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First two, God is satisfied with Jesus.
We are satisfied as well, number 57.
So far out there in Water Hill.
All ourselves, glory and soul, man.
In the water.
9 verse 9.
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 9 then said, Hello, I come to do thy will, O God, He takes away the 1St, that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Every pre standing daily ministry and offering offering often times the same sacrifice which can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering He has 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 in their into their hearts.
And in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now we're remission of these is there is no more offering for sin, having therefore, brethren, boldness through an end to the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
Having a high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Having our heart sprinkled from the evil conscience in our bodies, force with pure water, and let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
For He is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to vote, 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 some 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 certain fearful, looking for a judgment, fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. And he that despise Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much more sore punishments the fogey shall he be thought worthy, who has trotted under foot the Son of God, and it has counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified unholy thing.
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And has done despite unto the spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, 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 under the hands of a living God.
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly while you were made a gain stock, both by reproaches and afflictions.
Partly whilst you became companions of them that were so used for you 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 endurance substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the judge shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. And we are not of them who draw back unto petition.
But of them that believed to the saving of the soul.
Just to say before we go on with these verses, that in the seventh verse, which is a quotation from Psalm 40, he says, thence I lo, I come in the volume of the book. And some have wondered what this book is, the volume of the book. And I don't believe it's the Bible we hold in our hands. But there are different books in Scripture and you always have to keep them in their context. And I suggest that the book that is referred to here is the Eternal Councils of God.
Because it takes us back to a past eternity and it shows very clearly in these verses.
That the work of Calvary and the plan of salvation was number afterthought with God. You know, in business we often have what we call Plan A and Plan B. And if plan A fails, then we have to come up with Plan B. But God had in the past eternal councils. The Godhead had already, if I can put it this way, discuss the matter. The matter had been taken up. And it's like it says of the Lord Jesus in the book of Peter, that Lamb who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world.
So it wasn't that God ordained the sacrifices under the Levitical order of things, and then that didn't workout and nobody could keep the law, and those sacrifices didn't put away sin and so on. And God had to come up. I speak reverently with another plan. No, those sacrifices, as we said yesterday, into the heart of God pointed forward to what had been in his plan from a past eternity.
That in the IT had already been written in the volume of the book, that at the right moment the Lord Jesus was going to come and go to Calvary's cross, and there offered himself as that great sacrifice.
In these verses, and I just like to give it as a kind of a resume of these, this portion that we're going to consider this afternoon, verse 9 and 10, we have the will of God.
Verses 10 and 11:00 and 12:00 we have the work of Christ, and in verse 15 we have the witness of the Holy Ghost. So we have the whole Trinity involved in this, what we're considering here.
The will of God, the work of Christ, the witness of the Holy Spirit.
So in verse 10 it says by the which will the will of God like it says from the past eternity.
The Lord Jesus and those eternal councils.
When it was.
Uh.
Seen necessary that there was going to be a Redeemer. The Lord Jesus said here am I send me and so the will of God he came, and by the which will we are sanctified, set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
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Once for all. So that's one of the were the work of Christ sanctifies us.
Sets us apart for God. And that's an important thing to realize. You know, we live in man's world, where man's will is evident everywhere. In fact, it's encouraged. Do your own thing.
When God saves us, brethren, we come to realize that He has set us apart with a specific purpose in mind. That's what sanctified means. And then he goes on to say, every priest standeth daily ministry and offering and offering often times the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. It was an unending stream.
Of sacrifices.
Persons sinned, he had to bring an animal for a sin offering. And here comes another one another, and here comes another one. It was unending. And here's the contrast. This is so wonderfully blessed, brethren, that this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins. And notice the forever in our King James Bible.
As a comma after it, I think in the Darby translation, the commas after four sins and he forever sat down on the right hand of God. He sat down forever, never again to take up the question of sin. It's settled forever and that blessed to realize that.
He's never again going to get up from that seat to take up the question of sins. It's settled forever.
Doing that, John.
And I can't answer it.
OK.
Go ahead, brother.
