Alright, let's turn again to
Hebrews chapter 10. I titled the message this morning,
Christ One Sacrifice. You've often heard it's a biblical
phrase, the simplicity of Christ. The simplicity of the gospel
comes from this. It comes from a single focus
of the gospel. The single focus of the gospel
is Christ. It's all about Christ, His glory
about how He saves sinners. The gospel is simple. You know,
if we had a test in school that just had one question and we
already knew the answer, it'd be an easy test, wouldn't it?
And if the teacher says, now here's the test, hands out the
test, here's the test. And by the way, here's one question
on it, here's the answer to it. Well, we'd all get 100%, wouldn't
we? We'd all graduate, whatever those big old titles are. We
graduate high. It'd be an easy test if we knew
the answer. You just have to remember one
thing. Well, the gospel is simple because you just have to remember
one thing. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. When
Paul talked about the simplicity of the gospel, the word simplicity
or the simplicity of Christ, he said that the word simplicity
he uses means singleness. The gospel is simple to understand
because it's got a single point. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
a single Savior. There's a single hope. There's
a single high priest. There's a single highway to God.
It's always the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a single sacrifice
for sin. And that's what I want us to
look at this morning. Christ's one sacrifice. You don't need
to wonder Are there a lot of different ways to help put away
sin? There's just one sacrifice for
sin, the sacrifice that puts away sin forever. It's the sacrifice
of Christ. All it took for the Lord Jesus
Christ to put away all of the sin of his people was one sacrifice. Hebrews 10 verse 12 tells us
that. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for
sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. And verse
14 says, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And this is what I would like
us to consider this morning. Why did Christ only have to offer
one sacrifice? What is it about this sacrifice
that made one sacrifice to be enough? I've got four reasons. Number one is this. There's just
one sacrifice for sin. because of who it is that offered
the sacrifice. Verse 11 says, every high priest
standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after
he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God. Now the Old Testament priest
had to offer many sacrifices, didn't he? And it was because
of the nature of the man offering the sacrifice. They were sinful
men. You know, the best Aaron and
his sons could do, all they could do at their very best was be
a picture of Christ. Before Aaron could offer a sacrifice
for the people and before he could intercede for the people,
the first thing Aaron had to do is offer a sacrifice for his
own sins because he was a sinful man. Well, one sinful man can't
take away the sin of another sinful man. were too laden with
sin, that Aaron was already defiled by his own sin. So he couldn't
take away sin because of his own nature. And those Old Testament
priests offered thousands of sacrifices. I mean, they had
a sacrifice for everything. They had morning, noon, and evening
sacrifices. They had burnt offerings. They
had sin offerings. They had peace offerings. They
had drink offerings. They had wave offerings. They
had sacrifices for the day of Passover. They had sacrifices
for the day of atonement. They had sacrifices for the purification
of a priest. Sacrifices for the purification
of a woman. Sacrifices for cleansing of a
leper. I mean, it just seemed like it's never ending. And they
kept offering those sacrifices over and over and over and over
again. Because those sacrifices never
did anything to take away sin. Remember that back in verse 4
of chapter 10? But it's not, for it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. It's just
not possible. Those priests had to offer many
sacrifices and many different priests had to offer those many
sacrifices because the priest kept dying and somebody had to
take his place. He died because he's a sinful
man. He didn't take away his own sin, much less the sin of
the people. But the writer says, oh, now you've seen the picture
in the Old Testament of the high priest, Oh, look at this man. This man is one man. This man has no successors. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's one man. Because this man is no ordinary
man. He's not a son of Adam. He's the God-man. He is Almighty
God. He's the Eternal Father in a
human body. He's the God-man. The perfect,
sinless man. And this man can offer a sacrifice
for the people and God will accept him. God will accept what he
does because this man is holy. He had no sin. He knew no sin. He did no sin. He was acquainted
with no sin and nothing he ever does will have to be repeated
because this man is perfect and everything this man does is perfect. This man, this is an important
gospel truth. This man, Why is it so important
that one man, it has to be this man, offer one sacrifice for
sin? Why is it that a man has to do
that? Well, it's because of the gospel truth of representation.
