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From henceforth expecting, till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost 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.
I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities. I will remember no more Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, And having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled.
From an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment suppose she shall he be thought?
Worthy who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith He was sanctified and unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace, for we know him that has sinned. Vengeance belongeth unto me.
I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, He endured with great fight. He endured a great fight of afflictions, partly while she were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and.
And partly while ye became companions of them that were so used, for ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which have great recompense of reward.
For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God.
You might receive the promise for yet a little while. And he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
His father.
Of the book that's referred to here. Isn't that the eternal word of God, The eternal counselors of God?
First, Peter, that the Lamb was foreordained before the foundation of the world. God had those eternal purposes. The written word is the revelation of how these purposes are brought about. But these things were in the councils of God long before, and He had in mind this One who would come and accomplish that work.
So he can easily see the connection as to why the sacrifices offered under the law.
God didn't find pleasure because they were just a temporary means by which God showed that the only way of approaching to His presence since man was a Sinner is through the blood.
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Would you say, then, that although he had no pleasure in the sacrifice, he did have pleasure in that of which the sacrifice spoke, and his delight was a sweet Saber because it pointed forward to that of which the sacrifice truly spoke?
Doesn't this bring before us in a way, the ways of God?
God could have brought.
Christ down at the very beginning, after Adam had sinned.
But God by means of all of these types and shadows in the Old Testament.
Simply bringing before us the real thing. Of course in the Old Testament times they didn't know this. The only way they knew anyone was coming or Messiah was through the prophetic scriptures. But the God just held back. It shows that God is wise in the way he works and he doesn't work fast.
He has, well, he has a reason for all of this.
And it just impresses me how much we need to be dependent upon God and submissive to God and submissive to all that God is doing. Sometimes we like to do things in a thing in a hurry, but God in a way we might say, is not in a hurry.
And he was teaching lessons through all of this that we have recorded in the Old Testament.
But in due time, we read, Christ died for the ungodly. There was a due time for God. God had it all planned. And what we need to be exercised, I believe, is to be in tune with God in communion or fellowship with God to such an extent that will follow right along with Him.
Now we read about that God made known his ways to Moses, but His acts unto the children of Israel. Now that brings before us surely that the children of Israel as a whole did not understand the ways of God.
There was only one that could understand the ways of God and at least enter into them in a measure, and that was Moses. But the others, the only thing they could understand was the things that God did, the miracles, the acts of God.
I believe that should exercise us that we should be in tune with God to such an extent that we can enter into his ways in a measure at least. We can't enter into it perfectly because we're we're poor and weak and, and we're not always spiritually what we ought to be and we don't have discernment and all of that. But it's something I believe to exercise our hearts because.
There are the ways of God.
And God all through, since save as sin came into the world, was working out His plans and His purposes. And we can thank God for the conclusion of it all. It lands us in the glory. God will watch us there with Himself. God wanted the people. We saw that in the Old Testament. He wanted to dwell amongst His people. He wanted the people around.
God is that kind of a God. He loves companionship, He wants our company, and he he is happy this morning because we're here gathered around his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's just a foretaste of the glory, and he's looking forward to having all of his children there.
Or if we could enter more into the ways of God, how wonderful it would be for us. And I think this should be our exercises, shouldn't it?
Yes, this is true of the.
Part the purposes of God and if I might say the timetable of God, then I feel it would be very wrong for us to worry and fret about conditions in 1980 because God is still working out his purposes and his timetable is perfect and we look back on 1980 from eternity someday and see the purpose of all those things that are taking place now that have the.
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Believers so worried, and they discuss it with great fear, but the believer is aware of these things and I trust feels the sorrows and trials through which many are passing. But someday we are certainly going to look back and see the perfection of his ways and the ordering of his timetable. And I believe it must be pleasing to him and a good testimony too, to the.
Unbeliever to see the child of God confident that God is over all, that the Lord is still there in control, and that we can go on our way in perfect peace.
In Romans 15, we read that the things that were written at four time are written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. That's certainly a very, very important aspect of the Old Testament and how much our hearts are cheered in seeing the wondrous ways of God and patience and grace with those Old Testament Saints. But on the other hand, there is the other side of the picture, and that's in First Corinthians 10.
It says these things happened unto them, for examples, to the intent that we should not lust after the same thing. So there we have in the Old Testament serious warnings as to those things that will bring the governmental hand of God upon us. But oh, you know, beloved brethren, I've thought in connection with the days of Ezra there when they were reading the word of God before the Watergate and the people wanted it. They wanted to hear what the word of God.
Said, but as they heard the word of God, they realized how far short they came and they were distressed and they wept and they felt bad about it. So when we're in a right state, then God can bring in comfort and he can encourage because he said there to them through the prophet, the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. But we need to be exercised and to recognize how low estate we're in.
