second hour. Hebrews chapter
1. At the end of Hebrews it says
that the penman of Hebrews is Timothy and among religious scholars
and various people they say that it's uncertain whether Paul wrote
it or Peter wrote it or who wrote it. And I can tell you with certainty,
the man that wrote it does not care who gets the credit for
it. God gets the credit for it. But for the sake of this message,
I'll probably refer to it as Paul's letter to the Hebrews,
just for the fact that Timothy was his son in the gospel. He
followed him around everywhere. They did everything together.
And Paul wrote most of these letters in the New Testament.
And six of them were penned by Timothy. So it makes sense that
this would be too. So if I say about Paul's letter,
just understand what I mean. The Lord gets all the glory in
it. Question is who's a Hebrew? He's
writing to the Hebrews. Who's a Hebrew? Well, obviously
everyone that's of the blood lineage of Abraham, a Jew. And if you have the blood lineage
of Abraham, that makes you a Jew, a Hebrew. And in the Old Testament,
you were the chosen people according to what the scripture said. But
the scripture also says in Romans, they are not all of Israel who
are of Israel. It's Abraham in his, by Abraham's
seed, the Lord's people are called by faith. See, it's not a bloodline
that the Lord came to save. It wasn't because Abraham was
a strong man or a good looking guy. And the Lord said, I'm gonna
choose you to be the father of the nation that I'm gonna call.
This was all spiritual. And men can't understand that.
The Jews couldn't accept Christ for the very reason that he didn't
come down and set up an earthly kingdom. They're still looking
for the first coming of the Messiah, but he's already came. And his
name was Jesus Christ. He is our King. He is our Lord.
But he came to set up a spiritual kingdom, not a physical, and
the Jews couldn't wrap their mind around that. Well, just
like the book of Galatians, as it was written, these Hebrews
are tempted, and our flesh is tempted, too. Make no mistake
that it's not just the Galatians and the Hebrews and various religions. Our flesh is tempted to add one
thing. to add one thing to the finished
work of Christ. The Galatians were adding just
one thing. What was it? Circumcision. It was something
to outwardly show what was being done inwardly. They were trying
to express it somehow. And they said, well if you are
not circumcised you are not a believer. You're not a, you're not elect
of God and that's wrong, isn't it? It's all spiritual. It's
not physical. It's the same thing. Paul's addressing
these issues also with the Hebrew circumcision is not the issue. It's the full law. It's, it's
talking about how better Christ was than Moses being the law
that the law could not bring us into fellowship with God,
but Christ did because he's of the better covenant. Like all
scripture, Hebrews is written to God's bride, written to God's
elect, written to those whom he loves. And you and I, if we
are in Christ Jesus, we're Hebrews by definition. We're the elect
of God. We're Israelites by definition, not physically, but spiritually
speaking. Now we have in the first four verses, the very purpose,
the very meaning, and the very theme of Hebrews. Let's read
those first four verses together. Hebrews 1 verse 1. God, who at
sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the
fathers by the prophets. He's immediately pointing out
that everything they've known up until this point came through
the prophets. And he says this, half in these
last days spoken to us by his son. whom he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the
brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. He wastes no time in running
to Christ, fleeing straight to Christ, pointing out and declaring
what Christ had accomplished, what his purpose was, who gets
all the glory for it. And he says these words when
he had by himself and I got hung up on that. The Lord caused me
to enter into that by himself, him all alone by himself. That's what I've titled the message
by himself purged our sins. He sat down. on the right hand
of God. Paul, I'm gonna probably continue
saying Paul, but Paul is writing, or the writer here is writing
and announcing that he is the one that purged our sin. He is
the one that speaks of the Lord. He is the one that has a better
inheritance of the angels. And he's just continually pointing
to the Lord Jesus Christ throughout these first four verses. And
that is the theme of Hebrews. What Christ has done for his
people. The writer here is completely
clear that it's not Christ's blood plus our works. It's not
of grace, then you have to do your part. No, when the Lord
Jesus Christ had by himself purged our sin, sat down by himself. The work was finished. That's
what sitting down is indicative of. If a man sits down, he's
finished working. That's the reason there was no
seats in the temple. We know that. No seats in the
tabernacle. The priest's work was never done.
