Malachi chapter four. Now, Malachi
starts out by declaring the verse that's spoken of in Romans as
well. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. And the comfort to the believer
is not that he hates Esau. We know that we deserve hate.
He hates the flesh. He hates all others but his elect. And we understand that. That
doesn't comfort our hearts, but his love, that he would love
Jacob, the trickster, the supplanter, the one that was a liar. He loves him. How did he love
him? He's seen him in Christ, didn't
he? There's our hope that the Lord would see us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Sunday, we saw that it was a
matter of a spiritual seed and a physical seed. A lot of people
would say, well, he just meant that he hated Jacob, the person,
or he hated Esau, the person, loved Jacob, the person. He's
talking about the nation. He's talking about the individual. Yes, sure. But he's talking about
the elect. He's talking about his church, those for whom he
was born after his seed. And we know the scripture tells
us that his seed cannot sin. This is the offense of the gospel
because God does it all. God did the electing, Christ
did the redeeming, the spirit does the regenerating, and that
leaves us with nothing to do. That's the offense. Everybody
hates that. They want something to do because we're by nature
want to work. We want to have a righteousness
of our own. And he says, no Jacob have I loved and Esau have I
hated. It's all for his glory by his will and purpose. Salvation
is truly all of grace, isn't it? tells us, for by grace are
you saved through faith. It doesn't say if you let the
Lord at that point, it says it's according to his will and purpose.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself.
It's a gift of God. He has to do it, doesn't he?
He has to do it all, and he did. He did for his people. Malachi
doesn't have a popular message, but he has the truth. He has
the truth. He's not socially acceptable.
He's very old-fashioned. Did you know we're old-fashioned?
This is the oldest story that's ever been from time, the beginning
of time. That's old-fashioned, isn't it?
This is our only oath. The original gospel, that's what
we declare. That's as old-fashioned as you
can get. Well, God's prophets were old-fashioned because they
declared just what the Lord had given them. And that's what Malachi
was doing. And he was not a popular guy for that reason. yet he declares
God's words faithfully for four chapters. Now, I found this interesting
in looking, it's 55 verses total in these four chapters. And of
the 55 verses, 47 of them is God speaking. The Lord does a
lot of talking in Malachi. 47 out of the 55 are the Lord
directly speaking. People have grown complacent.
They were unserious and even disdained worship. They disdained
it and it wearied them. Why are we doing this vain repetition
of sacrifice? Why are we going through this
motion over and over again? And may the Lord cause us to
never grow weary of worship. That's a fear I have. Don't leave
me to myself, because if I'm looking for my flesh to be satisfied,
we're going to get tired of it, aren't we? But we're here to
worship in spirit and in truth. And Lord calls us to do so. Lord, keep bringing us, keep
bringing us together, keep bringing us and focusing us on your gospel
alone. Well, these Jews were not serious
about his worship. They were going through the motions.
They despised the sacrifice. They didn't want to bring the
first fruits of their labors and they didn't want to bring
the best sheep that they had. They started bringing lame sheep
in and blind sheep in, those which were unprofitable to sell
at the market or unprofitable for them. They brought that and
sacrificed that unto the Lord. The Lord says, well, my name
shall be great. He said, you've polluted my name. You've polluted my worship. honoring
me with what I've commanded you to do. And so he says, but my
name will still be glorified. My name will still be glorified.
And he starts out by telling us why. Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated. And then as he's telling these Israelites, he
then says, my name shall be praised among the Gentiles. Among the
Gentiles. We're not Jews. As far as I know,
none of us here are full-blooded Jews. So we had no hope of the
promise. except the Lord come to the Gentiles,
and he did. He did. Where now it's not a
nation, it is a people, but it's not one bloodline. Well, it is
one bloodline, isn't it? It's the Lord Jesus Christ's
bloodline. It's a spiritual seed. It's not a physical seed. It
doesn't matter where you're born. It doesn't matter the color of
our skin, our language, our mentality, Lord. No, it's all Him and His
doing, His choosing, His saving. That's good news to me because
if it's based upon something, then I will not meet the requirement
and you will not either. And so the Lord, He gets all
the glory and it's all by grace. Aren't you thankful for that? He tells them that even though
you profane my name, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.