The truth sanctifies us, and that's a continual sanctifying. What Brother Jim was talking about in in the Scriptures, when we read the Scriptures, it has a cleansing effect and we need that every single day. But the sanctifying that we have here is done once for all. It's not a continual thing. It's we have been set apart for God. Somebody put this little practical illustration that helped me.
I go to the grocery store and I get a card and I go down the aisles and I pull up a can of beans and I go down and I box the cereal. What are you doing with those things in your cart?
I have a purpose for them and I'm going to pay for them. I am setting them apart and so then I get up to the checkout counter and I pay for them. They're mine and I'm taking them home. I have a specific purpose in mind. When God saved you and me, brethren, He saved us with a purpose. We are set apart not for our own will, but for God's will.
And it's wonderful to realize that and not to understand that is to be affected by the spirit of this world, that we can do our own thing. Not any longer. No, I don't have any rights anymore. The Lord Jesus has all the rights now.
Now over the years, brethren have adopted the terminology of our standing and our state. I think it's very establishing for a young Christian to understand which passages of Scripture in the in the New Testament apply to which our standing is 100% based upon the work of Christ. And we all enjoy it in the same way. And we all have a, a, the the same wonderful standing we have.
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God is, ha has sent Christ to accomplish the work, and we have him for our righteousness. We are sanctified and et cetera, but we have a need for a practical righteousness. We have a need for that today, and we'll have a need for it tomorrow and Tuesday morning when we go back to work. We have to conduct ourselves righteously because of who we belong to. And the same with sanctification. One example of the practical side of it is in First Thessalonians chapter 4.
Where the apostle writes to these new converts and writes, umm, this is the will of God. Verse 3, even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication, that everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel and sanctification and honor. So there it's the practical side of sanctification, walking consistently with the separated place I've been assigned by God, bringing me into his family and fellowship.
But this verse in verse ten of our chapter is.
Positional sanctification, wouldn't you say? Complete.
It's done. The price has been paid. How can you call that in question?
You can.
In the last chapter of this epistle, that Jesus, in order to sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. You know, it's solemn to think of that when the Lord, they took the Lord Jesus. Or let me go back to the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement, when the question of sin was taken up, they took the sacrifice outside the camp and it was burned there. And when they took the Lord Jesus outside the gates of Jerusalem.
It was really as if they were treating him as sin itself. They said he's not fit for our society. They rejected him fully and they took him outside the gates of that holy city that had deteriorated to such a point that it had religion without Christ, and they crucified him without the gate. And so now we have been positionally sanctified. The apostle Paul said to the Galatians, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I under the world, we don't belong to this world anymore. We have been set apart, sanctified from this world in every aspect, whether it's the religious side of the world, the social side of the world, the political side of the world, we've been set apart. When Israel went through the Red Sea, they were sanctified. Moses LED them through the Red Sea, a picture of Christ, and they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the sea. And you know, they never positionally got back to Egypt.
Thank God they never got back there. Now in their hearts they returned into Egypt. Stephen says that when he sums up their history in the book of the Acts. In their hearts and in our hearts, we can return into Egypt if there isn't that practical day-to-day cleansing through the Word of God and practical sanctification. But thank God they never positionally got back there. And thank God we'll never be part of this world again. We'll never be under this world and its system again positionally. But we need to be careful, brethren, that in our hearts we don't return.
Into Egypt that there's that practical sanctification.
I'd like to connect these things had in the last reading meeting.
Almost would seem like this is disconnected, but it's not.
Umm, we had worship and the worshipper brought before us in the previous reading meeting and the I believe the thoughts here of the Spirit of God are giving emphasis to that fact actually that the sanctification looked at particularly here, while true in its broad principles that we've had before us, was also God setting apart.
The worshipper.
And that he might worship.
To get that thought a little more fixed, go back to verse 9.
It says, Lo, I come to do thy will. O God, he taketh away the 1St, that he might establish the second. The first did not produce worshippers.