There are two things that run through the Word of God and that is man's responsibility and God's sovereignty and foreknowledge and He always puts the creature to the test. Even the angels were tested and many of them fell as we know. And it's only that God has elected certain angels that are spoken of in Timothy as the elect angels, that there will be even blessing to the angels.
And so through the Old Testament, and even now, as our brother has remarked, God passes us through certain tests. He tests everything only to show that nothing that is of the creature can stand. Only that which is of God will abide.
And so in our own lives, only that which is of God is going to abide. It says he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So as we read all these Old Testament scriptures, these things happened, as it was remarked, for our learning. They were examples to us. Examples of what? That if we trust in the flesh, we're going to fall.
That if we depend upon ourselves, there's going to be failure. But the only way of blessing for us is to see.
In the purposes of God, his blessing and to walk in constant dependence and we have the perfect example of it in the life of the Lord Jesus as it tells us here he came to do God's will and so we see him here was.
This world under Satan's power, the Lord Jesus comes right into it. It's spoken of as Satan's palace. When a strongman armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. And what Satan has done is arranged the whole world system to try and keep people from thinking about God or from dependence upon God, to try and work out everything for themselves and for their own happiness and independence of God.
Here comes into this world God's beloved Son, the 2nd man and last Adam, who never did one thing to please himself, whose every action was to please His Father, and saw as he walked through this world He has marked out the path for us.
He has not only accomplished that mighty work of redemption that we have been speaking about.
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Which is the groundwork of all our blessing. But He is the pattern for us. And if you and I would want to please Him, if we would walk in that peace that we have been speaking about in connection with His ways, it must be in the path of His will.
It says, By the word of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer. And so we may desire to recognize His will, but unless there is submission in our own hearts to Him and to His will, an attitude of constant dependence and obedience to His will, there will not be the enjoyment of that peace. The Lord Jesus walked in it perfectly, because He was a perfect dependent man.
Would that be?
Some thought in connection with that in Romans 12.
The will of God.
Romans 12.
Verse One. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or intelligent service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good.
Acceptable and perfect will of God, where we have the salvation of our souls.
We, if we belong to the Lord, we know we're saved and we have this joy in our souls. But what about this body that we have? I believe here we have the presenting of this body which belongs to Him too. And in doing so we prove that good and acceptable and perfect will of God in this body is where we can honor Him now.
And thus we know.
The will of God. I'm thinking of the verse just prior to this, the opening of the 36th verse of the previous chapter. We find that says of him through him to him are all things that is, he's the source of it all. He's the channel of it all and he should should be the object of it all.
Well, I believe, my brethren, that we have something here that would exercise us as to knowing the will of God, proving the will of God.
But in contrast, that is the Lord Jesus in our chapter set a body. Hast thou prepared me? And in that body he did the will of God in everything. Now what is the principle on which this world operates? The whole principle on which the world operates is to make yourself the center. And everything you do is to revolve around yourself, whether it's for your good, even when.
Show kindness to others. It's the good feeling that they get. They cannot rise higher than themselves until they have a new life. And so if you and I are operating our lives on that principle, and then a whole system of things in our life is on the principle of this world. This can be in connection with our whole life. It can be in connection with our business life. It can even be in connection with.
Assembly life that we want to be the center of everything and everything revolve around ourselves and it's just as much conformity to the world. To want to be a great man in the Church of God is to be a great man in the world. It's a wrong principle. The Lord Jesus empty himself. He came down into this world he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him he.
Took the lowest place walking through this world.
In order that he might be a pattern for us and I believe it's a very important thing that when we are saved, why we don't operate any longer on that principle. If we do, it's the world. We may look at someone else and say that person is worldly, but at the same time we may not realize how much our own lives are operating on this principle for of which self is the center. Oh, may the Lord give us to see as we have in our.
This Blessed One who came down into this world and did His Father's will and what it cost him is set before us here. Because if He was going to glorify His Father about the question of sin and open up the way for the fulfillment of all these councils that we have been talking about, the cost was that He must settle the question of sin, and that He did at Calvary and through it.
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Us into the fullest blessing that is in the heart of God for those who are redeemed.
The first man brought in the will of man.
When he exercised his own will, and as you say, that's the very principle that operates in the world. But the second man brings in the will of God.
And I was thinking of an expression. It's really.
Humbling to think of that expression in Luke's Gospel when Pilate said he then released he Barabbas and delivered Jesus to their will.
And we know what that was. The will of man is, you might say, seen there. The will of man was to turn out of this world the only man who was here entirely for the will of God. It's remarkable. And I have wondered or thought.
That when you consider the life of the Lord Jesus.
And all that he did, as we read that, he went about doing good, healing those that were oppressed of the devil.
You would say, why would they want to turn him out? Why would they want to turn a man out who could raise the dead and open the eyes of the blind and heal the sick and all of those wonderful works? I believe it's because he brought in the will of God. Lo, I come to do thy will. Even in the raising of the dead and the healing of those that were sick was doing the will of God.
