Gospel—Stephen Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's begin this evening together with singing of #3 on your hymn sheet.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
My name is Grace.
All his time, all the Rome of my life, glowing in the place, Yeah.
Number of days ago was a burden on my heart to.
Share with everyone in the audience this evening.
The wonder of the trustworthy person of Christ, and I hope we'll do that this evening particularly, my burden was that if there was someone here, that's an anxious.
So you would find assurance of salvation. You would have the confidence in that trustworthy person.
And I trust he'll go there.
Lord laid on my heart a second burden to begin with, and it was before last night's gospel and uncovered beautifully in last night's gospel. And I asked the Lord to continue with that subject since it was covered beautifully last night, that I feel that there's a need to touch on it again. And so we'll touch on it again here. And that's the conviction for a callous soul. And my burden here at the beginning is that there would be a conviction in your heart.
If you've heard the gospel many times before.
You perhaps agreed with the facts of the gospel, but you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. So I'm going to turn first to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5.
Many things could be said.
This is what I believe the Lord's laid on my heart. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5.
And verse 20. We'll just read 3 verses here.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5, verse 20.
Four. Listen carefully, I say.
Mr. Lord Jesus Christ speaking.
For I say unto you.
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill.
00:05:13
And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you.
But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger. The Judgment.
And whosoever shall say to his brother Raqqa shall be in danger of the Council.
But whosoever shall say, thou fool.
She'll be in danger of hell fire as we open up God's Word this evening.
I believe probably everyone in this room, certainly the vast majority in this room, would give at least a mental agreement to the fact that we have God's Word in front of us. With the burden on my heart this evening is not that you would listen to another set of words out of this book, but that you would hear those words ringing in your heart. I say unto you.
That the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of His Spirit would speak into your heart those words.
I say unto you.
There are the words that I have come this evening to pass on that have any value. In fact, I want to illustrate it.
This way some time ago, a couple weeks ago, I wanted to pass out some of these little booklets that say Peace with God, a bunch of verses in them. And so I bought a little packet of 20 of them and I stuck them in my backpack to bring home. I carry a backpack back and forth to work every day with my laptop in it. Suck it in. But the zipper doesn't go all the way, doesn't close. It's damaged. And as I entered the house that evening, for the first time in several weeks, it started to pour.
Rain just before I left the garage or right as I was arriving at home and in my hurry and going inside for some reason the packet of 20 of these things.
Was right there next to the zipper. They fell, they shattered on the ground and I didn't notice. With guests coming for dinner. They arrived 2-3 minutes later and came in bringing a soggy handful of 20 of these. We spread them all out, they dry it out and we threw them out. I went back and bought another pack of 20. I'm going to remember this time. I'm not going to lose them. Put them carefully in my backpack.
In fact, they came home and there they stayed right there.
On the counter.
So for this trip, I was going to be sure that I remembered a few of these. And so I brought several of them and I put them with my Bible case where I wasn't going to forget them and I set them there to bring along and we went into a Culver's in Marion, IL. On our way down I came.
Paul gone off to the restroom. We already bought our food, et cetera. And I realized, oh, I left them in the van.
Got here, I wasn't going to forget again. I put some in my pocket and I changed my shirt and I left it behind.
So I took him, got a couple more, got him in my pocket. And yesterday at lunch I went out to get a little bite to eat and meditate on what the Lord would give me to share with you this evening. And I went to your local Dairy Queen here and up to the counter and I ordered. I came and I sat back down at my seat and.
Still have them in my pocket. Well, the lady here, they they deliver your food. I didn't know they did that at Dairy Queen. I haven't eaten at Dairy Queen and I don't know how many years. So they're going to deliver my food. I'll remember.
She came, she delivered the food. Forgot again.
But she said, do you want something to drink? I hadn't ordered anything to drink. I said sure, I'll take an ice water and got it out of my pocket. I set it in front of me.
And she came back and I timidly said I have something. Just some thoughts for you.
She picked it up. She looked at it and said, oh.
I need that.
Oh, I need that.
Well, that was nice. She went back and came back a few moments later, bringing the little Blizzard I'd ordered. And when she brought it back, she said, you know, two weeks ago I got off drugs and I got this job. And here's what she said that I want to pass on. I think that she waived this since I thank God is speaking to me.
00:10:00
You know, those are the words I want to impress on you this evening.