It was necessary for God to do something, to establish a new order of things that would enable man, his creature, to become really, for the first time, properly speaking, a worshiper. A worshiper that could come into the presence of God in a proper way, and even the activity of worship itself was not something that man had previously been given the capacity to do.
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To see that more clearly, let's back up a little farther to the previous chapter and verse one. It says then verily the first covenant. That's what's referred to in our chapter when we say the first.
Where it says he taketh away the 1St that's referring back to Chapter 9 and verse one and where it says then verily the first covenant.
Had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary, for there was a Tabernacle made the first, wherein was and he describes the 1St and what it was and how it just the outline of it, and we go back to Leviticus and see the activities and so on. Even to Exodus. The point of it is that.
God.
Under the first.
Established a sanctified people.
Here we just were talking about sanctification. God set apart a sanctified people for himself.
Through Abraham and his seed.
And he set these people apart from all the wickedness and defilement of the creation, mankind, godless man, represented by the Gentile, and out from among the Gentiles and idolatry. He separates, sanctifies to himself a people, and establishes an order that would maintain them in a sanctified position before himself.
And then he established within that order of things.
Everything that would be possible to induce.
Man in nature.
To be a worshipper.
But it wasn't possible.
Everything that the natural man might wish in order to help him worship God. The most probably beautiful choir that was ever created among men was established in that order. The people of the choir, many of them, were born into that function and raised for that purpose.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful buildings that was ever made in mankind's history.
Was for the purpose of approaching God in worship.
The robes, the ceremony, everything that if possible, for natural man to approach God properly and give him the honor that is due to him, was established by God. It was, as it calls it, a worldly religion, but it was God's religion, established by God for mankind.
But at the same time as we had yesterday.
It didn't truly provide a single individual to be able to rightly come into the presence of God to offer.
We had that yesterday. Even Aaron, the high priest, the most privileged of all the people, as was mentioned yesterday, the first thing he had to go in to do was for his own sins.
He didn't approach in liberty. He didn't approach with a clear conscience. He didn't approach in liberty to worship. He was sanctified. He was sanctified as a family within the sanctification of the children of Israel. He was sanctified within the family to down to the just the fam, the members of Aaron and so on of the tribal Levi.
The most careful narrowing down to see if there was any single thing in the first.
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That would satisfy the heart of God.
And fulfill his heart in his nature.
It didn't work. It did not work. And So what we have in Chapter 10 here is to establish the 2nd.
To replace the first with a whole new order of things.
And as was mentioned yesterday, I'm trying to connect the two, uh, the, the now now, as it wasn't down to one man to try to do it, but every single person in this room.
And all others in the body of Christ have been brought into a position, and with provision to be brought into a state as well, that we may truly approach into the most holy presence of God.
And fulfill the function.
The setting apart for that privilege of entering into his presence, just gonna take a little bit more to see because you see the same.
Thought pattern, the same development of the Spirit of God in the first chapters of John's Gospel, which is really the introduction of Christianity to us to bring us into this place, that we have more formally connected here with Judaism.
In chapter one of John's Gospel.
We have the father, we have the son.
And through John the Baptist, we get the germ, the beginning of the seed of seeing what it was.
John the Baptist when he saw the Lord Jesus and he first says his comments about him.
He said behold the Lamb of God that taketh away to the sin of the world. That's praise.
He entered into the spirit of praise. Praise is thanking God.
For benefit given and always praise also tends to bring in ourselves in some way into it. Not in a wrong way. It praises proper and wonderful in its place. Thank you Lord for saving me. Thank you Lord, for my inheritance. Thank you Lord, for that. I'm going to be in heaven with you. And so on. That's praise. That's not worship.
The worship goes farther than that.
But the second time John the Baptist looks at the Lord Jesus and he just says, behold the Lamb of God.
That's the spirit of worship.
That goes beyond the 1St. It's that adoration of the new heart.
Man in nature, unregenerate man is incapable of fulfilling the function of of worship.
He does not have the capacity to do so.
And so in chapter 2 of John's Gospel.
