Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.heritagesermons.org/sermons/6197/hebrews-quality-average/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] If one might be out for a little while, we'll ask you attention to Paul's Depist of the Hebrews, the 10th chapter, and we'll read verse 12. [0:14] But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. You find these words in Paul's Depist of the Hebrews, chapter 10 and verse 12. [0:33] But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. I shall not take up any great length of your time this morning in setting forth to you the epistle of the Hebrews. [0:56] It will take a long while to point out what we have in this remarkable epistle. The keynote is that Christ fulfilled the sacrifices under the Old Testament dispensation. [1:13] that he did away with the ceremonial law, that he was the great sacrifice. [1:25] That the sacrifices under the Old Testament dispensation all pointed to Christ, which they did. It is very profitable. It is very profitable. [1:35] If you care to consider this, am I taking a careful study of the Levitical dispensation as set forth in Paul's Depist of the Hebrews? [1:47] Many have argued as to who wrote the book. Many have argued as to who wrote the book. But I haven't come here this morning to discuss the argument only to tell you I believe it was written by the Apostle Paul. [2:00] You might disagree, but it doesn't matter. We know it is part of the inspired word of God. And here you have the key to the Levitical dispensation. [2:12] Dear old Romain used to talk about the Gospel of Leviticus. When I was a young man and a boy, I used to think what a dry old boy. [2:23] Nothing in Leviticus that I could see to interest me was all about killing of animals and sheep and bullets. When you come to think, I think it's the 17th or the 18th chapter, you read it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. [2:44] That's Levitical words. That's not a New Testament text, though the truth is in the New Testament. That's a text out of Leviticus. [2:56] It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. And you that fear God know it. Not the blood of animals. [3:07] But we must leave the consideration of the book in general. Paul, as you know, towards the end of the epistle, he starts off with showing concerning the person of Christ, that Christ was infinitely preferred above angels. [3:29] But I haven't got time to go into it. You can read this at your leisure. That Christ was far above angels. Of course it was. Now angels are a very wonderful being. [3:43] Then he sets forth the necessity of living faith and of continuing in the faith towards the latter part of the epistle. In the 11th of Hebrews, you have the wonderful account of the worthy proofs of faith as manifested in the Old Testament saints. [4:04] Then the last two chapters are set forth by divers exhortations. As to how the Christian should live and walk. [4:19] As to how the child of God should fight in the spiritual battle with the promises of divine blessing. Now to get a little closer to the word of the text. [4:32] Paul, as you know, in this particular chapter again, he sets forth the inability of the law to justify a sinner. [4:43] There was no provision in the law of God to justify the ungodly. The law shows no mercy. [4:55] I have been called into question for making such a statement in times past, but it hasn't hold on me in my view. The law showed me no mercy. And if you've had a law work in your soul, the law will show you no mercy. [5:10] No, it won't. The law won't say to you, well now we'll slip over this. We'll pass over this. I'll make no mention of this. For this I must call to account for, but so and so's sinned, I'll forget. [5:24] The law doesn't talk like that, friends. The law says, do this and live. It says, do that and die. The soul that sinned, it shall die. [5:37] And cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in the book of the Lord. That's right. I don't care, friends, who you are. [5:49] I don't care what man or woman or child it is. If you die under the law, you die under the curse. Ah, you won't be with Christ and the church on the vantage ground of victory when he makes up his jewels if you die under the law. [6:04] You won't. I'm clear of your blood. You won't. I tell you, you won't. You say what everybody thinks. I'm a very nice sort of person. Ah, so they may. [6:15] It's not what people think about us, Ralph. It's not what people's opinions. It's how we stand in the sight of Almighty God. [6:26] That's it. I have to do with God. And God has to do with me. It is what you say about me. A lot of folks say a lot of things about me. So they do you probably. [6:38] My