I forgot a half dozen times. I dumped them in the outside in the rain without knowing the message messenger. It's pretty feeble fact. The messenger is totally irrelevant. What matters to you this evening is I say unto you.
What matters is, you know, all I had time for. She was in a hurry to get back behind the counter and serve the next person. All I had time for was to say yes, I think he's speaking to you.
And that was it. And she went on. I don't know if she read the verses or not, but tonight you have an opportunity to hear the voice of God.
The voice of the living Son of God, speaking to you by His Spirit through His Word.
And he says, I say unto you, so let's look at this little slice of the message that he gives right here.
It says you, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
But I say unto you, And here it is that whosoever is angry with his brother.
Without a cause, she'll be in danger of the judgment. Let's pause there. When we were at the Michigan family camp for a few days, Bernie Rusink and when he was speaking in passing told us about the person. Don't think he gave a name. So I thought of him since as Mr. Chainsaw and apparently and he named the county. I assume it was there in Michigan. Somebody correct me later. It's not relevant. I suppose somewhere near him there was a man who got in an argument with.
Neighbor pulled out a gun. Our I think it was his neighbor's gun. He took the gun. He killed the neighbor, but he was still furious. He was still angry.
So you got a chainsaw and you dismembered his neighbor.
Oh, you say that's awful and that's it is awful.
Oh, you said I've never committed a crime like that. No, you probably haven't.
I'm gonna give you another story.
When I was perhaps 14 years old or so, I was having a.
Snowball fight outside in front of the meeting room there in Addison from the Bible Truth publishers where the meetings are held. And it was winter time throwing snowballs. I think there were snowballs, if I remember correctly coming back my direction. And I threw a beautifully, I thought lovely shot from the front door out to the edge of the sidewalk near where there used to be a flagpole. And I hit the 10 year old boy on the back of the neck and the snow went.
On the back into his neck and I was quite pleased with my shot and I was standing there smiling and he turned around. Well look at the rage on his face. Put together a heavy duty snowball and he was bigger than me and he had a look on his face that told me this was not a good place to be. So I ran inside and quick he was coming up fast with a snowball in his face.
Snowball in his hand and the look on his face and I locked the door real quickly.
And I relaxed, I looked out and the smile came back to my face.
And he came up to that door and he gave one big, huge kick.
And I got terrified and I reached up quickly with the look in my eye and began to unlock that door. And if you remember, many of you have been there, but perhaps not all of you. It's a big glass front door. It's not a wood front door. It's a heavy, thick glass. And another kick hit that door. Before I could get it unlocked, the foot came through the door and all the glass shattered on the inside.
You say?
Oh, I've never done that.
No, maybe you didn't. This particular person was immediately repentance, came in, felt bad about it instantly went and found his dad, Went and found my dad and he made restitution. He paid with a little bit of Labor for the cost of the door, at least a token of restitution for the door. But you say I don't get angry like that. And I would have told you I didn't get angry like that. In fact, that was all the way along until late this afternoon, I was reminded.
That in that after not perhaps six months, perhaps a year later.
I was down in my bedroom.
Wasting my time listening to a football game.
And the team that I was particularly interested in was losing, and I was tense. It was a tight, I don't remember who they were playing. It's irrelevant, But I know I was tense. I was worried. I had a book in my hand pretending to read, and I was listening. And at a critical moment in that game, somebody fumble.
00:15:12
For the good guys and I took that book and I throw it across the room.
You know, I didn't kick in the front glass door, but I was angry.
I didn't destroy the book. I went and picked it up and I felt bad about it. And you say, oh, I've never done that. I never, in fact, football. That's stupid, Yeah.
I wouldn't do that.
But that's not what this verse is talking about. It's not what this verse is talking about. Have you ever said to your mom or to your dad?
No, let's not make it say to your mom or to your dad. Your mom or your dad aren't there present, but they say something to you you don't like and you say when they're not present. That's stupid.
I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands.
But maybe you've never done that. Perhaps you've never even gone that far. You've never let those words escape your lips.
I wanna read the verse again. I wanna read the end of that verse again and let's see what the Spirit of God says here.
It says the end of verse 21. Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger.
Of the judgment. Now watch carefully. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause.
There is righteous anger. Scriptures speak about righteous anger without a 'cause I believe in this context covers righteous anger. That's a cause.
But this says.
Angry with his brother without a cause.
You know what that word angry means?
I looked it up yesterday.
That word Angry.
