Would you turn to Hebrews chapter
10? I'm very happy for you. Uh, I'm
very honored that I've been asked to be part of this. I'm thankful
and I pray for the Lord's continued blessing upon you. Uh, that's
very exciting to me. Verse 15 Hebrews chapter 10. whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. I wanted to read that before
I read verse 14. And here's what the Holy Ghost
bears witness to. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a 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 will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." Now, where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin. I've entitled this message,
The Witness of the Holy Spirit. Now, I fear for myself, I fear
for you, religion without the spirit of God. And there is a
lot of that. Most people's Christianity is
without the Holy Spirit. Now you say, how can you make
a claim like that? You can't see into their hearts.
I know it because of how they line up with verse 14. This is
what God, the Holy Spirit bears witness to. And I want God, the
Holy Spirit to bear witness to me, don't you? I want him to
be the one who teaches me. I want him to be the one who
gives me hearing ears, and a receptive heart. I need the Spirit of God,
and when the Spirit of God bears witness, this is what He bears
witness to. This specifically. For by one offering, speaking
of His death on the cross, by one offering, He hath perfected forever, them that
are sanctified. The Holy Spirit is the third
person of the blessed Trinity. He's a person. He's not an influence. He's not a force. He's a person.
God the Father is a person. God the Son is a person. God
the Holy Spirit is a person. In some respects, God the Holy
Spirit is the most mysterious to us of the three persons of
the Godhead because we have some thought of the Father. We have some understanding that
Christ Jesus is a real man, but God the Holy Spirit, but did
you know that all you experience of Jesus Christ comes because
of and through the Holy Spirit? the Holy Spirit of God. Now, all three persons of the
Godhead have a work in the salvation of the sinner. God the Father
elected a people before time began out of Adam's ruined race,
and he gave those people to his son to be his bride. God loves His Son. Yes, we're
loved in Him, but this is God's primary purpose. God loves His
Son, and He gave the church to Him to be His bride as His gift. What an infinite privilege to
be a part of the bride, the body of Christ. God the Son. took full responsibility for
those people. He knew what he was getting when
he got me. And he took full responsibility, agreed to bear my sin, to put
my sin away, to save me by his grace, redeem me, perfect me
forever. And God, the Holy Spirit, is
the author of the new birth. He's the author of regeneration. The only way I can be saved is
first God to elect me, then Christ to die for me, to live for me
and to die for me, and the Holy Spirit to give me life, to birth
me into His kingdom. Born of the Spirit. How I need God the Holy Spirit
to testify to me. Now, when we talk about the three
persons of the Godhead, we can't say one aspect is more important
than the other. Could you be saved without God
electing you? No. Could you be saved without Jesus
Christ paying for your sins? No. Could you be saved without
God the Holy Spirit giving you life? No. Notice what our text says in
verse 15, where of the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us for after
that he had said before. Now, he's quoting a passage of
scripture that God, the Holy Spirit wrote. You see, God, the
Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost, all scripture. is given by inspiration
of God. You have a book that's without
error. Somebody says, how do you expect
me to believe that this word is inspired and kept? I mean,
men wrote it. How do you know there's not mistakes
in it? Well, God created the universe. It's not at all difficult
for him to inspire a book and keep it preserved. And if we
don't have the scriptures, we don't have anything, do we? In
my opinion, and your opinion. What's that worth? I hope we
all know. Notice he says whereof that he
said before and he's quoting a passage in Jeremiah chapter
31. God the Holy Spirit wrote this.
Will you turn with me there? As a matter of fact, this passage
of scripture is quoted twice in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews
chapter 8 and Hebrews chapter 10. Jeremiah chapter 31. Verse 31, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which
my covenant they break. Although I was in husband unto
them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they
shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know
the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them into
the greatest, saith the Lord for I will. forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more." Now, this is the word
of God, the Holy Spirit. This is the new covenant He speaks
of. Now, we're gonna get back to
that in a minute, but I want us to remember God, the Holy
Spirit, bears witness to His word. His word, not my word. His Word. Being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. This is what God the Holy Spirit
uses when He bears testimony. Don't you want Him to bear testimony
to you? I sure want Him to bear testimony to me. I don't want
to be left to hearing just simply what a man thinks. I don't want
to be left to my own thoughts. I want God, the Holy Spirit to
bear witness to me. Now, if he does bear witness
to me, and if he does bear witness to you, he's going to be saying
the same thing to both of us. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, to us. Who's the us? I want to know
if I can get in on that. Who's the us? I know for a fact
that it doesn't mean all men without exception. God, the Holy
Spirit never bears witness to somebody they don't believe.