profession of religion has been criticized, misrepresented. I've been called all mannerly. But that doesn't hurt me. That doesn't affect me. [6:49] It's how I stand in the sight of God. That's what I can. If the law can damage me, and I'm under the curse of it, and I feel like that in God's sight, I say, friends, it doesn't matter what people's opinions may be. [7:13] It doesn't matter what opinion you may have for yourself. If you're under the law, you're under the curse. You know, I'm clearing your blood, and I preach myself as I preach to you. Ah, and I can remember going back now very many years, when those words hit me. [7:32] Ah, and they hit me. Have you ever had the passage of Scripture? It hits you. When it hits you in your soul. Nobody about it. It just hits you. [7:44] Cursed is everyone that continues not in all the things written in the book of the Lord and do it. Ah, it hit me. And if God shoots an arrow, I tell you, friends, in all reverence, he's a marvelous shot. [8:04] He never misses his bullseye. He always gets a bullseye dead arm when he shoots an arrow of conviction. And if he shoots one in your heart, you that have had it, it hits you. [8:16] And if he's got one on the way for anybody here that hasn't yet received it, thanks be to God, he won't miss his mark, it will hit you at the right time. [8:27] And you'll fall under him. And the law will then be made real to you, and you will know the holiness, the justice, the righteousness, and the equity of God's holy law. [8:45] The law shows no mercy for me. It's you, Christ, no mercy. So I know it won't show me anything. The law of Paul says in this chapter, and I must hasten this, it is not my intention to dwell on this side of it, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things. [9:08] That's the ceremony of the law. Now the law, as I have said, cannot justify. The heart is right when he says, since too convinced and too condemned is all the law can do. [9:21] The law can't justify. If you once become a lawbreaker, as we all are, then the law has no power to exonerate, to excuse, or to justify. [9:38] The only way whereby a sinner can be justified is through the claims of the law being met on the sinner's behalf. If he can't meet them himself, and he can't meet them himself. [9:52] You'll see the suffrage is tremendous, and we'll only just skim the edge of it, as God may help us. The ceremonial law only had a shadow. [10:06] It couldn't justify the sinner. I have thought sometimes, what a tremendous amount were offered. If you young folk would like a little something to do Sunday night, when father and mother are busy, it may be, reading, and you wonder, you get your Bible, and you count up how many sheep and goats and lambs and bullocks were offered by Sir Solomon on the day of the dedication of the temple. [10:37] You value it up. You'll be surprised how many were killed at the dedication of the temple alone. Think of the hundreds of thousands of sheep, goats, lambs, bullocks, and haphons were killed under the Old Testament dispensation. [10:57] Read that beautiful chapter, you were the ruler. I love the chapter. The 16th of Leviticus. And think of Christ all the way through it. [11:09] The sheep, the sin offering of Jesus Christ. Aaron had to offer for himself. Christ didn't offer for himself, as I'll show you. But Aaron did, because he wasn't perfect. [11:21] You have the goat for the sin offering, and then you have the goat that was the scapegoat. Now you read the 16th of Leviticus, and all the while you think of Christ as the offering. [11:36] Beautiful. Of all the thousands of animals that were killed, they never expiated or did away with one sin. [11:49] Now you see what Paul said when he said, the Lord is the same. The millions of pounds in modern money that were spent under the Old Testament dispensation, in the slaughter of animals, in the sacrificial law, under the ceremonial dispensation, it never did away or remove one sin. [12:14] Now you see what Paul said when he said, the Lord had a shadow of the things, not the very image of the things. He never had a maker come as their undue purpose. [12:29] Seeing then that Paul here sets forth the inability of the ceremonial law and the certainty of what the old divine used to call the moral law, to condemn the sin. [12:45] He sets forth the glorious doctrine of justification. The glorious doctrine of justification. And he shows how Christ fulfilled all the types and shadows under the Old Testament dispensation. [13:06] As you will appreciate, as I have hinted, our subject is tremendous. Eternity alone will unfold some of the glorious things that we in our finite state are not capable of grasping or condemnation. [13:24] Now with those few