General Articles

Hebrews Lesson 35: Jesus’ Death Was God’s Will :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Chapter 10:1-10

“1 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 offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—In the volume of the book it is written of Me—To do Your will, O God.’”

8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Last week, we talked about the specific need for Jesus’ blood to wash away our sins. There is no way around this. The local New Testament church is charged with the protection and the proclamation of the Gospel. When the Gospel is tainted, then people go to Hell. Let me say that again, when the Gospel gets tainted, people go to Hell. There are myriads of people who sit in churches every week, and they are not saved. Further, there are people in a myriad of ‘Christian’ religions that are not saved. They do not trust in Jesus as Savior, and they rely on baptisms and rituals for their salvation.

What, then, is salvation? This is a very important question, and for the most part, many of us do not understand what it means. Yes, we know about trusting in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. There is a legal happening that occurs when we are saved. The passage we will explore today will help us, hopefully, to see this.

  • The Yearly Sacrifice, Temporary Covering of Sin verse 3

We have forgotten the legal stance of God. He is the Righteous Judge.

Psalm 7:11-12 “God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation each day. If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow” (Berean Study Bible).

We often do not take this part of who God is very seriously. We love the grace part, the kindness part, and the mercy part. We love the giving God, the supplying God, and the nice God. But our God is a Righteous Judge first and foremost, and this is because of His Holiness. He is Perfect.

Leviticus 11: 44-45 “For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (NKJV).

God requires perfection and Holiness, separation from sin, for us to be in His presence. In the Old Testament and right up to the death of the sacrifice of Jesus, the sins of the people were temporarily covered by the yearly sacrifices. We know that people did get eternally saved; we can see that in the writing of Moses, King David, and others; just look at this verse from Psalm 32:1-2,

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit, there is no deceit” (NKJV).

In these verses, David lays out what happens when we are legally right with God. He covers our sins, and He removes our sins, and sin is no longer imputed, accrued, or attached to us in any way, shape, or form. We become perfect, Holy in Jesus. Paul, while writing Romans, puts it this way in Romans 5:1,

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (NKJV).

We are justified and declared righteous, and we no longer have sins imputed to us. There is nothing to separate us from fellowship with God. Then because of this justification, we are no longer condemned to suffer God’s judgment.

Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (NKJV).

  • God’s Will to Permanently Cover our Sin, verse 9

The older I get, and the more I struggle with my flesh, the more real and precious the grace of God is to me, and the more merciful I find myself becoming to those around me. The mere fact that God had it in His will from before Creation to make a wretch like me His perfect son is mind-blowing. It is God’s will to make me perfect, and to do so, He sent His Son Jesus, who came of His own free will to die a gruesome death so sinful wretches like me can be the children of God.

1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (NKJV).

This wonderment should never get old. Every day that you awake, your first statement should be a statement of gratitude for God’s grace and kindness, that He, the Holy Judge of the Universe, should be mindful of a sinful, good-for-nothing wretch like me and that He should want me to be His, a part of His family. It is God’s will to save people.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

It is God’s will for all people who are alive to be saved, to have their sins removed forever, and to be declared justified and no longer be under His condemnation. This is why the Gospel needs to be pure and perfect; people’s eternal standing with God depends on hearing and responding to the truth. There is only one name whereby we must be saved; that name is Jesus.

Acts 4:11-12 “This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca; support@mmbchurch.ca

My Readers :: By Jim Towers

Published on: by RR10

Two different readers, while vacationing here in S. Florida, have paid me a visit recently. One was Norman R., and the other was Joe K., both of whom claim to be readers of my articles and Rapture Ready.

We met at the Cracker Barrel restaurant here in Naples at different times a week apart, and both men were earnest Christians. It was nice to have met them both. Norman was much like me in that he is very evangelical – even though we have different techniques. I outgrew the technique period and have gone on to deal with people on an individual basis.

One of the first things I ask is, “What is your name.” Then I use their name as often as possible in our conversation. But this is not a technique, only a way to bring them out of their shell. I call it loving on them. There is nothing like the sound of your own name coming from someone else.

