The Book of Hebrews 10:5-10 We have been sanctified
Hebrews 10:5-10 · Vern Peterman · Jan 26, 2014
Hebrews, No. 40
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492641510983

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Therefore, when he, the Son, comes into the world at his first coming, he, the Son, says, quoting Psalm 46-8, Sacrifice and offering you, the Father, have not desired, but a body you, the Father, have prepared for me, the Son, in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you, the Father, have taken no pleasure.

Then I, the Son, said, Behold, I, the Son, have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, the Son, to do your will, the Father's will. O God, the Father. After saying above, sacrifices and offerings, and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you, the father, have not desired, nor have you, the father, taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. Then he said, behold, I, the son, have come to do your will, your, the father's will. He takes away the first old law covenant in order to establish the second new covenant when the son comes again. By this will, that is the Father's, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Good morning. Now I'll just point out that while Brad agreed to read this, he says it is kind of Dr. Seussian. So at any rate, all the little brackets in there. So hopefully that's clarifying though. Several things to say about this passage here. One is it's a Christmas passage, believe it or not. It has some rather amazing features, even some indications, as we'll soon see, about Christ's virgin birth here in this passage. Also, the quote from Psalm is from the perspective of Christ before he was born, pre-incarnate Christ, speaking to the Father. So, interesting perspective. This passage is centered on conversations between the Son and the Father, and this particular portion of it is centered on the Son speaking directly to the Father. The other thing, this passage ends with a Good Friday gift to us, to you and me. It is a real gift too, not just a gift in name.

It's a gift that comes without any invoice and no IOU to repay the gift. It's something actually we look for in the words for songs. Sometimes the songs will be written from a perspective that we owe God something or something is due Him. No, that's not grace. How would you like it if you got a birthday present with an IOU and an invoice, right? That's not the way gifts work. It is a real, true gift that we've been given.

You also have this kind of time chart here in your handout and on the slide here. And we want to bring that in perspective because it shows the first coming of Christ, the time described in the four Gospels, when Christ came to earth and He died for us and was buried and resurrected. That's His first coming. We are now in what's called the Church Age. starting at Acts 2 and proceeding on to what we call the rapture, the time when the Lord comes to take the church home. After a seven-year tribulation, which you have marked in there, Christ will come again. That will be a coming with us. That's the second coming. then there will be a reign of Christ on the earth for 1,000 years, and then on into the new heavens and new earth and into eternity.

That's the quick outline. And we want to point that out because, in fact, this passage talks about Christ's first coming and Christ's second coming in this passage. And so keeping that in perspective, when we use those terms, that's what we mean. Now, we're about here, right? OK. Just so you know. Right? OK. That's about where we're at.

So this passage does touch on both the first and the second coming of Christ. He came to offer the gospel of the kingdom, which was presented explicitly and directly to the Jews, and the gospel of substitution, that is the gospel that He died in our place. Those are the two gospels that actually the Bible from Genesis to Revelation teaches. Those two Gospels, they're separate messages. He also had other purposes that we've addressed just a few weeks ago, other purposes for his death as well, in addition to that. Christ's second coming, which is yet future, when we will be with him on his return to earth. We will all be in new bodies returning with him on his return to earth in his second coming.

The new covenant will be in effect in which Israel will know and live out the law by empowerment. They will all have the Holy Spirit all the time. All the Jews will have the Holy Spirit all the time in order to know and live out the law from the heart. From the head and from the heart.

Now, this is the picture that scripture gives, Genesis 15 and Ezekiel 48. This is the picture that scripture gives as to the boundaries of Israel during that time. It encompasses about eight countries right now, and all are in part. This passage also gives part of the content of what's called the Eternal Covenant. We're going to be looking at that as we proceed through the book of Hebrews.

You see the reference there to Hebrews 13.20. That's where there's reference made to the Eternal Covenant. And it goes like this.