And there's a lot of folks that don't believe. He never bore witness to them.
Who is the us? Well, that's the same us of which
our Lord said when he was speaking to John the Baptist. Thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now that's not just talking about
John the Baptist, that's talking about the whole company of God's
elect. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. The same us that Paul spoke of
in Romans 8 31 when he said, if God be for us, who? can be against us. Now this is
speaking of every one of God's people and God the Holy Spirit
bears witness to each one of them. Now, I've already read
Jeremiah chapter 31, but turn to Hebrews chapter 8. The writer
to the Hebrews quotes this in chapter 8 and chapter 10 and
I'm I think it's glorious the way the Lord, the Holy Spirit
uses the same scripture again, repeats it. That encourages me
because one of the most intimidating things to me about preaching,
particularly to the same people that have heard me thousands
of times, I think they've already heard everything I got to say.
Yeah, but if the Holy Spirit repeats it, it's just as new
and just as fresh and just as powerful as the first time I
heard it. And that's the way I want to hear the gospel. Here
he repeats this, but look at this passage of scripture in
Hebrews chapter eight. Verse six, but now has he obtained
a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, the covenant
of works, then should no place have been sought for the second
for finding Fault with them, God finds fault. And this is
the first covenant. Finding fault with them, he saith,
behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I'll make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt, because they continue not in my covenant. And I regarded them not, now
hear what he says. He says, I took them by the hand. and I let them
out. But their heart was no different.
And they disobeyed my covenant. Now I can take any of these kids,
most of them, I can get them to go wherever I want. I can
take them by the hand, and I can get them to go. But it wouldn't
change their heart. It might change their place,
but it wouldn't change their heart. And that's what this old
covenant is. It never saves. Well, let's go on reading. Verse
10, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their
hearts. And I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people, and they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. I
will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities,
will I remember no more. Now don't miss this. You know,
when I'm in heaven, by the grace of God, God's not gonna look
at me and say, I remember what you did. That ain't gonna happen. I am going to be one who has
never sinned in the very sight of God. Their sins, I won't remember
them either. I don't understand how that's
going to be, how I can not remember. I won't even remember what it's
like to be a sinner. But I know this, when I see the scars on
his hands and feet, I'll know that's the reason I'm there.
And that's the only reason I'm there. But who can understand
any of this? I mean, their sins, their iniquities. will remember no more." Now,
this is the covenant that I will make. The covenant he's speaking
of is the covenant of grace or the New Testament. They're the
same thing. When we speak of the covenant of grace, we're
speaking of the New Testament. When we speak of the New Testament,
we're speaking of the covenant of grace. It's called, this word is used
in Hebrews 14 times. Let me give you some ways that
the writer of the Hebrews used this. He calls it a better testament. We read that earlier, didn't
we? A better testament. It's better than the best. It
goes beyond that. It's better. He calls it my covenant. He calls it the new testament. We read of the blood of the covenant. the everlasting covenant. And
he said, it's the covenant that I will make. And here's what
this looks like. I will, and you shall. How do you like that? I like that a lot. I will, you
shall. The first covenant was, I will,
if you will, Here's the problem with that.
We won't. You ought to know that by your
own experience by now. We won't. No one was saved under that first
covenant. Salvation is impossible. If any
aspect of salvation is dependent upon me doing something before
I can be saved, I will not be saved. But thank God he said,
I will. You shall. Verse 16. Now, in these two verses, we
are given the person or the work of Christ in us and the work
of Christ for us. The work of Christ in us. and the work of Christ for us. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. And here's the
work of Christ in us. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them. There's the work
of Christ in us. And here's the work of Christ
for us and their sins and iniquities. Will I remember no more? Now, I wonder if anyone was thinking
when I read that 16th verse, what is the distinction between
the heart and the mind? Nudist. God says, I will put
my laws into their hearts. and in their minds will I write
them. Now, this is a distinction God
makes. Somebody says, well, they're the same thing. No, they're not.