It wasn't merely to relieve the needs of the individuals, but it was as doing the will of God. It was his meat and drink to do His will and to finish the work. And such a man was is what the world will not have. If a man were to do all of those things as doing his own will, he would be accepted. It's because he brought in the will of God.
And as you say, the the.
Man may do many good things, but as doing his own will, it makes him acceptable to the world.
But here's one who brought in the will of God and all that he did. He connected God with it, everything that he did, even those wonderful deeds.
And that the Lord Jesus.
As you say, he did exactly the will of God. Well, we read in John six that they would have made a king out of him at that time, but the Lord would not yield to their will. He withdrew because of the Father's will. But we see in the end of Daniel 11, I believe it is. It says the king shall do according to his own will.
Something like that. I believe that that gives us a picture of the Antichrist. They will have a man that will do just exactly according to his own will. And oh what, what trouble and distress and and sorrow it'll bring upon the nation, because they will have a king that will do exactly according to his own will and bring tragedy to the nation.
Well, it seems that this is something that.
Speaks to our own hearts.
That we should have that desire to do the will of God.
It means giving over completely. The word yield is used in scripture to yield ourselves to God. There was a time that we yielded to, to unrighteousness, to sin, but now that we know the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, this is the time when we yield to God.
It's amazing how much of the world.
Is doing its own will.
And they have yielded to Satan.
I think of an example, a case in the Congo when we were there.
There were these two men.
Who were chiefs? The one was chief of 1 village, the other was chief of the other village, and they came to hear the gospel.
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We sought to give them the gospel simply and plainly.
There came a time when these two men were faced with making a decision.
Now these two men were under the power of Satan.
The reason I know that they were under the power of Satan was that both of them.
In order to be in the position that they were in, they had to do a terrible thing.
In other words, they had to do something that acknowledged Satan, where they gave themselves over completely to Satan. They yielded to him. They yielded their bodies to him.
And these two men had killed a man. They had to do this to show their complete yieldedness and surrender to the power of evil.
And they had to take the tendon from the back of the leg.
Of the man they killed and make a bracelet out of it and wear it on their ankle.
And that was symbolic, then, of yielding to the power of Satan, and Satan had the power over them.
Now, when these two men were listening to the gospel.
I could see them squirm, I could see conviction coming on them.
And the one professed to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
I said, pointing to the anklet. I said. What about that?
That man got out his knife.
And going all contrary all together to custom, he cut that anklet.
To make proof that he had put simple true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The other man saw what the the other chief, the other chief saw what the other chief had done.
And he got his knife out.
And he proceeded to put the knife inside of the anklet, going to cut it, but he couldn't be fainted away.
His profession was not real.
The one had yielded to God, to God's will, and accepted Christ as Savior. The other one had not. He was not real.
Oh, what a solemn thing it is to see.
Thousands, yay, millions in the power of Satan.
And when the gospel is preached like it was last night.
Only way anyone can get deliverance is by complete submission to God, believing the Word of God and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. There's not going to be deliverance any other way. It's not come. It's not going to come by Reformation or trying to do better and so on. It's Christ. We must have Christ, the one who has done the will of God.
And in submitting to God, in receiving Him as our Savior.
Break the power of Satan and this is what we need. You dear young people, you have not confessed Christ yet as your Savior. Be real about it.
And really, in sincerity and simple faith, believe God's word and receive Christ as Savior. There's no other way of deliverance. There's no other way of salvation. We can't fool Satan and we can't fool God, and we might as well decide to yield ourselves. I like that word. Yield, yield, surrender, surrender to God.
This is what we need to surrender to God. We have had it made plain to us.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, how He submitted to the will of God as a man. He did the will of God perfectly did His will. Do we want that man or do we want Satan? Do we want to continue on doing our own will?
Well, this is a test for us, but we have the Lord Jesus Christ. If we take him, we have the victory, thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no victory in ourselves. Without Him we can do nothing. He told his disciples that without me He can do nothing. We need Him. Or you might try to make a profession of being a Christian, but you need Christ. That's the only way you.
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Real.
This night verse then said, He will I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away the 1St that he may establish the 2nd. I believe he's talking here about the two covenants, and that is the first one was a test to man.
Could he live up to God's requirements? Man asked for the law, and when he said all that the Lord has spoken, we will do and be obedient. He entered into an agreement to do the will of God in his own strength. It wasn't a question of a man being born again.
Once we have received a new life, we have a new power. Now we can please God, but not before. And so the law was addressed to man, the flesh. It gave him an opportunity, if it were possible for him in his natural state to live up to God's requirements. He broke down entirely. There was only one person who could magnify the law and make it honorable.
There was only one person in this world who could perfectly live to the glory of God.
And that was the Lord Jesus. And now it tells us here He taketh away the 1St. That which was dependent upon man has now been set aside because there was no good in man. He couldn't fulfill God's requirements. Now he establishes the 2nd. And what is the second?