Norman shares Christ on YouTube, and with flyers, he composes himself while Joe is just beginning to get his feet wet.

Joe is not much of a talker, but he is attentive, and so with me talking most of the time and telling stories that abound in my upcoming book (in which I tell of my many evangelistic exploits and a little bit about my career in showbiz), Joe and I sat for the better part of an hour eating and conversing.

In any case, after sharing, he suggested we step outside and sit awhile to finish conversing. This restaurant has seating outside under an overhang and two small checker tables where customers can play checkers while they wait for seating. So, we sat at one of them, and I remembered that I had three little red Bibles in my pocket to hand out, and I gave them to him.

Just then, a guy with a small fedora on his head was walking by to fetch his wife, who was still in the restaurant. We both said “hello” at about the same time.

I said, “I like the hat.”

The man stopped, and we began to chat while Joe just watched.

The man in the hat replied, “I get comments about my hat all the time, but I have to wear a hat so as not to get sunburn on my bald head, especially down here in Florida.”

“You must be a visitor,” I replied.

For the sake of conversation and knowing that most people want to talk about themselves, I said, “You must be from Joysey.”

“Howdja know?” he said with his gravely New Jersey voice.

“I can tell by the way you carry yourself and the hat on your head,” I countered.

We laughed together.

“What’s your name?”

“My name’s Bill”

“Well, Bill, my name is Jim; glad to know you.

Bill continued, “Most people ask me where my saxophone is when I wear this hat. Musicians wear headgear during their performances, ha ha ha.”

“You’re right, they do!” I replied.

The laughter continued, and soon Joe, who had sat quietly, joined in.

Meanwhile, I was thinking about how often other people responded in the same way as Bill. They just want to talk to someone but are afraid to step out. But if you give them the opportunity, they will tell you the story of their entire lives. What a sad commentary on our once-social society.

Later I received the email below from Joe, and I was humbled by what he had to say. Here is an excerpt:

I believe God was instrumental in encouraging me to reach out to you in the past few months in preparation for this meeting (our Lord has footprints when seen from our rearview mirror). I thought about the four or five people you approached in conversations in the time it took me to pay for breakfast. Wow, to witness your ability to turn the conversation to Christ and redemption in a matter of minutes. I admire you and your stories that display such frankness, boldness, and witness to the countless number of lost souls in need of redemption. You’re doing what our Lord has asked all of us to do, and I can see that you’re doing it out of love for the individuals themselves. You truly are what you write about.

So why, Lord, as I’m driving back, did you encourage me to step out of my comfort zone and ask this man to breakfast? I think it may be that He moved me to expand my boundaries, which is a form of exercise in our love in Jesus. It’s really unlike me to request what I asked you. Yet the whole time, it seemed like the most natural thing…. I told my wife about my plans and asked if she would like to come along. [She said] “Now, why would I want to come and listen to a couple of old men talking about the end of the world.” I can’t remember if she said end of the world, but I’m pretty sure she was thinking it. Of course, I just needed to offer her this invite to put her mind at ease. I found it odd that we talked as though we knew each other. But this makes sense, considering we are of one body, the remnant of believers in Christ our Lord!

So God blessed me in my walk with Him on February 13th, 2023. I got to meet the man who [is an example of whom] Christ says, watch and learn, see my humble servant, Jim actually does walk the talk and talk the walk. So this was all inspirational, educational, and recreational….

Yes, you have an amazing story to tell, Jim. Just scratching the surface tells me your book will be very much an inspiration to many people.

I thank you for our humble meeting and the excitement you brought to my vacation while here in Florida, as well as the inspiration and teaching this provides me. I’ll continue to pray for the success of your book/movie being brought into the light of a darkening world. If there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask. Oh, and I hope you don’t mind if I reach out to you on occasion. It really does feel like kinship.

May our Lord continue to richly bless you and all of your family and friends.

Always, YBIC,

Joe Kittock