We see the beginning of the first being replaced by the 2nd, when at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, the Lord's mother comes to him and he has to respond to her, and he says, What have I to do with thee, woman?
That is, she wanted and she had a relationship with him under the first, but if she or others were to become sanctified worshippers, that had to be on a new basis. It wasn't on the ground of Judaism. It wasn't on the ground of the original. In the next chapter, Nicodemus comes to the Lord by night, and he was a Jew. He had he. He was a sanctified person.
As far as Judaism was concerned, and he was an upright, sanctified person as well, but as it were, he wasn't a worshipper. On those grounds, the Lord had to say Nicodemus. I'll put it this way. If you want to get into the second, you must be born again. You've got to have life or you can't worship. You can't fulfill the purpose of God and the function of God. And so he was being taught.
That he was going to have to go from the first into the 2nd and in the 4th chapter of John's Gospel.
Worship is introduced more formally to us and actually it it explains truly what it is and what a worshiper is, says they that worship must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
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Uh.
To worship him in spirit, because it immediately says God is a spirit.
Man in nature doesn't rise above his soul and his emotions, and that isn't worship, and he can't worship in that way. He can praise, he can do homage. Natural man, according to his relationships can praise his fellow man, and he can do homage to someone like a king, but he can't worship.
But because to worship God in spirit is to worship God according to his own nature.
And we can only worship God according to his nature if we have a divine nature.
That gives us that capacity to fulfill the function. The one of the primary functions of our existence is to be worshippers. And so the Lord said the Gentiles didn't have it, the Jews didn't have it. He says you worship, you know, not what. And so the criteria was to be in spirit and in truth. And in truth there means to be according to the revelation given.
And the revelation given was basically new brethren we enter into it. They didn't until that point in time. The whole of John's gospel was the revelation to man and being, bringing him into the relationship to know God is Father.
So the Lord Jesus came, and He came to reveal the Father. Why?
So that we could be brought into the relationship to worship the Father.
That prior to that, we as creatures had no place there. There was nothing we we didn't have that relationship with God and the Jew never did.
But God wanted to bring mankind into a greater realization of Himself and nearness to Himself, and so He said you have to do it in spirit and in truth. And so it is according to His nature.
And it is according to the known relationship with himself. We worship him in the relationship that we know Emma's father and we worship the Lord Jesus in that regard as well. I'll just not to take all the time, but it's precious ministry that God's giving us in these things that connects itself with our chapter and and that is.
I don't know how for sure to put it that might not confuse but.
Umm, do we really worship?
I would suggest, brethren, it's not wise to be very occupied with whether we have or we haven't.
It's not a wise thing.
True worship is that adoration which comes from the renewed heart by the power of the Spirit of God, when the soul is set free from itself to be so occupied with its object that it adores the object, and they're only only God in the Lord Jesus are proper. Nothing else is to be worshipped when the adoration of the heart.
By the Spirit.
Lifts the soul to that spirit of John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God, that it's the overflow of the heart in adoration to God. And that's that's what worship is. Did I worship in the morning? I would leave that with God to decide and not make a statement about that. God knows if the heart truly overflowed to that extent.
It wasn't. Some people call things a worship meeting. Scripture never uses it in that expression at all because.
Umm, we probably would feel very inadequate if it was given that way, but it's a sense of it was a remembrance meeting. It was a remembrance. It was in the breaking of blood and we could consciously and intelligently say we praised, but the matter of worship is best left to God sees the heart as to whether.
It rose up to that point of adoration in which there was the overflow, uh, for God. But whatever it may be with us now, and whatever measure, and however often it may be in His presence, in eternity, it will be without any hindrance. And then as a sanctified people, we will perhaps worship without ever stopping.
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That is, will spill eternity with worship.
And and the heart of God will then.
Have fulfilled His purpose for us and for Himself, and we will be so, so occupied with adoration that we will.
Lose sight of self completely and we won't be thinking about it in in that way.
Uh, it Yeah. We'll be thinking about him in Revelation 5, the better translation even of one verse that we quite often use, and more the praise than the worship sense, and then I'll stop. Is thou art worthy, for thou was slain and hast redeemed.