Has the sense of being exasperated.
What did the person here in this part of the verse say?
Nothing.
There's no words recorded. The next one it says, if you should say. The next one says if he should say. No word about action that came in the prior verse. This one says, exasperated with your brother.
And my concern is that there's somebody here this evening and you've heard the gospel so many times.
You know it inside out, upside down and backwards.
But you're not like Mr. Chainsaw.
And you've never kicked in and you've never smashed a glass door.
And you're not as bad as I am. You've never flung something across the room because you were angry.
Let me ask you this question and it's I say unto you, so don't listen to it from my voice, from my mouth.
Listen carefully to what God says, and I'll read it again. But I say unto you, whosoever is angry is exasperated with his brother without a cause, without righteous anger.
Shall be in danger of the judgment. Now you say I don't know what Raqqa means and I don't know what thou fool means. Let's get on to the rest of the verse. Raka means worthless, thou fool.
Is.
Umm, I'm sorry, already forgotten. Looked it up earlier. Thou fool is a slightly stronger expression that has that goes beyond the worthless of Raqqa. But I want to stop with that word judgement, because I want you to back up now and look again at the prior verse.
What word do you see in that prior verse? Does it say Hellfire? Does it say endanger the council? What word does it say in that prior verse?
Where does it end? It says whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. Did you not in your heart, when we talked about Mr. Chainsaw being angry, did you nod in your heart that that killer was in danger of the judgment? It's the exact same word as the beginning of the next verse. When it says judgment, it's the exact same word.
Me illustrate.
00:20:00
This spectrum of anger in this way, the verse was read this morning in the breaking of bread and John 19, verse 11. The first was in fact, I better go to it. I can't quote it. The Lord speaking to Pilate.
I can only give you the gist.
John 19, verse 11.
Jesus answered, He is speaking to Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except that were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me up unto thee half the greater sin.
Perhaps that refers to Judas. Maybe you could expand it a little bit and include the Sanhedrin, the responsible leaders that had brought the Lord over to Pilate. But either way, the Lord refers to the greater sin. So let's come back to the verse we're on. You've got a spectrum of sin here, and we've talked about a spectrum of sin this evening. And the Lord Jesus used the word the greater when he spoke about perhaps Judas.
Does that give you comfort if you're without Him as your savior this evening?
Let me read one last time those words it says.
Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause.
Shall be in danger of the judgment. Think of it this way. It's like a road. And if you've got that road that's headed to judgment, you've got the road, that's the road that your heart is on. And there's somebody further down the road and you're somebody else a little bit farther on, and you're at the beginning of that road and you're walking down the road. What direction are you headed?
Does it matter that there's a person further down the road than you?
Does it matter that Mister Chainsaw wasn't protected by his parents and given a godly Christian upbringing like perhaps you've had?
And he got a little bit further down that road. What matters is that your heart has the same anger in it that his heart had. It came to a fuller, more complete expression. There were more steps in this verse, but we're going to stop with that first one.
You're in danger of the judgment. Let's turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 13.
And people brought current events to the Lord, and in verse two it says in Jesus answering, said unto them, Suppose he, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things.
I tell you.
Listen very carefully, he says, I tell you nay, but accept you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Verse four, or those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them. Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you Nay, but except.
Ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
You're not going to stand someday.
If you have to stand someday, I hope no one in this room will. But if someday you appear before that great white throne.
And you're in the presence of the holy God, you're not going to bring up.
Mr. Chainsaw, you're not going to bring up the person that kicked in the glass door?
You're not going to bring up your brother, you're not going to bring up your sister, and you're not going to be able to say I didn't hear clearly because if my words are not clear, the words of the Spirit of God being spoken to your heart at this moment are clear. It penetrates, It takes God's word. It takes what God says when he says, I say unto you.
And it brings it home to your heart. And when you appear, and I hope I shouldn't, I hope you will never appear before that great white throne of God. But if you were to appear there.
You won't be able to say this one and that one and the other one, because you just listen to these words. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Don't quote to me the news about this horrible this and that horrible that. Except you repent, you will all likewise perish.
00:25:12
Heard a story a couple of years ago.
But my great great grandmother never met her.
My great, great grandmother was a very religious woman.
My great great grandmother was from a very wealthy family in Toronto, Canada and her husband was a very wealthy man.
They lived well.
But down the street, from around the corner, I don't know, close by.