They're going to offer a pure offering. Well, what do we offer?
It's not the works of our hands. No, it was the sinless lamb slain
from the foundation of the world is our only righteousness before
God. That's what we offer. And we didn't offer him. Christ
offered himself to the father, but that's in my hand. No, no
price I bring simply to Christ. That's what we cling to, isn't
it? That's our only hope. That's exactly what we're doing
right now. He actually tells them you're going to burn. Incense
shall be offered in every place. Among every place now that clearly
doesn't mean every single place without exception, but that means
every place that God has raised up a people, they're going to
burn incense. And what does that mean? Do we
physically burn incense? No, that's. That's not worship,
is it? Worship's in the heart. What
do we do? We look to Christ. We, Lord, this is our confession,
and that's the incense. Going forth is Him being the
sweet-smelling savor. Is that not what He means? It
has to be what He means by that, the incense of the Lord. Christ
is the sweet incense offered to His Father. That's what pleases
Him. And we offer nothing unto Him, but what pleases God. Christ
is all. Now in this book, we find the
Lord questioning Judah. He says unto them, I say this,
but you say that. I say return unto me, but you
say, how shall we return? We didn't leave. What are you
talking about? And he tells them, if you have ears to hear, let
him hear. And the point is, is they were just left to themselves
into falsifying the worship of the Lord. Judah justified themselves
in every question God asks them. Everything that they was asked
of God, they would justify themselves. That's us by nature, isn't it?
That's what we would do. That's what I would do and you
would do. We would justify ourself before the Lord. We would say,
no, I'm right in this. I've done this good and I've
done that good. Not ever realizing that God's
scale is a scale of justice and there can't be one sin, not one. So if we have one sin, then we're
deserving of hell. We need a substitute, don't we?
We need the Lord Jesus Christ to take those sins unto himself
and put them away. And he did, he did. And he gives us the good news
of the gospel in Malachi 3, verse six. If you're, since you're
there, you can just look at it. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. I like what Todd said in our
conference. He said, when you see a therefore, what's the therefore
there for? Well, the therefore is here because
he's saying, I'm the Lord, I change not. And that's the only reason,
Jacob, you're not consumed because I'm the Lord and I change not.
There's our hope. When the Lord said, I'm satisfied
with my son, I'm well pleased with him. That doesn't change
ever, does it? He's still well pleased with his son and the
offering that was given at Calvary. well pleased with Jesus Christ.
Yesterday, today, and forever, the Lord stays the same. This
is what makes our gospel different than all the other gospels that
are out there. It's that God is sovereign, he's seated, and
he's constant, and everything that he's purposed will come
to pass. Everybody else believes that they have to do something,
which means that he's not seated, it's not finished, and he hasn't
accomplished everything. That's the biggest difference,
isn't it? The offense of the gospel is that he is seated.
It is finished. And that is good news to dead
dog sinners, but to someone with righteousness, that's not good
news. It strips them of their righteousness before him. But
if we take it the opposite direction, and it is by works, you've stripped
me of my righteousness. Because if it's by works, I have
no righteousness. I have no hope in what I do.
No, it's because he can't change. It's because he's seated. That's
why we're not consumed. There's our hope, isn't it? There's
our hope. Your prayer this evening is God
be pleased to reveal his gospel to us and make Christ all to
us. Reveal that he is seated, that
he changes not. Now in Malachi, God graciously
reveals Christ in three of his characters. And it's also the
title of the message tonight is prophet, priest, and king. I was going to preach this, I
guess, Sunday from the book of, uh, Zachariah we were in, but
I didn't get to do that. I didn't have anything hardly
written down for it, but when I saw it again in Malachi, I
was like, well, that's it. It's him, prophet, priest, and
king, all three in one. That's who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. Prophets are By definition, they that are sent forth of God
bearing the vision of God, bearing the words of the Lord and must
speak truth of the Lord. That's all that they can speak
is the truth of God. Christ is that vision of every prophet,
every vision they ever had, everything that they ever prophesied. Christ
is that vision. Christ is the prophet of the
Lord. Now look with me in chapter four.