If they were the same thing, you only said one thing. But
he says, in their minds and in their hearts. I will put my laws
in their minds and write them in their hearts. First, the mind
and the heart, they always go together. While there is a distinction,
They always go together. They cannot be separated. When you have God working in
the heart, he'll be working in the mind. When you have God working
in the mind, he's working in the heart. The mind is the intellect. The mind has something to do
with the knowledge of the truth. There's no salvation apart from
the knowledge of the truth. The mind has something to do
with an embracing the knowledge of the truth. The heart has more
to do with the affections and emotions and desires. It is called,
and you mentioned this, the love of the truth. The mind has the knowledge of
the truth. The heart has the love of the
truth. And those two things cannot be
separated. You know, I remember, I don't
know how many times I've tormented myself thinking, I'm afraid I
just believe with my mind, but I don't believe with my heart.
You ever worried about that? What you really believe in your
mind, you really believe in your heart. And what you really believe
in your heart, that's what you believe in your mind. God makes
this distinction. He says, I'll put my laws in
their mind and I will write them in their hearts. And notice,
he says, I'll put my laws into their hearts and in their minds
will I write them. Now, what's he talking about
when he talks about putting his laws in your heart? Is he talking about the 10 commandments? Well, the 10 commandments are
written in everybody's heart. You go into any continent in
the world and the 10 commandments are written in that person's
heart. I don't care who they are. I don't care what religion
they're from. Every man has the work of the law written in their
heart. Turn to Romans chapter two. Romans chapter two. Verse 14, for when the Gentiles,
that's people without a Bible. These are people who have never
read the Ten Commandments. They've never seen a copy of
Scripture. The Gentiles. But when the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves,
which show the work of the law written in their hearts. These
people have never even heard of the Scriptures. their conscience
also bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing
or else excusing one another in the day when God should judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Now,
everybody born in this world knows it's wrong to lie. They
know it's wrong to murder. They know sexual sin is wrong.
They know stealing is wrong. They know coveted, that's, you
were born that way. I was born that way. So he's
not talking about the moral law written on everybody's heart.
You've already got that. One of the things I, you know, people say we need to be taught
to live. You already know how to live. Everybody in here, you
already know how to live. You know the difference between
right and wrong. You were born that way. Somebody says, I didn't
know this. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. Well, I had a bad upbringing. You still did. This is God's
law written on everybody's heart. And all we can do is either try
to make an excuse or have an accusing conscience. That's what
he used. Either excusing or accusing. It's Adam's fault. It's my circumstances
fault. It's my mom and dad's fault.
Or just feeling real guilty. That's all the law does. That's
what that's written on everybody's heart. That's plain, isn't it?
OK, what's he talking about then? When he says, I'll write my laws
upon their Now, these are the laws of the new nature. Christ's work in you. Now, what's
that word nature mean? You're born with a certain nature,
and I'm not even gonna talk about a depraved nature right now,
just the way we use it. Well, there's a father and his
teenage son, well, he's probably 20 or 21 by now, that when I, watch them walk into our church.
Lynn and I have just watched them and just flipped out how
they're exactly alike. Every motion, the way they walk.
I mean, the DNAs pass it. I mean, his nature is to be just
like his daddy. And we can name so many examples
of that. You've seen that where people
are just, by nature, they're a certain way, you know, the
way from their parents. And so your nature is what you
were born with. It's what you're born inherently
with. Like this guy was born being like his daddy. You're
born that way. Now, a fallen nature is the nature
I have from my first father, Adam. You see, when he sinned,
the scripture says he died. Now, he didn't die physically.
His soul didn't die. His body didn't die. It was going
to. But the Lord said, on the very
day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. His spirit died. And we are born into this world
spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and sins,
unable to do anything to save ourselves, dead. Now, if I am
dead in sins, I have to be given life. And that's what the new
birth is. He that's born of the Spirit
is Spirit. This is spiritual life. Now that's why if you're a believer,
you have two natures. You have the nature you were
born with, and you've got the nature that was given to you
when you were born again, born from above. And if you're a believer,
you know you have two natures. I don't have to convince you
of it. You find it in your own experience. Two natures, one
nature that's nothing but sin, The other nature that's holy.
That's what the scripture teaches. Now, when we think about this,
what the work of the Lord in us, this, excuse me, these, these
laws of the new nature, I find six of them in the New Testament.
