The Perfect Way, Jesus Christ (Heb. 10:1-18)
Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I hope the unprecedented and never repeated blessings of God be upon all the individuals and families worshiping in the church, in their homes, and especially out of state. Because we did the baptism, I think the Holy Spirit of God is working. I hope you will believe that God is most delighted when non-believers of the world receive salvation to believe in Christ.
The book of Hebrews is taking the book of Leviticus from the old testament and interpreting it in the new testament perspective. This is a word that is particularly applicable to people who have been going to church for a long time but their faith is not growing. And it’s extremely applicable to people who have gone to church for a long time but the conflict of their heart is not resolved. And the more someone has gone to church for a long time but they have no interest in the eternal spirit, this word is particularly applicable. And if somebody has gone to church for a long time and their business is going well but they have no faith, then these people must understand this word well. If anything, maybe this content is not understandable, but it’s very simple.
The title of today’s message is, “The Perfect Way, Jesus Christ,” meaning there is a perfect and complete way. It means everything in our past, present, and future is also included here. Everything is contained within this way, including the way to have victory over the world and restore myself.
1. The law and sacrifice
1) The law
But the people who have lived as Jewish people and converted to Christiantiy, have trouble accepting this: there is only one way and it is Christ? There are all the laws and the sacrifices of the Old Testament, we have to do those as well. The God of the old testament gave them the law. God made a covenant with His people, saying “Through this law, you will be my people and I will be your God.” The law was given for our benefit, and if we go against the law, that’s sin. The only way to save sinners is sacrifice. It’s the same as breaking the law today: you have to go to jail or pay a penalty. If we don’t have laws, then we cannot maintain a nation.
The Kingdom of God also has laws. There is a spiritual order, just like there is an order living in this world. If we go outside today and all of the traffic lights are down, there will be a state of confusion. This doesn’t matter where you graduated from or how capable you are, everyone is bound to struggle in front of a 4-way intersection. It doesn’t matter how well educated or disciplined you are, we get to a 4-way intersection and we don’t know who should go first. It’s a state of chaos that cannot be restored with your education. Even with your education in school, everyone wants to go first and that’s why accidents happen. Why? It can’t be solved by your education.
There’s something inside of us that endlessly comes inside of us that always puts myself first. My greed and ambition can’t be solved by education. Everyone wants to go first, and it leads to a state of chaos. The problem of America isn’t a problem of education. It’s not because of a lack of democratic order. It’s not a lack of hospital skills either. What kind of problem? The invisible problems of our heart and spirit are not solvable by the things of the earth. The person who invited psychology was not able to control his own psyche.
That’s why America is so prolific in psychology and mental health sciences but as time passes, the number of mental patients increase and even with so many seminaries and churches, more drug addicts are arising. Even though the scientific advancements and quality of life are so developed, people are constantly spiritual, mentally seized by something. Even though they live their walk of faith, even though they go to church, it still doesn’t work out. If anything they’ve lived their walk of faith for so long, they’re exhausted. They say it doesn’t work even though I’ve tried. The problem is there are families that have believed for a long time and they should be resolved, but they’re not. This is the Word that is applicable to that.
(1) A shadow of the good things that are coming (Heb. 10:1)
In the Old Testament, God gave us the law, and this was simply a shadow of what was to come that is complete. The law itself is not perfect. They thought that if they just kept the law, they’d be fine, but they could not.
(2) Become conscious of our sin (Rom. 3:20)
Romans 3 says that this law will reveal our sin to us, if we don’t have the law we don’t know of our sin. Burglary is only a crime because America made a law that if you steal someone’s property you go to jail. Someone created that law so now everyone knows it’s a sin, but it doesn’t get rid of the sin. Even though the law exists, people still commit the sin. Through the law, we are constantly revealing who is a sinner, but it can’t fundamentally get rid of the sin.
(3) Our guardian until Christ came (Gal. 3:24)
Gal. 3:24 says the law was put in charge of us, like an elementary school teacher. Because we sin against this law, we need sacrifices.
2) Sacrifice
(1) Cannot make perfect (Heb. 10:1)
In Heb. 10:1, it says we may be able to forgive the sins committed by man but it can’t get rid of the fundamental sin. The only thing it can do is remind us of our sins. Then the only thing is a constant guilt trip. I sinned in the past and I atoned for that sin, but the sin that continuously kills people inside of me will not go away. That’s why America has so many churches and seminaries, but the problems of the heart are not resolved.
