It is Finished: God's Will, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Old Testament sacrificial system was a picture, a shadow of the one who would truly atone for our sins. Jesus came to do what the sacrifice of bulls and goats could never accomplish. On the cross, He fulfills the Father's will, offering His body as the only true sacrifice that could, according to Hebrews 10, take away sins and make perfect those who draw near. Today, Pastor Rich talks about the heart of grace God has for us, the powerful work of Jesus, and what it means that we who are in Christ are made perfect.

Let's listen in. Hebrews chapter 10. We're looking at the first 11 verses now of Hebrews chapter 10. The title of today's message is It is Finished, God's Will.

It is finished. The writer of Hebrews is pointing us to the great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and not only is he the high priest who is in the very presence of God, God has entered into the very presence of God, not in an earthly tabernacle, but in the very presence of God in the eternal heavens. And He's there representing you and me because we are in Christ.

We are there with Him, seated with Him. And based on that, we have right standing before God and we can enjoy Him and delight in Him and love Him in the same way that He loves us. But what is God's will? Our key verse for today, if you would look with me at chapter 10 and verse 10. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By that will, that's the will of God, we have been sanctified. It's a fancy word, biblical word, church word, religious word, sanctified. It means holy, it means set apart.

We have been made holy and we're going to unpack that a little more when we get to that point. Let me begin just with a little illustration here. There's a story of a man who walked into a restaurant and orders a Coke. As soon as he receives it, he throws it in the waiter's face.

The waiter is ready to fight, but the man says, Oh, I'm so sorry. I have a horrible compulsion. I can't help it. Whenever someone hands me a drink, I throw it in their face.

Please forgive me. Then the guy says, I'm working hard to overcome this compulsion. Would you bring me another Coke? The waiter says, Do you promise not to throw it in my face? The guy responds, I'm going to do everything I can to throw it in your face.

I'm working really hard to resist. So the waiter says, Okay, I'll bring you another one. Soon the waiter comes back with another Coke and the guy throws it in the waiter's face. The waiter says, I thought you said you wouldn't do that.

The guy apologizes. Oh, this compulsion is so strong. I'm sorry. I promise you I will check myself into an inpatient clinic to get some help. Forgive me.

I'm sorry. The guy felt genuine guilt and sorrow. So he checks himself into a clinic and for one month he gets intense psychotherapy to deal with his compulsion. When he gets out from the clinic, he goes back to the same restaurant and he walks in and says, I'm cured. Give me a drink. The waiter says, Wait a minute.

I had to change my shirt last time you were here. Are you sure you were cured? The guy says, I know I'm cured.

I promise. The waiter says, Okay, if you're cured, I'll bring you a Coke. And so the waiter brings him a Coke. The guy looks at it and throws it right in the waiter's face. The waiter says, I thought you said you were cured. The guy says, I am cured.

I still have the compulsion, but I don't feel guilty about it anymore. Jesus Christ came to accomplish God's will and that God's will is to make us holy. Not just to deal with the guilt, but to actually make us holy.

And there's a big difference between those two. There is a word that is in the text today. It's the word teleiao. If you were to look at with me in verse one of chapter 10, For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offered continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. The word perfect is the word teleiao, to make perfect. It means to bring to completeness, to accomplish something, to reach a goal. Now, as we've studied previously in the letter to the Hebrews, what is our ultimate objective? Our ultimate objective is to draw near to God. That is our goal. That is accomplishment.

That is what defines success. The problem is we cannot draw near to God unless we are holy. Because God is holy. God is absolutely holy.

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all and you cannot blend darkness and light. And therefore, if we are to draw near to God, we must be holy. So what is this perfection? What is this perfection that God wants to accomplish in His created beings, which is you and me?

Let's define this for a moment. The perfect person, because he says you're not able to make those who approach perfect, which is the Old Testament, perfect person is one who freely desires and fully delights in all that is good without distraction. The perfect person is the one who freely desires and fully delights in all that is good without a hint of distraction. You see, what is it that defines all that is good? It is God. It is His character and His purpose.

That is all that is good. And so God's desire is not just to deal with our guilt. God's desire is to transform the person into this so that not only does He deal with my guilt, but He is transforming me into the perfect person so that I will freely desire and fully delight in all that is good without a hint of distraction.

Nothing to take me away from God. You see, this takes us back to the Garden of Eden. You see, Adam and Eve were perfect and they lived in a perfect environment.

Well, yes and no. Because Adam and Eve were perfect, but they had not been perfected. In other words, when God created them, of course, they were sinless, but they had not been perfected.

Well, what do you mean by that? Well, there was an incompleteness there, because God created us that our highest function would be to love Him. If we were to love Him, that love must be free and spontaneous love. Otherwise, you can't call it love. He didn't create us and design us to function like machines just so that we would love Him mechanically.

No. Love is free and spontaneous. It is a choice. And therefore, for us to love God, it had to be by choice. And so Adam and Eve had to be perfected.

So what do we have? God made Adam and Eve in His image and likeness. And because of that, they possessed reason, volition, ambition and emotion, all of that. So in that context, there they were in the Garden of Eden and God says, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, stay away from that. I don't want that for you.

Would they be distracted from freely desiring and fully delighting in God? That was the question. So God says, stay away from the tree, the tree of knowledge and good and evil.

I want you to know good. I do not desire for you to experience evil. It was not God's desire that man would experience evil.

That's the word no. He didn't want us to experience evil because evil is separated from God, that which is apart from God. Evil, sin, every thought or behavior that is contrary to the character and purpose of God. God didn't want that for us. He didn't want that for Adam and Eve. But if their love was to be free and spontaneous by choice, then it had to be tested in order to be a complete and perfect love.

That's why the tree. But Adam and Eve, we know the story, their act of independence from God, taking from the tree and eating it, introduced them to the experience of evil, reason, volition, ambition and emotion absent from God, away from God. So that they were exercising the powers of life absent from God. And that became evil for them. Hence, contrary to his character and purpose.

We are their descendants and we share the same experience of the knowledge, the experience of evil. The perfect person is one who freely desires and fully delights in all that is good without a hint of distraction. This is what Jesus Christ came to accomplish, a people that was this. This is God's desire. See, God shows his heart in this text here today. God shows his heart.

There are three words that keep appearing in this text, desire, pleasure and will. God is manifesting his heart for you and me today. God's will is his desire that brings him pleasure. Are you wondering what God's will for you is today? God's will is his desire that brings him pleasure. What it says here in the text is you did not desire.

This is quoting Psalm, the 40th Psalm. You did not desire. What? Nor did he have pleasure. He did not desire. He did not have pleasure in what?

The blood of bulls and goats. Why is that? Because in the Old Testament system, again, those were a foreshadowing of the reality that was to come. That shadow isn't me. I am me. I am the reality.

That shadow is not me. It is simply a foreshadowing. And the blood of bulls and goats, all that was, was a foreshadowing of the reality to come in Jesus Christ. And God is saying, I didn't have any pleasure in that.

And you said, wait a minute, stop here. Now, didn't God establish that according to the law? Yes, he did. It was part of his covenant with his people Israel. He said that he said to them, you behave in this way and I will be your God and you will be my people. So it was established according to the law because the people had to be reminded of the sinfulness. And that's another reason why he didn't have the pleasure in it, because it was a reminder of sin. But all it did was remind them of their sinfulness.

It reminded man of his infinite debt. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.