May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word. Let us turn
to the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, chapter 10, and we'll
read verse 12. The epistle of Paul to the Hebrews,
chapter 10 and verse 12. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice, four sins, forever sat down on the right hand of
God. We should be very thankful to
almighty God that in his divine purpose the epistle to the Hebrews
was written. Because without this epistle,
naturally speaking, we would struggle quite hard with many
of the great foundational truths concerning our Lord Jesus Christ,
and concerning our own salvation, and concerning our own forgiveness
of sins. And I suppose, if we're honest,
the Epistle to the Hebrews is not a particularly easy book
to read. And there's no real stories in
it as such, there's no anecdotes as such. And therefore, there
is really no appeal to our natural mind. And we can be encouraged, if
as we read the epistle to the Hebrews, that we find in it something
which attracts our mind. Because if that is so, then we
do have an indication that we do possess that new life, the
Holy Spirit within, which seeks after spiritual realities. And that is precisely really
what the Epistle to the Hebrews directs us to. It directs us
to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and what his life and
what his death meant. It leads us into the time of
his intercession. And so we see in the epistles
of the Hebrews a tremendous depth and a tremendous value. I may have told you before, and
I'll just repeat it again. When I was a boy, I remember
going to where my grandfather was and seeing a Bible on the
shelf. And I was told it was the Bible
my grandmother had used. She died when I was five years
old. And she'd use that. And I remember looking at that
Bible and seeing that all the pages to the Hebrews were really
quite worn out, the edges. It was very evident. You could
open the Bible and most of the other parts and it wasn't the
same. Go to the Hebrews and you could see that they were really
well worn. I remember thinking then when
I was a boy, well, how strange. Why did my grandmother like reading
the epistle to the Hebrews so much? How strange. At that time
I could see nothing of any real value in it. I found it quite
hard to understand. I was a little older than that
when I was told that, but I wasn't very old. But I've come to the
understanding and thankful for the appreciation of why she found
the Hebrew so wonderful and how precious it was to read, because
it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the words that we've read
tonight are so important. They refer to the Lord Jesus. And we're told, but this man,
and this is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, What are we
told? We are told, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. The Lord Jesus Christ, he offered
one sacrifice. Now just think of the Old Testament. Think of all the institution
that there was in the time of Moses. There had, of course,
been the offerings before. Remember, way back outside the
Garden of Eden, after the fall, there had been those two sons
of Adam who had offered sacrifices. One had been acceptable and one
had not been acceptable. The one that had been acceptable
was the one where blood had been shed and the animal had been
slain. And so that position followed
through from that early day. And then of course when Moses
was taken up to the mountain and given the ceremonial law,
there was so much so much detail in that ceremonial law, and so
many offerings and sacrifices were set before the people, and
how those sacrifices had to be carried out so very carefully
and so very rightly, and only the best was acceptable. They
couldn't bring something which wasn't pure and wasn't as good
as they could obtain. It was so necessary to bring
perfect things for sacrifices. And there were so many sacrifices
that had to be carried out. Of course, in the New Testament,
we don't read anything about those animal sacrifices, or those
meat sacrifices. We don't read anything about
them. All we read about is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in the Old Testament,
the important consideration was that in order for anything to
be acceptable unto God, there had to be spilt blood, blood
sprinkled, That would be the death of the animal. And it was indeed a sacrifice. So that was the significant aspect
in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, the
significant aspect was the death and the shedding of blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have then here this statement. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. Now, what did the Lord Jesus
Christ bring as that one sacrifice? We know that in the Old Testament
there were many types of sacrifices, many animals were brought to
sacrifice. But we're told that here, the
Lord Jesus Christ, this man, he offered one sacrifice. Well, I hope we know what that
one sacrifice was. It was his own life. His own
life. He gave as a sacrifice for the
sins of his people. Now we read together in this
chapter about sin and about sacrifices and as we read it we realise
that there was only really this one sacrifice which was acceptable
unto God. And we read, by the which will
we are sanctified with the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. It was only the need for this
one sacrifice. What a difference. You think
of those hundreds and thousands, possibly millions of sacrifices
which were offered up in Old Testament times, but they could
never atone for sin. And so here we have this wonderful
statement, and then the apostle goes on, and every priest standing
daily, ministering and offering, oftentimes, The same sacrifices
which can never take away sins. Imagine, can't we, people in
Old Testament days bringing their sacrifices and in themselves
there was nothing saving. What it did was to direct them
to that one sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. that Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. I sometimes ponder and
think, well, if I'd been living in those days, would I have received
that faith to look beyond just a natural sacrifice, to see what
