Jesus Makes Us Perfect
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[00:00:00] And we're gonna read the first 18 verses. Hebrews chapter 10, we'll read the first 18 verses, and I'm gonna ask you, if you are able, please stand for the reading of God's Word. And please hear it for what it is. These are the words of the living God. It should blow your mind that when we pick up this book, we hold the words of the living God, and we should treat it accordingly.
Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse one: For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things coming, and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, can never make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would not... would they not have ceased to be [00:01:00] offered?
Because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, "Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.
In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure." Then I said, "Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God." After saying above sacrifices and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law.
Then he said, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order [00:02:00] to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days," says Yahweh, "I will put my laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them."
And then he says, "And their sins?" Their lawless deeds I will [00:03:00] remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any sacri- any offering for sin. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, but more importantly, the obedience to His Word. Please be seated.
Kids, there's a question on your handout, but the question is designed for everyone sitting here. Can a Christian, can a believer in Christ Jesus, can one who professes faith, can a Christian be perfect in this life? Can we reach perfection in this life? Or another way of asking it, can a Christian be sinless this side of glory?
You see, we read 1 John, and in all the readings, they're always on purpose. They, they, they relate to the sermon in some sense. But we read 1 John this morning. [00:04:00] And while I don't have time to walk you through the book, it ought to be obvious to anyone who reads it that this is a book written to Christians.
It is a book that went out to a Christian church, and he's addressing them as Christians. I'm just gonna read you one verse. In chapter two, verse 20, John writes of his readers, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know." And contextually, when we read that and put it together, you possess the Holy Spirit, or better yet, He possesses you.
He dwells within you.
"I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth." Can a Christian be sinless this side of glory? And the answer is no, we cannot. We will struggle with sin until glory. We will have to confess sin, as Scripture points out, until glory.
And yet, there are those who have [00:05:00] embraced what is known as Christian perfectionism. In fact, no less a figure than John Wesley, back in 1775, wrote a book, and the title of the book is A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. And it's a difficult book to read because it's very nuanced. He'll say something in one sentence, he seemingly takes it away in the next.
He also seems to think that you can lose this status of perfection, but it's the idea that we can stop sinning in this life. And I think it's important to understand this because the author of Hebrews is gonna address this. There's a, there's a question that I could have asked, and the question is this: Are we freed from sin?
And there are two ways to answer that question. If you interpret it as can we stop sinning in this life, the answer is no. But if you interpret it the way the writer of Hebrews lays it out, the answer is most definitely yes In this life, because of the complete and finished and perfect work [00:06:00] of Jesus Christ, we are free from the penalty of sin.
We are free from the guilt of sin. We are free from slavery to sin. And to use the author of Hebrews' words, we are free from the consciousness of sin. And this is what the author will begin to address in Hebrews chapter 1. So if you look at that chapter, and again, look at verse 1. Number 1 on your bulletin outline.
If you have a bulletin, there are a couple things in there. One is a fill-in-the-blank bulletin outline. The other one is some extra notes that we'll get to. There's a table on it about sanctification. We'll get to that momentarily. But number 1 on that outline, what the law or the old covenant cannot do.
What is it that the law or the old covenant cannot do? And he begins in verse 1, For the law, since it is only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never make perfect those who draw near. Now, you'll notice I skipped a phrase, and we'll go [00:07:00] back to that phrase, but that's the thought.
The law can never make perfect. So there's a couple of things. The law is a shadow. The law is not that which casts the shadow. It is Jesus who casts the shadow. The law is a pointer. It's a figure. It's a type. And it was always designed to point to Jesus Christ. So the law is a shadow.
And because it's a shadow, it can never make perfect those who draw near. The author goes on, For the law, since it is only a shadow of the good things coming and not the very form, can never. That's an ability word. And literally what the text says, never is it able. The law is unable to make perfect those who draw near.
It made no one perfect. Never did the law make anyone perfect. It always pointed to a perfect sacrifice. And if Old Testament believers put their faith in that coming sacrifice, in the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, the child promised from Isaiah, then because of the [00:08:00] work of Christ Jesus, they could be made perfect.