We're gonna read the last three verses. Chapter four, verse four. Remember ye the law of Moses,
my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel
with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah,
the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. He shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children and the heart of the children of their
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth. with a curse. He promised
to send Elijah. Now understand, Elijah represents
all the prophets. You remember whenever the scripture
talks about Moses, it often likens Moses unto the law. When it mentions
Elijah, it's mentioning all the prophets. It's the sum of all
the prophets. That's what it is defined as.
It's the law and the prophets, Moses and Elijah. Now the law
reveals sin. That's what the law does. It
reveals sin. It reveals our fallen nature
that we can't please God. What does the prophets reveal?
Well, the prophets declare judgment for that sin, but always, and
as we've seen in every book that we've been through, it declares
the judgment, but yet God has a remnant. Yet God has a substitute. Yet God has a people and he doesn't
change. Therefore his people are not
consumed. That's what the prophets revealed
was the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they reveal. And
when he says, I'm going to send Elijah, he actually said that
if you'll turn back to chapter three in verse one, it kind of
reiterates this. calls him my messenger. He says,
behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way
before me and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his
temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight
in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. Now this messenger We know who
that is because we have the full canon of scripture. It's John
the Baptist, isn't it? That's who that is. John the
Baptist was the one that was in the wilderness. Scripture
says, crying the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord.
Now this prophecy, everything that we just read came to pass
in Matthew. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
11. Sometimes when preaching, you
have to kind of build the story, so to speak, or give the details
of the outcome before you can give the outcome for everything
to kind of, I don't like just, I want to get to the punch line
as fast as I can is what I'm trying to tell you. So just bear
with me here. Matthew chapter 11. Verse 12, and from the days
of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffered,
suffereth violently, suffereth violence, and the violent take
it by force. For all the prophets and the
law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it, this
is Elijah, which was for to come. That word Elias is the same word
as Elijah. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. He said, if you will receive
it, this is the Elijah that was mentioned, where we just read
from in Malachi. This is Elijah that came, the prophet, John
the Baptist. Now, for 400 years, God was silent. Malachi was the
last word from God for 400 years until Matthew. Now, whenever
God spoke again, he spoke by John the Baptist. John the Baptist
was the last prophet of the Lord that was given forth. Now, men hear the law of God
and they try to do, and as he just said here, they try to take
it by force. They're violent. They tried to
kill John the Baptist. They said, we don't want John
the Baptist. We don't want his message of truth. They decapitated
him. They chopped off his head because
of his truth. That's all he spoke was the truth.
And he made a woman angry and she got whatever request she
wanted. And that's what she requested, to chop off his head. That's
what happened. What's the point in that? Well, no man wants to
hear the truth. And that's what God's prophets
were to do is just declare the truth faithfully. They would
not hear. How many times have we seen in
the Old Testament, going book by book, they would not hear
the prophets. We don't want to hear what you
have to say. We hate what you're telling us. We like the way that
we're doing things. We like the life that we're living.
We're comfortable. We're content. They didn't want
to change. They didn't want to return to the Lord. They hated
the prophets. They stoned some of them. They
killed them. They did everything that they
could to get away from the truth of the Lord. That's our flesh,
brethren, by nature. We don't want the truth of the
Lord. And yet the Lord says, he that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Aren't you thankful that he's
the one that gives the ears? And he's the one that causes
us to hear. And when we hear the truth that offends this flesh,
it's the only thing that brings joy to the believers. New man
that the Lord's given us. It's the best news we've ever
heard. Sure, our flesh hates it, but we've got to have it,
don't we? We've got to have it got to have his truth. Others try to take God by force,
making him do something or latching hold of him, making a choice.
Men don't want to hear God's prophet. They don't want to hear
the truth. The last prophet, as I mentioned, prophet born
to prepare the way for Christ was John the Baptist. And I want
to just turn over to Matthew chapter 17. Now Matthew chapter 17 is the account
given of the Mount of Transfiguration. The Lord goes up on top of the
mountain with Peter, James, and John. And when they're up on
top of the mountain, the Lord has transfigured. He literally
drops His robe of flesh, and they can see him in his glory.
