Hebrews 10 verse 1, For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
could never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they
not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those
sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it's not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, or thou willed not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. In the volume of the book it
is written of me." God never purposed for the law to do anything
other than have a shadow of good things to come. Christ has always
been the very image and the finisher of the good things that would
come, that the law foreshadowed. Wherefore, when Christ came into
the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering thou wilt not. Animal sacrifices, which were
offered by the sincere worshippers that came before God, year by
year, continually, could never ever, once and for all, past,
present, and future. They could never take away sins
of a man, of a sinful man, and make him perfect. Verse five
says, wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, with
animal sacrifice and the offering of sinners, thou wouldest not
be satisfied, but a body hast thou prepared me. If those sacrifices
had justified the worshippers in righteousness, perfect righteousness,
and had sanctified forever their conscience, purged them from
all sins within, then would they have not ceased to be offered?
But in those sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made of sins
every year. Now I want you to pick up something
there in that phrase. In those sacrifices, there's
a remembrance again made of sins every year. When the Lord instituted
the Lord's Supper, He said, this do in remembrance of me. And
when we observe the Lord's table, we remember who He is. This was God's Son who came in
the flesh. and willingly submitted to have
his body broken, laid down his life in his bloodshed. And we
don't remember, we're not brought to remember that our sins remain,
but we're brought to remember that He put them away. They're
gone, cast as far as the east is from the west. But the law
worked just the opposite. When they came to offer a sacrifice
every year on the Day of Atonement, they were reminded of their sin. They were reminded again that
my sin, that last atonement really didn't put away my sin because
I'm back here again having to make another one. If it had really
made atonement for my sin, I wouldn't have had to come again. Now,
that's important for us to realize because the law involving sacrifices
reminded them of sin and men have made a distinction between
the moral law of God and the ceremonial law of God. Some will
tell you that Galatians 3.23 that says, Before faith came,
we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
after it be revealed, is strictly talking about ceremonial law.
And then others will tell you that Romans 3.20 that says, By
the law is the knowledge of sin, is speaking just about the moral
law. But from Exodus 20 through about the next 15 chapters, God
gives His command to Israel. And in the whole course of it,
He never makes a distinction between what's the moral law
and what's the ceremonial law. And here what we have told to
us is, by that law that we call the ceremonial law, was the knowledge
of sin just as much as what we call the moral law. We can make
a distinction just for our own benefit of understanding which
one we're talking about. But the point of the matter is
this, a sinner cannot have his conscience purged from sin unless
the sacrifice, Christ Jesus the Lord makes the offering, his
one offering, which satisfies the whole law of God. It makes
us righteous. That one offering, which is a
fulfillment of the ceremonial law, is made after he has fulfilled
the precepts of the moral law and then took upon himself the
penalty of the of that moral law. So the whole law of God,
He's that sacrifice that was pictured in the ceremony, and
He's dying to put away the sin that we discover through what
we call the moral law. So every bit of it is finished
right there, meets its end right there in Him. And that's important
to see. And then through faith, when
God gives us faith, that's why we're no longer under the law,
but under grace. Because we're We're under Christ
as our ruler, as our lawgiver, as His love constrains us to
want to be obedient. When we were under the law, dead
in trespasses and sins, we had no desire for the law. But now
that we're under grace, we delight in the law of God after the inward
man. That's kind of weird to the natural
mind, isn't it? That we could be under the law
and yet not delight in the law. We really didn't when we were
under it, but when we're under grace, by God's grace, we delight
in it. Now, let me go on here. I want
to get to my point this morning. The lesson is titled, A Body
Prepared and an Offering Made. A Body Prepared and an Offering
Made. I want to point out a few things
here about this body and this offering. Verse 5. So, since these sacrifices could
never put away sin, they're just brought to remembrance sins every
year. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. The one that's spoken of here that cometh into the world
is the second person in the Holy Trinity. It's God the Son. And
this is the one who before He's before all things and by
Him all things consist. This is Him for which everything
was made and by whom everything was made. This is the One in
whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell. And
here's a word that's amazing to us, but He, He cometh into
the world. Not another, not a representative,
but He condescended to personally come into the world. And He came
in the form of a servant and was actually made under the law.