opening remarks, and they are but few, because the subject is a tremendous, I could go on with God's help on the epistle for a long while to point out to you what Paul says here concerning the sacrifices and the priesthood of Aaron, and how far superior the sacrifice and the priesthood of Christ are, if you like, is the present days. [13:54] Now my intention was to try and dwell on the words and confine myself more particularly to the text. My first consideration is this man. This man. [14:07] I wonder how many people here know this man. I don't hear. You said, everybody come to chapel. Know this man? They don't hear. [14:19] I wonder how many of you know this man. That's my first thought. My next consideration will be what he did. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, we come then to the offering of this man. [14:42] And what did he offer? The sacrifice. And what did the sacrifice consist of? You heard me read, if you followed me close enough, he offered himself. [14:54] He offered himself. And what was it for? You heard me. It was for sin. It was for sin. It was for sin. What I have been trying very briefly to hint at. [15:08] It was for sins committed. For the breaking of the law. For transgressing God's holy command. [15:20] For inflaming divine justice. For incensing the wrath of God against us. [15:33] These things stood, as it were, as a mighty barrier. And ere the sinner can get to heaven, the barrier must be removed. [15:46] I think it's dear old Bunyan. He said there were three things that blocked the road to heaven. The law, the sin, and the angels. [15:58] He was right. The ministers of the angels are, ministers of God. They were there, her heart, to see that God's righteous commands were executed. [16:14] The law said, no entrance here. Sin said, yea, it's impossible. [16:25] You can add the wrath of God, the justice of God. All blocked the road. Now, ere a sinner can go to heaven, those obstacles must be righteous. [16:41] Not the words. Righteous. Consistent with divine justice. They must be removed. And how can it be done? [16:55] Could Gabriel, the archangel, collect a multitude of those wonderful spirits, and come down and somehow remove the obstacles? [17:10] Justice would show her. Justice would show her flaming swords. And even angels would be terrified. Consider angels, knowing it was impossible. [17:23] How, then, can the obstacles be removed? Mercy would say, remove. [17:38] Let the sinner enter the paradise of God. The justice says, never, never, never. [17:53] And what is to be done? Must the whole human race perish, and forever lie in hell? Yes, but the sovereign grace, and the infinite, free, divine love of the three, one, Jehovah. [18:16] The coming and purposes had determined by sovereign grace, long ere ever Adam lived all that. [18:29] The redeemed, a number that no man can number, of the fallen sons of men. Have you ever thought, God passed by angels, they are elect angels, as well as they are elect men and women? [18:47] Now, I mustn't go into that. But there are, now I give you the thought, you study your Bible. They are elect angels, and they are non-elect angels. People don't quarrel about that. [18:58] They quarrel when you talk about God having an elect people. About the Lord having an election of grace. They don't mind you talking about God having an elect angels. The sovereignty of God, friends, is clearly seen in both. [19:13] Covenant provision had determined to save a rampant, according to the elect of grace. [19:25] How could it be done? How could it be done? Ah, this man could do it. This blessed man took every obstacle away. [19:36] This lovely man, as Yeni said in his first and last communion, You're a lovely man. Beloved friends, this man alone could remove the obstacle, consistent with divine justice. [19:57] Consistent with all the attributes of deity. And eventually justice dropped out of soin. [20:09] Mercy flung open the gates. And the sinner was welcomed into the paradise of grace. This man, one or two things concerning this man. [20:27] Again, I pressed the question first. I must press it. Do you know? How many of you here can honestly say that they've had dealings with this man? [20:42] Have you ever spoke to this man? Has he ever spoken to you? Has he ever spoken to you? [20:54] Can you say that the church of old, his mouth is most sweet? You can't unless you've heard him speak, can you? You wouldn't know what sort of voice I've got if I never opened my mouth. [21:07] And every time I saw you, I kept my lips closed. And you'd never heard a word past my lips. You couldn't say what sort of voice I got, could you? Whether it was harsh, whether it was sweet, whether it was wrong, whether it was uncool, you