Well, it isn't anything coming out of us at all. God himself imparts a new life.
Gives the power, and so as it goes on later in the chapter to say, I'll put my laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write them. Because we possess a new life, the very life of Christ. It is now our delight and our desire to do the will of God.
And for a person to place himself under law is to suppose something good in the flesh which there is not. And he establishes the 2nd. And that is, when Israel are finally brought into blessing, it will not be because of anything that they had in themselves, anything in the flesh, but rather that which God has wrought in their hearts. And of course, as we see.
It's founded upon the work of Christ, and I believe that's why in this chapter the two things are brought in.
Blood and the water. The blood is putting away sin before God, and the water bringing before us, being a new creature in Christ Jesus, and without that there can be no fruit for God whatever.
And the first covenant, it was connected with the will of man. They said. All that God commands us, commands us, we will do.
But in the second, it's what God does, isn't it? It's God's word in the removing of our sins and then his work in us, putting into our hearts and minds as we read there His law. It's the work of God in us as well as the work of God for us. But it's the it's God as it were, exercising his own will.
But the first covenant was involved the will of man. What man might do, what he would do.
But in the second it's what God will do as we read also in James have his own will begat he us with the word of truth. It's God, it's God expressing his own will in the second covenant is and of course the work of the cross is the moral basis of it. God could not come out and.
Accomplish His will and to carry out what he had purposed.
Were it not far the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, as we the Lord says in the Gospel of Luke, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished? That is, it was He was more or less pent up. He could not, God could not come out, and all that was in the heart of God and in the heart of the Lord Jesus could not come out until he endured those sufferings of the cross.
Accomplishing that work, but now having done that, the second the new covenant is established on the basis of that shed blood, the cross of Calvary.
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With yielding ourselves unto God, I believe that when the gospel is made known, the question is first to a man submitting to the gospel in faith. And the gospel reveals two things, his own condition as being lost and helpless, as our brother brought before us last night in the gospel. Man doesn't like to admit that, but God isn't requiring anything in the way of works or even wanting his.
Services until he has first come as a guilty, lost, helpless Sinner and acknowledged this. And when it speaks about obeying the gospel and submission to the gospel in faith, that is, it's made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
It is accepting God's testimony about two things about ourselves and about what Christ has done for us in that condition. But then, after we have done this and have received Christ, then a new life is imparted. And so it says in the 6th of Romans.
Here it says, Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.
Here it says yield yourselves under God as those that are alive from the dead. We're no longer now that we are saved dead sinners, we can yield ourselves because we possess a life that wants to please God. I mentioned this because there's a lot of preaching in the world asking sinners to do something and yield their wills to God and so on. But.
A man has to acknowledge his guilt, his lost condition, his helplessness.
And to see what God has done for him in that condition, when he recognizes this, when there is repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, then, but not till then, he possesses a new life. And now having that new life, he can yield himself to the will of God. So I believe it's important that actually the word repentance means.
Change of mind. That's simply what the word means. And as one is often remarked, the natural man has wrong thoughts about himself, and he has wrong thoughts about God. He thinks there's something good in himself.
And he is, as it was brought before us, an enemy of God. Now in the gospel he learns right thoughts about himself. What is he? Nothing but a lost, guilty, helpless, hell deserving Sinner. He recognizes what God has to say about him in that condition.
And then he sees that God is not against him. God is for him. God has provided a Savior for him. He has met him in all his helplessness, and the Lord Jesus has accomplished the work so that God has been glorified about the question of sin. So there's repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he can yield himself to God. He can present his body because he has learned the mercies of God.
He has a new life that now delights in doing God's will. Would you say that we today are not under covenant relationship, but we come under the blessings of this new covenant, we under the liberty of grace and we have this new life and this these new desires, but just.
The fact I believe that we're not under a covenant relationship is that so?
Yes, I believe that comes in later here and if you turn back to the the 8th chapter and the 10th verse, you can see it has to do with Israel and this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, say at 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. Now if you go to Ephesians where he is addressing Gentiles, you already quoted the verse Ephesians chapter 2, verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel.
And strangers from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world is our position as Gentiles outside of all those covenants.
Perhaps I could use an illustration so we might understand how we come into the blessing of the covenant without being the subjects of the covenant. Supposing I.
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Make I say to my boy, I'm going to give you a new bicycle. Well, he says that I'd like to feel that I've earned the bicycle. So I say, well, I'll lay down certain conditions then. But remember, if you don't live up to these conditions of obedience, there will be a punishment instead of the bicycle.
All he says I can keep the conditions. All right, So he enters into this agreement and he breaks down entirely. He doesn't earn the bicycle, he earns the punishment instead. Well, how am I going to bless him now when he has entered into that? Well, I recall that before he entered into that at all, I made a promise that he was going to get it apart from any condition at all.
How am I going to fulfill that original promise? Well, we'll say a substitute takes all the punishment he deserves. And now I say the bicycle is going to be yours. But never tell anybody that you earned it. Remember, it's just pure grace that you get this bicycle.