Why? Why did He do that? Look here,
let's finish out that verse 5. It says, Sacrifice and offering
thou willed not, thou wouldest not. The sacrifices under the
covenant of works were set up by God, the Father. They were
set up by God Himself, the triune God. So it was God's will to
institute the law. God required and approved of
the sacrifices at the hands of those that came sincerely worshiping
Him. Yet it was never the will of
God, ever, never the will of God that those sacrifices would
bring Him eternal satisfaction and save the children whom He
everlastingly loved. It never was the purpose of that
law. God never took pleasure in animal
sacrifices in that regard, ever. The Levitical sacrifices were
never designed by God as anything more than a temporary means to
shadow forth His great sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ the Lord.
So, we come here now and it says, but a body hast thou prepared
me." Now, let's look at this body prepared, this body that
was prepared. In the secret council between
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, before
the foundation of the world, look over at Psalm 139.14 with
me. Psalm 139.14. Before the foundation of the
world, it was always God's will to do what He has now done. He will before the foundation
of the world to prepare a body. Psalm 139.14 This is truthfully said of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I will praise Thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from
Thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth. You know where that is? It's
the womb. It's the womb. This body was
born in the womb of a, just like you were born in your mother's
womb. And it says, Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being
unperfect, undeveloped. And in thy book, all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them. You saw me before I was born.
Every day was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed. This body was prepared in the
purpose of God before Christ ever came. This is He who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you. Do you think that God foreordained
His Son to come into this earth and die, and His Son entered
into the covenant agreement to do it, and it wasn't the omniscient
God's purpose already to prepare a body for Him to enter into? His ways were known from the
beginning. And there was an elect body that was included in this
too. It necessarily implies that if
He's coming to offer a sacrifice, who's He coming to offer it for?
And this is the mystical body. He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. And He predestinated us into
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. Before the foundation
of the world, He predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ wasn't even born
before the foundation of the world yet. in the will and purpose
of God he was, he's the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. He's the one in whom God put his people and elected
this body of believers. And this body, Ephesians 2, 3
says, is the fullness of him. It's his fullness as the mediator.
It's his fullness. And Ephesians 5.29 says, No man
ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it,
even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of His body,
of His flesh, and of His bones. Colossians 1.18 says, He's the
head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
When did it please the Father? Before the foundation of the
world. When did it get God's purpose to fashion a body for
His eternal Son, a human body with real flesh and real blood,
hands and feet and ears, just like we have. When did He purpose
to form that body? Before the foundation of the
world. When did God give to His Son all the elect members that
would make up His body, of which He would be the head, His mystical
body, before the foundation of the world? But He came in time,
and then this body was actually made in the womb of a virgin,
and actually literally created through the Holy Spirit. Now
let's look at why this body was made. An offering made. He said, I want you to turn to
Psalm 40. I'll read Hebrews 10.5 here. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me." Now look at Psalm 40 and
verse 6. Same place that this is taken
from. And it says here, Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. It's
a little different phrase there, isn't it? The opening of the
ears, this is said here, instead of a body hast thou prepared
me, it says mine ears hast thou opened. So what does Psalm 40
mean when it says mine ears hast thou opened? It has to do with
the boring of the ear of a bondservant. Look over at Exodus 21.2. Exodus
21.2. We've got to understand that
this body was purposed by God in the eternal counsel of God
and in the covenant agreement before the foundation of the
world because then we'll get an understanding of what it was
Christ willingly, voluntarily, what covenant agreement he entered
into to perform. We've got to learn a little bit
something about what's being said here and then we'll get
to just why it switched to a body has thou prepared me. Why the
Hebrew writer used that phrase instead of mighty years. Exodus
21.2 says, this was the law of the servant, the bond servant.
If thou by a Hebrew servant In six years he shall serve, and
in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing." He's free
to go. He performed his work. His obligation
has been met. He's free to go. Now look at
verse 4. If his master hath given him
a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.
There was no obligation for the Son of God to take His bride
and the children given Him in the eternal covenant of grace.
He wasn't obligated to do it. He wasn't under any obligation
to. That's the picture that's being shown here in this law.