But this man, The Lord Jesus Christ, after he had made one
offering for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of the
majesty on high. When the Lord Jesus Christ had
purged our sin, he sat down. This is indicative to let us
know, this is indicating that he was successful. There's no
more work to be done. If there was something else to
be done, then him sitting down would have been false. It would
not been true, it would not been right. But because he sat down,
that means he purged our sin. No seat is rightly taken until
the work is finished. The good news is, as he did sit
down, there's no work to be done. Titus 3, 5 tells us, not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. According to his mercy, he saved
us. He, by himself, all alone. Not him plus something we do,
not him plus something we don't do. He by himself purged our
sin. What does that mean to have your
sins purged? Well, if your sin is put away, then you've been
made the righteousness of God in him. That's what it means. If he's laid the sin of you upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, then the scripture says that you've been
made the righteousness of God in him. We have good standing
before the Lord's law. We have good standing before
the King of glory. We are made one with him in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, all because he by himself purged
our sin. A sinner can only sin. A sinner cannot put away the
sin that we are, can we? Can you put away one sin? I thought
about this. How if I was gonna attempt to purge one sin? Well, the very act of me doing
something to try to purge a sin is iniquity, it's sinful. Think
about that. We're literally left with no
hope of doing anything that pleases God. The scripture says, can
the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spot? What's
the answer? No. No, they are what they are because they were
born that way. That's what we are by nature and by practice. Can that which is evil do that
which is good? No. But in him, all the fullness
of righteousness is found, and he by himself purged our sin. In him, there's found hope. Like
the Galatians, and I mentioned this a moment ago, like the Galatians
and the Hebrews and many others that you see Paul writing to,
we desire to add one thing to it. We don't even mean to. We
don't even mean to. We start looking around, am I
the Lord's? Well, I need this trinket for
evidence, or I need this, something I can touch, something I can
feel that makes me feel better. I need to be able to see some
evidence in my life, the good things that I don't listen to
this anymore, I don't drink that anymore, I don't go here anymore,
and that's, That's adding to, no, no, we look to Christ alone,
don't we? Not physically, if our eyes can
see it, it's physical. It's not spiritual then. No,
it must be done through the eyes of faith. That's how we look
unto him. To add something is to contribute,
and that's exactly what happened with Cain and Abel, wasn't it?
I've used this, I think the same allegories of late, and don't
mean to continue using them, but they're very clear pictures
of what I mean by adding two. Cain did not bring a blood sacrifice. God demanded blood. God was the
one that provided the lamb to Abel, didn't he? And Cain brought
the works of his hands. He added two. He said, here I
am, I've done good, and the Lord will be pleased with it. And
I've used the analogy before to you about bringing the very
best. It wasn't. It wasn't the outcast portion,
it was the very best he had. And it's a picture of us coming
unto the Lord saying, I've done my very best. And the Lord says,
your best is not good enough. I require the lamb, the blood
that purged your sin. That's what the Lord requires.
That's what Abel brought, and God was pleased with Abel and
Abel's sacrifice. But unto Cain And to Cain's sacrifice,
he had no respect. See, it wasn't just that he didn't
like the sacrifice or he wasn't pleased with the sacrifice. He
wasn't pleased with Cain because of what Cain brought unto the
Lord. We can't bring anything. Understand, we can't bring anything.
The Lord Jesus Christ brought everything necessary. And we
look to him through the eyes of faith. One single act of doing
is iniquity. One single act of doing is iniquity.
And the Lord says, I hate the workers of iniquity. I hate them.
It's robbing God of his glory. If we take away one single act
of taking away, how do men take away from the finished work of
Christ? Look what I have done. You ever heard a preacher or
an individual say, what have you done for Jesus lately? You
ever heard that before? I've heard that often in religion.
What are you doing for Jesus? I can't do anything for Him.
He's going to have to do everything for me. That's not an excuse
not to do anything. It's just facts, isn't it? Lord,
if you're going to be pleased, you're going to have to do it.