And so he now, if it were possible to me for me to communicate a life that wants to please me, now there's a new covenant. There's a new relationship in which he stands, in which he desires to please me. But the first one failed utterly. Now there's another boy in the family and he says.
But Dad, give me a chance. I said, Oh no, we're not going to go through that again at all. You're going to get it on the same basis basis as your brother. Now you can understand very simply the Gentile was never under the law as such. It was given to Israel.
And so they broke down South. God makes a new covenant with them and brings them into the blessing founded upon the work of Christ. We as Gentiles were outside of all that, but He brings us into blessing on that same ground. And so both you and Gentile, as we have in the 11Th of Romans, are brought in as the objects of mercy, the Jew with a new covenant, the Gentile, on the basis of what Christ has done.
It's the same foundation, but not in the same way.
And that's why our as our brother was remarking as Gentiles were not the subject of covenants, but we come into the blessing of it because it's all our blessing is founded on the work of Christ. Purpose of God was declared when God said to Abraham, and in thy seed.
Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed? God showed what His purpose was. But as you remark, it's so natural to our hearts. And the Galatian heresy, I believe, was first recognizing that they needed Christ for salvation, but placing themselves under law afterwards as a rule of life. And it's very easy for us, perhaps without realizing it.
To recognize that we have been saved by grace.
But making certain rules for our lives, which if we live up to them, we longer now that we are saved dead sinners, we can yield ourselves because we possess a life that wants to please God. I mentioned this because there's a lot of preaching in the world asking sinners to do something and yield their wills to God and so on. But.
A man has to acknowledge his guilt, his lost condition, his helplessness.
And to see what God has done for him in that condition, when he recognizes this, when there is repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, then, but not till then, he possesses a new life. And now having that new life, he can yield himself to the will of God.
So I believe it's important that actually the word repentance means.
A change of mind. That's simply what the word means. And as one is often remarked, the natural man has wrong thoughts about himself, and he has wrong thoughts about God. He thinks there's something good in himself, and he is, as it was brought before us, an enemy of God.
Now in the gospel he learns right thoughts about himself. What is he? Nothing but a lost, guilty, helpless, hell deserving Sinner. He recognizes what God has to say about him in that condition. And then he sees that God is not against him, God is for him.
God has provided a Savior for him. He has met him in all his helplessness, and the Lord Jesus has accomplished the work so that God has been glorified about the question of sin. So there's repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he can yield himself to God. He can present his body because he has learned the mercies of God. He has a new life.
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That now delights in doing God's will.
But you say that we today are not under covenant relationship, but we come under the blessings of this new covenant, we under the liberty of grace and we have this new life and this these new desires. But just the fact I believe that we're not under a covenant relationship. Is that so?
Yes, I believe that comes in later here and if you turn back to the.
The 8th chapter and the 10th verse you can see it has to do with Israel and 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. Now if you go to Ephesians where he is addressing Gentiles.
You already quoted the verse Ephesians chapter 2.
Verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That was our position as Gentiles outside of all those covenants.
Perhaps I could use an illustration so we might understand how we come into the blessing of the covenant without being the subjects of the covenant. Supposing I make, I say to my boy, I'm going to give you a new bicycle. Well, he says that I'd like to feel that I've earned the bicycle. So I say, well, I'll lay down certain conditions then. But remember, if you don't live up to these conditions of obedience.
Be a punishment instead of the bicycle. All he says I can keep the conditions. All right, So he enters into this agreement and he breaks down entirely. He doesn't earn the bicycle, he earns the punishment instead. Well, how am I going to bless him now when he has entered into that? Well, I recall that before he entered into that at all, I made a promise that he was going to get it apart from any condition at all.
How am I going to fulfill that original promise?
Well, we'll say a substitute takes all the punishment he deserves. And now I say the bicycle is going to be yours, but never tell anybody that you earned it. Remember, it's just pure grace that you get this bicycle. And so he now, if it were possible to me for me to communicate a life that wants to please me, Now there's a new covenant. There's a new relationship in which he stands, in which he.
To please me. But the first one failed utterly. Now there's another boy in the family and he says, but dad, give me a chance. I said, Oh no, we're not going to go through that again at all. You're going to get it on the same basis basis as your brother. Now you can understand very simply the Gentile was never under the law as such. It was given to Israel.
And so they broke down, So God makes a new covenant with them.
And brings them into the blessing founded upon the work of Christ. We as Gentiles were outside of all that, but he brings us into blessing on that same ground. And so both you and Gentile, as we have in the 11Th of Romans, are brought in as the objects of mercy. The Jew with a new covenant, the Gentile on the basis of what Christ has done. It's the same foundation, but not.
In the same way.
And that's why our as our brother was remarking as Gentiles were not the subject of covenants, but we come into the blessing of it because it's all our blessing is founded on the work of Christ purpose of God was declared when God said to Abraham.