couldn't tell. [21:23] You must hear me speak to form a judgment of my voice. Now then, Frank, unless you've heard the voice of this man, you're no judge of him. [21:34] Some of us can tell you his mouth is most sweet. I also don't know much, but I know that little bit. [21:48] Ah, the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. Have you heard it? Now then, be honest, Fred. You that fear God, it's good to look bad. [22:02] Ah, it is. I think it was Barnard, I heard the voice of Jesus say. Ah, you say, it's an old free willy, if we don't want that in Laken. [22:13] It's not a free willy, Frank. Let's have a right balance of truth. It's a beautiful way. I don't care what you say, whether you like it or whether you don't. [22:25] It's a beautiful way. Come unto me and live. Ah, if you've heard the voice saying unto you, come unto me all ye that are weary. [22:38] Ah, I've been weary, Frank. When I was a young man, struggling under the law, ah, I got so weary in me. [22:50] When Christ speaks and says, come unto me, that's not free will. If you call it free will, I'm sorry for you. I hate free will as what do you do. [23:01] But let's differentiate and have things right. If you never come to Christ, you'll be lost. You say, well, I'm a strict Baptist. I don't care a hang whether you're a strict Baptist or not. [23:13] If you never come to Christ, you'll be lost. I don't care what to put on your gravestone either. Have things right. Now, if you've heard the voice of Christ of this little man saying, come unto me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. [23:39] You know it's sweet that he is all together. I'd like to ask you that fear God a question. [23:53] When was the last time you heard the voice of this man? Some of you, thank God, don't know how to go back very fast. But it might be if you've got into a cold, careless, dark, indifferent state. [24:09] Ah. You might have to go back a long while. Aren't you bothered about it? If you can be comfortable long without communication with this man, friend, you're in a sad state of soul. [24:27] talking to you in the clear God. Ah. If your soul is in hell, you can't go long without communication from this lovely, blessed man. [24:46] It may not always be by some application of a text of scripture, if he softens your hands, blessed feet, if he draws out your spirit's affection to his blessed self, to his truth, his word, and his gospel. [25:05] That's a communication from this lovely man. Had I a lot of time at my disposal of God's help, I would have spent quite a bit on the person of Christ. [25:22] But I must only just hint at it, that it must not be left out. In these days of atheism and infidelity, in these days of irreligion and wickedness, it beholds us to be very clear and very firm and very dogmatic on the person of Christ, this man. [25:41] And then, here you have this wonderful person, the eternal Son of God, in time. [25:54] When you read concerning Christ, where the scriptures reveal his deity, remember that you have the Son of God, the very eternal self-existent creator in the person of Christ. [26:19] As I have told you for years, some of you, you cannot separate the essence of the Godhead. We have no less than the Almighty God in the person of Christ. [26:43] Christ's deity was valuable. Read the 17th of John. There were only those that were taught of the Spirit that really saw the evidences of it. [26:55] The high priest said, art thou the Son of God? I have thought sometimes of the high priest and those that had arrested Christ on that wonderful night. [27:11] He didn't look much like a king, did he, Blasen? Never thought about it. He said he would drink nothing after he had drunk in the upper rooms until he had drunk in the spiritual kingdom. [27:27] Never thought about it. He'd been sweating blood. He'd been agonizing in Gethsemane on the ground. [27:39] Ah. I believe in his sorrow and agony he frustrated himself right on the earth which God cursed in Eden. And Christ in his agony came to grips with it. [27:56] Never thought of it. He rises in his distress. He is arrested. He's hustled before Cairns and Amherns. [28:10] Battered and fallen. His clothes all in disarray. No doubt. His hands roped behind him. He hadn't washed. [28:24] He'd had nothing to eat or drink for hours. He hadn't had a wink of sleep. You look it up. It's all here. That's his DNA. [28:35] He didn't look much like a king. And he certainly looked like the Son of God in their eyes, didn't he? And yet, that blessed man, this man, the very man in my text, that stood in all that ignominy, disgrace, stood before thee, a high priest, in all that sorrow and distress, was no less than God Almighty. [29:10] And every breath they