In eternity past, God the Father and God the Son made a covenant with one another regarding Christ's death. his burial and his resurrection. Those things are involved in that, that has impacts for eternity past, all of earth time, and for eternity future. It impacts everything.

A covenant has, and we've mentioned this before, so just as a reminder, one, a promise. two, an oath, and three, a gesture, often a sacrifice. Because this is part of the eternal covenant and not all of it, because what we see in this passage is part and not all of it, we have a promise, that's the first aspect here, is given in this passage and the offering of Jesus' body as the sacrifice fulfills number three.

So one and three. the promise and the sacrifice are spoken of in this particular passage here quoting Psalm 40. So let's take a look at Hebrews 10, 5. And now, just to explain, I used the letters A, B, and you'll soon see C and D. What we do in order to designate things is between the various punctuation marks, whether it's commas, semicolons, parentheses, the first one will be A, the next part will be B, et cetera. So, the first half of verse 5 is, Therefore, when he, the Son, comes into the world at his first coming, he, the Son, says, and then quoting Psalm 46-8. So this is the covenant that was made before God said, Let there be light. But in fact, it refers here to the time just before he came, with that perspective.

So when he comes into the world, how did that happen? When and how did Christ come into the world? The Son, right? Christ came into the world through the will of God the Father as a work of the Holy Spirit conceived in the Virgin Mary. Therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all three had a part in Christ's birth, right? The will of the Father, the work of the Holy Spirit, Christ being the Son of God. So all three persons of the Trinity were involved in Christ's birth. Jesus was born physically in Bethlehem.

That's what was prophesied in Micah 5.2. As a matter of fact, when the Magi, the wise men as they're also called, came into Jerusalem and they got the attention of Herod. Herod, not knowing the scriptures, went and called the Jewish scholars and said, you know, where is the Messiah to be born? Bethlehem, right?

So they got that right. Not much else, but they got that right. So the Old Testament and the New Testament together, with consistency, the Gospels repeat this repeatedly, again and again, say that God the Father sent the Son into the world, and Jesus himself testifies, the Father sent me. So here is, for instance, John 3, 16 and 17, which is in the context of Nicodemus and Jesus. Remember, Nicodemus was among the Sanhedrin. He was a high-level rabbi. He comes to Jesus at night. And so these words are included.

For God the Father so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world, to judge the world at His first coming, but that the world might be saved through Him. His first coming was focused on saving, right? His second coming, will He judge the world? Yes, indeed. So the first coming was not to judge, but the second coming will be.

So now, Galatians 4, 4, and 5 has this perspective, and notice this is expanded and explained, so it's got a few different words than what you might find in your Bibles. But when the fullness of the time came, the God and Father sent forth the Son, born of a woman, born under law, so that He might redeem those who are under a principle of law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So who sent the Son? The Father sent the Son. Scripture is full of this message, and Paul doesn't deviate from that at all.

Now, he begins to quote here as he goes into the next section, Psalm 40, verses 6-8. It was written by King David about a thousand years before the birth of Christ. And that's something to kind of wrap your head around. We're talking about 10 centuries earlier this was written.

And so here's David writing prophetically about a conversation between the father and the son in which this particular quote is the son speaking to the father. David wrote about a conversation and an understanding between the Father and the Son which originates from eternity past. It's based on the eternal covenant that the Father and the Son made with one another. David wrote Psalms prophetically. He wrote Psalms about Christ's first coming. As a matter of fact, this very passage is one of those. He wrote about Christ's crucifixion.

You want to look that up? Psalm 22, right? And then his second coming. Psalm 2 would be an example of that. The Tribulation and the Second Coming are in Psalm 2, and other events as well. So this is one of those Psalms of David, writing a thousand years before Christ came at His first coming, writing prophetically about things that were yet to take place. So here's now where we include the other half of verse 5.

We call it C and D. I'll read the entire verse here just to keep it in context. Therefore when he the son comes into the world at his first coming, he the son says, quoting Psalm 46 through 8, sacrifice and offering you the father have not desired, but a body you the father have prepared for me. Let's look at that.