And I got a scripture for each one of them. But the first one
is the law of righteousness found in Romans chapter nine, verse
31. And here's what that means. The
law of righteousness, you've got a law in you. This is your
nature. This is your nature. This is you obeying your nature.
You've got a law in you that cannot be satisfied with anything
but perfect righteousness before God's holy law. You can't get
peace of conscience. You can't rest in anything but
that which says that you stand before God's law without guilt. Perfectly righteous. I know that's
true with regard to me. I don't have any peace from anything
I've done. I don't have any peace from my preaching or anything
about me. The only thing I have peace in
is that I stand before God's law without guilt, perfectly
righteous. Now, if you have a new nature,
you can't be satisfied with anything short of perfect righteousness
before the holy law of God. Paul spoke in Romans 7, 23 of
the law of sin. The law of sin, which is in my
members, the law of sin. Now, in order to understand anything
about the law of sin, you have to have a new nature. You have
to have a holy nature. And when you have this new nature,
You see that everything about you, present tense, is nothing
but sin. I'm not talking about the way
you used to be. You know, I can't stand getting around ex-sinners.
You know, I can't relate with them. It's just not real. I'm
talking about right now, present tense. Paul said, I know that
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. The law of sin. Do you have that law working
in you? The law of sin. Everything I think, everything
I do, if my fingerprints are on it, it is sin. And we read in Romans 3, 27 of
the law of faith. And these are laws of nature.
Laws of nature, the law of faith. You know, if you, if you, if
God's done something for you, you may cry out all the time,
Lord, I believe help my unbelief, but you can't say, I do not believe.
You can't do it. You believe the gospel. It's
natural to you to trust Christ only. That is what happens when
someone's born again. They look to Christ only. And
this is a law in them. They don't choose to do this.
It's their nature to do it. You see, faith is a product of
the new nature. It's not the product of man's
free will. It's the product of God doing something for you and
in you. And you must believe the gospel. You don't choose to believe.
You believe because you have no choice. It's your nature to believe the
gospel. You look to Christ only and you
can't look anywhere else. That's your nature. And then
in James 2, 8, we read of the royal law of love. You've already touched on this.
You love God for who he is. You love him in all of his excellent
attributes. You love all. You love the sovereign
God. You love the holy God. You love
the omnipotent, the omnipresent, the omniscient God. You love
the independent God. You love the immutable God. Every
attribute of God you love, and you wouldn't change him if it
was in your power to do it. Now, my wife loves me. She loves
me. And I guarantee you, if there's
things she could change about me, there'd be a whole lot of
things she'd change about me. Somebody says, oh, I don't believe
that. You don't know me then. But with regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ, if it were in my power to change anything about him,
I wouldn't do it. He's perfect. We love him as
he is. We love his way of saving sinners.
That's our nature. We love his people. He that loveth
him that begat, loveth him that's begotten of him. We love all
men. We really do. We love all men. What do you
mean by that? There isn't a man alive that I wouldn't want him
to know the same Savior I know and to be saved the same way.
We want to preach the gospel of men. We love men. And that
certainly has an effect on your life if you love him. The royal
law of love. And the next law is what James
called in James 1, 12 and 1, or 212 and James 125, the law
of liberty. The law of liberty. Now, what
is liberty? Liberty is made of two things.
I don't know anything. And I get to do just what I want
to. That's liberty. I don't know
anything. And if I hear preaching, that
makes me think I'm not measuring up. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I'm, there's no liberty
in that. I feel miserable. I feel in bondage.
I must know that all that God requires of me, I already have. That's all that gives me liberty.
If you tell me of anything that I need to first do before God
will do something for me, that's bondage. That's miserable. I
hate it. There's laws. Liberty, where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there's liberty. And liberty is doing what you
want to do. It's not like vacation. Don't
you love vacation? You get to do what you want to
do. But this is a whole lot better
vacation than that. I only follow the Lord because
that's what I want to do. I want to willingly deny myself, take
up my cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else is,
anything else is bondage. The law of liberty. And then
in Galatians chapter six, verse three, we read of the law of
Christ. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, can't you
understand that? Is there anybody you can look
down your nose at if he's overtaken in a fault? Of course not. You
know, you're just as bad, worse. If a man be overtaken in a fault,
you which are spiritual. Now that means you've got the
Holy Spirit. That means you have a spiritual nature. That's almost a political
term today. Well, I'm a spiritual person.