Lived a young man with an eighth grade education and a great great grandmother's daughter fell in love with him.
They were married.
They attempted to present a clear gospel to my great great grandmother. She couldn't get over the fact that her family honor was.
Dragged down, her name was lowered by this 8th grade salesman that married her daughter.
And she didn't want the message either.
She was a religious lady. She hadn't pulled out any chainsaws. She didn't express anger in that great outward way that people would look down on. She was a respectable and upright woman.
But she didn't want to hear the gospel.
She paid money to have somebody go over to at the time, many, many, many years ago, and it was even more expensive than it is now. Go over to the Jordan River and bring her a bottle of water from the Jordan River so that she could sprinkle her children so they'd be baptized with holy water from the Jordan River. After all, the Lord himself was baptized in the Jordan, so the Jordan will take water from there.
She was a religious woman.
And over the decades, she heard the gospel that would have very little to do with her daughter and her son-in-law.
Very late in our life, she sent for my great grandmother. She sent her. My great grandmother came with my grandfather, who was five years old. They arrived at the house and my great grandmother went to speak with her mother.
He was on the edge of eternity. She was facing an eternity, and holy water from the Jordan wouldn't cut it, and neither would her sense of confidence in her religiousness for all those years. And she knew that her daughter had something she didn't have. She knew that her daughter had a piece and a rest and an assurance and an absolute certainty of salvation. And she wanted it as she faced eternity. And they had multiple.
Hours to talk that night.
And my great, great grandfather, grandmother received Christ as our Savior that night, the next morning, perhaps the earliest memory of my grandfather.
Was wondering.
By his grandma was covered with a sheep.
That evening she'd entered eternity, but she entered eternity with Christ as her Savior, not with her religion, not with a set of facts, not with a set of things that she clung to her entire life. She entered with almost no fruit for God, but she entered eternity resting on the blood of Christ shed for her. And in the time we have remaining, I would like to turn with you to Hebrews chapter 10.
Because my burden now is for those of you who perhaps have touched the hem of His garment, But you have no assurance of your salvation. You have no sense that you know Christ as your personal Savior. You heard last night over and over again so clearly what it means to trust.
I want to turn from trust because it's vital, it was essential, and perhaps you heard it last night. I want to return from trust to trustworthy and in the time we have remaining, I want to look at the trustworthy one. I would like with you to look at what God himself has done to bring you into His family, what God himself has done because He wants you as a worshiper.
00:30:04
Next to him forever.
So let's read from.
Verse five. Well.
I'll read from verse 4.
For it is not possible.
That the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not but a body. A Thou prepared me. We'll look at four things.
In this chapter 4 things not original with me.
Enjoyed this?
A month or so ago and reading in another writer.
From long ago.
And then another writer more recently, and then in another book that was published this year, and they all give the same.
Layout to the chapter and I think it's beautiful. The first part of the chapter deals with the will of God. The next part of the chapter deals with the work of Christ. The third part of chapter deals with the witness of the Spirit. And the 4th part that we'll look at tonight deals with you, the worshipper. But where I want to begin is with the will of God.
And I want you to see that it begins back here.
It says.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, verse 6. Thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Hello, this is the voice of Christ speaking, quoted from the Psalm, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book, It is written of me to do thy will, O God.
I'd like to see a show of hands here this evening for all of those of you here who have always done the will of God.
I'd like to see a show of hands here this evening, for everyone here that is at least once done your own will instead of his.
Want you for a moment to think?
About this one, you know, down through 4 millennia.
God watched man on this earth. He didn't find a single one that looked like his son, and the only thing that would satisfy his heart was to have his home, his house filled with ones that were just like his son. It was one that would come and do his will every single moment of every single.
Day.
There's beautiful expressions of the Lord throughout, but I want you to notice one little thing here, he says in the volume of the book. It is written of me.
You're holding your hands. You have on your lap, most of you.
A Bible that you can open and turn to turn the pages of it and back. Then some of you perhaps have your.
Electronic device, and you can scroll through on that electronic device. But back in this time there was a roll. And in fact, to get a full set of them you would need a set of scrolls. And so those scrolls you have to unroll and turn. One of the beautiful things in the invention of a bound book, you can flip back and forth through it easily.
But a scroll, it's kind of hard to go back and forth through that scroll. And so on the ends of those scrolls, they would write the title of the book, and as I understand it, often they would write a brief summary of its contents.
I'm gonna read you the expression again.