Sacrifice and offering you the father have not desired. Now the sacrifices and offerings of the old law covenant given through Moses was inspired by God himself. What do you mean you don't desire it? What does that mean? But it was just to point to and to illustrate Christ. Until the right time, until the fullness of time when Christ would come. It was an illustration. That's what it was all about.

At the right time and the fullness of time, the Son came into the world, but the animal sacrifices and offerings were not ultimately what God was looking for. God could not, on the basis of the animal sacrifices, show fully His mercy and His grace. Those required Christ to make the sacrifice. The animal sacrifices didn't get there.

Now this next part, but a body you have prepared for me. God the Father prepared a human body for God the Son by means of the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity involved here. So here is Mary, who had in her conceived God the Son, and without a human father involved, therefore the Holy Spirit was the one involved.

That body was the seed of the woman, this is Genesis 3.15, born of a woman, just like the passage we saw in Galatians a moment ago, but not of a man, not of a male, a son of Adam. A human woman, but miraculously conceived. Now think about this, there are four ways that human beings have come into the world, and three of them happen only once. Think about that.

How did Adam come in? God created from the dust of the ground this Adam and breathed into him the breath of life. But he only did that once. How did Eve come into existence? God didn't say, hey, I'll take some more clay, I'll take some more dust, right? No, he took a part of Adam and that only happened once. And then you have this conception and birth of Christ in which there was a human female Mary but no earthly father. So three ways only happen once. All the rest of us got here the regular way.

The truth here is consistent with the virgin birth as prophesied by Isaiah. You've prepared for me a body. This is miraculously prepared as a work of essentially all three persons of the Trinity being involved and fulfilled as recorded by the Apostle Matthew and I give some references in Matthew chapter 1 and in Luke chapter 1 and those are references to the virgin birth and So right along with that is also both those chapters make reference to the Holy Spirit being involved. So scripture is consistent on that point. These are the two books that talk about the conception and birth of Christ. So they both address it rather consistently. Now having been born of Mary, Christ remained fully deity and became at that point fully man. He was and is fully deity and became fully man.

So here's Colossians 2.9 For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Fully deity and fully man, fully humankind. There's some important points to notice. For Christ's sacrifice to be valid, it had to be a sacrifice of like kind. Christ, in order to die for us, had to be fully human.

We couldn't say, you know, I'm going to sacrifice this chicken over here and that'll do the job. It's not going to cut it, is it? Like kind. It had to be a man. that made the sacrifice. But one other thing, for Christ's sacrifice to be sufficient, it had to be a sacrifice of infinite capacity. Now, if I were to come and say, look, I'm a really great guy, and I'll just volunteer to die for the rest of you. Is that going to do any good? It's not going to cut it. Why? Because I don't have the capacity.

If someone denies Christ's death in their place, What happens? They turn down God's payment for their sins. And how long are they going to have to pay for just their own sins? Forever. If someone turns down God's payment, God says, OK, well, you've chosen this path. You're going to pay for your own sins forever.

Here is Christ with infinite capacity that gets it done in a few hours. In a few hours, he's paid for not only Vern's sin, but everybody's on the planet, starting with Adam and all the way up to the last person born on the planet. So, Christ is of the right kind, a human kind, right? He is also of infinite capacity, and nobody else could do that. Now, we have some additional words here and going into verse 6, but I'll start with the middle of verse 5.

Sacrifice and offering you the Father have not desired, but a body you the Father have prepared for me, the Son. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you the Father have taken no pleasure. So we say, what? Wait a minute. I thought, here's the law of Moses. It explicitly says that the priests of Israel were to do these sacrifices and offerings, and didn't the commands to do them come directly from God Himself? The answer is yes. So why isn't the Father pleased with this? What's the problem?