(2) Reminder of sins (Heb. 10:3)
(3) Can never take away sins (Heb. 10:4,11)
It says in Heb. 10:5 that God does not want a sacrifice. But even though the sacrifice was appointed by God, if we commit a sin, and we do our sacrifice and offering, it goes away, but it’s a repetitive cycle. People who have a lot of money can just pay for the sacrifices. God doesn’t want that, what does He want instead? God appointed one body for me and that is Jesus Christ.
3) David
In Ps. 51:16, David was king and he took advantage of the wife of one of his soldiers. He did so legally. David sent his second-in-command to a difficult battle so he could die and David could claim his wife as his own. Nobody knew about this. David was the king so he had the absolute sovereignty to do that, nobody knew what he was doing and even if they did, they couldn’t fight him. One day a prophet went to David, and he was afraid to say it directly in case David would get mad so he said it indirectly:
“King, there is a wealthy man with many lambs and cows, and he has a neighbor who’s very poor with only one lamb. This wealthy man had to serve meat for his guest, and instead of slaughtering one of his many animals, he took the single lamb of his neighbor and slaughtered it.” David said, “Who is this man? Kill him immediately. He is so wicked.” The prophet said, “You are that man.” David knew that only he knew that he killed his second-in-command to take his wife as his own. Ps. 51 is the psalm that David wrote for weeks after lamenting and crying over this.
(1) Did not desire sacrifice and offering (Heb. 10:5, Ps. 51:16)
David committed a sin, so if he were to just slaughter a lamb, it would go away. But in v. 16, it says God doesn’t want that. God created the sacrifice, why would He not want it?
(2) A broken spirit – God desires (Ps. 51:17)
Ps. 51:17 says the sacrifice God wants is a broken spirit. So even though legally my sin was forgiven through the sacrifice, the heart is not solved. Therefore, the atonement of sin through the law is not perfect.
(3) Prepared a body (Heb. 10:5)
No matter how nicely I try to live, the desire to kill others to benefit myself continues to boil in my heart. Even though you hide it from people outside, there is a problem inside of you that continuously tries to knock down those who are above you and to gather people around you to win. Even though there are so many churches and so many worships, this problem can’t be resolved. That is why through David, God sent one body who will solve this problem once and for all; that body is Jesus Christ. Heb. 10:10 and 14 says this was a one-time sacrifice that was made once and for all.
(4) Have come to do your will (Heb. 10:7,9)
This perfect sacrifice was not attainable through the sacrifice of animals; a person must die. It is a problem where I must die, but I’m already a sinner so it’s not effective. God, who has no sin, has to come on earth as a human being, die, and shed His blood to solve this problem once and for all. For all mankind, he must descend into hell and resurrect, overcoming Satan and death, and come into us as life to resolve this problem once and for all. That’s why we’re talking about Hebrews today.
“We know all this already, why are you so passionate about this?” Do you think I’m crazy, foaming at the mouth by myself? It means there is a difference between you and I. There must be something I know for me to be foaming at the mouth over this, but people who are wondering why I’m like this don’t know. You must know the reason in order for us to connect.
2. Jesus Christ
1) One sacrifice, eternal sacrifice (Heb. 10:10,14)
(1) Made holy (Heb. 10:10)
This is talking about the people who have gone to church for a long time but still have no faith or have conflicts. Heb. 10:10 says that we have been made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once and for all, meaning we are now holy. But people misunderstand this. People believe in Jesus Christ and they receive salvation and they think they’ve done something well. What’s the evidence of this? When they look at others’ weaknesses, they can’t stay still. They attack them immediately, thinking, “How can someone who goes to church be like this?” They’re completely blind to how someone like that could’ve received this holy status.
So their conflict, division, and judgment will continue until Jesus’s 2nd coming. When they come to church, they can’t say anything out loud, they’re always thinking in their heart, “I hate this person, I don’t want to be around this person, why do they come to my church? How can someone like this be in the church? Someone like this can’t believe in Jesus Christ.” That is a person who doesn’t understand what this “once and for all sacrifice” means. They don’t know about the free gift we have received, called to be holy.
(2) Made perfect (Heb. 10:14)
Heb 10:14 says that the blood of Jesus Christ has made us perfect forever. Perfect means there is no more reason to give sacrifices. Everyone knows this theoretically when they hear it, but in practice, they don’t understand. That’s where we see legalistic people. They say, “How can a pastor do this?” The pastor says, “what about you?” That’s the problem with the church.
Non-believers don’t have this because they don’t have the law; their standard is whatever helps “me.” If I’m fighting with someone and they help me, there’s no reason to fight. But people in the church use the Word of God and the law and fight over who is right, but they don’t understand these words. If you receive God’s grace to understand this, you will speak differently.
