Hebrews, the tenth chapter. Verse 1 says, 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. the
ceremonial law of Moses, with all of its sacrifices and all
of its offerings and all of its holy days and all of its atonement,
can never put away sin, can never put away sin. Verse
four says, that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sin. Here comes the priest. He's coming
with a smoking censer. He's coming with a basin full
of blood, that blood steaming as it came fresh from a slaughtered
victim. And this priest sprinkles the
blood on the book. He sprinkles the blood on the
people. He sprinkles the blood on the altar and on the mercy
seat. He sprinkles the blood on the hangings of the tabernacle.
He even sprinkles the blood on the ground where the people walk.
For the Scripture says almost all things are under the law
purged by blood. Everywhere, everywhere the blood
is sprinkled. fresh every morning and renewed
every evening. And still the sin remains, still
the divine will is not done, still the people are not sanctified,
still sin is not put away. For it is impossible, it is impossible
for the blood of animals to put away sin. But notice verse 5,
Wherefore, when he cometh into the world," now then, this is
a different story. These sacrifices which are offered
day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, could
never take away sin. It is not possible for them to
take away sin, but, "...when he cometh into the world," now
this is the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Scripture
says, A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and thou
shalt call his name Immanuel, God with us. And the angel appeared
to Joseph and said, Mary will have a son, and that holy thing
which shall be born of her shall be called the Son of the Highest.
For the Holy Ghost shall come upon her, and the power of God
shall overshadow her, and that holy thing shall be called the
Son of God, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
do what the law could not do, for he shall do what the sacrifices
could never do, for he shall do what all of the blood on Jewish
altars for hundreds and hundreds of years could not do, for he
shall save or sanctify his people." he shall save them from their
sins. Paul wrote in Galatians 4, when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, to redeem them
which were under the law. Turn to Hebrews 2, verse 16 and
17. I want you to read these two
verses. When he cometh into the world, when he in person cometh
into this world." And that's exactly what he did. The Word
was in the beginning with God and was God, and all things were
made by him, and that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. But what's this in
Hebrews 2.16? For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, The angels had fallen, the angels had sinned,
the angels were reserved in captivity, awaiting judgment. But Christ
did not take on him the nature of angels. He took on him the
seed of Abraham. He was made a man, not in the
form and likeness of angels, but in the form and likeness
of sinful flesh. Wherefore," verse 17, It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren. He had to become a man, that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, to do what the law could not do, to make reconciliation,
to do what the ceremonies could never do, to make reconciliation,
to do what all of these sin offerings and all of these holy days and
ceremonies could never do. to make reconciliation for the
sins of his people. Look down at verse 5 again, "...wherefore,
when he cometh into the world," that's his incarnation, he said,
"...sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body, a body
thou hast prepared me. Thou hast prepared and clothed
me with a body in which I might do the will of and perform redemption
for all thy people." Romans 8, verse 3, is a Scripture that
fits in beautifully here. In the eighth chapter of Romans,
verse 3, the Scripture says, "...what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for condemn sin in the flesh. He subdued it. The word condemned
there is overcame. What the law could never do because
of the weakness of the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, subdued, overcame, put
away sin. And he did it by the sacrifice
of himself. Look back at our text. The law
could never put away sin. The blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin. But when he came into the world,
he said, My father, thou hast prepared for me a body, that
I might do what these burnt offerings and sacrifices could never do. I come, listen to it, I come,
in the volume of the book, verse 7, it is written of me, I come
to do thy will. Now, there are three things that
must be pointed out tonight from this text. First of all, the
eternal will which is to be done. The law couldn't do it. The sacrifices
couldn't do it. The offerings couldn't do it.
This eternal will, Christ said, I came to do. You prepared me
a body, and I came to do that will. the effectual sacrifice
by which the will was carried out. Christ did that will. He said, I come not to do my
will, but the will of him that sent me. And when Christ died
on the cross, he cried, It is finished. That work was done.
