Mason. whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he hath he made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." Now what we'll be dealing with today is just those two statements. The second part Verse 3, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. I remember being a young Christian a number of years ago and my pastor at the time pointing that verse out to me as being a great verse to show to cults and a lot of groups that don't believe in the perfect once and for all sacrifice of Christ. For example, the Roman Catholic Church actually changes that verse in order to make it continuous, but we'll look at that later on. The gravity of what these verses, what this passage states, the importance of such a message in our day, and I'll be honest, it's been one of the most difficult things I've ever put together. Often certain things come together pretty quickly. especially if Mark's sick. But this one has taken a number of weeks and back and forth and back and forth because it is such an important issue. I believe one of the major reasons why there's such a lack of holiness, even within genuine believers, and you can see they're growing, is because we don't have a full grasp of what we've been saved from. It's so important to see, because otherwise, it's like if you have been saved from a burning building, but just for example, say you were asleep during the whole thing, and somebody carried you out and ran up to the 10th floor and heroically brought you down, but you had no idea about what he did. You said, well, he just saved you. That's all you knew, just saved you. And you were grateful, you had a certain level of gratitude. All Christians, truly born again Christians, have a certain level of gratitude from what they've been delivered from. But you've no idea to the depths you've been saved from. We have, for the sake of, we believe this is, we're almost afraid of scaring people away with messages and what the truths of scripture declare. We believe it's loving, it's not loving at all, it's actually hateful. that when they don't see the blackness of their sin, they can't see how truly glorious He is. We cannot be a people of hope, and I think Over the last 200 years in Evangelicalism, the hope has been ripped out of the heart of Evangelicalism. I really do believe that. I don't believe it's to do with various interpretations of eschatology. That's got a certain level to do with it. But I think it's our waning understanding of what Christ did. And I say what he did, and what he achieved, and what he actually did. Not what he tried to do, not what he's attempting to do, but what he actually completed. That when he was turned to the right hand of the Father, it was mission accomplished. Just as he set out to do, to glorify himself. If we do not see the blackness in the dark night, we're not going to see the stars. And if we do not see the filth of our sin and the multiple pictures that are used for the filth of our sin, we're not going to be a people of gratitude. Ian H. Murray stated in the Puritan Hope, if hope is to be regained today, it can only be as faith is restored in the scriptural revelation of the person of Christ. The whole Puritan conviction respecting the future success of the gospel rested upon the foundation of his work. We're not talking about speculation about the future. We're talking about the foundation of his work. His work of substitution in his state of humiliation. resulting in the ransom of an innumerable multitude, and his continuing work as he is now enthroned in glory, yet present by the Spirit in the church unto the end of the world. This is what we must focus on. This is what we must labor on. I know there are so many other, so many more interesting topics in the sphere of evangelicalism. I know if you put on a, a prophecy conference in the morning, and our pastor Mark even commented this as well, that you would fill the place out much quicker than you would if you did a conference on the atonement or the satisfaction of Christ. How many people did you think we'd get? Not very many. Not very many at all. But if you talked about who is the final kingdom at Daniel's feet, you'd fill the place up in the morning. Probably with Jehovah's Witnesses, but that's not my story. Maybe this is why the modern church lacks hope, and it's something that has burdened me for a very long time. I don't believe, the hope of the gospel and what the gospel goes forth to do to save a people for his name, Jesus doesn't try to save, he saves. He doesn't attempt, he doesn't make it possible, he actually saves. If we understood this, I believe we'd be truly a people of hope. This is by way of introduction of what he achieved on the elect's behalf. We're going to look at this. And how could he do such a thing? We also have to know who he is and the characteristics of his person and of his nature and the fact that he had to take on the form of sinful flesh on our behalf. May we draw prayerfully, prayerfully. And I say we must go carefully through these doctrines because of the nature of Christ, because of His majesty, because He was eternally God from all eternity. We must prayerfully draw from the deep wells of truth so that the hope can be regained. The first statement I'm going to look at. His atonement for sin also called by various people the satisfaction of Christ. When he had by himself purged our sins, Hebrews 1.3, Matthew Henry comments that the suffering of Christ had this great honor in it. to be a full satisfaction for the sins of his people. By himself he purged away our sins, that is, by the proper innate merit of his death and bloodshed." And listen to this, "...by their infinite intrinsic value. As they were the sufferings of himself, He was made atonement for sin. Himself, the glory of