They see, they can't look upon him. They go to look to the ground.
And boy, I love Peter, his response when he saw, they saw that Jesus
was standing there with Elijah and Moses. Well, who is that?
That's the law and the prophets. That's what it represents, right?
It's very clear. Christ is the fulfillment of all of that. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness, and Christ is the prophet of
the Lord, the literal vision of all these Old Testament prophets.
And what does Peter say? Lord, it's good that we were
here with you. We should build three temples, one for you, one
for Elijah, one for Moses. Our Lord's so patient, he doesn't
even respond. He doesn't even respond to that
statement. But look in verse nine, Matthew
17. And as they came down from the
mountain, Jesus charged them saying, tell the vision to no
man until the son of man be risen again from the dead. And his
disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that
Elias, Elijah, must first come? And Jesus answered and said to
them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things.
But I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they knew
him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of
Man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood
that he spake unto them of John the Baptist." That's who we're
talking about here, is the last prophet. that the Lord brought
to the earth to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
he prophesied, he was the only prophet, if you think about this,
he would have been the only prophet that ever prophesied and got
to see it come to pass, got to see Christ. There he is. There's
the one I was just telling you about a few days ago. That's
the one I've been talking about for a year or two. There he is,
the Lamb of God that'll take away the sins of the world. Think
about that. He got to see him. I mean, you can, But they didn't
know John the Baptist and they didn't know Christ. That's what
the Lord's telling us here. They didn't know him. He's already
came, he says, and they knew him not. They knew him not. Now,
this is evident that the Lord has to
reveal. He has to reveal his gospel. He has to reveal his
person, the Lord Jesus Christ, or we'll never see him. We'll
never know him. We'll never know who he is. God
is the Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. This revelation is just that
now. We know that Christ is God's prophet, because what did a prophet
do? Spoke the truth from the Lord
and everything the Lord ever said was the truth. Everything
the Lord ever said was the truth. Only God's people can hear God's
truth. And I love the thought that we
hear the truth the same way the Old Testament people heard the
truth, and that's through the vision of the Lord given to a
man. a vision of the Lord given to
a man, not like in prophecy. We don't prophesy today. That's
not what I'm referring to. I'm saying Christ is the same
that we're looking to, that they were looking to then. We have the fullness of him now
before us. We have the fullness of his truth
before us now. He's already came. He's already
lived. He's already died as we know. He's the Lord's prophet. Now all of God's prophecies or
the embodiment of Jesus Christ. And I'm preaching things that
I can't even understand everything that I'm telling you. I know
it's true. Everything that was ever spoken
by the prophets, Christ Jesus was. He was all of it in one
person. Not one prophecy went unfulfilled.
You remember how many times did you read, we read in the New
Testament, it said, and this came to pass that it would be
fulfilled of him that spoke it, that was spoken by Elijah or
spoken by Isaiah or spoken by this prophet or that prophet.
It was not that they prophesied and then Christ had to do it.
No, they seen Him do it and prophesied it. You see the difference? It
was His purpose to do it. And that's what He revealed to
them. And that's who He was. He was this glorious Savior of
the Old Testament that we've seen so clearly. And He's the
glorious Savior in the New Testament, the same yesterday, today and
forever. He's the Lord's prophet. He's the embodiment of the prophecies.
He's pleasing unto the Father. Think about John's words whenever
he finally got to see the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, Behold,
behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. There
he is. all of his splendor, all of his magnificence. Now, if
you and I would have saw him, if anybody else would have saw
him without the revelation of Christ that he gives, he would
have just looked like another man. The scripture is very clear
in Isaiah 53 that he had no beauty that we would desire him, not
to the natural man. But isn't he the most beautiful
thing you've ever seen whenever you hear the gospel preached
and he reveals himself? It's the spiritual man that loves
the Lord, isn't it? He's glorious and beautiful.
