of God. It's a
promise of God. You don't have to lower your
expectations. You can expect that. Because he is seated, expecting
until his enemies be made his footstool, he will not lose one
sheep. You can expect that. Thirdly,
you can expect your expected end. You can expect your expected
end. It is appointed unto man once
to die, and after this, the judgment. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter
29. I just wanna read three verses
in Jeremiah 29, but rather than quoting them, I wanted you to
see them. I wanted you to see them. Jeremiah 29, verse 11. This is the Lord speaking. He
says, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith
the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me and
ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you.
You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me
with all your heart. You can expect your expected
end. You can expect your expected
end. Only those who are unabled who are caused to, who are made
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the ones that he seeks
out, the ones that he calls with his voice. They are the ones
that have hope of an expected end. We have hope of an expected
end, not of evil, but of peace. peace with God because of what
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. We have an expected end of peace,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy. We have peace with God. We have
hope of an expected end. That's an eternal peace. Did
you know that? We have peace in this life sometimes, and I
value peace. Every time I talk to different pastors, I say,
how's the church doing? I say, well, everybody seems
to be doing really well. We have peace in the church. Nobody's
coming each Sunday morning trying to shoot me yet, so thankful
for that. We have peace with each other,
don't we? Well, why is that? Well, the hearts are knit together
unto him. We come to hear about him, not each other. We come
to see his face. We have peace. He's the only
one. He's the prince of peace. He's the peace giver. No other
way can we have peace with him. And because he's given us peace
with God, we have an expected end, not unto death, but unto
eternal life. That's what he accomplished on
the cross of Calvary for his people. Scripture says, it is appointed
unto man once to die, and after this to judgment. Unless Christ
is our advocate, unless Christ is our intercessor, We will have
no hope in death. We will have no hope in death.
You will be judged. If you don't have Christ, you
will be judged based entirely upon the works that you have
done in this life. Scripture says whether they be
good or whether they be evil, but the Lord counts all of it
evil if we do it. The Lord counts all of it as
sin if we do it. There's not gonna be a scale
there weighing in the balance your good works and your bad
works, and maybe the Lord will smile upon you because your good
works outweigh your bad works just a little bit better. Every
bit of it's gonna be on the bad side, and there's nothing gonna
be on the good side. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. God's not mocked. If you sow
to the flesh, you shall of the flesh reap corruption. And if
you sow to the spirit, you shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.
Well, how do I sow to the spirit? Well, you can't do it in the
flesh. Flesh is enmity against God. The flesh is enmity against
God. No matter how good we think we
are, we will be damned because of our good works. The very best
thing we ever did. The very best thing we ever did.
You can expect that. But you're not in Christ, you
can expect. You will not be welcome. You will not be made welcome.
But if God has made you the righteousness of Jesus Christ, by his choosing,
by his doing, if Christ suffered on the tree, the Calvary's cross
for you, poured out his blood unto the Father, if the Father
poured out his wrath unto the Son while he was bearing your
sin, there is now therefore no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus. Your record will read like this.
When they open up the record book, it will say perfectly righteous,
perfectly holy, not one sin ever, not one blemish, not one spot,
not one wrinkle, not one stain, perfect. Enter in, thou good
and faithful servant. You know why? Because whenever
he sees his people, he sees the blood. He sees the blood of the
lamb. He sees his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only one that ever pleased him or could please him.
You can count on that. You can expect that. This is, that's the believer's
hope and rest, isn't it? That's our hope and rest. If
we're not in Him, I have no hope, I have no rest, I have no peace.
But if I'm in Him, I have hope, I have peace, I have rest. Paul
said, if we had hope in this world only, we'd be of all men
most miserable. That's the truth, isn't it? We got eternal rest
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you all know as well as I
do, we get tired. I'm not talking about just physically,
we get mentally tired of dealing with everything in life, dealing
with people, non-believing people. It's difficult going through
the world and trying to deal with different things. This is
our place of rest. And one day after a while, we're
going to have eternal rest. There's no work to be done. Christ
did it all. He prepared the place. He bought it with his own blood.
He has everything in store for his children. And he said before,
what did he say? I know the thoughts that I think
towards you, said the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not evil
to give you an expected end. To give you an expected end. Our hope and rest, our peace,
is not that we did anything for God to save us. He saved us and
then called us by his grace, and then in time he shows it
to us. He reveals it by his gospel. Shows us that we have an expected
end. You can expect that. You can expect that. Lastly,
no man or woman, no one, can come to the knowledge of the
truth on their own. No man or woman can come to the
knowledge of the truth on their own, not by a decision they've
made, not by a choice that they've made, not by a prayer that they've
prayed, not by a life that they live, not by knowledge that they've
gained. No one can come to the knowledge of the truth on their
own. You can expect that. You can
expect that. You cannot expect to learn enough
to come to Christ. You can't do it. Christ told
the Pharisees, search the Scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. We're talking about the same book we have in front
of us. Search the Scriptures. It's all the Old Testament they
had. You think you have eternal life because of the Scriptures.
But they are they which speak of whom? The Lord Jesus Christ. Only God made sinners comes to
Christ because he made them sinners. Made them sinners, gave repentance
towards God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. How many people have expectations
in this life? I've mentioned that just a little
bit briefly. When people talk, I hear people talking about different
things that they expect. They expect a long life. They
expect wealth. They expect good health. They
expect prosperity. And it's nice to have good things.