His person and nature, gave to His sufferings such merit as was a sufficient reparation of honor to God, who had suffered an infinite injury, an infinite injury, an affront by the sins of men. We must think for a second. He had, by himself, purged our sins. The very first Bible I ever bought was actually, I'll show it to you this, Roman Catholic Bible, actually Jesuit Bible, that's the first Bible I ever bought. I'll go into it in a minute while I actually have it here. It might seem strange, I haven't actually, I'm not gonna say it's the best translation or anything like that, don't worry. But He had by Himself purged our sins. By Himself He laid down of His own self. Have you ever asked how He could achieve such a thing? How could He or anyone remove the filth of our sin? Remember that we've been born radically depraved. Our greatest works are but filthy rags. How can He save such a people? Isaiah 59 1-4 states, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue have muttered perverseness. None called for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They are the people who do not trust in God. They are the unregenerate. None calls for justice. Before you were ever saved, you never called for justice. Before you were saved, you never called for truth. Before you were saved, you trusted in vanity. Before you were saved, you spoke nothing but lies. And you say, but no, sometimes it's all the truth. In your heart, out of your heart, it says they conceive mischief, they bring forth iniquity. That is the fruit of their lies. Okay, let's look at this first major heading. How could he achieve such a thing? This is the first major heading, and there'll be four points on this. How did he achieve such a thing? The achievement of Christ. He must federally represent all who would believe. The elect cannot represent themselves, or we cannot represent ourselves. Romans chapter 5 verses 12 to 14. One of the most undervalued, undertaught doctrines in our day I believe. Original sin. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. For unto the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned, after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." There's a lot to deal with there. very quickly that Adam represented all of mankind federally. And the way Adam sinned is, it is just as if you sinned, I sinned, all of mankind sinned with Adam. Because he was the federal head. He was, as it states here, the figure of him that was to come. Christ then came to be the federal head to represent all those who would ever believe. And no one else. As Adam represented mankind in the Garden of Eden federally, so Christ, the second Adam, represented his people. 1 Corinthians 15.22. We'll just look at that briefly. 1 Corinthians 15.22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. In Adam all die. There's nobody born innocent. It is only by God's grace that anyone enters the kingdom of God. Man will fail and has failed and is born failing and is born in that iniquity. He must have someone live the life he should have lived. Isaiah 53 verses 3 to 6. Isaiah 53 verses 3 to 6. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. and have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of a soul." He represented us. What does it mean to represent us? He entered into this world bearing our sin. It wasn't just on the cross, it was his entire life and his death. all the sufferings of Christ, in order to satisfy the demands of justice on our behalf. Christ perfectly obeyed everything. Think about the first commandment, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. Have you ever done such a thing for a single moment without a layer of sin? No. Nothing we can do can be acceptable unless it is through Christ, in whom the Father is well pleased. He did that. What love He has done. What an incredible thing He has done for us. How often do we thank Him? How often do we spend thinking about our woes? Do we think about the woes of the Saviour who sinned against no one, who loved His Father perfectly, and yet He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement. He entered into this sin-cursed world, a world He created. But we think, often in our Christian walk, we can declare, I want this from you, I want that from you. No, we bow the knee to this savior who federally represented us. That's point one, he represented us. Number two, he must be a man and God, he must be both. A.W. Pink stated that a mediator supposes two parties between whom he intervenes. But God is not only one party. Consequently, the mediator between God and men must be related to both, and be equal to either. He cannot be simply God, who is only of one parties, and He has only one nature. Therefore, the Eternal Word must take man's nature into union with Himself, if He would be a mediator between God and men. And all the time He walked upon the earth, He was truly a mediator. for all those who would ever believe, for all is elect. So that when it comes before the courts, when it comes before who will be declared righteous, all those in Christ, because the perfect righteousness of Christ has been imputed to their account. We also have the typology in the Old Testament, our kinsman redeemer, Ruth 4.7. He became... He disrobed of the outer manifestations of His glory. He humbled Himself for His people. Also that the Father would be glorified. But He humbled Himself. In order to satisfy the wrath of God, He had to be a man. In order to represent men, sinful men, He had to be a man. But He also had to be God. Or else it would not have been worth it. The sacrifice would not have had that value. But we'll look at that in a minute. Number three. He must be sinless, but he must also be holy. Often, I mean, I was grappling back and forth, and it's like sometimes