And then?
The King James us. But the moment you say us, you're thinking about the praise side, you're thinking about the benefit rendered to you, and you're thankful for it, and you thank him for it. But worship goes beyond that. And then the new translation is thou art worthy, for thou was slain, and the US is left out. That company won't be occupied with it. That way. They'll say thou was slain, for thou hast redeemed to God.
By thy blood out of every hindered tongue and people and nation. In other words, the focus is so fully on the object that benefit rendered is is that there's liberty to to rise higher, if you will, in the soul.
That, uh, the Lord in requesting that we remember him.
Says this do in remembrance of me. We often say we remember the Lord in his death and that's true but he said Remember Me it's with a person that we should be occupied rather than I think if.
Like Don has been bringing out, if we could think more of him, who are we talking about? Who was that one that was hung on that cross outside of Jerusalem?
It was no mere man, it was the one who created the vast universe by the word of his power.
It was the one who was the Son in the bosom of the Father from all eternity.
And the more we're occupied with him, the more there will be worship. And I sometimes think that we think of the what he did, which is a very important point, Brother. We shouldn't forget that. But if we would think more of him, it would produce more worship. Jim mentioned yesterday that worship is not always connected with words.
And you have that in Matthew chapter 2 and.
The wise men came from the East.
And when they saw he was only a child in the house, it says, and probably less than two years old, they fell down, these wise men, and they worshipped him and presented gifts.
It doesn't say anything that these set.
Another illustration of worship I like to think of is.
Mary of Bethany and that supper they made for the Lord Jesus.
Lazarus sat at the table. Picture of Communion.
Mary, uh, Martha, served beautiful privilege.
Mary took a, uh, bottle of ointment, very costly, and broke it and poured it on the Lord Jesus.
She didn't say one word, but everybody knew in that house what Mary had done.
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That's worship, brother.
That should be an encouragement to our sisters.
We all worship.
And we pray, too, the sisters praise.
The Book of Hebrews.
Positional sanctification and being set apart.
There's a verse in chapter 12 and verse 14 that is not about positional. Chapter 12 and 14 says follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Otherwise, the teaching about sanctification in Hebrews is about positional teaching. And quite often it is said that we are set apart by God, we're set apart for God, and we're set apart to God. And therefore you have three different ways that you can look about this positional.
Sanctification.
When our brother was speaking about the eternal purposes, and that comes a good reference out of Ephesians chapter 3, verse 10, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. We see there the eternal purposes and His wisdom, and He wants it known.
Unto us. And so when we look back at verse six of our chapter.
Chapter 10 and six and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Thou has had no pleasure. Turn back with me to Isaiah 53 and verse 10 for a moment. Isaiah 53 and verse 10.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Now we have a verse that says that his soul was made an offering for sin, and it says that the Lord, it pleased him to bruise him.
We have a verse of very depth.
And a lot of different ways to think about.
And when you read it, it is not a conflicting verse because everything in Hebrews is about better. And here that we're looking at one sacrifice is superior to the many sacrifices of old, and it is the new, isn't it? And so when you study that.
There's a difference there in the little word pleased. It pleased Him to fulfill the eternal purposes, therefore completing that we could be sanctified and set apart for Him as one part of those things in which the fulfilling of his will pleased Him. And so that ties back in here to the passages that we're looking at.
And you always want to look at verse 12. And our brother very clearly explained it that he will never.
Stand up again to come back and deal with the sacrifice again because it's once and for all it's done with. Yes, we know he will stand up and he will come back and at the rapture, and yes, we know at the end of the tribulation he'll come back for his second advent, won't he? But this verse is written referencing that the one sacrifice was superior. It is better, and it was by God, for God and to God.
Provision for any seat. You look at the instructions given in the Tabernacle and also in the temple, there was never any seat provided because the work was never done.
But the fact that Jesus is at the right hand of God sitting.
Is a testimony to the fact the work is done.
