It is Finished: God's Will, Part 2

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. This is part two of a message from Hebrews 10, one through 10, titled It is Finished, God's Will. It was first preached on September 16th, 2012. 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 because the magnitude of their sin was not in the greatness of the sin that they committed.

It was in the greatness of the one whom they sinned against. Therefore, every human being has an infinite debt against an infinitely holy God. Some of you have bills that come in the mail. Those bills are little reminders that you owe something. Some of those bills are debts. Some of them might be credit card debts. You know, if all you're doing is making the minimum payment, you're going to be paying on that debt for a long time because there's interest building up.

And so what if the interest was such that the buildup of the interest, the accumulation, the accrual of the interest was greater than the minimum payment that you're making? You'd never pay that debt off. It's an infinite debt. You're never paying down the principal. And the bill that comes to you every month, every month, it's a reminder. You owe this.

You have this debt. And in the Old Testament system, all it did was reminded the people of the debt that they had. And the reason why God had no pleasure in it, although he set it up, it was necessary reminder and it provided temporary forbearance of God's wrath for their sin. The reason why he had no pleasure in it is because it could not make them perfect.

It could not transform them. It fulfilled the requirement of his wrath temporarily, but it could not fulfill his desire. What is God's desire? A people to commune with him.

A people that he could commune with. You see, you go through the Old Testament and the emphasis is separation. Holy God has to be separate from sinful man. But then we come to the New Testament and the emphasis is reconciliation. God says, come to me. That's why it's important to understand the work and the high priestly function of Jesus Christ. Because what does Jesus say? Verse seven.

Then I said, behold, I come, I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will. Oh, God, what is God's will? What is his desire?

What is his pleasure? It says that he took away. Look at verse nine. Behold, I have come to do your will. Oh, God, he takes away the first that he may establish the second, the first.

What is the first? That's the old covenant. Those were the foreshadows. He took away those.

Why? So that the reality would come. He took away simply something that was nothing more than the fulfillment, the temporary fulfillment of God's wrath. So that God could then say, come to me and join me because I have made you a holy people. Therefore, you can come to me and we can commune with each other. You see God's heart there that he desires us. He established the second and that is his desire.

Come to me and join me, he says. God's will is his desire that brings him pleasure. A people that freely desire and fully delight in all that is good.

What is that? That's himself. God desires us for himself because he made us for himself. And listen, here's the thing that we have to remember. Because we were designed by him and because we were designed for him, we can never ever be satisfied until we are enjoying him.

Folks, if you don't hear anything this morning, hear this. You cannot be satisfied with anything but God because you were made for him. The distractions of life are the things that take our focus away from God that lead us to believe that we can be satisfied in something other than God himself.

Those are the distractions of life. That is evil. That is what takes us away from God, what leads us away from his character and his purpose. And you read that perfectly displayed in Genesis chapter 3 verse 6 where the serpent had come to Eve.

And she looked at it and she says, oh it's beautiful. It looks delicious and it'll make me wise. It'll do all this stuff for me. Never mind that God said he doesn't want it for me. I want it because it will bring me satisfaction that God is not.

What is that? That was a colossal distraction. It was a lie. And you and I live at the floodgates of lies day in and day out that want to lure us away from the one who is our satisfaction. Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. This is why we've said through this that our ultimate objective, what defines success for us is to draw near to God. Therein is our satisfaction. Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah said very pointedly, God is prophesying through Jeremiah and he says, be astounded. Can you believe the people are doing this? They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and they've dug out for themselves mud holes.

Broken cisterns that hold no water. This idea of being sanctified, look what he says here in verse 10. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We have been sanctified.

Remember what the perfect person is? A person who freely desires and fully delights in all that is good without a hint of distraction. And we have been sanctified, God, because I am in Christ. God has made me holy, which means I am a person who freely desires God and I fully delight in him without a hint of distraction. That's who I am at the core. The problem is, day to day, I still have to battle the flesh. So all the evil that surrounds me and that which remains in me, that which does not correspond to God's character, that which is not in line with his purpose.

What does a holy person do? I'm not the least bit interested in it. I've been there. I've done that. It's a destructive counterfeit. If you were a dog, you would be looking at a puddle of antifreeze. And the dog, if it had the reason that you were capable of, the dog would look at the antifreeze and say, yes, I know it looks delicious, but I've been there.

I've done that. It's a destructive counterfeit. It will not bring me satisfaction.

It might bring me immediate gratification, but in the long run, it will destroy me. And the holy person recognizes that. It sees evil for what it is, even though that evil might have the wrapping of great pleasure and delight in the immediate time. But a holy person recognizes that which distracts us away from God in the way that Adam and Eve did not.

They did not recognize that that fruit of the tree was a distraction away from them being satisfied in God. What are the things that we want in life? What are the things that God wants for us? He wants us to experience pleasure, but the distractions can be indulgence in vice, loss of self-control. And when we pursue those things, we're playing in the mud hole versus being at the beach of God's delight. God wants us to be satisfied, and we pursue satisfaction. But if I pursue satisfaction in my intellect, my prowess, and in the favorable opinion of others, then what I'm doing is eating out of a dumpster versus the banquet table of God's delight.

You see how those things are distractions. God wants us to trust Him. We want something to trust. We want to have a confidence, a sense of security. But if I am trusting and placing confidence in my own power and influence or in my portfolio, then what that is is that's tantamount to me trying to get from Greensboro to Amsterdam, and I'm going to do so with a bunch of helium balloons tied to a lawn chair versus the 747 of God's providence and provision.

Why do we hew out for ourselves broken cisterns? Why are we so easily distracted away from our delight and our satisfaction in God? Because that is the sway of the wicked one. That is the desire that is the lust of the flesh. And God makes us holy to counter that.

The word sanctified, it means set apart, it means made holy. Set apart to God. In other words, I belong to Him, I live to worship Him, I march to His drumbeat.

His opinion is the only one that counts. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of 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.