drew, they owed to him. You think I'm like that? I say, he didn't look much like God, but he was. [29:25] No less a God then than he is now. No less God then, friends, than he is now. And no more a God now than he was then. [29:36] This man. This Godman. Ever content for the Godhead of Christ. [29:47] The deity of Christ is being attacked on all quarters today. Ah, it is. It's the masterpiece of heaven to attack the Godhead of Christ. [30:01] see it undoes as it were doctrinally it can't undo it in reality but doctrinally it undoes the very fundamentals of our holy religion if Christ be not God then I'll get down the steps and go home and I'll never come back there's no point in me coming here to preach there's no point in you coming here to hear if Christ be not God it's only for bargain some of us know Christ is God you say out of the Bible yes I believe the Bible I accept this as the word of God not the modern translation as they call it that's a corruption and God won't honour it and the church of God will kick it out and will never receive it the true church of Christ the true church of Christ but I know Christ is God because what he's done in my soul and what he's done in my life ah that's the way to love the deity of Christ unless he'd been God-dressed he could have never stopped me and some of you say the same blindly running around to hell see respectable morally respectable creatures [31:36] I don't say nothing about that but the heart was wrong the spirit was at end there was no fear of God before our eyes we were counselled we had godly parents thank God for them I thank God now often in my heart for godly parents but they never put me on the right road to heaven they tried to guide me they tried to set up signposts they did their best and right they should do oh yes I don't believe those who say oh well I can't give my children grace see all I can do is pray for them let them go wild turn them out like a lot of wild pigs let them go man now that's wrong I don't wonder how I'm getting into trouble my parents sought to guide me and sought to direct me in the right path but I resent him till God came till Christ sent his spirit and said now stop it if God comes to stop you you won't get fast the block heap was in the road now you may be a good jumper you may jump nine feet if you like you won't get over the block heap was in the road [33:00] I say and if you have been brought to the feet of the cross and felt the cleansing power of the blood of Christ you know he is the son of God you know this man also Christ was a true truly and really a man now often I think while we pull past and seek set forth the divinity of Christ we forget his humanity let us not do that Christ was a perfect man I think I think we forget that I love the man it's a great mystery I can't explain it I can't explain it it's such a mystery beyond me Christ was a real man he had flesh blood and bones nerves and a nervous system like you and I what he did and if you've ever had nervous trouble [34:22] I have done in my time and I've thought sometimes the Lord Jesus understands because he had a nervous system he was a real man real man he hungered he thirsted he walked he sat down he kneeled he rubbed with his finger and he did he cried the tears rolled down his face with sorrow at Lazarus grave we aren't told how many more he shed besides them don't you think they were the only tears that cried shed ah he shed no end of tears but he was here blessed and some of them for you rabble some of them ah why he was a real perfect blessed the great mystery was how the divine nature didn't defy the human and the human nature didn't humanize the divine two distinct natures but one glorious Christ in this blessed man now this is a subject that is tremendous a subject as you know [36:01] I am very fond of that I must curtail my thoughts that's tremendous this blessed person very God and very man very man and as man he condescended to submit I say to man ever thought of that there were times when he manifested his deity you and I are controlled by the law of gravity ah I must have stopped to talk about it I often think about it I often think about it when I met my world what a wonderful thing the law of gravity is I lay a thing down it stops now you can't see it you wouldn't sit in those seats if it weren't for the law of gravity if I held a feather gravity takes it down you watch a stream running a rivulet of water it follows doesn't it the law of gravity to the lowest spot now Christ submitted to that as man but when he saw fit he could dispose of it and he walked on the water to Peter and he disposed of the law of gravity and in his miraculous power he accomplished the same for Peter [37:39] Peter couldn't