More to say on that as we progress through the book of Hebrews.
But the Old Covenant, the law, never, to use the author's own words, never removed the consciousness of sin. It never cleansed the conscience. It never made perfect the conscience. For the law, since it was only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form, can never, by the same sacrifices which were offered continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
And yet Jesus has made perfect. Jesus has cleansed the conscience. And I think it's important that we begin to understand what that means. And when the New Testament says that our conscience is cleansed, it means that we should view sin differently. It doesn't mean we shouldn't grieve over sin. It doesn't mean that sin shouldn't break our hearts.
It doesn't mean that we shouldn't confess our sins. But I'll, I'll be [00:09:00] honest with you, I am blown away when it comes to our liturgy, when it comes to how our, our, uh, church service runs, I have gotten more pushback on the confession of sin than any other part of our liturgy. As if, as Christians, we ought not confess.
As if, as Christians, we ought not go to our knees out of humility and humbleness and an acknowledgement that God is God and I am not, and apart from the work of Jesus Christ, I would be consumed. So it's a change of mindset. We should continue to grieve our sin, but we should grieve in hope. We should understand, and this is important, and I'll give you more illustrations as we move on, but we should understand that Christ has dealt with our sin in a way the old covenant did not, could not, and pointed to.
Verse two: If these old sacrifices could actually cleanse us from sin, would they not have been ce-- would they not have ceased? [00:10:00] Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin. You see, there's some sense in which Jesus has removed sin from our consciences.
Jesus ought to have, if you believe in Him, if you trust Him... And this is where the rubber meets the, the road. This is a, a question you can ask yourself: Am I really in Christ? Do I really believe what He says? Then know that the guilt of your sin has been removed. Now, does that mean you're never gonna feel guilty?
No, you probably will, and you probably ought to. See, this is a fine line that I'm trying to present to you this morning. But you ought to feel guilty because you have sinned against the one that went to the cross for you. You ought to feel guilty because in your heart of hearts you know you don't need to feel guilty because Jesus went to the cross for you.
Jesus removed the guilt of sin. Jesus removed the fear [00:11:00] of sin. Jesus removed the penalty of sin. Jesus removed slavery to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. We can never become sinless in this life, but we do have the ability, and as we grow and mature in Christ, we ought to sin less because of the work of Christ Jesus.
But you see, the old covenant sacrifices in verse three, those sacrifices were a reminder of sin year by year. The old covenant, the cere-ceremonial law never paid for sin, never atoned for sin, never propitiated for sin, but pointed to the one that would. And if these, again, if these Old Testament believers came in faith, they, they understood it, and I think more understood it than we give them credit for.
Verse four, "For it is impossible," again, this is an ability term, okay? The old covenant law was [00:12:00] powerless. It was impotent. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Impossible. So kids, there's another question on your outline, and again, mom and dad, this is, this applies to us every bit as much as it does to the kids.
What the law or the old covenant cannot do. What is it that the law and the old covenant cannot do? Number one, the law of the old covenant cannot make perfect. It never could. It never did. The law of the old covenant cannot cleanse, according to the writer of Hebrews. The law of the old covenant cannot remove sin from the conscience.
And finally, the law of the old covenant cannot take away sin. But we have to be careful here, because I've heard some Christians, you know, they'll, they'll say, "Well, then why read the Old Testament? Why study the law? Why study the Old Testament? Why even bother with it?" Because it had a purpose, and its purpose was design.
You see, this isn't a flaw in the [00:13:00] law. This isn't as if God... And there is a theological system that thinks this. It's not as if God said, "Well, try this. I'm gonna try to save mankind, and we're gonna give it, we're gonna, I'm gonna give him the law, and if he obeys and he follows all my rules, then maybe I..." No.
The law was always designed to fail. The law was always designed as a type, as a shadow, as a tutor, as a pointer to something greater. And so it's important to study the law. It is important to study the Old Testament because it speaks of Christ, because we learn Christ as we read the Old Testament. We learn what He's going to do, what He has done.