In the volume of the book it is written of me to do.
Thy will, O God.
The summary of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as a man on this earth.
Written.
600 years no Written 1000 years before he was born.
The sum total of that life.
I come to do thy will, O God.
00:35:00
You know.
I've assumed up to this point that you've heard the gospel many times, but I should pause and say that it's the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, that cleanseth us from all sin. It is the offering of the body of this one, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is your acceptance before God, if you're accepted before God. And so who this person is, who this sacrifice is, is vital. It's vital that God.
Satisfied with the sacrifice that's offered for sin.
And so he comes and he says this is what I want. And for long before the incarnation, 1000 years before.
Before the Lord Jesus entered this world in the Psalm, chapter 40, when the words are given.
It says my nearest speaks of his ears as being digged. I better read it Psalm 40.
And verse 6.
Sacrifice and offering that it's not desire. My nearest hast thou opened.
That is, speaking long before his birth, the essence of him taking a body is given every single moment of every single day. This one will listen for my will and do it and do it perfectly.
Once he had taken on manhood, died on the cross, risen back to heaven. And this book of Hebrews is being written. It's been quoted from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And by the Spirit of God, there's a different twist given. He's back in glory now. And the twist given for the purposes of this chapter is.
Sacrifice and offering, though it's not, but a body.
That prepared me, that one that came to perfectly carry out his father's will.
Came with a body because it had to be offered up for you.
If you were to approach God in the value of who you are and what you've done.
He would stand somewhere on that spectrum of outward.
Send.
Somewhere on that spectrum, but you would stand before God as a Sinner.
But if you're to come and to be accepted before God, it's because God doesn't will you to be there. God wills you to be in his home, and he prepared his Son as that sacrifice for sin.
It says.
No go down in the chapter.
To verse 10.
By the which will, that same will the will of God. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Once for all you know in this chapter.
It, uh, enjoyed meditating on it, but in each section of the chapter when I tried to come up with a an analogy that would express the thought.
I was left scratching my head. I've heard a lot of them. There's a lot that the scriptures have to say about sanctification.
So you've heard them too, perhaps. You know, sanctified means set apart, right? So you've got the dishes and they're dirty and you wash them and you put them on the dry side and you put them with the clean ones. You don't put them back with The Dirty ones. Just seems so, so cheap. What is compared? It's a good analogy. I don't take a time. I've used it myself. I'm not. If you've used that, I'm not picking on it.
But it comes so far short.
It comes so far short, it says.
By God's will, he wanted you sanctified. He wanted you set apart for Himself.
And so I thought of the other good one that I've enjoyed. It's a little better, but that is.
The idea of an engagement ring and it comes short, you know, I come even shorter. I bought my wife and I before we were married. We went shopping for the engagement ring together. I wasn't one of these that went out ahead of time. We were privately engaged. I was going to go out to see her parents. I was going to ask them if it was OK if we were married. So we were shopping for the.
Together and we went into the Jewelers one after one to various ones and I had a rough idea of what my wife would want.
00:40:06
In fact, I asked her, what is it that you want in a diamond? And, well, it wasn't the size so much that mattered. That was a relief.
What she wanted was one that sparkled she'd always admired and she named the person they're gem sparkled. So me, Mr. physics student, I go and I look up how you know, how do you get a gem that sparkles and the round brilliant cut. Now you got to get a round brilliant cut and that has maximized and it was calculated. Is there total internal.
Reflection from the bottom surfaces if they're cut at the right angle for light coming in from the top, and then it refracts when it comes in at the top and then it refracts when it goes out at the at the top on its way out and you get maximum dispersion of the light and you get a pretty rainbow.
That's nice, you know. So we're gonna shop for around Brilliant Cut. And we did. And we went into a jeweler there and we shopped around. But we found one in Addison where I lived and she lived, and it was just right.
Not that big, but they graded the cut and the cut was what mattered, right? And I had a budget. I had a certain amount of money in my bank account and so this fit within the budget. So this was going to be the engagement ring. So of course I reached into my pocket and pulled out my.
No, I didn't have a credit card. I didn't have a credit card. Reached into my pocket and pulled out my check. No, I don't have a checkbook. Do you have one in your purse? Yeah. See how the checkbook.
Well, our bank accounts, they're going to be merging pretty soon anyway.
So she wrote the check. I'm not sure if I paid her back.
But she was sanctified.
