Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1527
“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10.
DEAR Friends, ever since the Lord has quickened us by His Grace we have begun to look into ourselves and to search our hearts to see our condition before God. Hence many things which once caused us no disquietude now create in us great anxiety. We thought that we were all right and felt it to be enough to be quite as good as others. We dreamed that if we were not quite as good as we should be, we would certainly grow better, though we did not stop to inquire how or why. We took stock of our condition and concluded that we were rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing. A change has come over the spirit of the scene—the Grace of God has made us thoughtful and careful. We dare not take things for granted. We test and prove things, for we are very anxious not to be deceived. We look upon eternal realities as being of the utmost consequence and we dare not take them for granted as being certain to be right.
We are afraid of being presumptuous and we long to be sincere. We hold an assize within our spirits and we are so afraid that we may be partial, as probably we shall be, that we ask the Lord to search us and try us, to see if there is any wicked way in us, that He may lead us out of such a way into the way everlasting. This is all very wise and very proper and I would not, for a moment, try to turn the people of God away from a proper measure of this state of heart. And yet let it never be forgotten that we are, in the sight of God, different, in some respects, than we shall ever see ourselves to be if we look through the glass of feeling and consciousness—there are other matters to be taken into consideration— matters which our anxiety may lead us to overlook and our inward search may cause us to forget.
Faith reveals to us another position for the people of God besides that which they occupy in themselves. Some call it an evangelical fiction and the like but, thank God, it is a blessed fact that sinners as we are in ourselves, yet Believers are saints in God’s sight and that sinful as they feel themselves to be, yet they are washed, cleansed and sanctified in Jesus Christ! Notwithstanding all that we mourn over, the very fact that we do mourn over it becomes an evidence that we are no longer what we once were and do not stand, now, where we once stood. We have passed from death unto life! We have escaped from under the dominion of the Law into the kingdom of Divine Grace. We have come from under the curse and we dwell in the region of blessing!
We have believed on Him that justifies the ungodly and our faith is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). There is, therefore, no condemnation for us, for we are in Christ Jesus our Lord and walk no longer after the flesh but after the Spirit. That your hearts may be gladdened, I want yon to think of the noble position into which the Grace of God has lifted all Believers—the condition of sanctification which is spoken of in the text—for by the “will of God we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
We shall, first, speak of the eternal will. Secondly of the effectual Sacrifice by which that will has been carried out. And thirdly, of the everlasting result accomplished by that will through the Sacrifice of the body of Christ. May the Holy Spirit who has revealed the grand doctrine of Justification now enable us to understand it and to feel its comforting power.
I. First, then, THE ETERNAL WILL—“By that will we have been sanctified.” This will must, first of all, be viewed as the will ordained of old by the Father—the eternal decree of the Infinite Jehovah that a people whom He chose should be sanctified and set apart unto Himself. The will of Jehovah stands fast forever and ever and we know of it that it is altogether unchangeable and that it has no beginning. It is an eternal will, we have no vacillating Deity, no fickle God. He wills changes, but He never changes His will. “He is of one mind and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, even that He does.”
The will of God is invincible as well as eternal. We are told in Ephesians that He works all things after the counsel of His own will. “Who can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What are You doing?” The good pleasure of His will is never defeated—there cannot be such a thing as a vanquished God. “His purpose shall stand and He will do all His pleasure.” In fact, the will of God is the motive force of all things. “He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.” His Word is Omnipotent because His will is at the back of it and it puts force into it. He said, “Light be,” and there was light because He willed that there should be light! He bade creatures come forth, numerous as the drops of dew, to people the world that He had made and forth they came, flying, leaping, swimming in varied orders of life, because of His own will He did create them.