And then thirdly, we'll see the everlasting result accomplished
by that will through the sacrifice of Christ. Now, first of all,
the eternal will. Look at verse 9 and 10 of Hebrews
10 just a moment. Watch this. Then said he, when
he came into the world, I come to do thy will, O God, I come
to do thy will. Verse 10. By the which will we
are sanctified. This is the will of God, even
your sanctification. Now here are five things that
I believe about the will of God, five things that are taught in
God's Word. First of all, it is the eternal
will of God to have a people. In John chapter 6, verse 39,
I want you to turn there with me, John 6, 39. It is the will
of God to have a people. The Scripture says that he will
have a people, he will have sons out of every tribe, kindred,
nation, and tongue unto heaven. The Scripture tells us that he
has predestinated all of those sons to be like Christ, that
Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. The divine will
of God is to have a people like Christ. Now look at John 6 verse
38, For I came down from heaven Christ came into the world. Thou
hast prepared a body for me. I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will, but I came to do the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
him that sent that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at
the last day." This is the will of the Father, to have a people. This is the will of the Father,
to have a people like Christ. And this will is going to be
done, and Christ came to do that will. Now, the second thing about
that will, that's established. There's no doubt of that. God's
will is to have a people. Now, secondly, that will is sovereign. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory, and the Lord said, I'll show you my glory. I'll make
all my goodness pass before thee. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. In John chapter 1, verse 11 through
13, the word of God says this, He came to his own, his own received
him not. to as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God. To those who
received him, to those who believed on him, he gave them the privilege,
the right to become the sons of God. But they were not born
of natural blood, of blood relationship, of family inheritance. They were
not born of the will of the flesh. They were not born of the will
of man. They were born of the will of
God. In the Book of Romans, chapter 9, verse 15, listen to this.
In Romans 9, verse 15 and 16, the Word of God says, He said
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Mercy
is sovereign. Grace is sovereign. God says,
I'm going to be the one who says, who shall be the recipients of
mercy. I'm going to be the one who declares,
who shall be the recipients of compassion. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
will it. It's not of him that run it,
or zealously put forth certain efforts. It's of God that showeth
mercy. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse
7, the Scripture says this, The Lord did not set his love upon
you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any people. You were the fewest of all people,
but because the Lord loved you. We didn't love him, he loved
us. We didn't choose him, he chose
us. We didn't seek him, he sought
us. We didn't initiate this matter of salvation, He initiated it.
So this will, Christ said that He came down here to do a will.
Lo, I come to do thy will. And I know these first two things
about this. Number one, God's will is to
have a people. He's going to have a people,
all like Christ. Secondly, I know, secondly, that
will is sovereign. It's a sovereign will. God's
will is indisputably sovereign, immutable. That's the third thing. God's will is invincible. What am I saying? I'm saying
this. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Let's find out about the will
of God. Christ said that these Old Testament
sacrifices couldn't perform that will, that these Old Testament
priests couldn't get the job done. that all these sacrifices
and blood offerings couldn't get the job done, his will, Christ
had to come down here to do it. Lo, I come, O Lord, O God, to
do thy will. A body thou hast prepared me
in which I can do thy will. Now, what is that will? Well, it's to have a people.
And it's a sovereign will, and thirdly, it's an invincible will. It cannot be altered. Now you
jot this down somewhere. I read this this week. I think
Mr. Spurgeon's writing. He said this.
Here are just eight words, but they contain volumes. God wills
changes, but God never changes His will. Now that's so. God wills changes, but he never
changes his will. It says in Ephesians 1 verse
5, "...having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will." He has predestinated us to be children, to receive
the adoption of When you go down to the orphan's home, you pick
out a child, you adopt it according to the good pleasure of your
will. In verse 11, In whom we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. God's will is
sovereign. He says in John 6, 37, All that
my Father giveth me shall come to me. His will shall not be
defeated. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power." Then in Isaiah 46, I want you to look
at this verse of Scripture here. This is one that ought to be
marked in your Bibles. Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10. Now listen to it. I'm saying
that God's will is to have a people. I challenge anybody to dispute
that. He's going to have a people.
He said, My word will not return unto thee void, it shall accomplish
that whereunto I say. Almighty God is going to have
a people. If the Lord of the Sabbath had
not left us to seed, we'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah. But
God's world's not going to be like Sodom and Gomorrah. He has
a seed, He has a remnant according to the election of grace. That's
what it says in the Book of Romans. God's going to have a people.
And those people are sovereignly saved. They're sovereignly chosen. They are objects of sovereign
mercy. It didn't originate with them.
They didn't seek God. The sheep didn't seek the shepherd. The shepherd sought the sheep.