No, it would be, it's called taking away from His glory when
we say, look at me and what I've done. Look at me and what I'm
doing. And you can fill in the blank with that. We've talked
about praying a prayer or walking an aisle. We can make baptism
a work. We can make the Lord's table
a work. Look what I've done. I've taken the Lord's table so
many times. I was reading, and I may butcher this a little bit,
but in Catholicism, if you consecutively take mass so many times in so
many months, and I'll say it like that because I don't know
the exact number, But if you do it consistently enough, then
you've achieved a certain title. And I thought, well, that's the
glory of man, isn't it? I made the choice not to tell
you the title because I can't half remember it anyways. And if I
said it, I don't want to misspeak. But you achieve something by
doing. We see that. It's so clear. It's so clear
that men want to do something to get some glory. Oh, you're
the one that's achieved that. I know you. I've seen you at
Mass every time. Yeah. You know, I remember you from
there and your brother, so and so, aren't you? You ever heard
that before? And it's the Lord is not pleased with that. No, that's iniquity. That's that's
taking away from his glory. When we when we try to do something
as iniquity, when we try to take away or rob him of his glory,
he's no, he by himself purged our sin. It's not what you do.
And it's not what I do. And it's not what you don't do
and what I don't do. He by himself. What did we contribute? Well, I didn't contribute anything,
but the Lord took my sin. That would have been the only
thing I could have contributed, but I couldn't cast it upon Him. We certainly
trust Him now with it, don't we? We believe that if He put
away the sin, it's gone. We certainly commit that to Him
now. We couldn't commit that to Him. The Lord had to do that,
didn't He? Other than that, what did we
contribute on the cross of Calvary? Nothing. The Lord did it all
by Himself, didn't He? By Himself, He purged our sin. Paul's declaring Lord Jesus Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness, the end of the ceremonial law,
end of the civil law, the end of the moral law, the end of
taste, not touch, not handle, not or. Boy, I remember hearing,
you're gonna make, you're gonna upset God if you do that. Boy,
I shudder at the thought of being able to upset Him, don't you?
If I have that much power over Him to control His emotion, to
cause Him to do something, well, that's, doesn't that make me
God? It does, doesn't it? Well, that's
foolishness then. No, I don't have any control
over Him. He has all control. Christ Jesus by himself being
in complete control, being completely sovereign, put away our sin and
thereby satisfying the law's demand, making Christ the end
of the law for righteousness. Now we are found as the righteousness
of God in him. 1 Corinthians 15 says the sting
of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. But he by
himself purged our sin. So what strength does the law
have? And what sting does death have? None. None. Not a fear in Christ. There is
no sting of death anymore. There is no strength of the law
anymore. Now the Lord's law is holy and it will not be, he will
not acquit the wicked. Don't misunderstand. But in Christ
Jesus, we died to self. We died to the law. We died in
him all because he purged our sin all by himself. He made us
the righteousness of God in him. Father saw the travail of his
soul, didn't he? And he was satisfied. First Corinthians 15 says, but
thanks be to God, which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Victory doesn't come through
and by what we do. You think about a football team that plays
and they have their star player on the field. Maybe it's the
quarterback. I'll use him as an example. A lot of times they
get the spotlight, don't they? And I often laugh whenever I hear
about them getting the interview, yeah, I've done this and I've
done that. And they very, sometimes they'll say we, sometimes, and
often more so now, but very rarely they say, man, did you see that
offensive line? Did you see how good my wide receivers ran the
route? Most of the time it's credit
to the, I'm the MVP. It's just by nature, isn't it?
And that's what men do by nature. But in this thing of salvation,
And perhaps they take that quarterback and they hoist him up and they
carry him off the field. They carried him the whole game
and they carried him off the field. And a lot of men believe that's how
salvation works. They have to do their part to help the quarterback
out. But in this particular instance, it has nothing to do with the
team. It has everything to do with
the one, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a team effort, is it?
We all sat on the bench dead. We were not even sitting. We
were dead and the Lord himself did the entire work. And we don't
even, don't even hoist him up, do we? No, he did it all. He
did it all. He gets all the glory. Victory doesn't come to him by
what you and I do. It comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. I can rest in knowing that it's
not in us keeping ordinances. I can rest in knowing it's not
in us making sacrifice, but by the sacrifice of himself, according
to his purpose, he by himself purged our sin. Nothing more,
nothing less than the blood of Christ equals righteousness.