The sacrifices and offerings were to point to the one sacrifice of God's Lamb. That's what they were there for. They were a constant illustration But they didn't get it done. God's lamb had to die. That was the only thing that would do the job of satisfying God's holiness and God's justice and God's righteousness. Is that lamb fundamentally and eternally righteous?

No. No, it doesn't get it done. Israel's sacrifices were illustrations, now get this, for the people, not to satisfy God. Got that? It's an illustration for the people, but not to satisfy God. It never could, because it was still an animal and not a man, and the animals did not have sufficient capacity. Matter of fact, they had none. So all the sacrifices were illustrations for the people not to satisfy God himself. The animals dying did not satisfy God's holiness, because the animal wasn't holy. It would not satisfy God's justice, and it would not satisfy God's righteousness.

Now we go on into verse 7, Then I the Son said, Behold, I the Son have come And then in the scroll the book is written of me the son to do your that is the father's will Oh God the father So let's take a look at that this term in the scroll of the book So we've got to keep in mind You know these books like we have in our pew racks here where you have Attached on one side and you can open them up like that as so far as we have any understanding Nobody during biblical times, and I'm talking from the beginning to the end of biblical times, nobody ever saw a book like that.

All the books were written either on scrolls or in some cases, for example, with the letters of the New Testament on individual pieces of papyrus. But nobody ever saw a book like that. So, a scroll of the book meant, okay, here's the book of Psalms, here's the book of Genesis, here's the book of Isaiah, etc. Okay? So, the scroll of the book refers to Psalms out of the whole, what we call the Old Testament. Otherwise known as the Law and the Prophets. And you see that carried out.

Now, Jesus told about all the places in the Old Testament where the Bible referred to him that is out of the Old Testament. where the Bible referred to him as he talked to the disciples while on the road to Emmaus. This was on the day of his resurrection. And he's going and explaining to these two disciples and telling them in this passage, and in this passage, and in this passage. And very likely he talked to them about this passage that we're seeing in Psalms chapter 40. Right? Psalm 40. And here would be one instance out of that conversation he had with them, Luke 24, 27, then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

Imagine going from book to book to book to book, and Jesus saying, that's talking about me, and that's talking about me, and that's talking about me, and going through and explaining through all the Old Testament passages. Now it talks about your will, Father. Matthew 26, 42, He went away, Jesus went away, again a second time, this is at the Garden of Gethsemane, and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done.

God the Father and God the Son were equal in authority and power. And you might think, well, all right, how do they do anything other than just remain as God the Father and God the Son? The Son made Himself subject to the Father in His coming to earth. He made Himself subject to the Father in His coming to earth.

And this word being subject to and submitting to is oftentimes understood in our culture as something bad. But a key insight here, biblically being subject is not giving in under pressure, it's not knuckling under, but placing oneself under another on the basis of authority, God-given authority, and to be in active support. So Christ made himself subject to the Father, not because he was inferior. He was not. But in order to take on the particular role that the two of them had agreed upon. So being subject to or being submissive is not a bad thing at all. It is the only means by which this could be accomplished spiritually.

Hebrews 10, 8 and 9 reads like this. After saying above, sacrifices and offerings, and the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you the father have not desired, nor have you the father taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law, the law of Moses. Then he said, Behold, I, the Son, have come to do the Father's will. He takes away the first, that is the old law covenant under Moses, in order to establish the second, the new covenant that he's been talking about here, when the Son comes again, his second coming. Now let's take a look at that.

So why is the Old Testament law being replaced? I mean, even now you'll get Christians wanting to post the Ten Commandments in a bunch of different places, right? And have all sorts of legal cases just over that. Even though the Old Testament law was entirely inspired by God, it simply was not the ultimate satisfaction of God's character.

The law only pointed to how God was going to satisfy, and that's all. So that's why we have this blank highway sign, and we're going to fill it in. And so the first thing says, Welcome to Legalsville. And then the next thing on the sign is Christ, this way. That's what the law is doing. The law is pointing people to Christ. So now, what do we do with signs? What do we do with signs?

