Acts 15:10
"Now therefore why tempt (or test) ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, (or upon the believers. Now we’re talking here about Paul’s converts up there in Gentile country. Not talking about the Twelve Disciples. Don’t get the terminology switched. So why test God, to put a yoke upon the neck of those believers) which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear."
Again, is yoke a nice word? No, it’s a detestable word. Because what does a yoke indicate? You’re a beast of burden. It simply makes you nothing more than a beast of burden. That’s what it was to be under the Levitical Law and that is what it is to be under a religious legalism such as Judaism. My some of you have been there. You know what I’m talking about when you find that your now Free from what? The bondage of religion. And I won’t give you the name of the denomination, but it was a denomination of bondage as most of them are. Oh, to be set free from that stuff. And that’s all it is, it’s stuff. It’s a yoke of bondage. It’s beggarly. It’s weak. It’s legalism.
All right, now then, let’s come back to Hebrews again because I’ve got a thought that I’m sure I want to hit and I think it’s in some of these coming verses.
Hebrews 10:11
"And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, stood daily ministering and offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin;" Now what’s the first word again in verse 12?
Hebrews 10:12a
"But (oh, the flipside! See?) this man, (the one who received the body there in Virgin Mary. Who grew up in the carpenter’s shop. Who began His ministry up and down the dusty roads of Palestine. And for the most part stayed away from the Judaism of Jerusalem. But, this man,) after he had offered (how many?) one (not a million) sacrifice for sins for ever,…"
Listen if you don’t remember anything else. I want you to remember that little set of words. "But this man after He had offered one sacrifice for ever,..." That means exactly what it says.
It is forever and when we come under the power and the redeeming liberty of that sacrifice, we are safe forever. Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Unending. The question came up, How long is eternity? It’s as long as God lives! How long is that? No end! And that’s how long we’re going to be there – forever. All right, because of the sacrifice for sin that Christ made, what did He do? He sat down. See? After He had established that one sacrifice that was sufficient for all mankind for all eternity. He could do what? He could sit down. He didn’t have to start making plans for the next time he would come back. He didn’t have to start lining up arrangements for when He could go back to the planet and do it again. There is never any need of that being done again, and why do so many show they're ignorance by repeating they're need of a sacrifice again. Unbelief and lawlessness. Why do they want to begin the old customs of the Judaizers again because they have hearts veiled by God. They want to resurrect all the old ways of man because it has become a mans religion.
No, it’s been done once and for all. That sacrifice has covered all the sins of the human race – and then we worry and moan, "Is what He’s done really enough for my salvation? Is it enough for me?" You better believe it! And don’t go trying to add to it. Just receive it as your own, as if it was you on that tree, then believe it in your heart for your salvation! Yes! receive His Salvation as it is your own. When we put our trust in that sacrificial work of Christ, we’re safe for all eternity. Nothing can take us out of that security! And we’ll be looking at the efficacy or the power of the cleansing of that shed blood of Christ. And oh listen, as a result of it, He could sit down at the right hand of God. He is my security is He your? Its Christ in you as He is in me, just as Paul has stated by way of divine revelation.
He’s not going to sit there forever so far as dealing with lost humanity because He’s still going to deal in His wrath with lost unbelieving and lawless mankind – but we’ll pick that up soon enough.
Hebrews 10:12
"But this man, (the One to whom God gave the body up there in verse 5.) after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, (not just for once a year as Israel’s high priest did. Now “Once Forever”) sat down on the right hand of God;"
Now we covered that quite extensively previously. Now verse 13.
Hebrews 10:13
"From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool."
Once He ascended back to glory having finished the work of Grace our Redemption and Salvation on the Cross, "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High until." Now let’s go back to Psalms 110 verse 1 and pick up the Old Testament format of that very same act – that all of this was prophesied. None of this is strange to the Old Testament prophecies. Psalms 110 verse 1. And this, of course, was accomplished at His ascension then in Acts chapter 1, when the Eleven watched Him go. As He entered into the Holy of Holiest in Heaven, and He sat down at the right hand of the Father on High. Keep in mind also that this was the second ascension as He had already taken captive captivity on into the Holiest place when He sanctified them with His Blood.
Psalms 110:1a
"The LORD (God the Father, Elohim) said unto my Lord, (God the Son, Yehovah, Yeshua-Christ the Messiah) Sit thou at my right hand, (the place of power and Authority, what’s the next word?) until…"
Now you want to highlight that or underline it because that’s the key word. He has not seated Himself for eternity. The work of the Cross is finished forever but His seating Himself at the right hand of the Father is not for eternity. It is only until the Father says:
Psalms 110:1b
"…I make thine enemies thy footstool."
When will that happen? When He returns at His second advent. When Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation (now here's a thought or question what's the purpose of the tribulation, or what's involved in the events that will take place during it? To make His enemies His footstool!), it’s not going to be with love and mercy and grace and salvation. It’s going to be with wrath and judgment. It’s just simply a fact of Scripture, that God has now been giving out His Grace for 2,000 plus years – offering salvation to anyone from the top of the totem pole to the bottom, none excepted. Rich or poor. Black or white. Red or yellow. The whole human race has now had an opportunity to receive God’s tremendous salvation because of what He has done. Just as verse 8 of Psalm 2 tells us. Why the wrath and judgment? Because they've made light of His Gospel which is Christ and trampled under foot His cross and Blood by so doing.
There’s coming a day, and we think we’re getting close, where this ‘until’ will finally come to pass. And that is when He will make His enemies His footstool, when He returns with wrath and judgment and cleanses the earth of all the wickedness – everything that smacks of religion in this materialistic, wicked, lawlessness, sensual world will disappear as well as the people with it. Now, to give you a glimpse as to how even the Hebrews of Jesus’ day were looking forward to this. Come with me to Luke chapter 1, because there we have a beautiful description of what the believing Hebrews of Jesus’ day were looking for, but the Nation of Israel as a whole, rejected it.
This is from the lips of a man filled by the Holy Spirit. Luke chapter 1 and he lays it out so clearly of what God was ready to bring into the Nation of Israel. They rejected it (three times if memory serves me in Acts alone), but God is still going to do it. He’s still going to return at His second advent and all of these things spoken of here by Zacharias will become a literal fulfilled reality. All right, let’s jump in at verse 67 where Zacharias now (the father of John the Baptist, one of the last priests working the Temple rites in Jerusalem) has just been filled with the Holy Spirit and he is prompted to speak this:
Luke 1:67-68
"And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,"
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