do it when he took his eyes off his master the Lord let gravity work ah friends and how often gravity's pulled me down in my soul and I took my eyes off my master I'd pick some of you and say ah I could shake hands the Lord in his sovereignty put certain limits regarding the humanity of Christ you see there was no sin in Christ the one who thought there was no sin in him and as I read the Bible he couldn't catch what you and I call diseases there shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling in the 91st Psalm and I believe that has a reference to Jesus Christ he couldn't fall and break a bone because prophecy said a bone of him shall not be broken they tried to smash into pieces you remember when they stoned him and those stones were great boulders they weren't little cobbles they had the end of my finger like we naughty little boys used to throw about and we were naughty little boys too boys should never throw stones these were great cobbles took man two hands to lift them you can see why Paul took his jacket off or saw all the tarsal and the stone steamed it was hard work they all laid the coats at his feet they wanted to be what we should call being the jerk leaves now had they been allowed to stone the Lord Jesus Christ to death they would have crushed it broken his bones ah the deity said no you shan't do it and of course they and all the devils in hell couldn't overturn the purposes of God [39:49] God put certain limits certain limits he couldn't catch the laparism he couldn't catch the powers no there was no sin in him no sin in him and I'm one of those old fashioned men that hold that Christ wasn't liable or susceptible to sin now I know some good men differ with me I know they do theologians a lot better theologians ever I am or ever shall be would argue with me if they were here that I was wrong but as I read my Bible there was no susceptibility in my blessed Christ to sin he couldn't sin he didn't know he was a perfect holy pure righteous man now you fear God let me appeal to you because if you don't fear God you cannot follow me in this [41:02] I'm sorry for you but if you don't fear God you can't follow me in this you that fear God think of all the unrighteous thoughts that have gone through your mind since you first breathed in your mother's land the thoughts that even in your mind as a child they were in mine rebellion thoughts of enmity when father or mother said do this there was something in your little mind like there was in mine I'm sure I do it that's sin in God's life think of the sinful thoughts in your youthful years think of the thoughts of unrighteousness that have passed through your mind since you've been ground to manhood the pride the covetousness the rebellion I'm talking now to you that fear God the iniquity of your heart since God bled you makes you shudder to be one of the precious blood of Christ now then this blessed man never had one unrighteous thought when he was a child not one wrong thought ever entered his mind [42:37] I can remember my mother you know had a large family and I saw many of them in her arms and she used to say sometimes with a baby in her arms cool what a paddy that child is in only an infant in her arms now you mothers know that's right the child sometimes manifests even a little babe what we call a paddy or a temper Mary's babe had no paddies blessed blessed blessed be his name now Christian there is your representative your head he fulfilled the law for you this blessed man this lovely man did everything the law required in heart lip and life for you before he died to atone for your sins so the law is perfectly satisfied with the accomplishments of this blessed man. You've got nothing to do, friends, [43:52] Christians, you've got nothing to do, only receive the power, the forgiveness, the love, and the justification that Christ sets forth. The poor and lost, really, held it early, the peace of this man. [44:30] We close by singing hymn 125. Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altar slain could give the guilty conscience ease or wash away the stain. [44:47] But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they. [44:58] One, two, five. One, two, five. One, two, five. He could do whatever he works or make his pauses. [45:13] I want him. I think for were you happy who believes this man would be blamed. He didn't 쓰는 pimple of him, no one had any policies or guidelines? [45:26] He's challenged. Thank you. [45:58] Thank you. [46:28] Thank you. [46:58] Thank you. [47:28] Thank you. [47:58] Thank you. [48:28] Thank you. [48:58] Thank you. [49:28] Thank you. [49:58] Thank you. [50:28] Thank you. [50:58] Thank you. [51:28] Thank you. [51:58] Thank you. [52:28] Thank you. [52:58] Thank you.