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. God showed what his purpose was, But as you remark, it's so natural to our hearts. And the Galatian heresy, I believe, was first recognizing that they needed Christ for salvation, but placing themselves under law afterwards as a rule of life.
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And it's very easy for us, perhaps without realizing it.
To recognize that we have been saved by grace, but making certain rules for our lives which if we live up to them, we sort of pat ourselves on the back that we've done pretty well as Christians. If we fail, we get discouraged or as what God sets before us.
Is the person of His beloved Son. His love and His faithfulness shows us that when we fail, we have grieved and dishonored Him. We've sinned against His Holiness. But our standing is all through what Christ has done. And that's why it's the goodness of God that leads to repentance. That is a sense of the goodness of God.
The Sinner seeing that in spite of all his sin, God loves him.
And what way is it that will draw a careless Christian back to the Lord? Even in these meetings? Or if you have a fresh sense of the love of God that has been displayed towards you, and what it cost him to make you his own, that love will constrain you and draw you back and cause you to want to judge anything that has hindered that wonderful privilege that we have of walking here in fellowship with God.
The will of God.
Out in Christ is such a beautiful thing to trace a little in Scripture. We've had it here. Brother referred to, I believe Luke 1250, but.
In Luke 9 it says about the Lord that he steadfastly set his face as a Flint to go up to Jerusalem. Then in 1250 it says I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened until it be accomplished?
And then about him and or he says in John 10. Therefore death. My father loved me because I lay down my life.
This was the will of God, and the Lord had undertaken to accomplish this will, which led him to the cross.
And isn't remarkable that it could be said, or he could say, Therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again? That was obedience unto death.
Perfect second mind, obedient unto death. The contrast to the first man, disobedient unto death. So he comes in and is our substitute and fulfills the will of God and brings all this blessing to us. And here he is, both the sacrifice in our chapter, and He's the priest.
That word straighten that you just mentioned in that verse.
Really is a strong word.
And it brings before us, really.
A big river dammed up.
The rivers dammed up.
And all who are living below the river are not getting any good or blessing from that, from that river. It's dammed up.
And so it was when the Lord Jesus was going to the cross, and he says all the blessings that God wants to give his people are damned up. They can't flow out until I go to the cross and die there. And as soon as he had died and risen again.
Well, the floodgates have been opened. We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
The floodgates are opened up.
There's God is no longer straightened in bringing blessing to man. He can bring blessing now because it's on the ground of His grace, a solid ground and all. How thankful we can be. We have a ground like that to stand upon the grace of the grace of God, the ground of grace. If we were still on the ground of doing, we'd lose everything.
But that was what the problem was.
There had been given out a law and the people were under law and they were trying to keep the law for blessing. They had failed in keeping the law and God couldn't give them blessing.
Now that it's all on the ground of grace, God can give blessing and this is what we need to keep befores as we're preaching the gospel. Giving up tracks.
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God has desires to give blessing if they will just accept the one.
Who has been the means of bringing in the blessing and really showing us the grace of God, the goodness of God?
And just receive him.
Oh, this is what we need to think about. We want souls to see that that should be our desire and pray God that he give them that desire. And as we're preaching that we might preach in the power of the Spirit of God, because it's not by might or power, but it's by my spirit. God has said, and we just have to come to that point where we.
Cast everything upon God, just rely wholly upon Him, and rely wholly upon His desire, His desire of sovereign grace to bless. And blessing is going to come.
All fathers and mothers, they're concerned about their children. Think about that. God wants to bless those children and you children sitting here who haven't received Christ as Savior. God wants to bless you, but you can't get blessing by doing. You have to just come to the point where you acknowledge this has already been said that.
Your poor, lost, guilty Sinner before God you're weak, you're helpless, you're.
Godly, you are an enemy of God. Just take that place and then take the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who's opened the floodgates of blessing on the ground of the grace of God, and you'll have that blessing too, and you'll be happy. And then you can live for God because you have Christ in your heart.
There's another little point here about our salvation which is so very beautiful to see.
And that is the Trinity involved here in this chapter. We've dealt much on this verse. Lo, I come to do thy will, oh God. And you come down just a little ahead here. And we have the Holy Ghost in verse 15, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness. Well, what one has enjoyed so much is any of us who are saved can say that we're saved.
Because of the Trinity.
In this way that we have the work of Christ and the will of God and the witness of the Holy Spirit. It's easy to remember each of those words begins with W for the work of Christ. That's the doing and the the will of God and the witness of the Holy Spirit. So everyone of us who are saved, the whole of the Trinity, has had an interest in that salvation.
Do we have those three rocks together like Christ in the water and the safety man going tips I'll be the current broad commands of these killings remain threat.
His reply was, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Well, there have been no word come to him from the Spirit of God to command those stones we made bread, so he took no action.
And the enemy was fooled, shall we say defeated his purpose.