We didn't run God down and say, Hey Lord, how about a little
mercy? The Lord ran us down and gave us mercy. We did the running,
he did the catching. We did the standing, he did the
saving. It's all of God from beginning to end. And that will's
invincible. Listen to verse 9 and 10 of Isaiah
46. Remember the former things of
old. I'm God, and there's none else. I am God. There's none like me. I declare the end from the beginning. And from ancient times the things
that are not yet done say, My counsel shall stand, I will do
all my pleasure." That's God's will. It's invincible. When God approaches the rebellious
sinner's heart, he breaks it like he brought down the walls
of Jericho. When God approaches a rebellious
sinner's heart, he breaks it open like he broke open the sea,
and sent the children of Israel across on dry land. Now, the
fourth thing about God's will, it's eternal. It didn't just
crop up yesterday, it's older than that. Ephesians 1, verse
4, listen, "...according as he chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world." In 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul wrote,
God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. God's will
is to have a people. His will is sovereign. His will
is invincible. His will is eternal. And then
Jeremiah 31. His will is that his people be
sanctified, or made holy, or reconciled or redeemed. Now listen to Jeremiah 31, verse
33. 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, I
will write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and
they shall be my 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 to the greatest of them,
saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquities, and I will
remember their sins no more." God's will is our sanctification. Well, God's will is to have a
people. God's will is sovereign. He chose
God's will is invincible, he'll bring them. God's will is eternal,
he chose them from all eternity. And God's will is their perfection,
their redemption, their sanctification, their reconciliation. So the
question comes, how can this will be done? How can these rebels
be converted? How can these dead sinners be
raised? How can the guilty be justified? How can these fountains of filth
become clear, clean streams? How can the unsanctified become
sanctified? And Christ answers in Hebrews
chapter 10 and says, Lo, I come to do it. I come to do it. The law couldn't do it. The ceremony
couldn't do it. The prophets couldn't do it.
man couldn't do it. Lo, I come, and the volume of
the book is written of me. I come, O Lord, to do thy will. I come to accomplish this sovereign,
invincible, eternal will of God." Now, how's he going to do it?
Verse 10, Hebrews 10, "...by the witch will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The divine will was carried out
and accomplished by the divine Son. The Father prepared him
a body made of a virgin woman so that he would not partake
of Adam's sin. The Father prepared him a body
made under the law. By Adam's disobedience we were
made sinners, by Christ's obedience we were made sons. The Father
prepared him a body, a body in which he would suffer, in which
he would die, in which he would obey every requirement. I want
you to turn to 1 Corinthians 15. In 1 Corinthians 15, if I
were asked the question tonight, why did Christ become a man?
Why was he made in the likeness of sinful flesh? Why was it necessary
for him to be born of a woman? to live on this earth so many
years? Why was it necessary for him to face the law of the home
and the law of the land and the law of Moses and all of these
other things? I would answer, here it is in
1 Corinthians 15, verse 21. For since by man came death,
by man came By man came also the resurrection
of the dead. That's the reason. Man sinned,
and man had to obey. Man sinned, and man had to suffer. Man sinned, and man had to die. And by the disobedience of one
man, Adam, we were made sinners. So by the obedience of one man,
Christ, we were made righteous. For as in Adam we died, so in
Christ the second Adam shall all be made alive." Does the
will of God demand obedience? As a man, he performed it. Does
the will of God demand submission? As a man, he gave it. Does the
will of God demand suffering? As a man, he suffered. Does the
will of God demand death? As a man, he died. Does the will
of God demand intercession? One God and one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, he intercedes. As a man, he came down here and
obeyed the law. As a man, he went to the cross.
As a man, he was buried and rose again. And right now, as a man,
he intercedes at God's right hand, the God-man. In every point,
God looks on the work of the perfect man as my work and says,
Well done. God looks on the work of the
perfect man as my righteousness and obedience and says, Well
done. And that perfect man, Christ
Jesus, who said, Lo, I come to do thy will, after he had accomplished
all things and gave up the ghost on Calvary's hill, he cried,
It's finished. The will of God is done. There was a wagon train coming
from the east out here to the west, going on to California,
back many, many, many years ago. And the wagon master looked up
ahead and he saw that the whole valley was filled with there
was a raging fire burning this sagebrush and weeds in the fall
sweeping down the valley. And he got the men in the wagon
train to burn out a place. They set a fire and burned out
a huge place in this valley. And then he took all the wagons
and put the wagons on this burnt ground where the fire had already
burned all of the leaves and all of the brush and all of the
weeds and everything around. He put the wagons in a circle
and all the people got in the middle, and the fire came raging
down that valley. One man was sitting holding his
little lad in his lap, his little son, and as the fire came burning
toward the wagon trains, the little boy said, Father, I'm
afraid. And the father said, Son, what are you afraid of?