If you were coming to Holly Hills from I-25 and you came up to the sign here, here's Yale Avenue, right? All right, and so you say, all right, I'm going to come up there. There's the right street, and I come up to that, see? And then that's the place where you have Holly Hills Bible Church, right?

And so what do you do when you see the sign? You get your car over and you go and hang out right there. You just stop the car right under the sign. Is that what you do? That's not the right thing to do, is it? It's not going to work because the sign is to tell you you need to go somewhere else. But you're on the right track for now.

That's what a sign does. Let me give you another example. A stop sign. So for a stop sign, then... What do you do when you come up to the stop sign, you pull up to the stop sign, and you grab the key and you turn the engine off, right? Is that what you do? And just hang out a while? No, you don't do it. You do stop, and then you move on.

And that's the thing about a sign, and that's the thing about the law. The law wasn't a place to hover at. The law was a place for a time, and then you've got to move on to where it's pointing to, and it's pointing to Christ. So, the Apostle Paul also said that the law pointed to Christ when he wrote in Galatians.

Here's Galatians 3.24. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. Now, a number of you likely have seen this.

This is not a tutor like you might have in our day. The Greek word there translated is pedagogos. And it sounds like pay-to-go gas, but anyway. So, what was this pay-to-go gas? Here is what this guy was. You imagine, you're a little Greek school kid, right? And you go from home, where this slave tutor is assigned to you. And he takes your hand, especially when you're little, and drags you to school. And all the way, what is he doing? He's drilling you. Have you got all the right answers? And guess what?

When he gets to the school, he doesn't drop you off. He sits there in the classroom and listens to everything that the teacher says. And so you can't fool him with anything. You can't say, well, the teachers had no homework today. I'm sorry. You're not going to do that. So guess what happens when the school day is over? The guy grabs your hand again. and drags you back home and drills you. And when you get home, do you get a break? Not. No break. This guy sits there and drills you, and drills you, and drills you. And I don't know why this pay-to-go guest has a laptop, but he does. Anyway, probably this is a little more like it. And so this guy, he's a real pain. He's a pain in the neck.

And so when you finally got through with your schooling and you got rid of the pedagogus, you were greatly relieved. Oh, thank God, I'm no longer under this guy. That's why Paul would say this. Oh, thank God, we're no longer under the law. Because this tutor was a real pain in the neck. And you would be glad to get rid of that guy. But the law became our tutor to lead us to Christ. And when we find Christ, we are glad to get the law off our back. See that?

But for the Israelites in the coming millennium, those Jews, also known as Hebrews or Israelites, entering the time of the kingdom will all be saved, Romans 11.26, and they will, with the implementation of the new covenant, know the law of Moses, not only in their head, all 613 laws, they will know it from the heart to live it out. They will have a heart to live it out. So they'll have knowledge of it, and they'll have a heart for it. They'll not only know the law by heart, but will have a heart for living it out, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, every single one of them, because by the way, no unbelievers are going to go into the Millennial Kingdom. Zero. None. Okay?

Every one of them will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, every one, all the time, and so they will be blessed in earthly ways. They will be blessed in earthly ways because they will know and live out by empowerment the law. They will also have the Messiah, Christ the Son of God, present with them all the time. Not only will they be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, whom they don't see, But they will have present with them the Messiah, whom they will see. Both. We believers of the body called the church, from Acts 2 to the rapture, the time when the Lord calls the church home, will be present in our new bodies.

We're going to be there. We're all going to go to Israel. We're all going to take a trip to Israel. Same time. It'll be great. We will be an island of grace in a world ruled by law. Isn't that amazing? An island of grace in a world ruled by law. Yeah, they will be ruled by law during the Millennial Kingdom, but we will be an island of pure grace. Grace is our operating system forever. The law as implemented under Moses was set aside for both the church and for Israel.