Number two on your sermon outline, set apart by the offering of Christ. I, I could have, uh, included the pronoun we. We are set apart by the offering of Christ. And just so you know, this phrase set apart is what the word sanctified means. To be [00:14:00] sanctified, and we're gonna talk about that in a lot more detail here in a minute, but to be sanctified is to be set apart by Christ.
Verse five, "Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, 'Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins, you have taken no pleasure.'" Now, that is the New Testament translation of Psalm 40:6. So that's the hyperlink, and if you've been here for a while, you know what I mean by hyperlink.
That's the Psalm that we need to go back and we need to read the entirety of the Psalm to understand why the author would be using it. And the entirety of the Psalm has to do with trust. It is a Psalm of trust. The psalmist is going to trust in Christ or trust in God, trust in Yahweh, and he's trusting in Yahweh to fulfill his needs, to meet his needs.
And when you read Psalm 40, it is very obvious. All the Psalms are like this, but Psalm 40 [00:15:00] is very obvious. It applies to Christ. And one wonders if the words of Psalm 40 might not have been upon Christ's lif- lips in Gethsemane. The Bible doesn't say that, but read those words. But it's interesting. Couple of things we need to point out about it.
The principle found in this quotation, that God desires obedience above and beyond sacrifice, is found throughout the Old Testament, and I'm sure you're familiar with it. So in 1 Samuel 15:22... And it's important to remember the context. Samuel is talking to King Saul, and Samuel commanded Saul, "You are to destroy the Amalekites, and you're to destroy all of the animals."
Saul didn't do it. And when you go back into the context, and I want to be careful here because I don't have time to unpack it all, uh, we see arrogance in Saul. But Saul comes to Samuel and Samuel says, "What is the bleating of this sheep? Why are there sheep still living?" And Saul gives a fairly good answer on the [00:16:00] service, o- on the surface.
"Well, I kept some so we could sacrifice them to Yahweh." Now, in and of itself, that might sound noble. The problem is God told him, "Don't do it," and Saul disobeyed. Yes, even doing something that we think might be good can be a sin and can be disobedience. And it's no little sin. It may seem like a little sin, and we may treat sins as if they're little.
Saul lost the kingdom because he disobeyed God, because he kept some animals alive. And Samuel says to him in 1 Samuel 15:22, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as obeying the voice of Yahweh?" And it's really important to put these two things together. Obedience comes from hearing, obeying the voice of Yahweh.
We must hear God first, and then it leads to obedience. And we find this same principle throughout the minor prophets, and we find it in [00:17:00] Psalm 51. That's David's prayer of confession. David has murdered Uriah, committed adultery with Bathsheba, and this is David's prayer of confession. And when we get to verse 16, David says this: "For you do not delight in sacrifice.
Otherwise, I would give it." I would go to the temple and I would sacrifice 100 sheep, 1,000 oxen, but you don't delight in sacrifice. You're not pleased with burnt offering. And in verse 17 he says, "No, what pleases you is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart." Another thing I want to say about verse five is it lists a bunch of sacrifices.
It lists, it lists sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin. And just so you know, that pretty much covers all of the different types of Old Testament sacrifices that were found. So all of the sacrifices com- [00:18:00] combined, day after day, every single morning, there was a one-year-old male lamb sacrificed.
Now, who do you think that pointed to? A male lamb. Every evening, another one-year-old male lamb sacrificed. Every day, two lambs sacrificed for sin. All those offerings, all the extra offerings on the Sabbath, all the extra offerings on the various festival days, none of them accomplished what they actually pointed to.
And finally, there's a translational issue, and I just... I want to explain it. I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on it, and we'll move on. But, uh, let me, uh... Well, I already did. I read you from the original Hebrew, and you'll notice in the Or- well, actually, I don't think I did. So let me read you the passage from the original Hebrew.
Psalm 40:6-8, "Sacrifice and meal offering you have not desired. My ears you have opened." [00:19:00] Literally, my ears you have dug out. And the idea there is you've made it so that I can hear you. But I want you to listen to what, what results from that. "Sacrifice and meal offering you have not desired. My ears you have," dug out, "you have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, 'Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart.'" Now, David was the original author, and he would have been referring to the Pentateuch. And hopefully you'll remember in Deuteronomy, it was the job of the king, every king once they came to the throne, they were supposed to write out the law.