He was the lowly obedient 1.
It's an interesting subject for meditation. We won't go into it, but it's been very, very beautiful to me that from the very, very beginning, even from creation itself and from the conception of the Lord Jesus right through as we have been reminded.
His temptation, His miracles, His death, His resurrection, the descent of the Holy Spirit.
And as we get here, the conversion of a soul, the preserving and keeping of the believer right through to the Rapture when we're called home step by step, every one of these vital events involves the whole Godhead specifically identified in Scripture.
I recommend that for your enjoyment you might search it up. The whole Godhead specifically identified. I just mentioned this, that I was enjoying it so much one day and tracing it through until I came to the rapture and I was astounded. I read 1St Thessalonians 4. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
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The voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God.
The dead in Christ shall rise 1St and so on. You know it well. No mention of the Holy Spirit. And I had traced it through with such joy in the Scriptures that I just couldn't believe it. I could find no mention of the Holy Spirit in connection with the rapture.
And I I pondered it for quite a long time till suddenly I realized how beautiful.
The Holy Spirit is down here and we get in Revelation 22, the Spirit and the Bride say come. And I suppose we could say in response to that expressed desire, the Spirit and the Bride say come, and then we have that glorious moment. So we really see the whole rapture even in that context too, do we not?
I think you have a birthday, yeah.
Romans 8.
Would be the Spirit, would it not?
Verse 11.
Or did you have another verse?
That was what I was thinking of in connection with the Spirit is involved here in the rapture.
Quickening our mortal bodies, coming of the Lord sanctified here means set apart, and saw the people were set apart from the other nations. Speaks of the law of commandments being that which separated them from the nations all around them.
Peter said it wasn't a lawful thing for a Jew to eat with a Gentile. There were many, many ordinances under the law that were such that a Jew and a Gentile couldn't go on together.
So they were a set apart people through all these things, but what is it now that sets us apart? It's not ordinances that sets us apart, but the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Because of that mighty work that He has accomplished, we are no longer part of this whole world that's under judgment, nor part of that system of things that God set up for a people in the flesh. But it's an entirely new thing.
We have a new and living way, and so we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Once for all, the man who came and offered the sacrifices, why he was set apart, He was now the the priest who offered them must be sanctified in order to do this work. It was a constant thing and it had to be repeated because they were always being defiled. But here the thought is.
The position that we are brought into through the work of Christ. Now, sanctification, as we know, has looked at in different ways in Scripture. But as to the believer, we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, never to be repeated. We're no longer part of this world that's under judgment.
We no longer have part in all that system of things that was only a type and a shadow of good things to come.
Now practically we are sanctified by the truth, so that there is the practical side of things brought before us. For instance, in John 17, where it says, sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth. Or again as we have it in First Thessalonians chapter 5, it says there I pray God, that we might be sanctified. Holy that your whole.
Soul and body might be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the practical side of it, but positionally it's accomplished through what Christ did upon the cross. I've used the illustration. You go into a store and you.
Buy a basket of apples, you say. I'm going to come back and pick that up afterwards. So the storekeeper puts your name on the handle and there it is. It's yours. You've paid for it. In his mind, it's set apart. It's yours because the price has been paid. But there's a lot of confusion. It may be sitting with other baskets there. Someone else may come along and not notice your name. And there's a lot of confusion.
But if he takes it and puts it out in the back of the shop.
It isn't anymore yours back there, but it is in a practical way set apart.
So we are sanctified, brethren, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. It is a never to be repeated work that he has accomplished. And so that every believer can rejoice in this. But in a practical way, God would have this truth to so lay hold of us that we wouldn't go on with the law and the ordinances.
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Also that we would be separated in walking ways from the world and all that it goes on with.
That's the practical side of it, but here it's what has been accomplished through the work that Christ has done.
These things are also wonderful.
Our minds aren't able to.
To form the adequate words to describe these things. But the involvement of the Trinity is is beautiful to think about and to ponder.
We get some words, four, four verses in John 14 to bring this up very emphatically, I think to be profitable for us to consider here.
John 14 and verse 16.
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you verse 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.
Whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to you, to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Thinking here, how beautiful it is that part of our, our inheritance or our possession involves the indwelling Spirit of God who is a permanent witness of all these things to enable us to enter into and take hold of these things and they may take hold of us. And our brother Gordon has been mentioning the, the sanctification by the, by the truth of God. Well, this is the unction of the Spirit within us, isn't it?
The Spirit has the liberty to bring these things to our.
Remembrance and make them good to us. They have the sanctifying effect. The world doesn't have its attraction on us anymore.
It's the privilege of the Christian, isn't he?
Sanctification of the Spirit mentioned in Scripture too, isn't it?
Back in first Peter.
Through sanctification of the Spirit and also in Second Thessalonians chapter 2.
Sanctification of the Spirit, but that is not practical or progressive sanctification. Again, it's connected with that work of God. It's the work of God not for us, but in us, by the Spirit producing that life, would you say?