(3) It is finished (Jn. 19:30)
When Jesus said in Jn. 19:30 “It is finished,” it means with his one-time sacrifice, he has made us perfect and complete.
2) Jesus Christ – Enjoy
(1) Will not remember sins, lawless acts (Heb. 10:17)
(2) Sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary (Heb. 10:18)
In Heb. 10:17, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more,” but we always remember it. “You did this a long time ago,” We always bring things up that happened 20 or 30 years ago. “You did this, remember? At church? And you did this, too?” God says He remembers no more, but we ourselves remember to create unnecessary problems. This is a church God does not want; this is a person God doesn’t want, but this is the person Satan loves. The devil uses God’s Word to prevent people from knowing the gospel.
(3) Redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13)
Galatians 3:13 says Christ redeemed us completely from the curse of the law. When you bring the law into it, everyone has sin, so everyone must be cursed. “My Lord already died on the cross for my sin, and to take away all my curses, why are you judging me?” That is evidence that the gospel is deteriorating. People still don’t understand, they think they are so upright but that’s never the case. They continuously say correct words but they get caught up in their words, so they cannot be correct.
If you say the correct words, people will follow you, “that’s right, that’s right,” but instead of saying these correct words to save people, you say them to judge and put down other people. That’s what happens to the church if they keep talking about the law instead of the gospel. So the church makes it so that people of lower status can never go in, “you have to be holy,” and if someone has mental problems or is an addict, they can’t come.
(4) Need Jesus Christ – When we fall
People think they’ve received salvation by doing something well. Christ came because we can’t do things well on our own. Even after receiving salvation, we sin. Then what do we have to do? Should we repent? There are some people who say you have to repent for every single thing. But repenting isn’t enough, if we could simply repent things away, why would we need Jesus? This person’s repenting isn’t repentance; you need to acknowledge your own weakness and hold onto the fact that you need Christ in faith.
If that does not take place but you keep saying “I did this wrong, I’m sorry for that,” God does not want that. You have to know in your heart that you really have no hope in order for you to have true spiritual repentance. There may be people in the church who do wrong, what should you do with them? If they know they did something wrong, you should forgive them and help them not do it again. If they don’t know they did something wrong, you should let them know, because Jesus forgives us and saves us.
Then, the church that is the body of Christ must be able to forgive people when they do something wrong so they can realize “I am weak and I need Christ.” Otherwise, the Devil will oppress you so severely every time you make a mistake. Every time you sin, Satan will crush you under guilt and you can never escape. “That’s right, I’m a weak person, that’s why Christ had to die on the cross for me once and forever. That’s why I need Christ once and for all.” That is a victor. If someone is like that and someone around them makes a mistake, they’ll say, “Yes, you need Christ too.” That is the person God desires. You pray for them and help them realize the gospel again. That’s why the church saves.
Religion will kill with the law. For the church, a lot of broken people must come. For the gospel, any person can come because everyone is a sinner. Pastors, elders, everybody falls. But if the gospel doesn’t go into you like this, you’ll just be waiting to pounce on someone for a single mistake. “How could the pastor be like this?” What does the Bible say about pastors? Pastors are sinners too. By God’s grace, we put on a gown and God does His work through us. But we fall again.
“Why is it that you weren’t like this, but you’re like this now? Why is it that gave this message, but you act like this now?” That’s why I need Christ everyday. That’s when the Devil flees, you have to know this. If you don’t know this in your everyday life, you’ll always be fighting and in conflict as your walk of faith doesn’t take place. You’ll say, “Why aren’t you repenting?” without even knowing what repentance means. Later on, we’ll talk about this more
3) Throne of heaven (Heb. 10:12-13)
(1) Sat down at right hand of God
(2) Waits for his enemies to be made his footstool
This Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Throne of God, meaning He has finished His ministry. The ministry of the cross finished everything in one go, and now he is seated at the throne, until God makes His enemies kneel at His feet.
In the Roman Empire, the conquering nation will step on the throat of the conquered nation’s leader. The civilians are fine but the kings and leaders were humiliated, they’re treated like dogs. The winning king steps on the enemy. The Lord will be seated at the throne until his enemies are made into His footstool. The authority of the Devil was destroyed on the cross but he is still deceiving the non-believers and believers. Until the gospel is proclaimed entirely, and Jesus’s 2nd coming, and Satan is completely destroyed, the Lord will be seated at the throne.
