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The book of Hebrews, chapter 7, the Bible tells us that yes, God gave the law. the law could not make those that came to the law perfect. Couldn’t make the comers thereunto perfect. Coming to church we consider that that’s a good deed but coming to church cannot make you perfect. You gave some money this morning. Maybe some of you took some out. It did not make you perfect. Regardless of what you do cannot make you perfect. And yet you have to be perfect to go to heaven.

In Hebrews and chapter 7, I want you to look there in verse 11. In verse 11 says, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood for under it the people received the law. What further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron, if a a man going to the priest in the Old Testament and offering these sacrifices year after year. If it could make you perfect, then why would you have to do it again if you were perfect?

Well it didn’t make you perfect. And they had to offer the same sacrifices year after year after year because it could not make the people who did those deeds, it can’t make you perfect. And the priest, they couldn’t make you perfect. Because they had to offer a sacrifice for their own sins before they could offer one for your sins or for the nation. So they could not save themselves. When Christ came, he was a priest, not after the order of Aaron or the Levitical priesthood of the tribe of Levi, because Christ was born of the tribe of Judah.

And Melchizedek was a different kind of a high priest. There’s no record of his parents. There’s no record of his death. And so therefore it was like he lives forever. So Christ was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. An endless life, the power of an endless life. Think if you had the power of an endless life. See down there in verse 16, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life, the power that you would have if you knew that you could not die and never die, the power of an endless life.

Well, Christ has the power of living forever. And to live forever, he’s willing to share that eternal life with whomsoever he will and because he’s perfect, he can make you and me perfect. You and I, he can make us perfect. Look in verse 19. For the law, the law made nothing what? Nothing perfect. So those who want to keep the law, the law cannot make you perfect. It cannot make you righteous. And yet you have to be perfect and the law can’t do that.

So how is a man then going to be made perfect? When you accepted Christ as your savior, then the Bible says, the Holy Spirit gave you a new spiritual birth and you became a child of God. God fathered your new birth. Your new birth born of God, born of God, it has no sinful nature. No sinful nature, it cannot sin, cannot sin, it cannot die. That’s why once you trust Christ as your Savior, you are a child of God for how long?

Forever. You have been created by God, perfect. Now look up here and you see flesh. What you see came with my first birth. My second birth was born of God and that is a spiritual birth and that you cannot see. see, but it is perfect in Christ. I am perfect. So there in Christ, I am perfect. I have no sin put to my account. I am as righteous and as holy as God, but I am not God. You see, he did that for me because he loved me.

And for me to live with him in heaven, I’ve got be holy and righteous. I’ve got to be perfect, but I could not be perfect on my own. I could not do anything. The law keeping the commandments could not make me perfect. Therefore, in the last part of verse 19, but the bringing in of a bed, something else did. What made me perfect? By the which we We draw nigh unto God. I can draw nigh unto God because I am perfect.

The law couldn’t do it, but something else did, something better than the law. And as you read this, you’ll find out that Jesus Christ is better than the law. Looking for 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety, a guarantee of a better testament, better contract. It was His will and delivered and signed in blood. He made out a testament, He made out a will and guaranteed that everybody who comes to God through Him, He will make them perfect.

What He can do, the law could not do. No man could do. So that when I stand up and I can say, I am a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. All of God’s children are perfect. All of God’s children are holy. They’re set apart and they’re gods. You see that’s because you are in Christ. You have been made acceptable in Christ. is your standing, not your state, your standing in Christ cannot be changed by you or God.

Now the state that you go in from day to day, yeah you might change a little bit. Your state of mind fluctuates an awful lot, but there is a thing in the Bible that’s talked about being perfect and being made perfect. Look there in chapter 9 and verse 9, chapter 9 and verse 9, which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices in the Old Testament. And you ought to underline this in your Bible, could not make him that did the service perfect.

Could not make the person that did the service perfect. I don’t care how many laws you kept, how many sacrifices you made, how well you lived, it could not make the person who did the service perfect. And perfect is what you have to eat. So as you read this evidently what something could not do in and making you perfect, something else did make you perfect. I’m going to heaven because I’m perfect. That’s the only reason I can get there.

But I’m not perfect in my works because there’s no work that I can do to make me perfect. I’m perfect in Christ. The Bible says in Colossians chapter 2 that ye are complete in him, complete in Him. I like nothing to get to heaven. There’s nothing that I have to do from this day forward to do to get to heaven. I am complete. I have all I need. I have been accepted. If you committed a sin, and even though you did some good work to cover the sin, it didn’t clean your conscience because you still know you sinned.

You did wrong. You do wrong yesterday and you said, well, I’m going to go to church today. Oh, it makes me feel so much better. But your conscience knows you still did it and you still guilty and you still wrong and you know it. Whenever in the Bible you read the word eternal, it also could have the word perfect. You see, eternal life is perfect life. Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life. Jesus Christ is the true God and He’s perfect.