Behold God's prophet, the fulfillment of every prophecy. John 1.45,
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we found him. We found
him. Of whom Moses and the law and
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. Can you imagine
seeing the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, you have, if you're a believer,
you've already seen him through the eyes of faith, but physically
seeing him, that would have been Is the word spectacular? I don't
know what it would be, but it's no different than what we see
through faith. Do we see that? We look on him the same. We look on him the same. It'd
be like the Queen of Sheba. She said, I heard with the hearing
of my ear. And she went to Solomon's palace and she saw everything,
everything about him. It impressed her. She said, I
heard with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes have seen
the king. I'm getting a little ahead of myself because it's
prophet, priest, and king, but it's all the same. He's all three. Now a prophet, God's prophet
speaks the truth. Christ Jesus always spoke the
truth because he is the truth. God's prophet doesn't draw attention
to himself and Christ Jesus always gave the glory to the father,
didn't he? Christ said, he that speaketh of himself seeketh his
own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true and no unrighteousness is in him. See, most men seek
their own glory, don't they? Most men want some kind of glory
in some way, shape or form to point to themselves. And the
Lord said, no, that's, you have no glory if you're trying to
get glory, but he that glorifies the Lord, that's the one, that's
what the Lord looks at. Christ our prophet always points
us to God. And he always gives all the glory
to God. Jesus Christ is the prophet of
the Lord. And Jesus Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness sake. This is who Malachi is speaking
of. This is who all the prophets were speaking of. This is, everything
stops with Christ. Everything pointed to him. Everything
began with him, everything ends with him. He's all of that. The
law is the end, or Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
Christ was the end of the prophets. What is a man gonna prophesy
now? The Lord's return? He's already done that for us,
hasn't he? He already told us he's coming back. There's no
need for prophets any longer. Christ is our prophet. Christ
speaks of his finished work as the glory unto the Father. That's
what he reveals. That's what our prophet, that's
why he's the end of all the prophets. Now, the second thing I want
to look at is Christ, our priest, the priest for his people. Go
back to Malachi with me in chapter three. We read this first verse, I'm
just going to read it again. Behold, I will send my messenger and
he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek
shall suddenly come to his temple. Even the messenger of the covenant
whom you delight in, behold he shall come, saith the Lord of
hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall
stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiner's fire and
like a fuller's soap. He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge
them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah
in Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old,
as in the former years." Here we have the Levitical priesthood.
They were standing and making offerings unto the Lord that
could never take away sin. They only could cover it by their
ceremony. The blood they were spilling could only cover it
for a time, for a year. Now everything about their priesthood
was ordained of God, but it showed us that we need a high priest.
It revealed that he was holy and he demanded blood. It revealed
that we couldn't enter into the holy place or we would die. It
revealed that we had to have a priest to do the work before
the Lord. We couldn't worship him in spirit
and in truth at that time. But in the fullness of time,
Christ became a man. He became the high priest for
his people. And he entered boldly, he entered
boldly into the throne room of God by his own blood. And he
hath became that which we love so dear, that which we have to
have as our substitute, our high priest. What we see with this
Old Testament priesthood is it shows us our need of a substitute
for a high priest. We can't approach God at all.
How many times do we see that in the scripture? You remember
Aaron's sons? They allowed the fire to go out. Now, were easy
to judge or condemn the Old Testament Israel. They had just went through
the Red Sea, literally saw the sea on both sides of them, a
wall of water. And the Lord brought them across
on dry land. The Lord's feeding them manna
in the wilderness. The Lord's keeping them. They
saw the thundering of Mount Sinai. And now you have the priesthood
established and Aaron's sons, they forget and they let the
fire go out. And if that's not bad enough, they say, that's
okay, we'll just build another fire. We'll get rubbed two sticks
together. It'll be fine. And Lord commanded them to don't
do that. Don't do that. Well, they disobeyed,
didn't they? And they brought forth their own incense. They
brought forth their own fire and God brought forth his fire
and judgment and he slew them right on the spot. He's very
serious about his worship. We likewise saw the same thing
happen to Saul. Saul got tired of waiting on
Samuel to show up, so he says, I'm going to make an offering
myself if Samuel's not here. And the second Saul got done,
Samuel showed up. And that's how the Lord did it,
on purpose, didn't he? What did he tell him? He said, Saul, the
kingdom's rent from you. He said, I would have made you
my king, but no, you have to have a substitute priest. We
can't offer up our blood, can we? And there's no blood that
we can offer up that we can get in the flesh that would be pleasing
unto him. If the Lord would have been satisfied with those lambs,
it would have been for the remission of sin, but it could never take
away sin. It took precious blood. It took His blood, perfect blood
to put it away. And that's exactly what He did
on the cross of Calvary. The Lord is holy. And I would
remind us that in the Old Testament worship, the priest had to have
bells on their shirt, didn't they? Whenever they would enter
into the worship. I mean, if that priest had one
unconfessed sin, he was gone when the bells quit ringing and
they just pulled him out, you know, with the rope that was
tied to him. We're very serious. God is very serious about, we
can't enter in on our own. We have to have a substitute.
