Good morning, everyone. If you
would turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. I suppose Hebrews chapter 10
is one of the clearest declarations in all the word of God on how
a sinner is reconciled to God. Like much of the book of Hebrews,
this chapter links together the Old Testament and the New, and
it rightly declares that the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the
ceremonies, the priesthood of the Old Testament are but shadows
of good things to come. When Christ came, the gospel,
the good news, these good things came along with him. And that's
what the apostle was telling us. And if I could sum up the
theme of the book of Hebrews with one word, I believe it would
be the word better. We've said that so many times.
In Hebrews chapter seven, verse 19, the apostle tells us that
the law of the old covenant made nothing perfect, but that the
new covenant brought in a better hope, better. In chapter, 7,
verse 22, the apostle reassured these Hebrew believers that Christ
was made a surety of a better testament. This new covenant
is a better covenant. In chapter 8, verse 6, he wrote
that Christ had obtained a more excellent ministry. He's the
mediator of a better covenant established upon better promises. In chapter nine, verse 23, we
saw last time, we're told about the new covenant sacrifices,
which are better than the animal sacrifices of old. And Christ
is the reason that it's all better. Here in Hebrews chapter 10, the
Old Testament sacrifices are explained and it tells us why
they existed. It tells us why they were ordained
and why they were carried out. And that's what gives this center
confidence and assurance. I want to have some confidence
that Christ died for me. I want to have some assurance
that I'm a saved sinner. If God would enable us to truly
get a hold of Hebrews chapter 10, we'd no doubt learn God's
way of salvation. Sadly, not many are interested.
Here in verse one, we read, for the law, having a shadow of good
things to come and not the very image of the things can never
with those sacrifices, the old covenant sacrifices, which they
offered year by year continually, make the comers there unto perfect. You know, when the Bible speaks
of the law, what it's talking about is one of three things,
the moral law, which God gave to Israel at Mount Sinai, or
the Word of God, because God's Word is His law. Or the law refers
to the Levitical ceremonial law. And that's what's spoken of here
in our text. When Moses went up on that mountain
and God told him to make a tabernacle, God gave him the dimensions and
God gave him the description and gave him the blueprint of
the tabernacle. The tabernacle was to be for
the priesthood, for the sacrifices, for the mercy seat, for the Ark
of the Covenant, the table of showbread, and for the candlestick.
It was to be for the incense, the sacrifices, and for the scapegoat. Every one of those things pictured
and pointed to Christ. It was for all the ceremonial
law given to Moses on that mountain. That's what it's talking about
here. the Levitical law, the ceremonial law with all its feast
days and its days of sacrifice was a shadow of good things to
come. What is a shadow? Well, you know,
a shadow is not the substance of anything or the image of anything. It's just a reflection. It's
just an outline. You can see a shadow, but you
can tell what something is when you see a shadow. If you see
the shadow of a tree, you can tell it's a tree, but probably
not what kind of tree it is. And if you see the shadow of
a man, you likely can tell it's a man, but you can't see the
detail, the color of the man's eyes or the color of the man's
hair. But you can see that it's a man. And that's what the apostle
was saying here about the law, talking about the ceremonies
and the sacrifices, the priesthood, and all these Old Testament things
were but shadows, just an outline, just a figure, just a shadow,
just a type of good things to come. And I sure like that, good
things to come. And friends, they've come. They
came with the Lord Jesus Christ. What are these good things? Salvation. Eternal life, eternal justification,
sanctification. All these glorious things are
fulfilled in Christ. In the old covenant, there was
a sacrifice in the morning. There was a sacrifice in the
evening. There was a sacrifice at the birth of a child. There
was a sacrifice when that child was weaned. There was another
sacrifice when the child turned 12 years old. There were sacrifices
of bullocks and rams and turtle doves and lambs. Their blood
was shed, sacrificed year after year after year, offered continually
from the time of Moses until Christ came into the world. I
mentioned last time, and you think about this, all the pastures
and farmland in the world couldn't hold all the sacrifices that
were offered unto God. All these sacrifices that were
offered continually could never make the comers or the worshipers,
that's who it's talking. The ones who offered those sacrifices
could never make them perfect. And that's what God requires,
perfection. Those sacrifices could never
put away sin. They were never intended to.