When He gave you eternal life, He gave you His perfection. And His perfection cannot sin and cannot die. You’ll last forever because you have been made perfect forever. It’s an eternal perfection. See there in Hebrews in chapter 9. Look down in verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place once. How many times can a man get saved one time? If you ever hear people getting saved two and three and four times, they don’t understand it at all.

You can only get saved once. You can only get born in this world one time. You can only get born in the God’s family one time. So he made one payment once and for all for all sins of all people. And those who by faith believe he did it for them. He makes them perfect. And if you made perfect, why would you ever need to get saved again? How can a perfect person sin? Your new birth that can’t sin.

All of the sinning that you do after you trusted Christ was from your first birth, because your new one can’t sin. It’s perfect. Can’t sin. And that’s why he says that whosoever is born of God, if not commits sin. Can’t commit sin. For his seed remaining in him, and he cannot sin, impossible to sin, because he’s born of God. So the part of you that was not born of God still sins.

In verse 14 he says, how much more shall the blood of Christ hoot through the eternal spirit? Eternal spirit? Or you could say they, not just eternal, but perfect spirit. Down in verse 12, when he says, obtained eternal redemption, it could be perfect redemption. Then when he says they’re in the last part of verse 15, eternal inheritance could be a perfect inheritance, undefiled that faith if not away reserved in heaven for you. That’s what God has done for us.

Look there in chapter 10 of Hebrews and look in verse 1. Chapter 10 and verse 1, for the law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never, can never with those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. In other words, today you may not be going to some temple and making some animal sacrifice, but the continual coming to church, continual giving of your money, continual praying year after year, you say, I’ve been doing this year after year, it’ll never make you perfect.

It’s a waste of your time. You’re playing games. Either you are truly trusting only in Christ or you’re lost. It cannot be both ways. Those who come to God in these manners seeking to obtain this perfection that you need to get to heaven can’t make you perfect. And it won’t work. And the Bible is very simple, very clear on this. I mentioned to this in Sunday school. If I’m standing here and there’s a light here and it shines, then I cast a shadow.

In the Old Testament, they studied the shadow. And only the shadow knows. But they studied the shadow. The shadow was a shadow of a perfect sacrifice, a perfect individual. They never seen a shadow like this before. They could not describe it. They couldn’t pin it on anybody. Who does the shadow belong to? No one day. Christ was born and he grew up to be a man and lo and behold they found out that Babadi, Christ, in dwelling that body and how he lived, cast a long shadow of about 2000 years.

And without this body, this perfect man, who does the shadow belong to? It was only a shadow of the real thing. When Christ came, the shadow only pointed toward Christ. The law pointed toward Christ. So the law brings us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But it doesn’t make the comers there unto perfect. Look there in chapter 5 of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 5. This is so important for you to understand this. Otherwise you will doubt your salvation.

See when you doubt your salvation you call God a liar. you doubt your salvation, you call God a liar, unless you’re not saved. So I’ve been saved, but I’m not sure I am now. If you ever were saved, you still are. But I don’t tell people that they’ve ever been saved. I don’t know who saved and who isn’t saved. I’m saying that if you trust Christ, God says you’re saved. If you believe it, you’re the one that has to determine whether you believe him or not.

I don’t want anybody resting upon my word that they’re saved. Therefore, I don’t tell people they’re saved. I say, if you accept Christ right now, God says He gives you eternal life. And if you accept Christ right now, God gives eternal life and all you send to pay, where would you go? You tell me. Hebrews in chapter 5. Look there in verse 8. In verse 8. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.

And being made perfect, he He became the author of eternal salvation, or you could say, a perfect salvation. The salvation that he designed, the plan of salvation for a man was perfect. God had to make him complete. Because if there’s anything lacking, then the man wouldn’t make it. So it had to be a total salvation, a complete salvation, or there be no salvation. If you are not eternally secure, then you are not secure at all. If you can lose your salvation by something that you fail to do, then your salvation depends on you, not Christ.

And you don’t have salvation. You’re working for something that’s free. Because by your good life, you keep it in bad life, you lose it. That’s not the Bible. My salvation totally depends upon Jesus Christ. It is complete and it is perfect. And He makes the statement here, and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation, so that anyone who is saved is saved eternal Lee. He does not become the author of temporary salvation. It is all permanent salvation, no probation.

God does not save anybody on probation. I’m going to save you today and I’m going to put you on probation. And if you live right, then I’ll let you get on in. If you don’t, then I’m going to take it away from you. That is not taught anywhere in the Bible. That’s religions. Religions will teach you that, but the Bible does not teach that. So therefore I hope that you understand and know that you have eternal life and that you’re going to heaven whenever you die.

The Bible is very simple and is very clear. People make simple things complex and I cringe when they do things like that. Look up here just a moment. They’re trying to make it as simple as I can, as clear as I can. His hand representing you and me in this wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us. Now God says that He loves us, but our sins that we commit. Keeps us from getting into heaven because heaven is perfect and we’re not.

So we’ve come short of perfection short of the glory of God. And the Bible says there is no amount of works that you can do that can make you perfect. You can’t come to God by the law. The law only condemns you. It says you’re not good enough. And so when you spend all your life trying to accomplish something that is impossible, you lose. Think for a moment how many people there are in the world that are at this moment in a church because they think it’s helping them go to heaven.