He said, I'm afraid of the fire. And the daddy said, Son, you
don't have anything to worry about. You and I are standing
on burnt ground, and where the fire has already burnt, it cannot
burn again. And my friends, in Jesus Christ
I'm standing on burnt ground, and where the fire of God's wrath
has already fallen, and where the fire of God's justice has
already fallen, it cannot fall again. If Christ bore my sins,
I cannot bear them. If Christ died for my sins, I
cannot die for them. If Christ suffered for my transgressions,
all of the courts of heaven, earth, and hell cannot condemn
me again. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's Who can condemn us? Christ died, was buried, and
rose again, and is seated at God's right hand as our Mediator,
and where the fire has fallen, it cannot fall again." Christ
did God's will because His body was offered as a sin offering
and a sacrifice in our place. Now watch this last three words
of verse 10, once for all, once for all. Read it again. by the
which will we are sanctified, made holy, reconciled through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Now, down
here in verse 11, let's look at this a moment. Every priest
standeth daily. There were many priests in the
Old Testament in these hundreds of years. I don't know how many
years, but hundreds of years, there were many priests, many
of only one Christ. And these priests, look at it,
offered daily. They stood, always stood. Verse 11, Every priest standed.
Why did they always stand? Their work was never finished.
With all of the furniture in the tabernacle, there wasn't
one chair or one bench, no place to sit down, because the work
of the priest was never done. They stood daily. ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices. They offered many
sacrifices. Christ offered one. Very many. He won. They stood. He sat down on the right hand
of the Father. They offered daily many sacrifices. He offered one. Their work was
never finished. His was finished. Look at it.
and they offered the same sacrifices which could never take away sin.
But this man, this man, Christ Jesus, after he offered one sacrifice
for sin for everyone, not many, one. He 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. By one offering, once for all,
one offering, one offering, he perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Thy blood, not mine, O Christ,
thy blood so freely has cleansed my blackest sin and purged my
deepest guilt. Thy righteousness, O Christ,
alone does cover me. No righteousness avails except
that which is in thee." Now, last of all, we see the eternal
will by the which will, that sovereign, eternal will of the
Father, unchangeable. We've seen the effectual sacrifice
that accomplished that will. He said, Father, I come to do
thy will, and he did that will. Now, last of all, the everlasting
results, what happened as a result of his doing that will. It says,
verse 14, by one offering He hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified." Perfected forever. Now, the word sanctified, and
I'll give you this briefly, the word sanctified in the Old Testament
has a threefold meaning. First of all, the word sanctified
in the Old Testament means to set apart for God's use and for
God's glory. That's exactly what it means,
to set apart. God takes something which is
common, something which is ordinary, and he sets it apart for his
own. For example, the seventh day. There were seven days and
six of them. God said, you labor and do all
your work. But the seventh day, God set it apart. God sanctified
the seventh day. He sanctified the tabernacle.
There weren't many tents around there, but this particular tent
was sanctified. He sanctified the vessels. There
were many vessels like these, but this particular vessel was
here. He sanctified the sons of Ava
and the sons of Levi. He sanctified the priesthood.
He said, These men are holy unto the Lord. He set them apart. So we who are redeemed by the
blood of Christ are sanctified by God the Father. That is, we
are set apart. We are picked from mankind. We
are picked from the whole generation of mankind, common and ordinary. But God said, This one's mine,
and that one's mine, and the other one's mine. God sanctified
us. That's what the Scripture says.
He said to Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly, before thou
camest out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee, and
set thee apart, belonging to me, your mind." Now that's the first meaning
of sanctification. We're sanctified by the Father.
Second, the second meaning of sanctification in the Old Testament
is this. It means, and it's often used
in this vein, it means to regard as holy that object which is
sanctified or that person which is sanctified is regarded and
accepted as holy. For example, the Israelites were
told by Moses to sanctify the Lord God in their hearts, to
fall before him and regard him as holy. He said, Moses, you're
not going to enter the Promised Land because you didn't sanctify
me before the people. God told Moses to speak to the
rock the second time, and it would yield forth water. Moses
went to the rock, and before the people in anger he cried,
Ye rebels, must I draw water from this rock? And he drew back
and smote it several times." Well, water came out of the rock,
but God pulled Moses aside and he said, Now Moses, you didn't
sanctify me in the eyes of the people. You projected yourself. You called attention to yourself.
You put on a show for the people. You didn't sanctify me. You didn't
consider me holy and regard me as holy. You didn't come before
me with a holy attitude. Now some of you may think that
I'm a little bit firm and hard on this thing of reverence in
the house of God, but now God says I will be sanctified by
them that come before me. I'm going to be regarded as holy.