See, by man came sin, didn't it? Adam brought sin into the
world, came by a man. Well, then righteousness has
got to come from another man. By man came death. Death came
because of Adam's sin, by one man. Well, life's got to come
from another man. See, God sees all human beings
in one of two men. The first Adam or the second
Adam. And Adam is the first man. We don't call Adam the first
man just because he was the first one created. Adam was the first
man because he's the first representative man. God saw the whole human
race in Adam. Because all of us would come
from Adam's loin. We all come from his sinful seed. Adam represented his entire race.
And what Adam did, every one of us did too, because we were
in him. He was our representative, our
father. Well, you know what Adam did,
don't you? Adam sinned. Well, when Adam sinned, an entire
race of men and women became guilty because we sinned in him. We did what Adam did. Now, when
we're born, we commit sin. But that doesn't make us the
very first time we ever tell a lie, the very first time we
steal something. That doesn't make us a sinner. You know why
we commit sin? David said from the very moment
we're born, we come forth from the womb speaking lies. You know
why we sin from the very moment we're born? Because we received
Adam's nature when we were conceived. We were conceived from Adam's
sinful seed. We are sinners, but we became
guilty when Adam sinned. We're sinners because we received
Adam's nature. We were made unrighteous by the
disobedience of one man. Well, the only way we can be
made righteous is by the obedience of another man, the second man.
And the only man who can make his people righteous by his obedience
to the law, by him obeying the law for them, is this man that
the writer is talking about. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, became a man. He became a real man. so that
he could be the representative of his people under the law.
And this man makes his people righteous because he obeyed the
law for them. And then, because he's sinless,
he can take the sin of his people away from them and put that sin
away by his sacrifice. You see, in Adam, we are what
Adam is. We're guilty. We're sinful. We're
rebellious. We're cast out of God's presence.
We can't have fellowship with God. in Adam because God cannot
accept us in our sin. But in Christ, we are what Christ
is. See, we are what our representative
is. In Christ, we are what Christ is. We're holy. We're righteous.
We're accepted. We have fellowship with the Father
because of who this man is, because he's the sinless man. And God
will accept the sacrifice that Christ offers because he's the
great high priest, the sinless high priest. There's only one
sacrifice for sin because of the nature of the man offering
the sacrifice. This man is holy and sinless. All right, number two, there's
just one sacrifice for sin because of the nature of the sacrifice.
Verse 12, but this man, after he offered one sacrifice for
sins forever, he sat down. He sat down on the right hand
of God. Now, remember a minute ago, we
looked at Old Testament priest offering sacrifices. They couldn't
take away sin because of the nature of the man offering the
sacrifice. Nothing a sinful man can do will ever take away more
sin. But they also had to offer more
and more and more so many sacrifices because of the nature of the
sacrifice. They were just offering animal sacrifices. We just read
that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away the sin of a
man. Because an animal can't pay for the sin of a man, can
it? An animal's got a different nature.
I reminded my wife Jana that recently. She said something
about men are dogs. And I said, our two little dogs
were there. I said, I don't have the same nature as that dog.
Now, no. An animal has a different nature than a man. So an animal
can't be the substitute, can't be a sacrifice for a man. Sin
is a violation of God's moral law. Well, an animal can't comprehend
that. So the animal can't be a sacrifice
for that broken law. It sins in the soul. Sins in
the soul. Sin is not so much what we do,
it's what we are. Sin is in the soul and an animal
doesn't have a soul. So an animal can't be a sacrifice
that would take away sin. But this man, oh this man, He
just had to offer one sacrifice per season. Why? It's because
of the nature of the sacrifice. His sacrifice was perfect. What did he offer? What did he
sacrifice to God? He offered himself. He sacrificed
himself. He sacrificed everything that
he is. He sacrificed his perfect body. and he sacrificed his perfect
soul. He made his soul an offering for sin. That's why the son of
God became a man. It's so that he could be the
substitute for his people. So he could do what an animal
could never do. He became a real man made under
the moral law so he could be the substitute for his people.