We have to have an intercessor. We have to have the one, the
Lord Jesus Christ, our prophet and our priest. That's why God says, I'll be
the refiner. I'll be the one that refines
you here. I'll be the one that purifies you. That's what he's
saying to these priests. He said, I'm going to purify
you. And when I do, you'll offer a perfect sacrifice to me. Well,
what is that? That's Christ. Is that not the
only thing that we bring? Or we don't even bring it. But
you understand what I mean? That's what we cling to is everything.
That's what we hold to. Our hope is that he's our sacrifice,
that he's my lamb. He's the Lamb of God, yes, but
he died for me. That's our hope, isn't it? He's
the Lamb of God that was given for his people and that we are
in Christ. Now hold your place here and turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 10. We see the priesthood very clearly
in Hebrews chapter 10. Paul's writing to the Jews. That's
why the name of the book is Hebrews. And You can imagine there were
several churches probably in Israel. Well, I know there were,
but after Christ, there would have been Jewish churches set
up and they would always, the biggest struggle they had was
mixing the law and mixing grace. They thought, well, you still
have to be circumcised or you still can't eat unclean animals. You remember whenever Peter was
eating with the Gentiles and Peter was eating with the Gentiles
and the Jews showed up. So Peter got up and went to sit
with the Jews and Paul rebuked him openly. He's like, no, that
ain't what you do. They're the same. It's the Lord's
people. It's not bloodline anymore, Peter. And the Lord gave Peter
the vision of unclean things and said, don't call anything
unclean that I've called clean. Meaning it's not of works. It's
not of the law. It's by grace you're saved. That's
what he was, that's what Paul's establishing here in Hebrew still.
Hebrews 10, verse 1, for the law having a shadow of good things
to come and not the very image of the things can never with
those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make
the comers thereunto perfect. Now, do we understand what he's
saying? It was a shadow. It was a type. It was a picture. These sacrifices were meant to
point to Jesus Christ. And the Lord saw this shadow,
and he remembered the cross of Calvary that had happened before
the foundation of the world, and that's the way that it is. But in time, it had to be fulfilled,
didn't it? And so he's saying, this is the
shadow that could never, with those sacrifices, make the comers
there unto perfect. Verse two, for then would they
not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshipers once
purged should have not had no more conscience of sin. But in
those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sin every year. A remembrance of sin meant what
good news we have in the Lord Jesus Christ having put away
those sin. There's no more remembrance to
the father of our sin because it's been put away. These sacrifices
couldn't do that. Then he tells us why in verse
four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offering and sacrifice
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God.
And when he said, sacrifice an offering and burn offerings and
offerings for sin, thou wouldest not neither has pleasure therein,
which are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come, I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he might establish the second. Now he's talking about his priesthood
here. He took away the first priesthood, which was the priesthood
of the Levites. It was the Levitical
priesthood. That was the original priesthood
that the Lord established. That covenant, that priesthood
could never put away sin. Never. The Levitical priesthood
could never put away sin. Christ was not a Levite, was
he? Christ was of the tribe of Judah. He established the first
taketh away the first and he may establish the second. That's
what he's talking about here. Now he says, verse 10, by the witch
will, whose will? His will. By the witch will,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. Once for all. Sanctified once
for all. Now, our priest, our priest was
also the sacrifice. But our priest entered in himself
with his own blood unto his father, and he hath sanctified them that
he died for once for all. He established everything necessary
for the salvation of the Lord's people." This is our sanctification, brethren.