(3) With all authority in heaven, earth (Mt. 28:18, 20)
Even now, He is with me with all the authority of heaven and earth. You only understand this as a theory so you have no strength. If you understand that the one who is seated at the throne is within you and lives within you, what could possibly be a problem if the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with me? It’s only a problem because you don’t believe it. Non-believers will gather their strength to solve their problems, being under the misunderstanding that if they succeed, they won’t have any problems, but it’s not enough. The real problem is that the one who has all authority over heaven and earth, the One to Whom all creation must bow, must be with me.
3. Holy Spirit
1) Me – Temple (1 Cor. 3:16)
(1) Write in their hearts, minds (Heb. 10:16)
(2) Teach, remind (Jn. 14:26-27)
1 Cor 3:16, after the once and eternal ministry of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit must come into our spirit and put the Word into our heart. People go to church, worship, do Bible Study, and memorize verses, but they can’t resolve the problems of their heart. “I want to live like this, but I can’t control myself.” If you talk to murderers, a lot of them don’t plan it but their victim is dead. There are others who do premeditated murders, and they’re completely seized by the Devil.
Others wake up from a trance and they’re killing people. There was a veteran who staked his life in the Vietnam War, but he saw college students partying and he lost his mind and started shooting them. He was so overcome with rage because he risked his life in war and these kids are oblivious, just partying. His heart was a battlefield, even though he wasn’t in a battlefield, but his heart was constantly in battle as he thought about his dead soldier friends, but what were these kids doing? He didn’t even realize before he started shooting them, “All these kids have to die.”
The college campus wasn’t a battlefield, only the Afghanistan battlefield was a battle; they were partying without realizing. I’m sorry, but this problem of the heart cannot be solved. Even if you receive grace today and say, “Yes, this is right,” if you face a circumstance at home, you’ll say it doesn’t work out, so that’s why the Holy Spirit has to come into us and control us directly with God’s Word. First of all, the Holy Spirit only moves us if we want it. He gave us an even greater blessing. We have been given the blessing of the filling of the Holy Spirit in our thoughts, heart, and spirit.
(3) Filling of the Holy Spirit (Ac. 1:8, Gen. 2:7)
Some people ask, “How should I receive the filling of the Holy Spirit?” I’ll tell you, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Why do we need to receive the filling of the Holy Spirit? Is it to fulfill my own greed and motives? Then, you will receive an evil spirit; you don’t need Jesus. God doesn’t work upon your motives. When does the Holy Spirit work? “I cannot do anything; that is why the Lord’s Spirit must control me.” Why are we not able to pray this way? We think we can do something, and we go out into the field of the world, and it doesn’t work out. It’s a repetitive cycle.
At this time, may the Holy Spirit of the Lord control my thoughts, heart, and spirit. It’s not enough to confess with your mouth; it contains a complete surrender, that is the content of today’s message. The spirit of the Lord must seize me entirely. Am I some kind of robot that He must control me? You must acknowledge that you are weak, “May the Holy Spirit of the Lord control me,” only then will my heart and thoughts be seized by God. That is a time of worship, at this time, may you enjoy this blessing. This was promised to us in Acts 1:8.
Right now at this time, may the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ completely control my thoughts, heart, and spirit. That is a real repentant person. They acknowledge their weakness, that’s real repentance. If you don’t do that but keep confessing with your mouth what you did wrong, that’s not repentance, it’s not in the Bible, that’s what children do in North Korea to confess their own sins and denounce themselves in their journal. That’s not what we’re talking about. You have to genuinely acknowledge before God that you are weak and you cannot do anything in order for the Holy Spirit to fill me.
2) Prayer
(1) Working of the Holy Spirit – Transcend time and space (Ac. 2:1-47)
(2) Light of 237 nations
(3) 24 hour prayer – Pray about all things
Throughout your week in the field, while you study, work, and meet people, may you receive the filling of the Holy Spirit, what does that mean? It means I cannot do it with my own strength, that’s complete worship. But we never pray that way, we only pray for what we want. It means you think you’re only lacking one aspect, and you want God to fill that small piece, but you’ll continue to fall.
There were so many believers like that in the Early Church. How can you solve the problems of today? It doesn’t matter what you try, God has to completely control you. In order for God to completely control you, you need to acknowledge who you are. You’re so full of hot air and dreams thinking you can do something.
Maybe you can get a medal at the Olympics or get a Nobel Prize through research, but the problem of that person’s heart is unresolved, so that’s why people commit suicide. That’s why Tolstoy the great novelist committed suicide. Napoleon said nothing is impossible for him but of course there is. As we live our lives, we have the nature to think everything is possible for us, but that’s a misconception. Later on, he was exiled. He was the best emperor and soldier, he was exiled from the nation.