He became a real man with a real soul so that he could sacrifice
himself, body, and soul to put away the sin of His people. And
that one sacrifice put away the sin of God's people in justice,
in reality. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin for His people. Now, He couldn't be made sin
if He was a sinner, could He? No, the only way He could be
made sin is if He was holy and perfect. He was made sin. Now, that doesn't mean He was
made a sinner. He was always perfect. He was always holy.
Yet scripture says He was made sin. And He was made sin because
He could bear the sin of His people. He could take it away
from them because He was perfect. Now here's why that's important.
That Christ was made sin. When Christ was made sin, He
literally took the sin of His people away from them. Took it
into His own body on the tree. It can never touch them again.
Now, if God was just pretending, where'd that sin go? Maybe it
could touch me again. I don't know. But God wasn't
pretending. Christ was made sin. So it's not the sin of his people
anymore. That's why he called it mine
iniquity. It became his. So it can never
touch his people again. And in exchange, Christ took
the sin of his people and you and he gave them an exchange.
He gave them his righteousness. and his people actually became
righteous. The sin of God's elect really,
truly became Christ at Calvary and his righteousness actually
became ours. Now that salvation and justice,
God can accept a holy man. God can accept a righteous woman.
If we're made righteous in Christ, God can accept us. That salvation
and justice And the sacrifice of this perfect man put away
the sin of God's people forever and made them perfect, made every
last one of them perfect. The sin of God's elect is gone. It doesn't exist anymore because
it's been put under the blood of Christ. Now, what a sacrifice. that one sacrifice could put
away all of that mountain of sin away eternally with just
one sacrifice. And the proof that Christ doesn't
need to do anything else to accomplish the salvation of His people is
this. When He was finished with that sacrifice, you know what
He did? He sat down. He sat down on the right hand
of God. The Father accepted Him. He's
at His right hand. That means the Father accepted
that sacrifice that He offered. But no more sacrifice needs to
be offered. Christ did something all those Old Testament high
priests never did. He sat down. The writer here
says, at the time of the writing, I reckon they were, they were
still standing. He says, they standeth. That's
present tense, isn't it? At the time of this writing,
they were still standing in that temple. Still standing, going
through these ceremonies over and over and over again. And
you know why they were always standing? Of all the furniture
that was in the tabernacle and in the temple, one piece of furniture
that was not there was a chair. The priest could never sit down
because his work was never done. All his work couldn't take away
sin, couldn't make the people perfect. But Christ has. Christ has. And when he finished
the sacrifice, he sat down on the right hand of the Father
because his work was done. He sat down because there's nothing
left to do. And he sits there in complete
ease and complete satisfaction and a job well done. Christ sits
in pleasure. I mean, think of that. He sits
in pleasure. He looks at his people and he's pleased. He's pleased with them. He's
pleased. He has pleasure. in seeing the salvation of his
people. He had pleasure in that. Now, he couldn't sit in pleasure
if his people were in danger of losing their salvation, could
he? He couldn't sit in pleasure if there was some chance that
somebody that he died for wouldn't believe on him. No, he couldn't
sit in pleasure. He'd sit in worry, wouldn't he?
But he sits in pleasure because there's no danger of any of his
people losing their salvation. One sacrifice is all it took
to save them eternally because of the nature of the sacrifice.
It was a perfect sacrifice himself. Thirdly, there's just one sacrifice
for sin because of the results of it. There isn't any need for
another sacrifice because of what Christ's sacrifice accomplished. And there's many, many accomplishments
or results of Christ's sacrifice, but our text gives us three.