So when they sometimes they, there are those who think of a sanctification of the Spirit as being a spiritual progress or reaching a particular state through the Spirit working. Now there is a practical side as you mentioned in John 17 and again in First Thessalonians 5, but the sanctification of the Spirit mentioned.
Is in Peter.
And in 2nd Thessalonians 2 is the is the initial work of God in our souls in producing life so that we're set apart inwardly as well as having an outward position of being set apart by the work of Christ. So we really say we're set apart or sanctified by the will of God and by the work of Christ and by the Spirit of God.
So again, you have the Trinity.
It shouldn't be.
John 17 verse 19 connection with what we had about sanctified through the body of Jesus that's related.
And for their sake, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
And I believe that the present worked at the Lord Jesus is carrying on, and that is he accomplished that work. We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. But in that verse.
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For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Right now, while this meeting is going on, there is a living man at the right hand of God.
Who has set himself apart to do a work for us up there, saw that in practical sense we might be in the enjoyment of these things we are talking about. And so the Lord Jesus not only did that work at the cross, but there he is at the right hand of God. Do we need help to go on in a way pleasing to Him in separation from the world? Well, he's up there. He is no longer here. He has sanctified himself. He has.
Part up there to do a work for us. Have we failed? Well, He is there as our advocate to restore us. And so He has sanctified himself. He's no longer here in this world, walking with the disciples. He has accomplished that work by which we have been sanctified once.
For all but he is still carrying on a work there at the right hand of God for us. And I think it's lovely to see that He's the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. And that is his present work. I was just going to add too, just for the sake of understanding in the chapter we have before us here.
Because it might be a difficulty to some in the.
29th 1St scene. We're Speaking of the subject.
Of whom, of how much sore punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and have counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing and a thund despite under the spirit of grace. Some have taken up this verse to think a believer could be saved and lost, But we have to remember that Israel were looked upon as a people set apart.
And there is that outward aspect of things that a Jew might have professed faith in Christ, set himself apart from Judaism to professedly believe in Christ, but he was not really a child of God at all. And the proof of it comes out when he goes back to those things.
Which cannot put away sin. He had made the profession and in that sense he had taken that place so that sometimes in Scripture sanctified like the nation of Israel were a set apart people is sometimes looked upon as a place taken in profession. It is even used I think it's in Ezekiel or as a Jeremiah where it says they sanctified themselves to do evil. That is they set themselves apart for some.
Purpose. But when it has to do with what God accomplishes by His Spirit, as our brother pointed out, then it's a real work. It's a work that is founded on a sure foundation because it's founded upon the work of Christ. It is not an external thing. It's real.
You had a word, Brother Albert.
I was just going to say that I feel it would not be at all difficult to carry out this practical sanctification in our own life if we were in the enjoyment of the changeless love of the Lord Jesus. It's because our affections grow cold, because our eyes are turned elsewhere, that the practical carrying out of this sanctification becomes.
Difficult.
Perhaps not a perfect illustration, but in a marriage ceremony, sometimes you hear words something like this. Do you promise that forsaking all other, you will cleave to him only so long as he both shall live? Well, there's a real separating challenge if you wish. And you know what the answer is? We've often heard it.
A very warm I do, and oh, they are just so happy, shall I say, to be separated.
From whatever claims there may have been before to enjoy one anothers company 1 anothers love. But if that love begins to fade and grow cold, which sad to say we have seen, then the challenge of that separation 1 to the other becomes irksome and difficult and sometimes breaks down. So here by the very wonderful grace of God and through that which we have had described to us.
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We are set apart by the which will we are sanctified for the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Why did He do that? As we have been reminded, because of the loving desire of his heart for your company and mine. And he's going to enjoy that without hindrance in the glory. But he wants he wants the enjoyment of it now.
And I believe the the practical effect of this truth, the display of it in our lives.
Can become quite a difficulty if our eyes are turned elsewhere and our affections become cold toward Him. But to remember that it did originate in the heart of God, that it cost God the giving of His beloved Son, that He might claim us as a sanctified people.
There's a personal sanctification as to the individual.
And we have had that before us. But is there not a collective sanctification for the assembly as well set before us in the Word of God that we need to consider? It's perhaps mentioned in the 5th chapter of Ephesians where?
Ephesians chapter 5.
Speaking of the Lord Jesus loving the church and giving himself for it.
Also in verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.
Well, as it's been pointed out, without an object.
Or an individual.
To enjoy the Lord Jesus and His love, we really can't walk in separation.
The word of God is that which sanctifies us individually, and is it not coveting the love of Christ and the.
Presence of the Lord Jesus in the assembly and the truth of God that separates us collectively as a people belonging to Him, purchased with His precious blood. And this is very needed too, is it not for those of us who are gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus that this might be very practical in our lives?
That we would walk in separation for the glory of the Lord Jesus.