Nothing more and nothing less. Now let's read on here in Hebrews
chapter one, look at verse five. For unto which of the angels
said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And again, I will be unto him a father and he shall be
to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten unto this world, he saith, And let all
the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, who
maketh his angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire.
But under the sun he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and
ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness. and hated iniquity. And I see
me and you by nature are not like that. By nature we love
iniquity and we hate the righteousness that's found in Christ. But Christ
Jesus loved righteousness and hated iniquity. And therefore,
in the light of that, God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with
the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Christ Jesus is declared
here as the successful son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is
declared as being higher than the angels. He's declared as
having his throne, seated on his throne. He's called the successful
son of God. You remember in Matthew chapter
one, When the angel was declaring the Lord's birth, he said, call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Now, do you believe that the
Lord saved his people from their sin? Yes. And my hope is that
I'm a people, one of his people. That's our hope, isn't it? Now
is our hope that the Lord saved his people from their sin? And
then there's a comma there and says, if I do this, or if I don't
do that, no, that's not my hope. My hope is that call his name,
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. And we
have the glorious affirmation right here in this chapter. He
by himself purged our sin. They're gone. They're gone. The
Lord did that for his people. There's our hope by himself.
He was born to save. He was born to redeem his chosen
people. How did he do it? By his own
blood. By his own blood, the sacrifice
of himself on Calvary's cross. I'll show us that in Hebrews
chapter nine. Turn over there with me. The reference is given here of
the blood of calves and of goats. Why is that? Because all of the
Old Testament sacrifices were thus. They would stand every
day in the temple making sacrifice, in the tabernacle making sacrifice
that could never take away sin. He says right here in verse 12,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered once into the holy place, having obtained, I love
that past tense word, don't you? Having obtained eternal redemption.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an
heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify it to the purifying
of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works and serve the living God? So our
sins have been purged and our conscience has been purged the
same way by the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Him having obtained by His own blood, having the only blood
that God accepts, He said, satisfied. I'm satisfied with Him. What other priest could enter
into the holiest of holies by His own blood? None. Every other
priest had to have a blood sacrifice, a lamb, a calf, a goat, a bullock,
something other than His own blood because our blood is tainted.
But the Lord Jesus Christ brought his own blood, sprinkling it
upon the mercy seat. And the Lord said, satisfied,
eternally satisfied. We know this was not on the earth. This was in the eternal. This
was in glory. And the veil in the temple, what
does it say, was rent entwined from top to bottom. That's the
holy place, the holy place. And now we can enter in boldly
to the throne of grace because he is well pleased. He is well
pleasing to his father. So oftentimes, we get discouraged. Throughout life, we get frustrated
at circumstances, we get despaired and distressed, but if we could
enter into the thought that He, by Himself, purged our sin, we
can't mess it up. We can't mess it up. No matter
what we do, no matter where we go, no matter what we don't do,
we can't mess it up. He, by Himself, purged our sin.
He, by Himself, entered into that place which we could not
enter into, the very presence of God, putting His own blood
upon that altar, and the Father said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. And what did he say to the Lord
Jesus Christ? Come sit down here. Sit down. Your work is finished.
He resurrected his son and said, sit down. Your work is finished. Now, where is Christ? Seated
at the right hand of the father. Why do we get discouraged? Why
do we get distressed? Why do we get frustrated? Well,
because we're in the flesh, aren't we? And our flesh is warring
against the spirit. Now the flesh, it's interesting.
The Spirit takes ownership of the flesh's sin, but the Spirit
is perfect in the Lord's eyes. The Spirit's righteous in the
Lord's eyes. The flesh never takes ownership of anything.
I raised three daughters, and they're my daughters, so I should
know. No matter what happens, who did this? Well, it was her
fault, or it was her fault. Well, about Adam, the very beginning,
what happened? What happened? He said, Adam, who told you?