First, Christ's sacrifice conquered every enemy. Verse 13, from henceforth
expecting to his enemies be made his footstool. Now, you know,
the Savior has many enemies. God has many enemies. The first
one is Satan, that old serpent. He's an enemy of Christ. He's
the enemy of the church. He's the accuser of the brethren.
But when Christ died, when he offered himself as a sacrifice
for God one time, he fulfilled the prophecy, Genesis chapter
3. He crushed Satan's head. He defeated Satan. He put him
out of business with that one sacrifice. By that one sacrifice,
Christ has conquered everyone who rebels against everyone.
Now some of those people, the whole human race, is an enemy
of God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. All of us by nature are enemies
of God. But some of those people, some of Adam's race, are going
to be conquered by God's grace. And do you know how they're going
to be conquered by God's grace? They're going to be conquered
by God's grace when they hear the gospel of Christ crucified. That's how they're going to be
conquered. By faith they're going to see Christ lifted up and they're
going to go to Him. It's through the preaching of
Christ. And that's why we always and
only preach Christ. Christ and Him crucified. Because
that's the only message that God's going to use to conquer
His people. That's the only message that God's going to use to make
His people submit to Him. To submit to the righteousness
of Christ. It's the only message. The message
of Christ. That's the only message God's
going to use to save His people by His grace. And He's going
to send that message out in power and He's going to conquer every
one of His people. They're born enemies of God now.
But God's going to use the very message of Christ to conquer
their hearts. You might find them in false
religion. You might find them believing every weird thing that
people believe. But do you know the message that
will overcome the powers of darkness? That's what false religion is.
False religion is holding people in the power of darkness. You know what will set them free
from that? The message of Christ. Christ crucified will set them
free from that. They'll no longer be in darkness.
They'll say, I see. I see that. It's the message
of Christ that gives light. That's the only message God uses
to save His people. And when He does, He saves them
in justice because of what Christ accomplished on the cross for
them. Now others, others of Adam's
race, they're conquered too. And one day they'll be damned.
God's just letting them live on this earth to accomplish His
purpose. But one day they'll be damned and they'll be damned.
Not because God didn't choose them. Not because God didn't
call They'll be damned because they refused to believe and love
the truth. And just like God's people will
be saved in justice, those who are damned are going to be damned
in justice because of what Christ accomplished at Calvary, because
they refused to believe him. Then the world is the enemy of
Christ. This whole world is. The world
is the enemy of God's people. But by his one sacrifice, Christ
conquered the world. He said, you be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world. This world is the enemy of God.
But I'm telling you what, it cannot harm God's people because
Christ has conquered it. And the last enemy that will
be destroyed is death. You know, no one for whom Christ
died can ever die. Really, that enemy's already
destroyed, but we're going to experience death. These bodies
are going to die, but not the believer, not the soul. No. When God creates a new heaven
and a new earth, we're going to be done with death. We're
going to be done with funerals. There'll be no more death, no
more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more enemies. They'll all be put away forever.
By his one sacrifice, Christ defeated every enemy. Here is
the second result of Christ's death. All of His people are
sanctified by that one offering. Verse 14, for by one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now the
word sanctified has several meanings and all of them have to do with
being made holy. Now look at Jude 1, Jude verse
1. The first meaning of this word
sanctified means to be set apart, to be holy, by the Father. Jude 1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ,
the brother of James, to them that are sanctified, how? By God the Father. They're preserved
in Jesus Christ and called. They're sanctified. They're set
apart by the Father in divine election. They're set apart for
holy use. They're set apart for God's use.
They're set apart to be made holy. Right now look at 1 Corinthians
1. The second meaning of this word
sanctified means to be made holy in God the Son. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2. Under the church of God which
is at Corinth. to them that are sanctified, how? In Christ Jesus. And they're called to be saints.