It does matter how you act in this place. It does matter how
you dress in this place. It does matter how you conduct
yourself in the house of God. This church I was in in Georgia
last week, you won't believe this, but I'll tell it anyhow.
They had a Halloween party back some time ago, and they really
put on a shindig. They brought a coffin in the
church and put it down front and put a body of Dracula in
that coffin and opened it up for all the folks to laugh and
have a big time. They put a cage over here in
this corner, and they had a little midget fellow, he's about 4 foot
5 inches tall, and they dressed him up like a monkey and put
him in the church auditorium. And he acted a fool over here
in this cage. God said, I'll be sanctified
by them that come before me. This is the house of God. When you come before God, he's
in his holy temple. Let your words be few, be not
rash with your mouth, God says. It does matter. It does matter. God is to be regarded as holy. God is to be accepted as holy. That's what it means to sanctify
the Lord God, to approach him with humility. That's what's
wrong with songs like this, Me and Jesus, Got a Good Thing Going.
That's not sanctifying the Lord Jesus. That's what's wrong with
talking about Jesus Christ Superstar. That's not sanctifying the Lord
God. That's blasphemy. Thou thoughtest
I was altogether such a one as thyself. Most of this music that
you hear today on the radio that's called Christian music doesn't
sanctify the Lord. There's no reverence. It's a
familiarity that breeds contempt. When we pray and when we worship
and when we approach God, we're to do it with a humble, broken
spirit with reverence and awe and fear. God said, I will be
sanctified. And Moses, you're not going into
the promised land with the people of Israel because you didn't
sanctify me. Now then, you and I are sanctified
in Christ in the same way. That is, we are regarded in Christ
as holy. We are accepted by the Father
in Christ as holy. In Christ our sins are expiated. In Christ we are reconciled,
in Christ and through his sacrifice and through his blood. We're
not like Israel, a typical people, we are truly a people. We are admitted into the presence
of the Lord. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 19,
having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest. Come into the by the blood of Jesus. We're
holy. We are a holy nation. That's what scripture says. The
everlasting result. We are sanctified. Christ said,
I come to do thy will. And that everlasting will was
accomplished through the sacrifice and offering of his body once
for all. And it sanctified his people.
That is, it made them holy. in the presence of God Almighty,
they're holy. Now, last of all, the third way
that sanctification is used in the Old Testament, first to set
apart, and we're sanctified by the Father, he chose us. Secondly,
to regard as holy, to accept as holy, and Christ did that
through his sacrifice. He made us accepted in the Beloved. He opened up the new and living
way by which we can call him our Father, we can come into
But last of all, all whom God set apart and all for whom Christ
died, the Holy Spirit is going to sanctify too. And this is
to actually make holy. This is to actually purify. This is to give a new nature. This is to give a new heart. This is to give a new direction. This is to give a new attitude. This is to give a new motive.
And this work begins in regeneration, and it's progressively carried
on by the Holy Spirit, and it's called growth in grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. God's people don't stand still.
Now, these little fellows in that nursery in there, I'm just
proud of them as you are. And the parents bring them in,
and they say, this is my baby. And I watched some of you babies
grow up. And you have grown, you have progressively grown.
You came in there just a little old bitty thing that couldn't
feed yourself and couldn't walk and couldn't talk and couldn't
do anything else, and now some of you are big, strong young
men and young women. The saddest thing in this world
would have been if you had not grown, if you had not matured,
if you had not developed. Now my friends, I don't believe
God's got stunted children. I don't believe God's got any
imbeciles and morons in his family. I believe that Almighty God's
children, filled with the Holy Spirit, redeemed by the blood
of Christ, are going to grow. They're going to grow in love
and they're going to grow in grace, they're going to grow
in faith, they're going to grow in all of these gifts and fruits
of the Holy Spirit. And he makes us holy, says, Sanctify
them through thy word. Thy word is truth. Sanctify them
through thy truth. And it's to become holy, it's
to become more like Christ with every passing day. Those who
are set apart and those who are made holy by the blood of Christ
are progressively, by the Spirit of God, developing maturity,
called in the Word of God, perfection. Our Father, bless the message.
We thank Thee that Christ came to do what no one else could
do. Thank thee that he said, Lord,
I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. And those Old Testament
sacrifices and types and shadows and pictures are taken away.
He hath taken away the first and established the second, Christ
Jesus the Lord, our established foundation, our firm-trod stone
that cannot fail. In him we have life everlasting. and on him we can build a building
that will never fall. We thank thee and praise thy
name. Through him we pray. Amen.