Now, whether or not it was all five books or if it was just the book of Deuteronomy, scholars don't agree, but they were supposed to write out a copy of God's law, and they were supposed to read it all the days of their life so they would know their responsibilities. And this is what's interesting because in the old covenant, David says, "It is written of me," and you can actually [00:20:00] translate it, it's written for me.
It's written for my direction. And yet the author of Hebrews is going to tweak it, and the first way he tweaks it is he says, "You have created a body for me." And I just, again, want to point out that the ears are always connected with obedience. But you can't obey with your ear alone. You need a body to obey.
And so the author of Hebrews is just basically telling you the point of the passage. Because why did Jesus come? Jesus came to obey the Father. But what specific reason did Jesus come to this earth? To offer His body as a sacrifice for sin. So when we upgrade this Psalm, so to speak, when we apply it to Jesus, God doesn't need to dig out His ears, but Jesus does need to become incarnate.
And that flows throughout the book of Hebrews. This isn't the first place that the author of Hebrews speaks of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. [00:21:00] But I also think that the writer of Hebrews probably had Isaiah 50 in mind. So I want to read you Isaiah 50:4-6. In Isaiah 50:4-6, we read this, "Adonai Yahweh has given me my tongue, has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know, that I may know how to sustain the weary with one word.
He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. Adonai Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn my back. I gave my back to those who strike me, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting." So these words especially apply to Jesus, but He needed more than an ear.
He needed a body. And it's interesting because [00:22:00] the New Testament picks up on this wording. Jesus multiple times in the Gospel, "If you have an ear to hear, listen." And the listening was to turn into obedience. In the book of Revelation, we've been covering that in Bible study. At the end of every letter to every church, every single one without fail, you read something like this.
This is from Revelation 2:7. This is the church in Ephesus, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." And the idea there is not just hearing it. The idea there is obeying because it continues. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God."
And most of our Bibles will translate that, "To him who overcomes," but you could translate it, and I personally think this is a better translation, "He who conquers." You see, Jesus expected [00:23:00] obedience from His church, from His people, and if the church is obedient, she conquers. She wins the nations. People come to Christ.
People start obeying. She makes an impact. I know that we have different eschatologies running throughout this congregation, but I don't care what your eschatology is If the church really believed that we were to go out there and conquer, would not the world look different? I find it impossible to believe that it wouldn't.
But it begins with hearing. It begins with an ear. It begins with obedience. Verse seven, "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written for me.'" And you'll... Again, this is the second translational issue. In the, uh, Old Testament, the idea was it was written for me, okay? But here it was written of me.
"Then I said, 'Behold, I have come. In the [00:24:00] scroll of the book it is written of me, uh, to do your will, O God.'" And we see that again running throughout the New Testament. Jesus came to do the will of the Father, and He does it. That's the point that I've been trying to get across. That's the point that the book of Hebrews continues to get across.
Jesus actually accomplished the will of His Father. He didn't just attempt it. He did it. He accomplished it perfectly, completely, 100%.
You'll recall Jesus' words in John 5:46, "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me." You see, the Old Testament is all about Jesus. And in Luke 24, the resurrected Jesus walking the road to Emmaus with these disciples who didn't recognize Him, and at one point they start talking about this dying and resurrecting, and Jesus is like, "You men of little faith, don't you get this?"
And then these are the words of Jesus, or this is what Jesus did, "Then beginning with [00:25:00] Moses and all the prophets." So again, it's expanded from just the Pentateuch to the entire Old Testament. "Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus explained to them the things concerning Him in all the Scriptures.
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures." Verse eight, "After saying above, 'Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them,' which are offered according to the law," offered according to the old covenant. Then He said...
And this is important. "Then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your will.'" And the reason it's important, and I've brought this up multiple times, is the unbeliever loves to say this, but I've even met Christians that view the Father as this angry God, as if the Father's angry, so mad that Jesus has to go die on the cross.