These he's writing to here are those saints who are made holy
in Christ. They're made holy and sinless
in the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
set apart to be made holy by the father. They're made holy
by God, the son. Now, the third thing, second
Thessalonians, verse two, Sanctified means to be made holy by God,
the Holy Spirit. Second Thessalonians 2. Verse 13. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief for the truth. Now what is sanctification
of the Spirit? It's the new birth. That's sanctification
of the Spirit. In the new birth, God causes
a new man to be born. A man who is holy. The nature
of that new man is holy because he's born from a holy seed. He's
born from the Word of God. And that new man can never sin
because his nature is holy. Then that new man, once he's
born, once he's born of the Holy Spirit, He doesn't need another
sacrifice to ever pay for his sin, does he? Because he can't
sin. He's been made holy in the new
birth. And back in our text, that's
what verse 16 is talking about. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws
into their hearts and in their minds while I write them. And
this verse 15 says we're of the Holy Ghost also as a witness
to us. This is what the Holy Ghost witnesses to us. in the
new birth, and he gives us faith to believe it. It's the new birth. Now, when God says he writes
his law in the hearts and the minds of his people, he doesn't
mean he's taking that old heart of stone and he's chiseling out
his law in it like he did the Ten Commandments. No, it means
that he's giving a new heart. That old heart, nothing can be
done with it. It's got to die. It's got to
be thrown away. God in the new birth gives a
new heart. a new nature, a nature that believes
God, a nature that loves God, that loves God's law, that is
perfect in Christ. Now, when we're born again, God
does not do anything with that old man. Don't think, well, if
God saves me, I'm going to start acting better, because no, you're
not. You're just not. When you're born again, matter
of fact, what you'll see is I'm worse than ever. Because the
new man's got eyes to see. The new man knows what sin really
is. Only the new man can see the
despicableness of the old man. That old man will always and
only be nothing but sin. And the new man's going to be
on the opposite extreme. He'll only ever be holy. And
those two natures are going to war against each other with all
they've got, as long as they're in one body. One day, God's gonna
finally say, for that child, the war's over. Come on. And when the body dies, that
new man is gonna be separated from the old man. Those of us
who remain are gonna have a memorial service and we're gonna put that
old man in the ground. That flesh we buried, that's
the old man. He buried, put away. But the
new man has been set free to go be with the Lord. And that
will have happened a whole long time before we have that funeral.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
To close your eyes in this life for the believer is to open your
eyes in glory, beholding the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. That new man's going to be accepted
there because he's perfect in Christ Jesus. See, salvation
requires two things. It requires a work for us and
it requires a work in us. Now Christ's work for us is His
obedience to the law for His people as their representative.
Christ's work for us is this one sacrifice for the sin of
His people as the substitute for His people, as the sacrifice.
And Christ's work for His people demands a work be done in them,
demands Christ's death demands His people be given life. Christ's
obedience demands His people be made righteous. His blood
that puts away the sin of His people demands that His people
be made holy. And that's the work in us. It's
the work of the new birth where God the Holy Spirit causes life
to be born in us. And it just took the one sacrifice
of Christ to give an innumerable host of people eternal life. And the third result of Christ's
sacrifice is sin is gone. Verse 17 says, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. The blood of Christ
wiped out the sin of his people. It's not that it's still there. It's just hidden. It's gone. God said, I won't remember it.
Now God can't remember what's not there. God can't forget what
is there, can he? But he can't remember what's
not there. God's not going to charge his
people with sin that's not there. God's elect are sinless because
that one sacrifice of Christ put it away forever. Well, if
sin's gone, there's no more need for another sacrifice. This is
the only one we need. All right, now here's the fourth
thing. There's just one sacrifice for
sin because of why the father sacrificed the son. Verse 16
says, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those
days, saith the Lord. We don't need another sacrifice
because of the covenant of God. God's covenant of grace is God's
promise. It's God's promise. He's going
to save his people through the sacrifice of Christ. God's not
going to kill his people because he's going to kill his son in
their place. That's God's covenant, his promise
of grace. And before God created anything,
you know what He did? He promised His Son. He promised,
I will put away the sin of this people that I've chosen. I will
accept them through your sacrifice because you died in their place. And God promised, He promised
His Son in eternity, your sacrifice will be enough to save all this
people that I give you. God promised to never require
more. in Christ's obedience and Christ's
sacrifice for the salvation of His people. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, came and ratified that covenant. He fulfilled that
covenant. It's ratified in His blood. That's all God requires. He promised, this will be the
salvation of my people. Well, the great transaction is
done, isn't it? then we don't need another sacrifice. I want
to close with verse 18. And I want to bring this right
down where we live and apply this, this necessity, this glory
of one sacrifice. I want to apply it to our lives.