it represented? Well, there were Israelites who
were blessed with that faith to behold the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. But now we live in these New
Testament days and we have a wonderful privilege that we have the revelation
of these truths set before us so clearly in the Word of God. And it is a wonderful blessing,
but also it is a tremendous responsibility because we have no excuse before
Almighty God. And so we have this statement,
but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God. Now what is a sacrifice? Well a sacrifice, we may be able
to understand, is something which is given And it's something which
costs something. It's not something which you
just find and present. There's no sacrifice in that. You know, we can talk in natural
terms, sometimes in games. People sacrifice certain things,
certain positions, that they might gain through that. And
then people may indeed say that they give, and they often use
the word sacrificial. I think today that's very lightly
used. But what it means is, sacrificial
giving means that it was something that was painful really, it cost,
it had an effect. perhaps on their life, they weren't
able to spend their money on other things, they'd actually
given the money that they had, perhaps earmarked for certain
other things, and they'd been moved to give the money to a
worthy cause, or perhaps more importantly to the cause of God. Now, that is a sacrifice, but
it's only a very small thing, a very small thing. But when
you think of this statement here, with regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ, He offered this one sacrifice, and how valuable it was, how
important it was. You see, people in the Old Testament
times, they brought the best of their flock or their herd,
and there was a cost to them. Generally speaking, it was only
a partial part of their assets that they actually took and offered
up as a sacrifice. But here we have this statement
that the Lord Jesus Christ, He had offered up one sacrifice,
and that was a total sacrifice, and that was His life. It can't
be greater than that, can it? You think of it in natural terms.
If you and I were called upon to give our life, to sacrifice,
give our life to save somebody. There have been, in the history
of the world, occasions like that. People have been willing
to give their life so that other people might be saved. Well,
that's a tremendous cost, isn't it? Well, here we have the Lord
Jesus Christ giving His life so that His people might be blessed
with forgiveness of all their sins. Here we have this statement. One sacrifice for sins. It was an all-sufficient sacrifice. It was acceptable unto God. It was a perfect sacrifice. Again, going back to the Old
Testament times, they had to bring animals which appeared
to be as perfect as possible. In actual fact there was no perfection
because they were all affected by sin. So we see here the Lord
Jesus Christ offering His life as that wonderful perfect sacrifice. And without that sacrifice there
would be no forgiveness. Sin would still remain. It would
not be taken away. you and I would still remain
sinners and guilty without any forgiveness. So here we have
this wonderful statement. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever. Well, how do we value the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ? How do we value his death? Is it important to realise that
without the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there would be
no hope for you and me, no forgiveness, we would still be in our sins. So, if you think of this tonight,
what a blessing to be able to hear such a statement as this. This man, And so we may ask the
question, is this man precious to you and me? If somebody had
given all that was required perhaps to free us from some crime that
we committed, we would be thankful, I'm sure, for that person who
had come forward to pay the price, the fine that was due to us,
if we couldn't afford to pay it. We would no doubt think highly
of that person. We might admire that person.
If we'd never known that person as such, he'd come forward to
pay the price that was requested that we should pay when we had
nothing to pay. But here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ willingly paying the price to free us from that condemnation
which the word of God speaks of so clearly, the soul that
sinneth it shall die. Condemnation has come into our
lives because of sin and we are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. None of us are without sin and
we all need to be cleansed. We all need to be washed in the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all need to be a partaker
of His death, His one sacrifice. And know that was carried out
so that we might be blessed with a wonderful gift of eternal life. So tonight, we might ask a question,
what do we think of Christ? What does He mean to us? I believe
in this day and age, Christ is not held in very high esteem. People don't value the Lord Jesus
Christ. Many people blaspheme the name
of the Saviour. Many people speak against Him
in a very harsh and evil way. What do we think of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, tonight? Do we view Him as offering Himself
as that sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God? that one sacrifice
in giving his life, dying upon that cross willingly, he had
offered one sacrifice for sins. Well, it would be a wonderful
blessing for us tonight if we have a conscious realisation
of the cost of salvation, and the cost of our salvation, and
whether we really appreciate how valuable it is. How valuable is the death of
Christ? When we think about it, you know,
we meditate, don't we? We read about the crucifixion,
we read about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's good and right
and proper. But my friend has the truth of
it, And the value of it ends into our soul. So that we have
to say that all my hope resides in what Christ has done. I cannot
count anything that I've done. It is all valueless. But the
death of Christ is of infinite value. Because what it does,