God Himself is satisfied, and He has raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand. What a testimony, dear brethren, to the fact that the work is done forever done.
And that's really what you have in Hebrews. It's really in Hebrews not so much the work, although it is the work, but the results of the work. It's not so much where the Lord Jesus was here in this world as the lowly man of grace, the man of sorrows. It's not where he was hanging on a Roman cross outside the gates of Jerusalem, but it's where he is now because, as you say, the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorification of Christ.
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Our Gods Amen to the work of Calvary. And do we want proof that God is satisfied with the work of His Son? Do we want confirmation in our souls that we are now accepted in Him because of that work? Just look up by faith, brethren, and see where he is now. See him seated there. And if God were to refuse me now, he would have to refuse his own dear Son. And again, that is absolutely impossible. That's the security that's in which the believer stands before God in Christ.
Having by grace availed ourselves of that finished work of Calvary, the sacrifice that was accomplished on the cross.
We are as securing Christ as his Son who has been accepted there. There at the right hand of God. There's no room. When we get a hold of that in our souls, there's no room for any fear. There's no room for any thought that we can lose our salvation or that it's on shaky ground. No, God has raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand. And in Hebrews he seats himself down there.
Knowing fully that all has been accomplished.
In Second Samuel, Chapter 7.
David had been given a promise by God through Nathan.
David went in incomplete and sat down before the Lord and there's that beautiful worship comes forth. There's a little precursor which takes away the 1St. The Levitical economy couldn't do it. God acting in grace. And David recognising that God had acted in grace, brings him right into the presence of God.
Is a worshiper.
In the Old Testament, whose hearts really were touched weren't there? And I think that's good to recognize because in general it was a worship for the natural man. As you say, it didn't bring man close to God. There was always a distance. But it is beautiful to go through the Old Testament and see that there were those whose hearts were really touched and those who enjoyed privileges and even had flashes of light and revelation that were beyond.
The normal understanding of the day. And as you say, Brother David, it was all on the grounds of grace.
It's beautiful to go back and see that, but how beautiful for us that it is every believer's privilege now. There are a few in the Old Testament that God worked with, but isn't it beautiful to see that now?
In Christianity, it is the privilege of every believer and every believer positionally, whether they enjoy it or not or appreciate it or not. Every believer's position is positionally in the same standing before God. Just say this too, before we pass on that while the Lord Jesus this afternoon is seated at the right hand of God, it tells us what he's thinking about.
That's interesting henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his footstools. Verse 13 you know the Lord Jesus is seated this afternoon at God's right hand thinking about the day when he's going to come back and he's going to be vindicated on the very planet where they crucified him and set away with him crucify him and neither the heart of God the Father.
Or the heart of the Lord Jesus will be fully satisfied until that happens.
And God is going to make sure that in this on this planet where they cast out his Son, he has his full vindication. We know from the 2nd chapter of Hebrews that he already has that place in glory and from the very fact that he's been raised from the dead and seated at God's right hand. And God has now crowned him with a crown of of glory and honor, and he has his rightful place in heaven today.
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But he does not have it on earth, and I trust there's no thought, even in corners of our hearts, to this being the reigning time.
Or the Lord Jesus having his rightful place outwardly on this in this world today. But he's thinking about that, and God is thinking about that. And we ought to be thrilled when we think about that too. That's why I don't want to depart from our chapter, but that's why Paul in the verse we quoted earlier this afternoon, he said looking for that blessed hope. That's what we're looking for at any moment, the rapture, the coming of Christ to take us to be with himself. But that's not the only thing we're to be looking for.
And the glorious appearing, we're to be looking for that thinking about it. He's thinking about it. We ought to be thinking about it. And almost the last words Paul penned by inspiration where to Timothy and he said all those that love his appearing, do we love his appearing? The last glimpse this world got of the Lord Jesus.
Was hanging on a Roman cross, crowned with a crown of thorns. But it throws my heart to think there's a moment coming when heaven's gonna open up to reveal the Lord Jesus coming back in power and glory. Not crowned with that which was part of the curse, the crown of thorns, but he's coming back crowned with many crowns or many diadems as you get in the 19th of Revelation, brethren, that ought to thrill our hearts. And what is it all based on?