This is something you can take out with you and take you to
work on Monday morning. I heard on the radio the other
day that The worst Monday morning for all workers in the United
States of America is the Monday after the Super Bowl. It's the
day most people call off sick of all the Mondays in the whole
year. Well, if Monday after the Super Bowl is the worst working
day of the year, here's something you can take with you on Monday
morning. Verse 18. Now, where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. I'm going to say this
over and over and over and over and over and over again, praying
God will Let's put it in our hearts. Salvation is all in Christ. It's all Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ, by His one sacrifice, put away the sin of His people
forever. Salvation is complete. So we
don't have to do anything to make that salvation complete.
Christ already did it. He already completed that salvation. Now here's what applies to our
life. Brethren, God deliver us. Don't
go out and try to do something to help put your sin away. That's
another sacrifice. Our sacrifice, our doing will
contaminate, void, make void the sacrifice of Christ for us. Don't do something to try to
put your sin away. Don't bring an offering of your morality
to God thinking it will make God happy with you. Don't do
it. It's not good enough. We don't have any morality. Just
trust Christ. Don't bring an offering of your
repentance, thinking that'll make God happy with you. How
much you got to repent before it's really good enough? Just
trust Christ. Don't bring an offering of all
your religious ceremonies to make God happy with you. God
don't care how many times you've walked an aisle, how many times
you rededicate your life to him, or how many times some preachers
dunked you in a pool of water. God don't care. I mean, well,
I'd never miss a service, but God don't care how many Sundays
in a row you've been. Don't bring your religious ceremonies to
make God happy with you. Israel should have taught us
that. Just trust Christ. Just look to Him and rest in
Him. Now listen, this is serious business.
To not trust Christ is to dishonor God. To not trust Christ is to say,
Christ's obedience is not enough to make me righteous. I've got
to help make myself righteous by doing this, that or the other.
Nothing is more dishonoring to God. To say to not trust Christ
is to say that Christ won sacrifice. I see it's wonderful, but it's
just not enough to put my sin away. I've got to help out by
sinning less in order to be saved. Nothing could be more dishonoring
to God. This is what faith says. Faith
says. I don't understand everything
there is to know about why, when I look at myself, all I see is
sin. But Christ's sacrifice put away all my sin forever so that
God doesn't see it. I can't understand that. I can't
explain that to where the human mind can comprehend it. But this
is what faith says. If God is satisfied with the
sacrifice of Christ, I am too. I am not satisfied with the way
that I preach the gospel. But I'll tell you, I'm mighty
satisfied with the gospel that I preach. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It's enough
that Jesus died and that he died for me. That's one sacrifice. And that one sacrifice is all
I need. May God be pleased to give us
faith to rest in. Let's bow together. Our Father, how can we begin to thank you,
praise you for the one sacrifice of your darling Son? Our human
minds are overwhelmed to think of the grace and the love and
the pity and the wisdom and the sufficiency of the one sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ that perfected His people forever,
that satisfied you forever, and that gives His people a full
and free salvation. But, Father, we pray for faith
to believe. I beg of Thee that You give every
soul here right now faith to believe and to rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He truly is all we need. And Father, reveal him to us
and give us faith to believe him, we pray. We pray this, Father,
for our good. It's for our good that we beg
mercy for our souls. But Father, we pray for your
glory. Get much glory to yourself in saving your people, people
right here, through this one sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in his blessed name, for
his