And if the servant shall plainly say, verse 5, I love my Master. That's the motivating cause. I love my master, my wife, and
my children. If the servant shall plainly
say that, and say, I will not go out for him, then his master
shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the
door and unto the doorpost. And his master shall bore his
ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. They
took him first of all, if he said, I want to stay with you,
I love you. I love my bride. I love my children. And I want to serve you forever
because I love you. They took him before the judge
before the judge first. In the covenant of grace, Christ
entered into that agreement. I love my father. I love my bride. I love the children he's given
me. I want to serve him. I want to lay down my life for
him. And he was brought before the judge and bore the wrath
of God in their room instead. And then he was raised from the
dead and seated at God's right hand. And the picture here is
that servant had his ear bored through, brought to the door
post. And they put it up on the door and took an awl and hammered
through his ear and made a mark in his ear. And he belonged to
that master from then on. And this is what Christ willingly
knew. He knew this before the foundation
of the world. When he entered into covenant
agreement with God the Father, this is what he knew would take
place. He would have to come and serve
his Father. And so, why then does our text
in Hebrews, back there in Hebrews 10, 5, why does it change it
to a body hast thou prepared me? Why does it change it to
a body thou hast prepared me? Well, first of all, I'm convinced
that one reason is because the Spirit of God moved the writer
of the Hebrew letter to interpret Psalm 46 in this way in order
to emphasize how the Son of God knew what would be involved when
He willingly agreed to serve. In other words, when He became
the willing bondservant in covenant agreement, the Son of God knew
He would be born into this world and die. He knew it. In Philippians
2 verse 4, he did not look on his own things. He didn't say,
well, I'm free to go. I don't care about the bride.
I don't care about the children. I'm going to go out myself and
be free and not have to serve. He said, I love my master. I
love my bride. I love my children. And for that
reason, he didn't look on his own things. This was the mind
that was in him, though he was equal with God. Philippians says,
he being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation. And he took upon him the form
of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. So you see that when
he willingly became God's fossil servant, It was a necessity of
the agreement that he entered into that he was going to have
to come and lay down his life. And the argument that's being
made here in Hebrews 10 is the body and the life of animals
and their blood could never fulfill the law. It could never satisfy
the justice of God. And so this willingness, this
voluntary covenant agreement that Christ entered into as the
bondservant, when his ears were open, and it says not just one
ear, his ears, he was abundantly willing to come forward. And
so he came forth with a body, because a body had to be laid
down. And that's the second thing. Bodily sacrifices could never
take away sin. So it says here in Hebrews 10,
6, In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me. This whole book, and especially
the law and the prophets, that's what the writer's talking about
here, is the law and the prophets. In the whole book, the volume
of the book, all of God's law, it's written of me, scripture
says. And I came to do thy will, O
God. Above, when He said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
And then when He said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, it means
He taketh away the first that He may establish the second.
He takes away the sacrifices of the bodies of lambs and bulls
and goats. He takes away the offering that
the worshippers had to make where they had to go and offer up a
sacrifice of their own hand to God. That's put away. The offering and the sacrifice
that was made, Christ Jesus the Lord, when He came in a body,
His sacrifice was His own body. His own blood, his own life,
his offering was to God, to satisfy God, to satisfy God's justice
and God's law, to satisfy bringing in everlasting righteousness
in God's law. And so he took away that first
covenant, that law, he fulfilled it. He took away the covenant
of works. And He's established the second,
the everlasting covenant, which we've seen before. It was that
covenant made before. It's that covenant that's been
of everlasting. And then how did He do it? What
did this offering accomplish? It says, by the witch will, we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
and for all. It's done. It's done. And no
more bringing and bringing to remember us again every year
the sins, because we've got to come with a blood sacrifice.
He, it says, by the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ, through His offering.
And every priest standeth daily, ministering, and often, oftentimes,
the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Listen
to me now. Listen to me. It's easy to read this and to
think about the Old Testament priests and to think about what
was going on at the time this letter was written, that they
were actually men still trying to serve in that priestly office.
And it's easy to look at that and say, well, that don't have
any bearing on me today. If you're trying to come to God
and offer anything to God, if you're trying to sacrifice a
sacrifice of your own self, or offer God something that you
expect is going to please God of your own self. This is to
you. Your priest standing daily, ministering,
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, and they'll never
take away sin. They'll never take them away.