Who told you that you were naked? Well, the woman that you gave
me, first thing out of his mouth, blame her, it's her fault. It's
what we do by nature, isn't it? The spirit takes ownership of
our sin that's already been put away and looks to Christ. And what is our spirit doing?
Think about this, the new man that the Lord gave us, it's not
worried and wondering and fretting and franticing and spending any,
not one second of this life Is it worrying? It is seated in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ right now. It is seated
at the right hand of the Father right now in Christ Jesus. The
spirit does not work. The spirit believes the Lord
Jesus Christ purged our sin by himself. How's that possible?
Because we've been given faith to believe it. We've been given
faith to believe it. Our flesh can't comprehend it.
We see the sin that we are, but this is unseen things. This is
what's eternal. That which is seen is carnal,
but that which is not seen, that's eternal. Lord Jesus Christ purged
our sin. Do you believe that? Yes. That's
my only hope. Because if it's up to me to do
one thing, I have no hope. I have no assurance. There's
no assurance in looking to what our hands touch, are there? No
matter what it is, we started painting a deck. I thought, I
have plenty of time. If I start at this time, I'm
going to finish at this time. I've got this all mapped out. Well,
two things happened. Number one, I ran out of paint.
Second of all, we didn't get two or three hours into it, and
it was getting dark. We'd got an hour past dark, and
we were nowhere close to being done, and we ran out of paint.
You understand what I'm saying? I really messed it up. We plan things
and we try to do things according to, how much confidence do I
really have in my flesh? Paul said it this way, in me
and my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I have no confidence,
zero confidence. Why? Because everything that
I do, I see time and time again, I mess it up. Now how am I gonna
come before the Lord? What am I gonna bring in my hand?
We have to say like the songwriter, in my hand no price I bring,
simply to the Lord Jesus Christ, his cross, his finished work
on the cross, there I cling. That's where we come. Lord, I
believe that you by yourself purged my sin. I believe that
with all that you have given me to believe it. And I trust
that it's through the eyes of faith I'm looking to that. Because
if I don't have that, I have nothing. If you didn't purge
my sin by yourself, I have no hope of eternal life. But he
said, having obtained eternal redemption, not going to having
obtained, it's already past tense. It's already finished. He's already
seated. You're still in Hebrews nine.
Look at verse 25. nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every
year with the blood of others. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was offered
to bear the sins of many And unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He bore the sin of many and he
purged the sins of many. He obtained eternal redemption
for many all by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary's cross. What did we have to do with that?
Did we help him then? Certainly not. We weren't even
born then. Can we help him now? Certainly
not. Certainly not. He's gonna have
to do it all, isn't he? And the glorious news of the
gospel is he by himself purged our sin. That takes me out of
the equation. I love that. I can't mess it
up. I'm gonna keep saying it over
and over again because it's comforting to me and I know it's comforting
to you if you're a believer. I can't mess it up. He by himself purged
our sin. Every single sin that he bore
is gone. Every person that he died for is redeemed. Everything for the salvation
of his elect is accomplished. Rest. Rest in that. Don't look
at yourself. Don't look at what you're doing.
He successfully accomplished our salvation as our high priest
when he had by himself purged our sin. Now look with me in Hebrews chapter
10 verse nine. The blood was applied once and
forever. There's no more work to be done. Hebrews chapter 10
verse nine says. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first. He's
talking about the covenant, the covenant of works and the covenant
of grace. He taketh away the first that he may establish the
second by the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 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, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He sat down, you know what that
means? All of those whom he died for
have been perfected. We can't improve on perfection,
did you know that? We can't improve on, you're saying
I'm perfect? Now men have it misconstrued
in thinking that we ourself, the way we are in and of ourself,
our flesh is perfect, that's not true. No, we know that that's
not true. But the new man that the Lord's
given us is perfect. How perfect? As perfect as the
Son of God, as perfect as God himself. He hath perfected them
that are sanctified, not going to be. So see, he made us as
holy as God is, as perfect as God is, the very righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. How did he do that? He hath by
himself purged our sin. By his own will, by his own will,
he hath perfected them that are sanctified. He sat down. Father said he's well pleased.