what it has done, is to take away my sin. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice, four sins, forever. He said, all washed away, forever. Forever. And the devil can't
count them to us again. Christ has died. Yea, rather
has risen again a conqueror." We have a great and glorious
Saviour. And as we read on here, He sat
down on the right hand of God. He took His rightful place on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified." Those who are made holy and all the
Church of God are indeed sanctified and that's how we're sanctified
through his death, through his one offering for sin. How many times perhaps have we
considered the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? How many times
have we been blessed by the consideration of it? How many times have we
appreciated what it really means? And how our whole hope of salvation
is dependent upon the satisfaction of this one sacrifice for sin. Well, do we bless God tonight? Do we praise God tonight? Are
we thankful to God tonight? Does it really mean something
to us, this sacrifice for sin? It was important in the Old Testament
times, those daily sacrifices offered up, those burnt offerings,
day after day, night after night, and many other offerings which
were brought to be offered up, Those sacrifices, they were very
important to Israel of old. It was very necessary. How important
to us, to you and to me, tonight, is this one sacrifice for sin. As we answer before God, is it
valuable to us? Are we so thankful that Lord
Jesus Christ was so willing to suffer and to bleed and to die,
giving his life as that sacrifice to atone for our sin? See, this is so central to the
Christian life, so essential to the Christian life. Christianity
today is at a low ebb. It's very often very airy-fairy,
and there's no real depth in it. But to the truly awakened
sinner, the sacrifice of Christ will
mean something, because it opens up the way to glory. without shedding a blood, there
is no remission. There's no forgiveness. There's
no hope for you and me. So tonight is our hope, built
upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in that offering for
sin. Do we come? Do we come to Calvary? Do we
tarry there? Do we value what occurred there? Or do we pass it by? Is that
a question for us? Is it nothing to you or you that
pass by? Do we pass by a cross at Calvary? And is it nothing to us? Or do
we stop? Or do we say, there is all my
hope. All my hope of eternal bliss. resides in what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done for me. As he suffered on Calvary's cross
to atone for my sins, as he gave his life, that perfect sacrifice,
no blemish was there. No sin, perfect, holy, acceptable
to God was that great and glorious sacrifice. And you see through
that, as we read, the Apostle tells us, having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You and
I can enter into the holy place and that holy place means where
there is no sin. The holy place is glory. Heaven
is no sin. And how can we enter in? We enter
in through the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle tells us, by a new
and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that
is to say, his flesh. That's how we enter in. That's
how our prayers are accepted. It's through this one sacrifice
for sin. So as we come in prayer, our
Father in Heaven looks on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we are accepted in the Beloved. Accepted through Christ. How vital it is that we know
the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. That we know the Lord
Jesus Christ as that One who has given His life as a sacrifice
to atone for our sins. And the Apostle goes on to say,
and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Sometimes, you know, we shy away
from words like that. Full assurance of faith. You
may think, well, that doesn't apply to me. Many people seem
to be happy to reside in a negative religion. Well, the Apostle here
sets before us this great statement. Let us, the Church of God, draw
near with a true heart. That means a believing heart.
That means a new heart. That means a heart which God
has given to us in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering." Now these are gracious exhortations,
my friends, which often we tend to turn away from. But may we
be given that grace to understand the wonder of this redeeming
love, the greatness of this sacrifice for sin, And if therefore the
Saviour has given his life for us to atone for our sins, and
this is a very important and vital consideration, then blessed
with this belief, blessed with this good hope, it is not a vain
hope, it is a good hope to believe that as the Spirit of God has
quickened us, into life that's made us aware of our lost and
ruined condition, and has directed us to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to what He has done, there is our salvation. And then to be directed to the
Lord Jesus Christ in this way, and so let us draw near them
with this true heart, Because this is the new heart which God
has given us. This is the clean heart. This
is the heart which desires to serve the Lord. Let us then draw
near with this true heart in full assurance. The Apostle encourages
us. The Word of God. Let us not think
it's just the Apostle. It's the Word of God to encourage
us. To draw near to our God in full
assurance. praying to the Lord, believing
that our God, who has suffered so greatly to redeem our soul,
this God invites us to draw near in full assurance, full assurance
of faith. You see, it's the faith which
God has given us to believe, It's a faith which God has given
us to recognise the condition that we're in because of our
sin. It's a faith which God has given
us to pray unto Him. And here we have it here, this
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. naturally
we waver, don't we? You see, the Apostle here sets
these things before us to encourage us in the day and age in which
we live, that he may bless us with this true living faith,
so we may hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. And then we read these important
words, for he is faithful that promised. God is faithful, my
friends. And we're thankful for it, for
the gracious faithfulness of our God, who speaks to our hearts,