They were given to show us how sin is to be put away. They were
never given to forgive. They were never given to make
a sinner perfect. They were given as a shadow,
as a type, as a picture of good things to come through Christ.
in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And if they could
have put away sin, the apostle goes on to tell us they would
have ceased to be offered, would have been no need for these sacrifices
to continue if they could have put away sin, but they couldn't.
Therefore they had to be offered again and again. Verse two, for
then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the
worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sin.
You know, if a man brought a lamb as a sacrifice and that lamb
was slain and the blood was shed and put on that altar, if that
lamb's blood could put away man's sin, then man would never have
had to offer another sacrifice ever again. It says though, that
the worshipers, once purged, once sin is put away, would have
no more conscience of sin. And there would be no further
need of a sacrifice. And that's the reason that we
don't still offer sacrifices. You know why? Because Christ
came. And Christ died. And Christ put
away sin. No need to continue to offer
sacrifices. His sacrifice was effectual. His blood was sufficient. He
put away our sins. How? By the sacrifice of Himself. I mean to be repetitive here.
Once sin is purged, once sin is put away, once sin is forgiven,
no more need of a sacrifice. What a constant state of comfort
this is to the believer. It removes all doubt. It removes
all confusion about what I am to do. It removes the sinner
from having anything to do with their own salvation. It excludes
all other avenues of our efforts and our merits and our works.
The sacrifice of Christ removes you and I from the equation.
Doesn't it? Christ has finished the work.
There's nothing for us to do but to believe and to rest. We cease from our works as God
ceased from his. Salvation is centered in one
person, one priest, one sacrifice, There's only one salvation, and
it's accomplished in Christ's singular offering, and that's
the offering of Himself. And that's our message. The old
covenant was insufficient to save because it could not satisfy
God's holiness and justice. The old covenant simply pointed
to and declared the coming of Christ, the Messiah, the only
one who could save. Good things to come. Good things
to come, and they've come. They've come. Now look at verse
three, but in those sacrifices, speaking of the Old Testament
sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made of sins every year.
You know, once a year, the great high priest would slay a lamb,
and its body would be burned, and its blood would be taken
into the Holy of Holies, and that blood was put upon the mercy
seat, and that was called the Day of Atonement. The next year,
you'd have to do the same thing. You'd have to bring another sacrifice.
And then the following year, you have to do it again. Year
after year after year. And what these sacrifices are
saying is there still has to be a supreme sacrifice. The Lamb
of God has to come. The once for all offering has
to be offered. You're still sinners and you're
still guilty and you gotta keep coming. Never could put away
sin. Every time they brought a sacrifice,
it reminded them that their sins were still not put away. Still
sinners, they were still guilty before God. And in verse four,
we find another reason that these sacrifices had to be repeated,
for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should
take away sins. You see, sin is transgression
of the moral law of God. What does an animal have to do
with that? These animal sacrifices are ceremonial. This sin of ours against God
is spiritual. The blood of an animal is not
the same as the blood of a man. It's a different blood. It can't
be identified with a man. Sin relates to the mind, to the
heart. Sin relates to the conscience.
An animal can't enter into that. An animal has no identification
with man's sin. We have to have a sacrifice.
We've got to have a sin offering to affectionately put away our
sin for us to no longer be conscious of. One who can be numbered with
us. Christ was numbered with the
transgression. One who can be identified with us. Our Lord
certainly did that. One who has the same flesh and
the same blood that we have. You and I are flesh and blood.