People don't get it. People say, well, I want the Ten Commandments. Oh yeah, plus add some tithing in there. Or get rid of the Sabbath day because I can't quite figure that one out. It's a little much for me, right? So people go and try to snip and clip and figure out how much of the law they're supposed to follow. And they argue over it. And everybody comes up with different rules.

When in fact, it's all been set aside for the church and as it was implemented under Moses for the Jews as well. Even into the coming millennial kingdom. So the old law covenant was set aside for everybody. For all time. For us in the church, not one law. None. Pure grace. In the coming millennial kingdom, the Jews will be living under law, but they'll be graciously empowered. Graciously empowered.

Now Hebrews 10.10 reads this way, For by this will, and the will that's mentioned previously is the Father's, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Big statement. One of the things you find is that the Father here gets credit.

In Romans 15.6, so that with one accord, you may with one voice, that's actually with one mouth, right? One mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who gets glorified? The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 1.3, Ephesians 1.3, 1 Peter 1.3, all three of those Verses start with, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Father is to be blessed, and that means to be well spoken of, and glorified. And that's what God has in mind. The Father is glorified and blessed for what he accomplishes through Christ by means of the Spirit. See that? The Father is glorified and blessed for what he accomplishes through Christ by means of the Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are involved. The Father is glorified because he gets credit for leading and initiating and orchestrating our salvation and all of our blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.

The Father gets the glory for that, gets blessed. Now in this verse, We see that the Father gets credit for our having been sanctified by Christ having given His body for us once for all on the cross. Jesus dies on the cross. Who directly and immediately gets the credit and the glory for that? The Father. So, sanctified.

Now we're going to say here, position and process, keep that in your mind because we're going to continue on with position and something else. Sanctify is one of those words that has lost any definition in the common culture. Let's ask somebody who ought to know, right? Yeah, maybe not, right? Most people, you say, well, what's sanctified? They probably think you're saying skanktified or something, right? No, it's because they don't have any idea what it means, okay?

To be sanctified, a concise definition, is to be separated from the secular and sinful and set apart for a sacred purpose. To be sanctified is to be separated from the secular and sinful and set apart for a sacred purpose. That's what sanctified means. For the believer in the body of Christ, there is a position of being sanctified that takes place at the time we first believe.

It doesn't change. Nobody can touch it. And there is also an ongoing process of being sanctified. So we say position and process. The position doesn't change and happens from the moment you believe. There is a process ongoing of being sanctified. That is, the process means to be separated from the secular and sinful and set apart for a sacred purpose. So we have position and process. Here's a couple examples here.

Hebrews 2.11, sanctified as a process. For both he who sanctifies, that is Christ, and those who are being sanctified, that's us, and it is being sanctified, not a once for all, are all from one Father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Christ calls us brethren. Now, here's the next one in this passage. By this, the Father's will, we have been sanctified in our position through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

1 Corinthians 1-2 also has this. Imagine, here's Paul's writing to the church at Corinth, which has lots of problems. Lots of problems, and they're bad too. Bad problems. But what does he do? He gets into verse 2 and he says, you have been positionally and permanently and eternally sanctified. Now let's talk about your problems, right?

And then thirdly here, Hebrews 10.14, we'll be there shortly.

Sanctified as a process again for by one offering is perfected completed as in full accomplishment that's position for all time those who are being Sanctified as a process is interesting. He's done something in our position But there's also a process going on Now so remember sanctified position and process now we got sanctified position and condition. Oh boy Is that going to pour out of anybody's ears? Okay. Why tell us that we who have believed have been entirely sanctified in our position in Christ? I mean, after all, if I tell somebody you've been completely and totally sanctified, you know, that's completely done.

It's not going to change. Isn't that going to make somebody complacent? I've had conversations like this with people. Oh, we've got to have some law to threaten people. We've got to have something hanging over their head. You know, make them feel really bad for their sin. Right? Make them feel guilty. Right? And so we've got to have some law to beat people over the head with. It's kind of the carrot and the stick principle and the laws of the stick. Right? Is that being too gracious? Is that what that is?