you're reading through things quickly, and you think, well, what's the difference? It's not enough to have a record white clean. We also need his positive righteousness. Righteous means according to the standard of the law, you're approved of God. According to the standard of the law, you have kept this. You meet this standard. It is not just that you haven't broken it, you must keep it. None of us can do that. Actually, none of us can stop them sinning. To be acceptable, first of all, looking at the sinless aspect, it needs to be, it cannot be corrupt. Malachi 1.14 talks about, nothing corrupt can be sacrificed before the Lord, it must be pure sacrifice. To be acceptable to God, the next point, it must be pure, otherwise He cannot bear our sin, because of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. He bore the sins of all those who would believe, and those alone. If He bore your sin on the cross, justice has been satisfied towards your crimes, and you have the perfect righteousness of Christ. But if you do not believe, you will bear it. He had to fulfill the demands of the law. Christ said, I came not to destroy the law, that came to fulfill. Number four, the value of his sacrifice must be sufficient for all those who would believe him because he's God. He could have saved, if he wanted to, all the angels, but he never sent a savior. He could have saved everybody. But we always start with that question, why didn't he save everybody? The real question we need to ask is why did he save anyone? We are not talking about captives who have some level of goodness. We are talking about every element of everything we do. Even our greatest deeds are but filthy rags before a holy God. Because everything we have done is tainted with sin. And we never see that unless God opens our eyes. Paul Washer stated, the one who was nailed to the cross of Calvary was God. And the life he gave for the sake of his people was of infinite worth. There's no limitation. When we talk about limited atonement, we do not mean a limitation on the power of the atonement. We're talking about the scope. Everyone believes in the limited atonement, even Arminians. No Arminian states, at least not to my knowledge, that his blood was shed for angels. That's limited. They believe it's limited to people. So, what we're talking about is, did Christ actually achieve what he set out to do, or did he attempt and fail at it? It's such an important question. If we believe that, let us go out and boldly proclaim the truths, knowing that those were his, a people already his, he's already purchased, and they will come out for his glory's name. Genevan reformer Francis Turretin stated that, although money has no higher value in the hand of a king than in that of a captive, doesn't matter who owns the money, It's still the same value. Still, he goes on to say, the head and life of a king are of more value than the life of a vile slave. He goes on to give the example as the life of David was reckoned of more worth than that of half the Israelite army, 2 Samuel 18 3. This is what he achieved. This is how he achieved it. Christ removes the eternal consequences of our sin, and now gloriously sits at the right hand of the Father, to intercede on behalf of all those who look to Him. And when I mean to look to Him, it means to call upon Him. When I mean to call upon Him, I mean to trust upon Him. When I mean to trust upon Him, I mean to love Him. And when I mean to love Him, I mean to worship Him. Serve Him, obey Him, fear Him, look to Him, wait for Him, cry out to Him, depend upon Him, glorify Him. That is what it means to look to God. It's not just one time event, it's not just I called one time. It is something you go, you begin, and you do for the rest of your life. Repent and believe the Gospel. Repent and go on repenting and grow. What has he done for sinners? What has he achieved on our behalf? Let's look at this. In order to have gratitude for what Christ has done, what have we been saved from? And I'm sure there's a certain level we know this, We were dead in trespasses and sins. Although trying to get much of the Evangelical community today to acknowledge that is difficult. But let's just say people acknowledge that. Dead in trespasses and sins. One of the illustrations that is used is spiritual leprosy. Leprosy. Through the book of Leviticus. Dealing with this debilitating, destroying disease. One of the reasons Christ cleansed the lepers and why he did all these miracles, the blind were made to see, the deaf could now hear. It was pointing towards a spiritual reality of the gospel. Dead men are made to walk, to obey. Pink writes that by nature they the elect were spiritual lepers. This physical signs pointing towards in Matthew 11 5 when John the Baptist is doubting in prison he's saying to asking the question, are you the Christ or do we look for another? And it says that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are clenched. And I just wanted to focus on just the leprosy part. These point towards what salvation did spiritually, wash the filth of this condition away from us. What does salvation do? The healing power of the gospel. We're not talking about prosperity gospel here, we're talking about the true healing of the gospel. I looked up, just for curiosity's sake, what does the medical dictionaries write? Now, I remember, it was in Webster's 1828 dictionary I looked up on leprosy. And I remember hearing this years ago, what leprosy actually was. Now, when I looked up Webster's it was talking about the lesions and manifestations and the horrible condition that befell all those who had leprosy. But the thing about it is, that is the fruit of leprosy. That is the outward signs of leprosy. But what is leprosy? This medical dictionary actually puts it this