Jesus is every bit as angry as the Father. [00:26:00] Jesus is every bit as offended by our sin as the Father. And the triune God made an agreement in eternity past. Reformed churches refer to it as the covenant of redemption. And Jesus agreed to become incarnate, and Jesus agreed to go to the cross, and Jesus agreed to lay His life down and pick His life back up.
And the Spirit agreed to be sent out from the Father and the Son to indwell us and to bring about sanctification and growth in our life.
"I have come to do your will." And so he takes away the first in order to establish the second. He takes away the first covenant in order to establish the second. And remember the whole point of this book. Man, it's probably helpful to remind you, he is writing to a group of Hebrew Christians that want to leave the faith.
They want to go back to the old system. They're experiencing persecution. Their land is being taken from them. Their [00:27:00] reputation has been taken from them. Uh, many, uh, commentators... I happen to hold this view. I think this is a group of former priests. He gets into such detail here, I think he's writing to not just former Jewish Christians, but former priests, priests who would have offered some of these sacrifices, and now they're thinking ab- about going back.
How often do we think about walking away from Christ when it gets hard? And we don't, we don't put it quite like that. It's not like, "I'm gonna leave the faith, but you know what? Maybe I'll tone it down. Maybe I won't share that with my neighbors. Maybe I won't say anything to my family. I'll just tone it down and let well enough be alone.
I won't speak up." Well, it got so bad for these Hebrews that they were thinking about actually leaving the faith, and yet Jesus in the Spirit says, "By this will," by the Father's will, "we have been sanctified," literally set apart, "through the offering of the body of [00:28:00] Jesus Christ once for all." And the emphasis there is time.
Jesus offered one sacrifice for all of time, never to be repeated. And in offering that sacrifice, He has set us apart. He has made us holy. He has made us perfect. To use the author of Hebrews' words, He has perfected us. And that should lead you to go, "Hmm, because didn't we just do a series not too long ago on justification by faith?
And didn't you make this distinction between justification and sanctification? And this doesn't sound like Paul here." Well, it actually does. But let's do a little review. Let's just take a step to the side, and let's talk about sanctification, and let's talk about what we've talked about in the past. And we have made the distinction, and Reformed churches will make the distinction because it's important.
In fact, it's one of the many things that set us apart from Roman Catholicism, because [00:29:00] Rome is unwilling to make this distinction, and in not making it, they water down the gospel. In not making it, they water down the finished work of Jesus Christ. Justification is an act of God and God alone. In justification, God declares us righteous.
It is a legal transaction based on the sacrifice of Christ. And typically, the way Paul uses the idea of sanctification, sanctification is being made righteous, and it is a lifelong process that doesn't come to fulfillment until glory. It is a cooperative process. We actually have a responsibility in our sanctification.
We work with the Holy Spirit. We strive to obey. We spend time in the Word of God. We spend time on our knees asking the Spirit of God to change us, to transform us. And that's why in Scripture, sanctification, its core meaning is we're set apart. We start to look different. We start to look unique. In fact, the Westminster [00:30:00] Shorter Catechism answers the question this way.
In question 35, and it's a simple question, "What is sanctification?" And the Westminster leans towards what we hear mostly throughout Scripture with Paul, this distinction between sanctification and justification, and here's their answer: "Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and we are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness."
Now, that's typically how Paul uses it, but he uses it in different ways. But the writer of Hebrews tends to use it a little bit different. So if you open up your bulletin, there's an extra page of notes there, and there's a chart, and the chart is titled "Sanctification." And it's important that we understand how the author of Hebrews uses this word.
And actually, there's four different ways that the various writers of Scripture use the word or the concept sanctification. So if [00:31:00] you look on your chart, the first way, and this is the way the author of Hebrews, I think he uses it most of the time, and that is what's called initial or definitive sanctification, and that's what we find in verse 10.
"By this will," by the Father's will, "we have been sanctified," completed action. If you're in Christ, you have been sanctified, completed action. You have been set apart. You have ma- been made holy. You have been made different. But the author also uses it in terms of, this is the middle part of the chart, ongoing or cooperative sanctification.