How many various religions of different kinds? people trying to live a good life, thinking that that’s going to help them get to heaven and it has absolutely nothing to do with them going to heaven. A person doesn’t have to go to church, he doesn’t have to give money, don’t have to live right, don’t have to stop any sin in order to go to heaven. That is contrary to what everybody’s heard. That’s contrary to what I was told. I was always under the impression, if I was good I’d go to heaven bad I’m going to hell.

And I had mixed emotions. I didn’t know which way I was going to go at different times. Sometime I thought I’m good enough to go to heaven and other time I knew I wasn’t going to go because it debased upon how I was living. And I would have good days and bad days. Well, God said that’s not the way it is. But He loves us and He hates our sin. And to pay for that sins, eternal separation from God and hell.

If you could, from this day forward, never commit another sin, what are you going to do about the ones you’ve already committed? This hand represents Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, He came into the world because He loves you and me. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So Christ took the sin, paid for it on the cross and came back from the dead. And the Lord said, if I would believe, simply believe that He did this for me, He puts this payment to my account, I go to heaven or what he did for me.

Now the Bible says all those who believe on him are placed in Christ. So when Christ was on the cross, you are placed in that body in God’s eyes. And that’s why the Bible says by one spirit, are we all baptized into one body? And his body became your body and you died on the cross and you were buried and you came back from the dead and you have risen and ascended into heaven and you are right now seated on the right hand of the Father in heaven in Christ.

And that’s why it says we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. These are what is known as the identification truth. In other words, you identify yourself with Christ’s crucifixion and his death and his resurrection. All that was put to your account as though you did it. I paid for my sins. I died. But I didn’t really do it. And that’s why he says in the book of Galatians in chapter two, which I want you to see that verse before we close.

One last verse, looking Galatians chapter two and verse 20. Galatians chapter two and verse 20, you ought to underline this verse in your Bible. It’s an awesome verse. But this is what Paul was talking about. I wasn’t really crucified. I wasn’t really buried. I didn’t really come back from the dead. But it’s been put to my account as though I did. The silver is like you have on a debt you had to pay and somebody paid the debt for you.

It doesn’t matter. You said, well, I didn’t really do it. Somebody did it for you and you accepted that. It’s just like you did. You see there in Galatians in chapter 2 verse 20? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. You know what I really wasn’t crucified. It was just like I was because what he did was put to my account like I did it. not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh.

I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So now that I have I’m supposed to live as though I’m dead to sin. Like my sinful nature doesn’t exist. It has no power. And I’m not going to spend my life satisfying its desires. No, I can. But if you do fulfill the desires of the flesh, then you’re going to reap corruption. You’re going to reap the chastened hand of God. And God’s going to, it’s going to cause a reward when you get to heaven and you’re going to lose out on the blessings of life now.

So there’s no advantage. There is not one advantage. for any child of God to walk in the flesh. It’s not going to pay off. You’re going to lose. I’ve never met a Christian who walked in the flesh in one. You don’t win. It costs you. So because you are a child of God, God says you have been risen from the dead, walk in newness of life, live as a child of God should live. And God will bless you here and reward you when you get to heaven.

And one day, this body is going to get so old, or something can happen to it, and it’s going to literally die. And whenever this body literally dies and he put it in the grave, well, your new birth, that born of God, well, it can’t die. Death is separation. It can’t be separated from God. But you, your soul, can be separated from your body and death is separation. When you leave that body, the Bible says to be absent from the body, to be what?

Present with the Lord. So that’s what we’re looking for. And he says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ live within me and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. See that verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If a man could earn his way to heaven by his works, Christ died in vain.

But a man can’t earn his way to heaven. So therefore he must be saved by grace. Well, that one shred of works, no confidence in works. Any of his talents or abilities, nothing that he does or doesn’t do, do you see either Christ or no salvation. Let’s pray, Shai’a. With the heads by a nice close and no one looking around, I know that most of you, maybe all of you, have trusted Christ as your Savior. But if you are here this morning, and if you’ve not trusted Christ as your Savior, then you’re not a child of God.

If you’re not a child of God, you’re not going to heaven. And I want you to go to heaven. The Lord wants you to go to heaven. That’s why I paid for your sins. And friend, if you try to live good enough to get to heaven, it would just make you a hypocrite. Don’t sense doing that. Don’t play that game. Just be honest between you and the Lord and say, Lord, I’m a sinner. That’s what I am. And I can’t promise how I’m going to live, because that’s not an issue.

Lord, right now the best on how I will accept Christ as my Savior. I’m going to trust Him to take me to heaven when I die. And friend, God said, if you’ll believe that, He’ll save you and give eternal life, and you’ll go to heaven or what it did for you. If you’ve never done it, would you do it right now? Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr.

Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics. And we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771, or write to us, and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Mail.

The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, God bless you and thank you for listening to Bible Mind. Thanks for joining us on Bible Mind. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed.

caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.