There is no person who will receive glory other than God. Today’s message is about acknowledging that. You don’t do that because you’re uneducated, or because you think it will help your business. If you’re like that, you have a long way to go. You have to acknowledge that your life itself won’t work out, because I am so weak. But that’s why the Holy Spirit is inside of me, with me, that’s the filling of the Holy Spirit. You receive this by faith.
At this time, when you have faith in this, the Holy Spirit of God will seize you, invisible to your eyes. You must experience this, invisibly. “At this time, may the spirit of God work upon all the work and people I meet throughout the week.” Why do I pray that way? Is it to accomplish something I desire? That’s why that person is always miserable and it doesn’t matter how long they’ve walked their walk of faith. You pray for working of the Holy Spirit to acknowledge you can’t do it, humans can’t accomplish what they want. You may be able to study and get a Nobel Prize, but you cannot control the problem of your heart, your life, your human relationships in the world. Therefore, we pray so that the Holy Spirit of God will work so my field can go according to the Word.
God is working at this time, invisibly. This is the invisible blessing you must enjoy and experience. Yes, experience isn’t everything, but the invisible God works in ways we can see, and God heals the internal problem of our heart, too. God changes the problem of your family line with the working of the Holy Spirit. God can change the problem of America as well. God will work through the one who knows this.
Once you go into your field, you’ll face many people’s words, difficult things, and environments. That’s why even after living one day, you’re so downtrodden, because you’re living by your own strength. Moment by moment, change it to prayer. If you listen to everything this person says, your spirit will die. We work, right? That’s how we work, but that’s how we die; you have to change all of that into prayer. If you hate someone, instead of having a heart of hate towards them, ask for God to save them. If you face an incident, you have to take it to God in prayer.
Why do you think you’re so great? You think you can handle everything yourself and resolve all your problems yourself, that means you don’t know who you are. Why do we pray? We don’t pray so we can do something we can’t otherwise do. We pray so that everything will work out according to God’s will, not my own. A lot of people will destroy themselves with correct words, and because those words are correct, you can’t tell that it’s wrong. That’s how the Devil will spiritually make you fall.
3) Evangelism
(1) All people need Christ (Rom. 3:23)
If you look at everything this way, you’ll see that everyone needs Christ. Even believers who received salvation long ago need Christ. If you don’t understand these words, and you think you only need Jesus when you accept him or pray, your problems will never be resolved.
(2) Those who were appointed to give salvation (Ac. 13:48)
(3) End of the world after the Gospel is proclaimed to all nations (Mt. 24:14)
(4) My business, studies, work – All nations (Mt. 28:18)
There are people who will receive Christ in your field, that is God’s plan. Everyone needs Jesus Christ but there are people in my field who will receive Christ in God’s time schedule. This is the one who saves, this is also the one who works, but you don’t believe that, do you? “Pastor, My work and studies are important, why should I worry about this other person’s spirit?” Your work may be important to you, but God thinks that spirit is important, and God’s works will arise if you align yourself to God.
Someone has to align with the way the world is turning but if they go in the opposite direction, they’re going to cause a problem for themselves. You have to go according to the order of everything. First seek His Kingdom and righteousness. But you always do the opposite. First, my studies, work, and success, so your work is confused. Because you have the wrong priorities, your walk of faith isn’t taking place.
God has prepared a path of blessings for me but I keep going in the wrong direction and you keep saying it’s not working. You need to change your priorities. Everyone needs the gospel. The one who knows this will have their eyes opened and they’ll see the people appointed to receive salvation in their fields. Who is that person? The one who will work and study for this purpose, that’s the person aligned with the Triune God, and that person will continuously receive answers and work will be exciting, because God continuously works. Even if you fail, it’s not failure because God will raise you up to save all those who are appointed for salvation. All problems of your past, present, and future are finished. We are living with our business and studies to proclaim this gospel to the 237 nations, 5000 unreached people groups, and multi-ethnic peoples.
Conclusion
1. Complete Christ
2. I always need Christ
3. Everybody needs Christ
In conclusion, there’s nothing more to seek other than the perfect Jesus Christ. There’s no need to talk about people’s weaknesses, that’s why we need Christ. There is no need to fight because your words are wrong. The words you’ve experienced will be wrong in another nation or culture or family. If you go to Japan, all your words will be wrong. Only the words of Christ, the Truth. If I need Christ, that person needs Christ too. That’s how you love and forgive. You hold onto Christ because you know you’ve done wrong. That’s why everyone needs Christ. Every person in the entire world, all generations need Christ. That’s the reason God gives us our talent and jobs.
Prayer:
I hope your business and studies for the entire week will enjoy and testify of Only Christ. Let us hold onto the Word we’ve received and pray.