In Hebrews 10:14, and we'll get to that in just a few minutes, but let me just read it to you. In Hebrews 10:14, the author writes, "For by one offering, God has perfected for all time those who are," literally, "being sanctified," in the process of being made holy. So you have this initial work of [00:32:00] God where He sets you apart.
Positionally, you are holy And then you have this ongoing work of God that is one we cooperate in, and then finally there's final or complete sanctification, and I believe the author of Hebrews uses that in chapter 12. So in chapter 12 verse 23, listen to his words. He's writing, he's talking about, he's comparing the, the faith of the Old Testament saints in chapter 11, and then he comes in and he talks about what we've experienced, and he says that we've come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
And I believe that what he's referring to there is completed sanctification. So we have an initial work that kind of looks at our life as a whole positionally. We have an ongoing work where God cleans us up. And at some point when we enter into glory, we will have finally reached that perfection that we can't reach on Earth.
And then there's one more [00:33:00] way, and it's underneath your chart. There's one more way that the author of Hebrews uses the word sanctification. And Paul uses it this way, too, and it is the covenantal sense of the word. He uses it this way in Hebrews 10:29, and we'll get to that hopefully next week. It's in one of those warning passages, and it's in one of those passages that a lot of people misunderstand.
It's one of those passages that a lot of people will refer to and say, "See? You can lose your salvation." No. He's using it covenantally, and yes, you can be excommunicated from the covenant. But he also... Paul uses it this way in 1 Corinthians 7, so let me read it to you. And this is a familiar verse, and for those of you that have been coming for a while, we-- I've preached through this verse, so if you're interested in an entire sermon, you can go back and read it.
But in 1 Cor-- or listen to it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7 beginning in verse 14: "For the unbelieving husband," we're talking about an unbeliever, someone who hasn't put their faith in Jesus Christ. [00:34:00] "The unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife," and contextually through his believing wife. There's something about being married or joined to a believer that sets you apart.
"And the unbelieving wife is sanctified," set apart, made holy in a sense, "through her believing husband." This is all covenant language. "For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy." They're sanctified. This is covenantal sanctification. Number three on your outline, perfected by Christ. We are perfected by Christ.
And what the author does here is he does some review, but he also makes some, some interesting word plays. So in chapter 10 verse 11, he writes, "Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same [00:35:00] sacrifices, which can never," an ability term Does not have the ability to take away sin.
Now, it's easy to, to miss the wordplay here because he says every priest stands daily. And I think there's two ideas just in this word stands, and the first idea is they're working, they're serving. And that's important because when he comes back to Jesus in the next few verses, Jesus is no longer standing.
Jesus is no longer working in terms of offering sacrifice. Jesus has offered His sacrifice for one time, and it worked. It accomplished the Father's will. And so now Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, judging, ruling, reigning, bringing the nations under His feet. Every priest stands daily.
They're working. In addition to that, I think it references back to the Old Testament. The priests were set apart in a special sense. So for instance, in Deuteronomy chapter 10, the eighth verse, [00:36:00] at that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi. Levi had a special purpose, to carry the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh, to stand before the Lord, to serve Him, and to bless His name until this day.
So standing had to do with their special privilege, their special honor, but it also meant they're still working. And as I told you before, I believe this book was written in the middle to late 60s of the first century. So the temple was still standing. I think there's plenty of evidence in the book that sacrifices were still going on, and the writer is, is kind of keying off of this.
But it's different with Jesus. Look at verse 12. "But he," speaking of Jesus, "having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God." Now this is important because don't go back to the old covenant. These continuous sacrifices do nothing. But we have that in our modern day. [00:37:00] It's called Roman Catholicism, and depending on who you read or what word you want to take, every Sunday service, every mass they call it, they either re-sacrifice Christ in the thinking of some, or it's a representation of the sacrifice of Christ.
But either way, it undermines the completed work of Jesus Christ, and that's what these Hebrews were wanting to do, go back to this old system. We have it today, and we need to speak out against it in kindness, in love, saturated with prayer. But it hasn't gone away, and it makes this book all the more relevant because sadly, in Reformed churches, sadly, there...