way, leprosy is a slow, is a slowly progressing bacterial infection which affects the skin, peripheral nerves in the hands and feet, the mucous membranes of the nose, throat and eyes. Destruction of the nerve endings causes the affected areas to lose sensation. It's interesting, we lose feeling. A person with leprosy, it's not the lesions, it's not the patches, they can't feel. Their pain receptors are dead. It is something that kills the body. It kills the pain. If you put your hand over a stove and it's red hot, you cannot feel that pain. So if you're walking over rocks or something like this, one of the main reasons people pull their legs off is they don't even know their legs are caught. And they keep walking. They have no idea. Pain is a defense mechanism. That is removed. It goes on to say that occasionally because of the loss of feeling, the fingers and toes become mutilated and fall off. The pictures were accustomed to. Causing deformities that are typically associated with the disease. Causes death. Sin causes death. God used that illustration for a reason. This is what we would now be if we were not saved. Spiritual lepers. Unable to feel. And growing progressively more numb to sin. Point two. He also achieved the removal of the death penalty for all the elect of God. When we talk about forgiveness, often we get drawn into the trap of, well, God just forgives. The law is just and good and holy. The law demands justice. The law cannot be suspended. The law cannot be done away with. The law cannot be put aside in order that we can be forgiven. No, the law remains. Ezekiel 18 20 states that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. You've been born with a death sentence on your head. The law demands justice, and there's nothing wrong with the law. The problem is with us. The law cannot be suspended like I just said, but somebody may intervene. as Christ did for the elect, to reverse the effects of the law and the demands of justice on that sinner. A.W. Pink gives a great illustration here. Talks about, poisons have their antidotes. The law of gravity may be overcome by lifting an object from the ground. You still have the law of gravity though. But a higher power may intervene and deliver from the effects of a lower by magnifying a superior law. This is the case with the atonement. He intervenes. The law cannot be done away. We are not just in the age of grace. We're also in the age of the law. We're also in the age of the kingdom. All those things are here. So the removal of the death penalty, the death penalty. I don't know if you've ever seen videos of anybody on death row waiting for the death sentence. And you're not just waiting for death row here. You're also unable to feel the effects of your disease. You cannot, you're losing sensation. Because sinners sin with impunity and they don't care, they love their sin. This is what, this is the great blackness that must be shown in the gospel for that great hope of the brightness of the stars to shine through. You cannot see anything in the sky unless you see the blackness. If everything's bright, you cannot see the stars. And the problem is, in modern evangelicalism, everything's bright and we cannot see Christ's glory. Number three, the elect can be declared legally righteous. And I put that word in intentionally because often it leads to the justification of all those who believe. At the moment a person believes, they are declared righteous, based on the merits of another. In order for that to be possible, justice had to be paid. He could not just stay to a sinner, a criminal, coming before the judge and say, you're righteous. That would be a corrupt judge. He could not do it. But justice could, had to be, satisfied. What was that, Justice? We'll briefly look at Zechariah 13, 7. It says, wake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow. Sayeth the Lord of hosts, Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones." Smite the shepherd. It also repeats the same idea in Isaiah 53.10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased Yahweh to crush God the Son. Why did that please Him? It pleased the demands of justice. This is what the atonement is. But the blessings that went forth from that atonement and the great achievement of Christ laid to our justification, in order that we could enter in the courts of our God, in order that we could receive the favor of our King, that He could raise the scepter and proclaim a decree of favor upon that person. Otherwise, that person would be killed, just like the picture of Esther. The presence of God will do one or two things, just like the ark of God going through Israel. It will bless those who are his or it will maim and kill all those who are not. To enter into his presence. Fourthly, God was glorified in all that God did and all that he finished. I always say you have to start with the glory of God. If you don't understand a passage, begin with the glory of God. Why has he done anything to glorify himself? Because he is the source of all goodness, and he is the source of all love. He is love. It is not just that God loves. Let's never get into that trap of, well does God love everybody? kind of luring you in to say, oh yes, yes, of course he does. He is love, and if you want to define love, you must go to who God is. For God to be love, he must pour out his wrath against what is hateful, against all that is good, all that is loving, all that is righteous. God is glorified. Gonna quote again from Pink here, the manifest state of glory of God is bound up in the person and work of Christ. He goes on to say that if Christ be dishonored, God is dishonored, but if Christ be glorified by the Father's acceptance of his work. Realize that this work must be acceptable by the Father and by the Spirit's