Christ Jesus, our high priest, offered up unto the Father. And
was the Father pleased with Christ? Yes. Do you believe that? The
believer never doubts that, do we? We never doubt that Christ
Jesus, we know that he successfully redeemed all those that he died.
That's not what we're afraid of. What we're afraid of is when
we look at ourself and we say, how could he love something like
me? Well, we're looking at ourself. We're not looking at his finished
work. That's always our problem, isn't it? We're always looking
at our works, but look at our high priest here. Think about not
only what he accomplished on the cross, but think about the
atonement made on the mercy seat for his people, the veil in the
temple being rent in twain. Think about what he's restored.
We have so much more in Christ than we ever lost in Adam. So
much more. We have perfect union with God. Adam was never unified with God. He was a sinless man. He walked
with God in the cool of the evening, the scripture says. But we get
to do so much more than that. We get to live with Him for eternity
and see Him face to face and be made like Him, no longer having
this flesh, no longer having sin, no longer having, somebody
mentioned to me recently, it said the older they get, the
more aches and pains that they get. And I said, one of these days
you won't have any pain anymore. We don't even know what that'd
be like, do we? No pain? No pain, why? Because our high
priest successfully redeemed, redeemed us back to God. Now
let's read some more of this here in Hebrews 10, verse 11
says, and every priest and a daily ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifice, which can never take away sins. But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin 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. Whereof the Holy Ghost is also
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. and I will put my laws into their hearts and in their
minds when I write them. Now this is from Jeremiah chapter
31 when the Lord gave the prophecy there, but this is the same thing
that we're talking about that Malachi wrote. He says, I'm gonna
purge you. I'm gonna refine you. He's saying,
I'm gonna put the laws in your heart and in your mind, and you're
gonna be one with the Lord and be perfect in him. This is the
covenant fulfilled right here. Their sins and their iniquities,
Will I remember no more? Now where the remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Now understand that
we've already said this, but they would go every year and
they would make sacrifice unto the Lord. Why? There was a remembrance
of sin. There's no need for another sacrifice.
Why? Christ has put away the sin.
I wish I could enter into this the way that, the way that I
want to, and I hope the Lord calls us to do this, but Whenever
the Lord Jesus Christ put away our sin, we have so many confirmations
of that from the Father. Number one, in the resurrection.
Number two, He sat down. He just said that. He just said
that He sat down. Now, the other glorious thought
is that we don't have to worry about making sacrifice in this
life because He is that sacrifice once and for all. There's no
more need of a sacrifice. It's done. The sin is completely
gone. We've had the evidence that the
Lord was satisfied with it, the confirmation from the Lord Himself,
and we see very clearly whoever He died for, they're clean before
the Father. They're perfect before the Father.
This is the good news. There's no more offering for
sin because he successfully redeemed. Verse 19 says, having therefore,
what's the therefore? Therefore, because he successfully
redeemed, he's successfully done everything. So therefore, brethren,
we have boldness. We have complete confidence,
complete assurance to do what? To enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by our high priest. Because of what he's
done, we can walk right into the throne room of God and not
be destroyed. To the throne room of God. entering into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath
consecrated for us. That is through the veil, that
is to say his flesh and having a high priest over the house
of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. Brethren, we can enter boldly.
We can have full assurance, full assurance that our high priest
was successful. He was successful in doing everything
required that pleased the Father. And because of this, we've been
sanctified in the Father's sight. This is our priest, this is what
we hope in. And the last thing I want to
look at is the King. Turn with me to Malachi chapter one, quickly. Malachi 1, verse 14 says, but
curse be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and
voweth and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am
a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful
among the heathen. He is a great king. He is all-powerful. He is all-sovereign. His word is law. He is truth. We read Psalm 93, I believe it
was, for our call to worship. And what did it say? The Lord
reigneth. I love that ETH. He's continually
reigning. This is our king. Whatever a
king wants, the king gets. Is that not true? Whatever the
king wants, the king gets. Nothing can prevent the king,
unless there's another king that challenges him. And who's going
to challenge God? Certainly not us. Certainly not
Satan. Lord's already bruised his head.