Es- and it, this seems to apply to young men. I don't know why, but there is a large group of young men that are leaving otherwise Reformed churches to go back to the Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church. [00:38:00] And both churches undermine the work of Christ. Both churches reject justification by faith alone.
Both churches have a Jesus plus system, and a Jesus plus system will send you straight to hell.
"But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting," verse 13, "waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet." Jesus' work of sacrifice is completed. Look at verse 14, "For by one offering," by the offering of himself, "he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."
And the way I understand this verse, and you, you can disagree here on some of the specifics, but the way I understand this verse is when he says, "By one offering he has [00:39:00] perfected for all time," I see that as relating more to justification. He has made us positionally perfect before God. But then he refers, who's he done it for?
Those who are being sanctified. And as I said earlier, this is a continuous process. This is an ongoing sanctification. And then he brings in the Holy Spirit in verse 15, "And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,' says Yahweh."
Now before I finish reading it, I just, I need to point out 'cause it's important, he is speaking of the deity of the Holy Spirit. If you're looking for those passages to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is divine, this is one of them. Because he says the Spirit testifies to us, but when he quotes it, it's Yahweh testifying to us.
The Spirit equals Yahweh. The Spirit is Yahweh. They're one in the same God. Two separate persons, one in the same God. So he speaks of the divinity of the Spirit here. The writer of Hebrews doesn't have a lot to say about the Spirit, but when he [00:40:00] does, it's significant. The Spirit says, "'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,' says Yahweh.
'I will put my laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them.'" And then he says, "'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'" Do you believe that? Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. And in this phrase, we actually have the definition of sin, because in 1 John, uh, 1 John Chapter 4, John defines sin as lawlessness.
And what does the Spirit of God say here? All of their sins, all of their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Do you believe that about your sin? Or does your sin cripple you? You see, when scripture says that God is Savior, do you believe that? [00:41:00] Because so many in the evangelical church think that God is potential Savior, not actual Savior.
God is Savior. God has accomplished everything for our salvation, Ephesians chapter 1, and He's given us everything we need, including repentance and faith. Why is this important? And I, I, I almost hesitate to say this because I don't like bringing attention to me. I don't like using me as an illustration.
But I'll simply share this with you, so I, I beg of you, take it for what it's worth. Why must we believe that our sins and lawless deeds have been removed? Why must we believe that we're, our consciences ought to be clear? And I'll come back to that in a minute. Every week, I go through this same battle, and that is, "God, I am not worthy to stand up here.
I am such a sinner." I'll never forget, way back when, when I, when I thought God was [00:42:00] calling me, I had a talk with Caleb, my son-in-law, and one of the things I said to Caleb, I said, "I sin so much. How could God be calling me to this ministry?" And I only share that because I've talked to enough of you, and I've talked to enough people throughout my life, that many of you are struggling with those same things.
And we have got to change our thinking, and we have got to believe the gospel, that God has moved our sin. He has separated us from our sin. He has taken it out of the way. It's been forgiven, and He remembers it no more. And that should not lead to arrogance. It should lead to humility and a life that wants to serve, a life that hates sin, a life that is quick to confess sin.
But we have to reorient our thinking. Verse 18, "Now where there is forgiveness of these things," of these sins and lawless deeds, "there is no longer any offering for sin." [00:43:00] You don't need to offer it, and that's why Jesus' sacrifice was once and for all. And I kind of want to bring this together as we begin to come to a close.
I don't know if you'll remember it or if you've been coming long enough, but back in June of last year, I started a series on the five solas. Soli Deo Gloria, the glory of God alone. And we looked at God's glory in creation. We looked at God's glory in His overwhelming, perfect sovereignty. We looked at His glory in the Son, and ultimately, we looked at God's glory in salvation, which is how the Reformers used that phrase.
Soli Deo Gloria, to glory, glory to God alone. And then we looked at Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone. And we saw that in Sola Scriptura, basically what we're talking about w- when Protestants speak of Sola Scriptura is the Bible is the only sen- the only source of God-breathed authority in the world today.