infallible application thereof. Think of the enormity of such a work. Because in and of our own selves, no one, after the fall of Adam, has ever done anything acceptable. The only way it's been acceptable is, here is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom, in Christ. It goes on to state that, and by the Spirit's infallible application thereof, so that even every effort is produced which it was intended to bring forth, then is God supremely glorified. Let's look at John chapter 13 verses 31 to 32. We must start, and maybe I should have actually began with this, God was glorified. God was magnified. God's attributes were declared to a people. As Romans 9 goes through, how would we know that God is a consuming fire. How will we know God is love? How will we know God is merciful? He does all these things to glorify himself. He declares these things. All these things come together to glorify him. Even the reprobate who will never turn, God will get glory from them. John 13, 31. Therefore when he was gone out Jesus said now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him if God be glorified in him God shall also glorify him and himself and shall straightway glorify him Well at one point Christ was made a curse. He was estranged from the Father. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Psalm 21.1, when he quotes that from the cross, he was made a curse. He was forsaken of the Father. But even in this, he was glorified. John 14.13. And whatsoever shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Often we don't understand God because we don't start with His glory. We do not begin with God's glory. Number five, through his finished work he returned to heaven triumphantly both as God and man. Let's turn to Psalm 24. All these things exalt God. All things work together for good that love God and are called according to his purpose. There's nothing Left to chance. God knows the beginning from the end. It is one of the main reasons why we should never worry. Unless we're not in Him. Then we should really worry. Maybe we should throw ourselves upon Him. I don't just say believe something, because that word believe has been so distorted. Obviously, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What does it mean to believe? It means to love Him. It means to worship Him. It means to bow the knee. It means to cry out to Him. Don't tell me you've seen the depravity of your sin and you're just, well, what do I do? I'm going to heaven, am I? Say a sinner's prayer? Okay, great, I'm ready. I'm going to heaven, everybody. How many five-year-olds and six-year-olds have you seen running around with that story? They don't understand their sin and they believe they're saved. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. One of the beautiful things about the Psalms is there's so many different ways you can look at them. Supremely this is talking about who has clean hands, Christ alone, but it's also the fruit of those who love God. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Lift up your heads. Think of the glory. Think of this event. No man has ever come to the gates. Man is sinful. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, the King of glory shall come in. Our text verse, Hebrews 1-3. How he had sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. How we can skip over these verses. And then the enormity of what it says here, when he hath by himself purged our sins, cleansed them, made them clean, the enormity of the task and the greatness of the God needed to do it, sat down triumphantly on the right hand of the majesty on high. We are not waiting for a future millennial reign for God to be sitting on His throne. He reigns today. He reigns over His kingdom today. And He will reign until He puts all enemies under His feet. And then He will receive all things to Himself. Back to Psalm 24. They say in astonishment, who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up. Ye everlasting doors, the King of Glory shall come in. And they say, who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of Glory. Can you imagine? the majesty and the glory of our great king. What a privilege it is to serve him, for all those who do. And remember, it is a privilege. It is not a right of anybody. It is because God has shown mercy, opened your eyes, cleansed you, purged you of your sins, and made you to see the depravity of your own heart. Spurgeon comments when he's talking about verse 7 in Psalm 24, Christ is gone to heaven as a victor. Not as the victim of Rome. This is what really, when I see in evangelicalism, when I see that statements like he made salvation possible. Attempts to save and all these kind of things. It's a drift towards Rome He has gone to heaven as victor Leading sin Satan death hell and all his enemies in triumph at his chariot wheels He has not only overcome his enemies for himself But for all his people whom he will make conquerors, yea, more than conquerors. As He has overcome, so shall they also overcome. And as He has gone to heaven a victor, they shall follow in triumph. He is in heaven as a Savior. When He came from heaven, it was in the character of a Savior. When on earth, He obtained eternal salvation. In heaven, He lives as a Savior. When He comes again from heaven, He will come as a Savior. And when He will return, He will return as a savior. He has also gone to heaven as the rightful heir. We dealt with that in the previous message. He is the rightful heir, not your buddy. Yes, Jesus is a dear friend, but you want to show your friendship to this dear brother, our elder brother, you bow the knee and you serve him. He is not gone to heaven as a sojourner, but as the heir of all things. He is the heir of heavenly glory and happiness, and believers