Had the ring on her finger and was set apart to be my bride.
I did it 100% wrong.
From a romantic standpoint.
Put the ring on the finger was enough. She was sanctified and she was my bride.
By the witch will we are sanctified through the offering.
For the body of Jesus Christ once for all, can you doubt the love of God for you?
He had his will 1000 years before Christ came, expressed in the Psalm that he wanted one that would do nothing but his will, that would have a body prepared that could be offered in sacrifice for you on the cross. Who paid for your sanctification? I didn't even pay for my wife's engagement ring.
Who paid for your sanctification?
By the will of God, the body of Christ was offered on a cross.
So that you would be set apart to be his child forever.
So that you could become his son.
Can you say of love like that? I'm not interested. Can you say of a person like that? That's not trustworthy. You could say that about me. That's fine. You'd be right.
Can you say that about the Lord Jesus Christ? No.
No, by the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The next verse which shifts into the section where the Christ really if there's a transition there at the end of that last verse and then here in verse 11 and every priest send us daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices.
Which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God, or sat down in perpetuity the right hand of God.
Who is it that hates sin?
Isn't it the God?
We took the sin.
The light it on a sun.
Isn't it the God that we read this morning? He hath made him.
To be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Isn't that the person that has to be satisfied about them? Isn't that the person that needs to be satisfied if it's going to be taken away? That you need to be satisfied for your assurance? You do, but not for your salvation?
00:45:21
For your salvation, the one that hates sin, the one that cannot allow it in his home, the one that will not allow it.
And the new heavens and the new earth, that's the one that has to be satisfied. And.
Your surety, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that died on that cross, so that you could.
Be present with him in heaven, it says. Sat down in perpetuity, or sat down forever. Sat down on the right hand.
Of God, of the right hand of God, the one that must be satisfied about sin is satisfied. You know, there's so much in this chapter about the UMM.
That are Jewish figures and there's no time for that this evening nor is it really the burden on my heart I want to go to the next one port says for by one offering he asked for I'm sorry I'm going to read from verse 13 from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering.
He had perfected forever them that are sanctified.
How many of you have ever?
Perfected something.
Came to the end of the job, sat back and said that looks pretty nice. Yeah, maybe, probably, likely. You've done that. Have you Finished a job and you sat back and you said that's perfected forever.
Not unless you're delusional.
You know, we lived in Ecuador and for six years and there in the country, uh, there's at least in the city of Keith, well, throughout the country really, there's a lot of construction that's done with concrete pillars and then they fill in with concrete block, but they set in the ground a nice concrete foundation and they put big concrete pillars. There's many, many earthquakes in the country and we experienced a few minor ones while we lived there. And the light bulb would sway in the ceiling and so on as the magma moved.
Underneath and that ground would quake and so they would build these concrete pillars with long pieces of rebar metal bar to rundown through the center of them that gave them a little bit more flexibility when the ground was twisting underneath gave them greater strength. And when they built their ground floor it was customary to look to the future and let those concrete pillars poke up above the roof a little bit and generally they come up a couple of feet and then the rebar would come up out of that and the twist off to the side and.
They're ready, if they got the money someday, to add the second story.
And I can't tell you the number of homes one after another. You go through the neighborhoods for visiting people or handing out calendars or just driving through, and you look at the roof and the vast majority of them ended with these columns and rebar poking out of it. And very often that rebar was twisted way over the side. It was badly rusted, and the concrete pillar on the top was starting to crumble. It was obvious that they had had a.
When they built that home and now that hope was quite literally crumbling on the top of their house.
Four by one offering.
He had perfected forever them that are sanctified. The Lord Jesus Christ in his work has done a work that he says those at the will of my Father, the will of my God wants set aside. I've set aside for him with my work on the cross and those ones are are perfected. Did you notice it doesn't say will be. There's that perspective in other places.
When you want to talk about what's going on, but I want to talk about what's going on in this life. But here it says it just puts it this is the work of Christ and so it says forever them that are sanctified he hath perfected. I'm sorry, says he hath perfected. It says they are sanctified. There's other senses of sanctification in the word, but you turn to Jude chapter Jude verse one and you'll see that there's sanctification that the Father.
Apart. Let's turn to first Peter chapter one, verse two, and you'll find that the eternal Spirit, the Spirit sanctifies and sets aside here in this chapter. It's the work of Christ that sets you aside, the entire Godhead at work to set you aside for himself.