It's told just as true today as it did in the day when the
letter was written. God's Word is eternal. It applies
to every generation. But this man, this one, after
he had offered one sacrifice, one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, by his one
offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now,
you want proof? You want proof? We're going to
look at that next time. Or you want a witness that these
things are so? We're going to look at that next time. There's
witnesses all throughout this Scripture in Hebrews 10 that
tell us proof that we have that this thing is so. But let me
ask you this. Considering what the triune God
did in covenant mercy, Considering that in making up he made a body
for the Son of God according to his eternal purpose to save
a people for himself and in the sons willingness considering
our great high priest willingness to come and to take Take you
not the deity of God with the humanity of that in that body
and become the God man mediator when you consider that, and when
you consider that in laying down His own body and making this
offering to God that He satisfied God, He pleased God, He perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Through this one offering, when
you consider that, will you come? Will you continue? Will you keep
walking, imagining that you can offer some sacrifice to God,
that you can make some offering that's going to please Him, considering
what He's done, considering that this has been God's purpose from
the beginning. This is what God showed in the law. We wouldn't
have known anything about a high priest if God hadn't instituted
this law and showed us what a high priest is. We wouldn't have known
sin if God hadn't given us His law to reveal the depths and
the darkness of our sin and depravity. But because He has, and it's
met its end in Christ, now what are we going to do? Are we going
to continue on in our sin and rebellion and idolatry that we
call worshipping God? Or are we going to turn from
that and actually trust and believe on God's Son? This is the one
whom He sent. By His one offering, brethren,
what He accomplished is you don't have to be fearful. You don't
have to be afraid. You don't have to be frightened.
By His one offering, you can have boldness. You have liberty
now to come to God, confessing your sins, and say, all my hope
and all my trust is Him alone. And God's promised He'll receive
you. He'll take you to Himself, because
His servant, His faithful servant said, I love my Master, and I
love my bride, the church, and I'll give myself for her. I love
the children. I want to redeem them. And He
did. And God won't let one of them
perish. He won't let one of them go. It's been before the judge.
It's done. And his son's raised and he's
pleased with him. He's seated at his right hand
like that servant who had his ear bored through. He's his willing
bondservant. Are you? Has he made you his
willing bondservant? Can you say, I love my master?
Can you say, I love the church? I love his people and I love
the children that he's redeemed. Lord, I want to serve you willingly. That's what faith is. It's God
coming and taking us and bringing us to see what His Son accomplished
in us, saying, Lord, I don't want to depart from you. I don't
want to go out free. I want to serve you. You're free
to go now. The seventh year has come. It's
the year of completion. You're free to go. But when we
hear that, when the faithful bondservant, the willing bondservant
is made willing to hear that, and that his Master says, I've
obeyed the law. You can go. He says, Lord, you've
given me a bride. You've given me children. You've
been a faithful master to me. You've been very lawful toward
me in everything you've done to me. I don't want to go. I
don't want to go from you. You're free to go. No, I want
to serve you. That's the delighting in the
law we have now. You don't have to obey my law.
You're free from it. But the believer says, Lord,
I want to obey you. I want to walk before you. I
mourn over that which I would not do that I do and that which
I wouldn't do that I do. I mourn over it. But before,
when I was just under the law and I didn't know all this, I
didn't mourn over it. I didn't delight in it. I got
up every day and I thought, well, I've got to do this because this
is what the law says. This is how I go to God. This
is what righteousness is. So I've got to do it. Do you
dread coming here? Is it a burden to you? That's
that law. It reminds you of your sin. It makes you uncomfortable. You
don't want to do it. But if he ever reveals what he's
done, he'll say, you're free. You can go. No more claim on
you. You're free. You're righteous. You're holy. Perfection has come. And you'll say, I don't want
to go. I won't serve you. I'm yours. I'm here to serve
you. And he'll say, let me put my
mark on you. Thank you to the doorpost. And
he seals you with the Holy Spirit of promise. And you never leave
him again. You be his from then on because of what this faithful
servant accomplished. All right.