It's all based on the work of Calvary. Every blessing for every level of creation is based on the fact that the Lord Jesus offered himself as that supreme sacrifice. Oh, it's, it's a thrill to the heart of God. It's an anticipation to the heart of Christ. Is it an anticipation and thrill to our hearts too?
At that moment is I'd like to think of a gym as I think we can safely say that it will be the most glorious moment, the most tremendous display of power and glory that will ever be experienced on planet earth, past or future. That moment when heaven opens and Jesus comes back with the.
Redeemed and just think of the tremendous company of the redeem. I think we could probably safely save billions of the redeemed and not only they, but Second Thessalonians 2 tells us he's going to be accompanied by his mighty angels. Think of that the display of power and glory we have in Revelation 19 that Jim mentioned that the beast.
And his armies are gonna be coming against the Lamb and it they won't have a chance, they won't have.
A single chance when the Lord comes out of heaven, it's gonna be such a tremendous display of power and glory. That's what we're looking forward to. That's what he's expecting, isn't it?
Converse with John's Gospel, chapter 5.
And.
John's Gospel, chapters 5.
And verse 22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, as they honor the Father. Be that honoreth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hast sent Him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.
What is past?
From death unto life, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is.
When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear.
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Shall live under the first, which this chapter is bringing before us under the first.
Umm, it was really only a select people that were sanctified positionally and brought into an outward relationship with God, and for which there was a Tabernacle established that they might approach unto God and so on.
But it wasn't for everybody.
The Gentile didn't have that right.
They're called dogs and.
In their relationship and so on. But the second introduces something so wonderfully new that having done that work and sat down on the right hand of God, the message continues on from the worshipper in John 4 to go on to John 5. And as it were, say it's for everybody.
There there's.
There's no one that's going to be excluded from the opportunity to be brought into the place a blessing and into the place of being sanctified before God and entering in to becoming a worshipper and to live in the Father's house with the Father that was being revealed to man and yet.
His position there is now such that if a man refuses.
What is being brought to him?
Then the Son, when he leaves that throne to establish order on the earth, He does so in a way that all men must honor Him. And so in John 5, when it's presented, He will come in judgment. But in verse 24, the so well known verse, it says, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. He's brought from the first into the second. But then he says, shall.
Has till not come into condemnation. He won't be judged. He won't participate in what we have in our chapter when He comes forth in power and glory to set things right and to be honored. Why? Because he's passed from death unto life. He has passed from that place where he was formerly facing judgment into a new position. He sanctified to use the words that we're using before.
He's been sanctified into a new position where judgment can never come because he's been brought from death unto life. He's been redeemed out of his old position and brought into a new and a position that has nothing to do with judgment. And so even in our chapter, to go back to the, the connections that are constant really go back to.
Of chapter Hebrews and the end of Chapter 9.
And verse 27, in Chapter 9 and verse 27, it's appointed unto men once to die.
But after this the judgment.
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
And unto them that look for him, that is the believer.
He shall appear well. We in our chapter, we have Him appearing in righteousness and holiness and judgment.
But for his own in the end, before that happens, his own. In verse 28, it says he'll appear unto them the second time.
Without sin unto salvation means I'm going to read the new translation that looked for him the second time. Without sin for salvation, that is. The matter of sin for us is settled forever. We're in a new position and it's completely and forever established. We're beyond.
The matter of judgment into a new position where judgment can never come because our judgment took place already at the cross.
And our position in Christ is that what he is in the position he's in now, himself before God, having borne sin and become sin for us. And so when he comes for us the second time, the matter of sin has nothing to do with it. It's without sin, without taking up the issue of sin at all, to take us to be with himself.
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But if I'm not in that position, then he's he's waiting.
And when He appears the second time in this glory that is brought here and has been spoken about already, then it's the honor of the Son in judgment.