No one else speaks with the authority of God. Only Scripture speaks with the authority of God, [00:44:00] and therefore Scripture is our ultimate authority. That does not deny sub-authorities, because scr- Scripture speaks of the church as an authority. Scripture speaks of elders as an authority. But our ultimate authority, that by which we judge all other things, is Scripture alone.
We looked at sola gratia, grace alone. And you might wanna go back and listen to that sermon, because when we looked at grace alone, we actually asked and explored the question: Why does God save anyone? You see, we get hung up on why doesn't God save everyone, but the real question is: Why did God save anyone?
There was nothing that would have compelled Him to do it, save His entering into covenant with us. And then we looked at sola fide, by faith alone, and we actually spent five weeks on sola fide, and we spent five weeks on sola fide because we had to address this topic of justification by faith. We are justified by [00:45:00] faith alone, but faith never comes alone.
Faith comes with sanctification. Faith comes with good works. Faith comes with a transformed life. And then-- And this is not the typical order that these things are presented in, but we finished with sola Christus. And this was around September of last year, but all we did was look at the deity of Christ.
And then the very next week, I shared with everyone that we were gonna start looking at the Book of Hebrews, because in my opinion, the Book of Hebrews screams loudly sola Christus. The Book of Hebrews is all about Christ alone. The Book of Hebrews speaks of the authority of Christ, the superiority of Christ, the finished work of Jesus Christ.
The Book of Hebrews is everything we mean by sola Christus, and it's what all of us ought to embrace. And the author of Hebrews does not teach Christian perfectionism. He does teach that we're free from sin. He does teach that we are no longer under its power, that we are no longer under its [00:46:00] curse, because sin, and here's the important part, your sin has been fully ex- expunged from your life.
When God looks at you, He does not see sin. You are clothed in Christ Jesus. He sees holiness and righteousness. You see, I have learned in my life that sin can be crippling. Sin can cripple us. But the Book of Hebrews presents Jesus in all His glory, and I wanna finish today simply by reading a rather long quotation.
I want to read a long quotation from John Calvin, and this is found in his book, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. And Calvin himself said, "This is my magnum opus." But I want you to listen to these words and ask yourself, "Do I believe this?" Because I think Calvin does a really good job of summarizing Jesus here.
So listen to these words. We see that our [00:47:00] whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus, it is of Him. Jesus means Yahweh saves. If we seek any other gift of the Spirit, they will be found in His anointing.
If we seek strength, it lies in His dominion. If we seek purity, in His conception. Gentleness, it appears in His birth. For by His birth, He was made like us in all respects, that He might learn to feel our pain. If we seek redemption, it lies in His passion. If acquittal, in His condemnation. If remission of the curse, in His cross.
If satisfaction, in His sacrifice. If purification, in His blood. If reconciliation, in His descent into hell. If [00:48:00] mortification of the flesh, in His tomb. If newness of life, in His resurrection. If immortality, in the same. If inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, in His entrance into heaven. If protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessing, in His kingdom.
If untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given Him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in Him, let us drink our fill from this fountain and from no other. Solus Christus.
Some men, not content with Him alone, are borne hither and thither from one hope to another, yet such distrust cannot creep in where men have once for all truly known the abundance of His blessing. Solus [00:49:00] Christus. This is the message of the book of Hebrews. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank You for this book.
Forgive us, we neglect it. Father, I believe with all of my heart Your church today neglects this book. Our, our theology would be transformed. The way we preach the gospel would be transformed. The assurance of faith that we all should have would be transformed if we would just believe this book, if we would look to You alone, if we believe the words of the reformer, solus Christus, in Christ alone.
Christ alone has accomplished everything. Help us believe that. Help us know that Help us be secure in that. Transform our lives. Use this book and the rest of Scripture to transform the way we think. Help us understand what it means that we stand before you with a clear conscience, not an arrogant conscience, but a conscience that [00:50:00] believes that you have dealt with our biggest problem, that you have removed sin from our life.
And let us live lives of gratitude and thanksgiving. For we ask all of this in Christ's name, and all of God's people said, amen. Please take your hymnals, and we'll stand one more time. If you turn to hymn number 388, 3-8-8, He Will Hold Me Fast. He Will Hold Me Fast.