are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. I just want to return to Matthew Henry's quote before I finish. The sufferings of Christ had this great honor in them. to be a full satisfaction of the sins of His people. A full satisfaction. By Himself He purged our sins. He purged our spiritual leprosy. He purged the effects that would befall us. had the law been poured out, had the wrath of God been poured out upon us, He took it for us. By Himself He purged away our sins. That is by the proper innate merit of His death. Remember, an angel could not take His place. An angel, a sinless angel could not take His place. A sinless angel does not have infinite value. Only Him could do this. and bloodshed. And their infinite intrinsic value. Infinite. The value of the sun is infinite. Infinite. As they were the sufferings of himself, he has made atonement for sin. Himself, the glory of his person and nature, gave to his suffering such merit as was a sufficient reparation of honor to God. He had suffered the infinite injury and affront by the sins of men. And to reiterate David's cry after he sinned, that grievous sin, he's crying out to the Lord. And he says, against thee, only thee have I sinned, in Psalm 51, verse 4. God, as Henry states, who had suffered an infinite injury. This is why it's an infinite hell. It's of infinite duration. You cannot pay this debt. But Christ did, for all those who would believe. infinite injury and affront to the sins of men. The one who is all loving, the one who is all good, we spit in his face if we go towards our nature, if we feed our nature for any length of time. God was glorified in this work. Christ who became man now sits on the throne of God as mediator, and he was mediator on earth as well, as mediator for his people because of his work, suffering unto death. And I really believe the church must understand what Christ has done. If the church only understood a microcosm of this, a tiny amount of this, I believe you would see blessings. I really do. But the problem is we don't. Revival does not come in a vacuum. It never did. It came from men like Tyndale, Calvin, slaving over hours of exposition. Not seeing the fruit of their labor straight away, but because they loved God, they were not trying to fill buildings full of dead man's bones. because they cared more about self-preservation than they did about the gospel and God's glory and the people sitting in front of them. The danger of not understanding is not just a drift towards Roman, it's not just a drift towards false religion. The greatest danger is dishonoring Christ, dishonoring His great achievement, dishonoring The sacrifice of infinite, intrinsic value. He sits down in the majesty on high. Just before I finish, I just want to show you why this is, this is such a clear verse in a lot of ways, and I love showing this to people. I was witnessing to a Roman Catholic a couple of years ago. I was only saved six months at the time, and I wanted to show him Hebrews 1.3. And this part of the verse only. And he had a Douay Rheims version of the Bible. Which was, to my surprise, it actually translates it differently here. I didn't know it was a Jesuit Bible at the time, but now I do. Rather than saying, hath by himself purged our sins, it says, making purgation of sins. Sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high. It does all other things, but we'll stick to the topic here. And I've seen, we must realize who our enemy is, Satan is. We must realize who he's using. The Roman Catholic Church, Revelation 17. That's challenged a lot these days. we must realize the drift away from the victory, the glory, the majesty, the achievement, the finished work of Christ. His finished work in ministry continues in another way in his priesthood, interceding, ever interceding, the advocate of his people. But he's finished work for the sufferings of his people. He is not making perjugation for sins. and to my knowledge this is still the official version of the Roman Catholic Church. This is basically denying that Christ is of infinite value. This is basically saying He is there for the manipulation of men. Once we drift away from what God has done, from the merits of Christ, the merits of the Gospel, the power of the Gospel towards human means, it results in what we see in Rome. Not straight away, Takes a generation or two. Maybe not even that. May we never underestimate our enemy, but may we never, more than anything, underestimate the value of the sufferings of Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. A people already his. May we boldly proclaim that either men will suffer the righteous wrath of God, or repent and believe because He has borne it for them and let Him get the glory, that He purged the sins of all those who would ever believe and now sits and is sat down in glory today, ruling and railing. It is not Satan who is ruling over this world. God rules. May we trust in Him and Him alone. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord in Heaven, I thank you for your blessings. Oh Lord, if your name, thy wondrous name, was not in any way glorified in anything I said this night, I pray that you would show grace upon me. Oh Lord, we do so strive, Lord, may we strive to understand you, understand your wondrous work, restore the hope of the gospel. that Christ's finished work may be glorified. O Lord, may it revile our flesh, revile the inner man, Lord of us, to even think about dishonoring you. Oh Lord, move in our hearts, Lord, sanctify us by thy truth. Lord, may I thank you for the refreshments we're about to receive. Please bless them, bless our conversation together. May we raise each other up in edification. Oh Lord, may we lift each other up, set good examples for each other. The time is short. In Jesus' name I now pray. Amen.