Well, we are called to walk in our moment-by-moment condition, one moment to the next, in accordance with our eternal position we have the position now the call is to walk moment by moment in accordance with our eternal position so here's the Apostle Paul he writes the the book of Ephesians right and these people have problems too but what does he do he spends three chapters and goes on into the fourth chapter in the middle of the fourth chapter and waits right to the end of the fourth chapter out of six before he starts addressing their problems.

First, he tells them, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You're seated with Christ. And then you know what he does? All right, now that you know those things, let's talk about your anger, and you're lying, and you're stealing. Then he talks to them about the problems, but not until he's first talked about who they are in Christ.

As we walk, moment by moment, consistent with our position, that is how our being, sanctified, the process, happens. One moment, and then the next, and then the next, walking in our condition, consistent with our position, by the time you go from one moment to the next to the next, you've got a process going, don't you?

So that's how those come together. Now, here is a word that's not in this verse explicitly, but the theme is there. And that's grace. And we want to kind of make sure we get the perspective here about grace. Grace is our spiritual operating system in which we believers stand now and forever. Without an operating system, you ever have a computer and it has no operating system? You turn it on, but that's all that happens. You get some lights come on and that's it. The screen doesn't even come on. It has to have an operating system.

The operating system for we believers in the church From Acts 2 to the rapture, the operating system is grace. That's where we stand now and forever. Grace is also the reigning principle, this is Romans 5 again, that always abounds more than sin ever does. You look around and you might think, you know, this world is just full of sin. Yes, it is. It's rampant. It's all over the place.

Grace abounds more than sin ever could. More than sin ever could. Grace, being one aspect of God's own character, is infinite in its magnitude. God doesn't have just barely enough grace. He's got an infinite supply, or as Paul puts it twice in Ephesians 1 and 2, wealths of grace. You think of somebody being wealthy here on planet Earth, that's nothing compared to God's wealths, plural, of grace. Huge multiple magnitudes. Massive grace.

God will show us, demonstrate this grace forever. See, a lot of people think grace is just what you get at the cross. That's just the start. Grace isn't just what you get at the cross. Grace goes on throughout this entire life and it goes on into eternity.

It is God's theme because it's who He is. Grace, the New Testament also tells us, is a sufficiency. Here's the Apostle Paul, he asked the Lord three times, take this thorn of flesh away, whatever that is. God says, my grace is sufficient for you. Grace is a sufficiency. And, as we'll see later on in the book of Hebrews, grace also strengthens. Grace strengthens.

Now, this verse also tells that Jesus as both priest and sacrifice offered up as a priest his own body as a sacrifice once for all. So Jesus, according to the eternal covenant, imagine before God said, let there be light, they made this agreement. Now look, these people are going to blow it and they're going to have to be saved. And this is how we're going to do it, right? OK, now that we've agreed upon that, let there be light.

The covenant between God the Father and God the Son, God the Son offered up his body that the Father had prepared for him and shed his blood for us as a once for all event, done but once, effective forever. Effective forever. Only because of that once given life for us can we be sanctified in our position, sanctified in our condition, and sanctified as a process. Only because he did that.

Not going to happen otherwise. His love and grace are indeed amazing. Grace that goes on forever. Grace that is infinite. And we won't go, when's the coffee break? When he's showing us his grace. We're going to be going, wow! And his love is no different. Massive, incredible amounts of love. So great a love that He has for us. Huge amounts. We're going to be going WOW about that, too. Matter of fact, we're going to be inhaling more than we'll be exhaling, if we can figure that one out, right? Okay.

His love and grace are indeed amazing, not just at the cross, not just during this life, forever we will be astounded, amazed at His love and grace. Let's thank Him for it, okay? Lord, we do thank You for Your love and grace, and we thank You that they're not boring. We thank You that they're of a massive, awesome magnitude forever. Never to be run out, never to be worn down, never to be depleted. We just thank You for that most, most amazing grace. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.