who encourages us through his word, directs us to himself,
to what he's done for that great work of giving life, that great
work of satisfying the demands of a holy God, that great work
of sacrifice. This one sacrifice for sins forever. You see, we will live forever. We'll live forever. You and I
will live forever. May we be amongst those who live forever
in glory. May we be amongst those who have
had their sins forgiven. And those who are resting all
their hope, not on what they've done, but on what Christ has
done. See, that is a good and sure
and certain foundation. Yes, the things which we read
of the Saviour are true. Many things in this world are
untrue. We can rest our souls upon the Word of God and the
truth which we are able to read there, to recognise the great
sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to redeem our souls
in the shedding of His most precious blood. There's a line in our
hymns which says, invaluable blood. It is, isn't it? It's beyond value to think of
what it means, because that shedding of blood, that sacrifice that
the Saviour offered up, atones for every sin. It's so valuable. Oh, may we understand it. May
it be made over to us in our lives. And as we ponder this,
we may think of the sacrifice of the Saviour. We may think,
perhaps, of the sacrifice of those people in Old Testament
times. They brought their sacrifices. And it may be that we may sometimes
think today, well, what are we to bring? What sacrifice are
we to bring? We're not to bring an animal
that's passed away. What are we to bring as a sacrifice? And let us remember, a sacrifice,
it means something. It's costly. Let's not forget
that. It's not something which doesn't
cost us anything. We might ask them, what is our sacrifice that
we are to bring? Later on in this same epistle,
the Apostle tells us what it is. And he speaks some very glorious
words. He says, For the bodies of those
beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priests of sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also,
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate. Calvary, the cross, was outside
of Jerusalem's gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
Him, without the camp, bearing His reproach. We are to bear
the reproach of Christ. Believers are to bear the reproach
of Christ. It is costly. And then he tells
us, for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We're only here, we're passing
through this world. It's soon going to vanish away,
however old or young we are, our life is but a vapour which
vanishes away. And then the apostle comes to
this, by him therefore, Let us offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name." Well, here we have this statement.
It's a sacrifice. What does that mean? As I've
told you, it's something which is costly and therefore clearly
to praise God continually may be costly to us. It may go, as
it were, against our nature. You know, so often we hide, don't
we, behind our nature. And we say, well of course I'm
a very timid person, of course I'm not prepared to do this or
say this, and I'm just not able to. Well, you may not be able
to, because it's costly to your nature. Well, here we have this
statement. By him therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise. It's by him What that means is,
it's receiving His strength. It's by Him. Yes, and we can
go forward, can we not? In Him. By Him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
has offered up Himself as that great sacrifice for our sin,
Does it not demand praise from us? It's not difficult, is it, to
answer that question. It's obvious, is it not? And so we have this wonderful
statement of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name. So we are to speak out We are
to tell. That's the fruit of our lips.
And it is to give thanks to His name for what He's done in redeeming
our souls. Are we desirous to be blessed
with this wonderful evidence of this sacrifice for our sins
and know that Jesus has condescended to die for us, such an unworthy
sinner of the earth? And then do we just stop there?
Do we realise what a cost it was to the Saviour, that sacrifice? Those that honour me, I will
honour. And those that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed. We may have despised the Lord. We may have done so. You must
answer before God. And so the Apostle goes on to
say, but to do good and to communicate But forget not, for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased." So here we have then, the sacrifice
brought before us in a different way. The Lord Jesus has given
His life as a sacrifice to atone for our sins. And now we, in
our little life, we see how we are to bring our sacrifice to
our God. It's not an animal, it's not
blood, It's a sacrifice of our lips in praise and thanksgiving
to our God. Surely, when we think that our
eternal life, that means the life we finished, when we finish
on this earth, our eternal life depends upon what Christ has
done for us. to realise the enormous cost
and value of our redemption, put that alongside our little
life, to realise that it is our privilege and favour to be able
to bring our sacrifices to our God. We don't want the Lord to
say that great day I never knew you, do we? We don't want to
come to that place and realise that we turn our back upon our
God, that we may know and prove the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit in our heart, so that that Spirit enables us to believe
and to receive the grace and glorious truths of the Gospel.
to rejoice in this word, but this man, oh this man, remember
Pilate said, behold the man, you and I need to behold the
man, this man, after he offered one sacrifice of himself, his
life, four sins, forever, sat down on the right hand of God. And my friends, the Lord Jesus
Christ is in glory now. A wonderful thing it is to have
a Saviour who hears and answers our prayers. My friends, may
we know He has answered and does answer our prayer and to realise
therefore what a debt we owe to our great and glorious God
and therefore may we by His grace bring forth that sacrifice of
praise and thanksgiving the fruit of our lips, for the honour and
glory of our God. Amen.