00:50:10
Does that person trustworthy?
Is that person doing a work that can be rested in? Absolutely.
But there's more. Verse 15 Wherefore the Holy Ghost also?
As a witness to us, for us. I just want to stop there. The will of God, the work of Christ. And now it's the witness of the Holy Ghost to us. And what's he doing? He's taking what's true, and he's bringing a witness of it to you that you would sit down and rest in what he's done.
Ever gotten a message from your brother or your sister?
They've come to you and they've said mom wants something.
They come to you and said your dad wants you to or dad wants you to do this or that.
You know whenever get that kind of message and say hmm do I wanna listen?
No, it's coming through a polluted channel. My sister or my brother, they went and told on me and they gave a bad report of Maine and now mom wants to talk to me. No, I don't have to listen because the channel is polluted.
You've never done that, have you?
You've never thought that, have you? But this is the witness of the Holy Spirit. This is not a polluted channel. You could say whatever you will and you'd be right about the words that you may hear from my mouth this evening. But from this book, it says that the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
Will you refuse that witness?
But there's more.
It says.
Their sins. Verse 17 is quoting. It says their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Or I could quote it from or read it rather from a different translation. It says their sins and their lawlessness is I will never remember.
I will never remember.
God says I will never remember.
Those things, That's not what he accidentally does. I gave you a long string of ways in which I forgot.
If I wanna remember something for sure. So I bring it home. I always remember my backpack. So I take a note, I get a piece of tape. I tape it to the handle of that backpack so that when I reach down to Oh yeah, get the glass container out of the fridge before you leave, OK? And I go and get it.
I'm coming back to work. You wanna tell somebody something, I write it down. A couple of you wanted to be remembered to my father and mother. It's in the little red notebook. Whether that will be remembered or not, I don't know, but it's there, and at some point maybe it'll come out of the notebook and I'll pass on the message.
God doesn't do that.
God says by an act of his will I will never remember.
Can you trust a person like that? Is he trustworthy? Here's what he wants. It says right here, verse 19, having their four brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. He wants you in the holiest. He wants you in his presence. He wants you in there boldly. And you say, well, I don't know, I'm not sure.
You're not not sure of him. He's absolutely trustworthy.
Well, no. Finish with two verses, an analogy, and a brief hymn. They did a turn with me. This is what he wants. Isaiah chapter 32.
Isaiah chapter 32.
And verse 17.
That's what He wants for you. Applying it speaks it to Israel, but applies directly to you. And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
00:55:19
You wouldn't want a person that you loved coming to you and always being nervous, always being uncertain whether you like them or not.
Suppose that that person that you loved said every single day, Do you really love me? Do you really love me? Do you really love me?
God wants you to have a sense of His love for you. He wants you to have quietness and assurance forever.
But I wanna turn to one more verse. I wanna finish with this one.
Matthew, Chapter 23.
Again, we're going to apply this verse.
A perfect one and then nothing but good for his people.
They served among them publicly. They've been there privately. He served publicly. And he says in verse 37 of Matthew 23.
Oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stone us them which are sent unto thee, How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gather gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye?
Wood 9 and ye would not.
There's a figure.
In my mind.
It's the figure of you or any other Sinner without Christ who's heard the message of salvation, and it's as though you're seated in a wheelchair.
If no, power of your own.
And Lord is waiting for you at the bottom of an incline.
His arms open wide to receive you. He uses expressions like take. He doesn't say give. He doesn't say give me your heart. He says take the water of life freely.
He says receive.
He says repentance. He says believe, but he's looking for you to take what he has to offer. You have your hand on the emergency brake.
If you take your hand off the emergency brake of that wheelchair, you can't walk there. You can't give him yourself, your heart or whatever. But if you take your hand off that emergency brake and you let go.
You left your hand to take, you'll go straight down into his arms. Is it hard to trust this one?
Take the tank you have to lift your hand from that emergency brake and let go of what holds you back and reach out to take. That's all he says. Take for the water of life. Freely receive me as your savior. Don't hold on to what you're holding on to. Receive me as your savior. I'm not asking for anything but for you to reach out and to take what Ioffer.
Finish. We sang it this morning.
#5 in your little Flock hymn book, I presume most of you have one near you.
It says.
Be the Kingdom and dominion in the glory. Ever more I wish, I hope, I pray that everyone in this room can now sing this from your heart. If you've received Him as your savior #5.