Solemn thing to have to honor the Son by being judged by him. But every man who has ever been brought under the message that we've been having, every single soul is going to honor the sun. We honor him when we accept him as Savior.
And recognize him as our Lord.
But every other man will honor him as his judge, because God is determined that the work is so satisfying to him that every single soul, one way or the other, is going to honor him.
Every knee shall bow in honour to himself, we as Savior, but many as judge.
Solemn, but that's where they you might say this is not disconnected flow of thought in this chapter.
See that it's all for the glory of God and the glory of His Son. We think of how wonderful it will be when we appear in glory with him. But there's a remarkable scripture in first, Second Thessalonians, one that bears out what we're saying. Second Thessalonians, chapter one.
We think of again of our part and the king. It's true a king will reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment, but again, it's all going to be for His glory. Just notice verse ten of Second Thessalonians chapter one Speaking of the day we've just been talking about. It says when He shall come to be glorified in His Saints and to be admired in all them that both in all them that believe. I'm gonna skip the parenthesis in that day. What is that day?
It's the day when the Lord Jesus appears in glory and the world looks up and they're going to see the Lord Jesus coming. Yes, as we've been saying, with a vast host of the redeemed, with the heavenly company.
But everyone in that day is going to reflect Christ. He's coming to be glorified in his Saints. You know, again, it throws my heart because in the measure in which we are occupied with Christ in glory. Now there will be an unconscious reflection of the glories of Christ in our life. But I have to on. I can only speak for myself and sometimes, and I have to say sometimes it's pretty clouded picture, but it throws my heart to think brethren.
But when heaven opens up in a coming day to reveal God's Son coming in power and glory.
And we come with them wherever the the they look. They're gonna see Christ fully reflected in every St. You and I are going to fully reflect Christ in that day.
Because it's God's Son that will be the center of everything. It is God's purpose.
To vindicate his son and to have his son fully glorified.
You know, to be glorified is to have every attribute and quality that makes up a person's character brought into full display.
And every quality and character of God is going to be brought into full display.
In his Son and in all of the heavenly company, when we he's coming to be glorified in his Saints, when we reflect Christ fully in that day. Brethren, that ought to motivate us to live for his glory now while we wait that time.
You're talking about the practical side, right? But look at verse 14. Because this says something different. For by one offering he had perfected forever them that are sanctified. So are you perfect, Jim?
That wonderful.
And the measure that we are brought into the enjoyment of that brother.
It's gonna make us careful on our walk down here, so it will be reflected more by grace in us now, even now.
In connection with the Tabernacle because the boards of the Tabernacle, while they collectively made-up the dwelling place of God amongst his people in the wilderness, individually they represent individual believers and there were two things that characterized.
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Those those boards, One is they sat in two sockets of silver. That's redemption. Silver is invariably a picture of redemption.
In the scripture. But there was something else that characterized those boards. They were covered completely with pure gold.
And gold represents to us divine righteousness. And it's a little different, but it's like it says in Second Corinthians, we've been made the righteousness of God in him. We here we find by one offering a perfected forever, then they're sanctified. When the eye of God rested on those boards, it wasn't to see that rough cut lumber, it was to see that which spoke to the heart of God of divine righteousness.
And so we have a perfect standing, two sockets of silver. That's our redemption and covered with pure gold. That's our the righteous position in which we stand and nothing as we've been saying in this meeting, Brian, we need to get a hold of this in our souls. Nothing can change our standing. I stand perfect before God in Christ practically, it's not always the pretty picture, but I if we just go back and rest, don't get discouraged and overwhelmed by failure. Judge it, but go back and rest on the perfect standing.
That you have in Christ. That's what's going to encourage you and that's what's going to give us the strength. And as you say, the more we are occupied with our position, our standing, the more it's going to raise our state of soul. Because as we enjoy our standing, we cannot help but walk in newness of life.
Sing just verse #1 and verse #5 and stand.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called, whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified.
And then in uh.
2nd Epistle of Peter.
Chapter One.
In the middle of of verse 4.
That by these he might be partakers of the divine nature.