He is well pleased with the sacrifice of his son. Is he pleased with
me if I'm in Christ? Is he pleased with you if you're
in Christ Jesus? He's well pleased. I like that
it says well pleased. It doesn't just say pleased.
That's that word exceedingly abundantly, isn't it? Exceedingly
abundantly pleased. He's pleased with his son and
what he accomplished. Now, there is one thing God requires
of you and I. There is one thing that God requires
of you and I. Thankfully, I've been your pastor
for about 15-ish months now, so everybody's like, oh no, he's
gonna preach works to us. No, I've been very clear on what
we believe and preach here, and we've always understood. But
there is one thing that God requires of you and I. Now, I will preface
that with saying everything God requires, he has to provide.
there is one thing the Lord requires of us. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 1, I'm sorry Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1 says,
lest the promise being left unto us of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said,
as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest,
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Look in verse nine. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief." We must rest our entire hope of eternal life in and on
the person of Jesus Christ alone. We must believe the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. How do we do that? The Lord says,
live. The Lord says, believe. The Lord
says, rest. He gives faith to do so. And
that which he requires, he provides in the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ being given to you and I. Therefore, we rest in the
fact Christ Jesus by himself purged our sin. Do you rest in
that? If you do, it's because he's given you the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ that rests. Somebody might say, well, rest
is a work. Rest is a work. By definition,
rest is the opposite of working, isn't it? That's the definition
of rest, not working. The Lord says, you have to rest.
That's a work. I can rest. Well, if you're resting,
you're not working. And if you're working, you're
not resting. It's the Lord that gets the glory, isn't it? He
makes us to enter into the rest. The same thing he rests in. We
believe the Lord Jesus Christ and look to his finished work
alone as all our sanctification, as all our justification, as
all our righteousness. No, we don't work for these things.
We rest in the Lord Jesus Christ by the faith that he gives us. He must make us rest or we will
not. I got a good example for that and I didn't realize this
was first hour so I have to tell my wife later in case you bring
it up to her I won't get in trouble. But my wife won't quit cleaning
when it comes time. She's cleaning the house. And
I'm there, whatever, we're cleaning. She never stops until it's finished,
until she's satisfied with every room in the house. OK, this room,
check. This room, check. I'm like, let's just wait till
tomorrow to do the other ones. No. It doesn't matter what time it is.
She keeps going. She keeps going. She keeps going. And finally,
there's no more cleaning that needs to be done by her standard.
Now understand, it's her standard. And your standard may be different
than hers, whatever. And that's not a negative or a positive.
Don't tell her that her standard's low. I didn't say that. Our house
is perfectly fine. When she's finished cleaning,
then she sits down. Now, what do I need to do to
clean the house after that? As a matter of fact, if I did
anything after she did that, she would get upset with me.
If I was to get a duster out after she got done and say, you
missed a spot, what's that going to do for me? See, faith just
rests in the finished work of Christ. We don't get a duster
out and try to add something to it and say, well, you missed
a spot or we need to do something that to know. No, I better stay
seated if I know what's good for me. Otherwise, I ruin it,
don't I? Rest. Rest in the work that Christ
did. I realize that was a weak analogy, but you understand what
I'm saying. Don't touch it. By his standard, by his standard,
perfectly righteous is what you've been declared. Don't touch it.
Don't add to it or take it away. He by himself purged our sin.
All by his standard. And his standard is the only
one. His standard is the only one. He gives faith. He gives life. He gives faith. It says rest
and sees everything required. God did it. Therefore, you know
what we do? We rest. We rest knowing that
he by himself, well, he cleaned the whole house, didn't he? And
we just rest. We just rest in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He by himself has sanctified
his people, his perfect people. He by himself makes his people
rest. All by his faith bestowed, we believe him. If we find that
we're resting, he's the doer of it. We find that we're resting,
we're resting in the fact that he by himself purged our sin. There's nothing to add to it.
There's nothing that can be taken away from it. The Lord's people
just rest in the fact that he by himself, all by himself. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we believe
it. That you by yourself did it.
Calls us ever to believe it more. Calls us ever to rest in your
finished work alone. In Christ name, Amen. Let's take a break.