So who can challenge God? Nobody. Nobody. He's going to
get whatever he wants. His will is going to happen.
It's going to come to pass. What great, what a great thought
there is. And when him saying, I've loved
you with an everlasting love, who can, who can prevent that? Who can stop that? Who can challenge
that or do anything against it? Nothing. Nobody. Nobody. He's
King. He's seated. We heard that after
he had offered up himself for the sacrifice for us, for our
sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Father, didn't he?
He sat down. He's God. He's King. He's sovereign over
all the earth. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength,
wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also is established
and it cannot be moved. Why can't the world be moved?
Why can't the world be moved? Because God put it there. God
hung a planet on nothing. He hung the world on nothing.
Think about that. Caused it to spin at the exact
RPMs that it's spinning or miles per hour that it's spinning.
Caused it to be exactly this far away from the sun so that
we don't burn up or freeze to death. Caused it to have seasons
so we can have food. Everything required in order
to redeem his people, he has done. He's the king. He's the
king of it all. He owns every bit of it. Everything
that's going on, he's the doer of it. He's the king. It says, thy throne is established
of old. Thou art from everlasting. How
old is everlasting? Can we enter into that? The throne's
established of old. Thou art from everlasting. It
means it's always been established and it always will be established,
isn't it? That's what that means. He's king. He's king. Everything is finished according
to his purpose. Salvation is accomplished. Salvation is accomplished
on Calvary. Did you know they, they mocked
our Lord and they called him king of the Jews. They said,
hail king of the Jews. And they plated a crown of thorns
on. He said, what did that represent? The sin, the curse that you and
I are, you and I brought. and the fall of Adam and the
blood that we have that's polluted, it represented our curse that
was placed upon him, but oh, we see him as our king, don't
we? Even in that moment in our mind's eye, the Lord, by faith,
what he's given us is that was my king. Lord Jesus Christ then
being crucified, that's our king. And no greater glory has a man
ever had than what the Lord had given to his son on the day of
Calvary, on the cross of Calvary, when he was suspended between
heaven and earth with his arms outstretched. No, it wasn't beautiful
to men as far as to the natural eye, but that is the most beautiful
scene to the believer because that's how the Lord brought salvation
to us as our conquering King. He didn't look like a conquering
King on the cross, did he? No, but to you and I, we know
he was. We know he was. And we know that because he was
resurrected by his father. The grave could not hold him.
Death, he's king over the grave. He's king over death. He's king
over hell. He's king over Satan and the
inhabitants of hell. He's king over everything. He's
Lord. He's God. He's good. He's good. And he's
seated. He's still seated on his throne.
I love the thought. We were going to turn, but we're
out of time. The thought he tells us that the jewels that are in
his crown, he says, you're the jewels that are in my crown.
I'm a jewel in your crown? You value me that much, Lord?
Yes, by my own blood, I've proven that. That's how much I value.
Such things are too wonderful for me. He shed his precious blood, made
his soul an offering for sin, and he did it as all three of
these offices, as prophet, as priest and as king. And he satisfied
his father, forever establishing his throne. He's our king. I'm
so thankful that no one can challenge that. No one can pluck us from
the father's hand. He said, I'm in my father's hand. And you said, you're in my hand.
He said, I and my father are one. Who's going to pluck you?
Nobody can pluck us from his hand or the father's hand. No
one. No one can threaten him or prevent
him. What rest we have, what peace we have in seeing him.
as our prophet, priest, and king, brethren, being the successful
redeemer of his people. He's our prophet. We know this
because of his truth. He's caused us to believe in
his work alone as our truth. He's our prophet. He's our priest
because we know that by his own blood, he purged our sin and
sat down on the right hand of the Father, offering up himself
as the Lamb. He's our eternal king, and he
hath bought us by his blood. Hebrews 2 tells us, but we see
Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace
of God should taste death for every man, every man and every
woman that was written in that Lamb's book of life. He tasted
death for, he died the death that they deserve in their stead
and redeemed them back to God, paid in full. I like saying this
often, I think when I close, but I am I am his and he is mine. Actually, we're going to sing
that on Sunday, I believe, but I am his and he is mine because
of what he has done as our prophet.