No, you're not. You're a fleshly person. Only someone who's born
of the Spirit is a spiritual person. Ye which are spiritual,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself,
lest you also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
And so fulfill the law of Christ. I'll write my laws in their mind
and in their heart. They're going to understand this
as much as you can understand. I mean, there's a sense in which
I don't understand anything I believe. I just believe it. But we also
have some understanding. It's in our mind. It's in our
hearts. We love this. Now that's the work of Christ
in us, and the ground of the work of Christ in us is the work
of Christ for us. You see, he doesn't work in me
because I asked him to. You know, where did preachers
ever come up? Why don't you ask Jesus into your heart? You know,
that's silly. What would he want in there anyway?
You think he'd like taking up a residence in a place like that?
I guarantee you he wouldn't. He'll give you a new heart. That's
what you need, a new heart. Now, what is the ground of him
giving a new heart? His work in you, his work for
you. Verse 17, here's why I will put
my laws in their hearts and in their minds while I write them.
Here's why, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 10, 17, their sins and
iniquities Will I remember no more? Now, verse 16 is the work
of Christ in you. And here's the work of Christ
for you. Turn back to Hebrews 8, where
the Holy Spirit uses this again in Hebrews chapter 8. Verse 12. He says, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Now
that word merciful is actually the word propitious. Propitious, a propitiation. Now that's a word we don't use
much and don't think of it much, but we ought to. It's a good
scriptural word. Well, as a matter of fact, when
the publican is crying, God be merciful to me, the sinner, he
was crying, God be propitious to me, the sinner. A propitiation is a sin removing
sacrifice. A sin removing sacrifice. He was delivered for our offenses. and raised again for our what? Justification. Now, if I'm justified,
what that means is I am sinless before God. It means I've never
broken the law. It means I've never done anything
wrong. And I've always done that, which is right. And that's real.
That's not simply some kind of legal standing, some kind of
statement. It's the truth. Holy, Colossians 1, 22. Holy, unblameable, and unapprovable. Is there anything in there? Holy,
unblameable, and unapprovable in His sight. And how God sees things is how
they are. If God sees me, as holy and unblameable
and unreprovable, there's only one reason. I am holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in the very sight of God because of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness is my personal
righteousness. My sin was blotted out by what
he did. You know, that's the way this book started. This book
started with one of those beautiful statements regarding the person
and work of Christ in those first three verses, the brightness
of God's glory, the express image of his person upholding all things
by the word of his power. You know what he did when he
by himself purged our sins? He made them not to be. He made them not to be. They're
not out there in the cloud somewhere. They're gone. There are none. That's what he's done for his
people. And that's why he can say, their
sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. There's nothing there
for him to remember. God's got a lot better memory than you
and I have. And if there were anything there to remember, he'd
remember, listen to this scripture from Genesis or Jeremiah chapter
50, verse 20, in those days. And in that time, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none. None. That's why it says there are
sins and iniquities. I remember no more. There are
none. Now, this is the work of Christ in
us and the work of Christ for us. And every time we preach,
it better have something this in it. You remember when the
Lord was getting ready to send back to the father and he said,
you preach, you preach repentance and the remission of sins. That's
the work of Christ in you, repentance, the remission of sins, the work
of Christ for you. That ought to be in every message we preach.
The work of Christ in us, the work of Christ for us. Acts chapter
five, Peter said him being, or whom God had exalted a prince
and a savior for to give repentance to Israel. That's the work of
Christ in me. Repentance. And the remission of sins. That's
the work of Christ for me. That's in all of our preaching.
Now, last verse that we're going to look at. Back to Hebrews chapter
10. And I believe that this is the
crescendo of this book. Everything had been working toward
this glorious statement. Verse 18 now. Where remission
of these is. Now do you hear that? Do you and I get that? Where remission of these is accomplished. There's no more offering for
sin. It's not needed. Don't try to
bring one. It's already been made. And the
biggest insult I can give to the Lord is to try to bring an
offering when he's already made his. Well, what am I to do? There remaineth a rest. for the people of God, for he
that's entered into his rest hath ceased from his own works
as God did from his. Amen.