But that's their expectation. They're wanting to live. Somebody
told me recently that they have a, I can't remember if it was
their grandmother, great grandmother, but she's 109 years old. I thought,
I don't want to live to be 109 years old. I just don't. I want the Lord to give me an
expected end, whatever time he wants to take me, but I don't
have any interest in living that long. All the corruption and
wickedness I've seen in my short life already is not out there
in here, in here. And I grow more and more wretched. I see it. I become more and more
vile. I'm not getting holier by the things that I'm doing.
I see my sin. No, I need a substitute. I need a savior. I need a savior. But most people have this expectation
of this longevity of life and this, we're going to get all
this and we're going to, I've heard a saying one time by a
preacher, men, They get all they can, and they can all they get,
and they sit on the can. They don't share it with anybody.
They keep what they have to themselves. That's just how it is, isn't
it? And then at the end, whenever they die, the can may be full,
but who's, and then they, this is what Solomon was talking about
when he said, it's all vanity. It's not accomplishing anything.
It's all vanity. But the expectation men have
that's the most wrong is that they can have acceptance with
God based upon the life that they live. based upon what they
do or don't do. And that's the lie, isn't it? That's the lie. But if the Lord
ever makes you a sinner, and I'm not talking about, when I
say a sinner, I don't mean that you went to the law, that you
went to God's law, then you have understanding that you can't
keep God's law. That's not God making you a sinner.
Anybody can read God's law, God's standard, and come up with the
conclusion, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. God ever makes
you a sinner, he takes you and he dangles you over hell and
shows you that's what you deserve because of your sin. Because
of what you are, not even what you're doing. That's what he
does in making you a sinner. And you say this when he does
that, I deserve that. I deserve hell. I deserve eternal
torment. I deserve eternal separation
from God. I deserve that. I am the man
that deserves to die because of what I am, because of what
I do, because of what I think. I'm so contrary to God in every
way. I deserve that. I deserve that. Every man has an appointed end.
One is a expected end unto peace, and the other one is an end unto
eternal death. If you're made to see this, made
to see how abominable you are, made to see that time's ticking
and you're a sinner, then God showed you that. And he doesn't
just show you that and leave you to yourself. He shows you
the substitute that took your place on the cross of Calvary.
shows you the one that went to hell on your behalf, shows you
the one that pleased God when you can't please God, shows you
that he died in your place, not to attempt to do anything, but
to make you, to make his people the very righteousness of God
in him. Some people here know what I'm
talking about when I say you need a substitute, don't you? I need
a substitute. I need a substitute. No longer
can I trust myself. I can expect not to trust myself
anymore. Even though we do, even though
we, you know, that's true. Even we expect not to, and yet
we do it. But we do not expect, we do not
trust ourself when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes
to pleasing God. We don't, we know God will not
be pleased with us. We've been made to see that God
does not rest in our works. See, understand something, if
somebody goes before the Lord to present their works, they're
saying that the Lord is going to rest in them as He rested
in Christ. And that's never gonna happen.
It's never gonna happen. If you come to the Lord with
your works before Him, you're saying, I want you to trust me
as much or more than you trusted Christ. That's what they're saying. That's what they're saying. Look
at me and be pleased with what I've done more than Christ. Think
about that. Men don't know that that's what
they're doing. That's the scary part. Until the Lord shows us
our state and gives us repentance, we think, we think. But what did Job say whenever
the Lord revealed himself to him? Job said, behold, I'm vile. I put my hands over my mouth.
What did Isaiah see when he saw the Lord seated high and lifted
up and his train filled the temple? He was complaining about the
children of Israel. They were murmuring. They were saying all
kinds of wrong things. And he said, Lord, I'm among
these people and they're doing this and they're doing that.
But whenever he saw God, what did he do? Lord, I'm a man of
unclean lips and I dwell with the people of unclean lips. I'm
no better than they are. You're holy. We can't ask, can ever approach
the Lord on what we do? Christ is the one seated expecting,
not us, not us. Not one deed done in our flesh
can put away sin. Scripture says, they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. Don't be deceived. If you're
looking to what you're doing in the flesh, God will not accept
it. The first man, Adam, who was created perfect, he was created
sinless. He was. He didn't have any sin.
If he could not please God after he had sinned, what makes us
think we can? We can't, can we? It's not possible.
It's not possible. We're born in sin, we're shaping
in iniquity, totally void of life, completely wretched, spiritually
speaking. And physically speaking, for
that matter. We're just vile. That's the word, isn't it? Vile.
I heard someone say, even this week to me, well, I'm not really
that bad. You know what that means? God has not made you a
sinner. If that's your confession, I'm
not that bad, God has not made you a sinner yet. Because they
that have been made sinners say, truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. But can I have some crumbs off
of your table? Can I have the bread of life as my sustenance,
as my food? Can I have the fountain of living
water as my drink? Lord, you put a thirst inside
of me and a hunger that only you can satisfy. I need Christ
lest I die. The only thing God accepts is
what he provides, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
else he rejects. You can expect that. The only
thing that the Lord accepts is what he provides. He provided
everything in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can expect that. Truth is, we and our sin, we're
far worse than we can imagine. Far worse than we can imagine.
Thank God for his promises. that we can expect to come to
pass, his promises in salvation and redemption and regeneration,
his promises. He said this, if we confess our
sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. That's good news. He can't lie,
but you can expect it because he said it. Expect to find rest
in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other rest
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can expect that. You can
expect that. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for giving your people an expected end of peace with you. Cause
us to rest in you. Forgive us of our sin. Bless
us to our understanding all for your glory in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's take a break.