Therefore, it's necessary for Christ to take upon himself our
flesh and our blood. And that's what verse five is
saying. Look at it. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. Christ did come, friends,
and we see that clearly in John chapter one, verse one. You know
the scripture well. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then verse
14 of chapter one says, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Paul told Timothy
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God took on
flesh and blood because he was the only one who could keep his
own law and satisfy his own justice in our room instead. Without
the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no hope of redemption. We cannot
keep God's law, not perfectly and not all of it. And if we're
guilty in one point of the law, we're guilty of the whole law.
Again, verse five, when he cometh into the world, when the God-man,
the Lamb of God, our priest after the order of Melchizedek, our
great high priest, when he literally and actually left heaven's glory,
he was born of a woman, born under the law, and he took upon
himself our sin and our guilt and our flesh and blood. And
when Christ, who is God, came into this world, he said, sacrifice
and offering, thou wouldest not. What's the apostle talking about
there? He's referring to all those Old Testament sacrifices,
from Abel to the day that he himself came into the world.
This is so, so important. Look at verse six. It says, in
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. That word means no satisfaction. None of those sacrifices satisfied
the holiness and the justice of God. God had respect to Abel's
offering. You remember that. He rejected
Cain's offering. Why did he have respect to Abel's
offering? Because it pictured Christ. That's
the only reason. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Abel's sacrifice portrayed, and
it was a pattern of Christ. Abel brought it. But I'm telling
you, he did not trust in that animal blood to put away his
sin. Abel was trusting and looking to God to send the Lamb of God
at a future time who could and would take away sin. Don't you
know that Adam told him what God had told him in the garden
about that man that was to come? Oh, his heel would be bruised,
but he would crush the serpent's head. He'd put sin away by the
sacrifice of himself. Abel knew what that blood stood
for. It stood for the blood of the
Lord Jesus who was to come. Better things, better things. The sacrifice of the old covenant
lamb was a pattern, a picture, a type, a shadow, but God found
no pleasure, no satisfaction in the blood of that lamb. Whether
a lamb or a bullock or a goat, those sacrifices could never
make us perfect, and that's what God requires, as we said. He
requires perfection. Those old sacrifices could not
remove not one guilty stain, not one. Our Lord here says,
sacrifice and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither had
any pleasure therein, but a body thou hast prepared for me. And
here's the gospel, verse seven. Then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of me. to do thy will, O God."
You see, Christ, the second person of the blessed Trinity, very
God of very God, that's who he is. He said, lo, I come in the
volume of the book that's written to me. Now, what book's he talking
about? This one. The Bible, the word of God, this
book most definitely is written of him. He told the Pharisees,
he said, you search the scriptures and in them, you think you have
life eternal, but they are they which testify of me. Beginning
at Moses and all the prophets and in the Psalms, he showed
them the things concerning what? Himself. The Bible is the story
of Jesus Christ crucified from Genesis to Revelation. All through
our studies in Genesis and Exodus and now in Numbers, we've seen
Christ. It's the gospel according to
Moses, the gospel according to the Old Testament. It's a hymn
book, H-I-M. All of those sacrifices, burnt
offerings, sacrifices for sin, Passovers, lambs being slain,
God didn't have any pleasure in them, but in the body of Christ,
He did. The sacrifice that Christ made,
He most certainly did. It's in a body of flesh and bones
and blood. It's a body made like unto the
children for whom He came to save and for whom He died. That's
what it says there in verse seven. Then said I, Christ speaking
low in the volume of the book it is written of me, I come to
do thy will. I come to accomplish your will,
to accomplish your purpose, to finish your work, the work that
you gave me to do. That's why he came and he finished
that work. And that's what we rest in, what
he's done for us. He didn't come for people to
feel sorry for him. That's the way men preach him
today. Oh, Jesus loves everybody. Won't you just give him your
heart? Won't you just love him back? Shame, shame, shame, to
even talk about it. Do we dare portray the sovereign
Lord God of heaven and earth that way? Christ didn't come
to build an earthly kingdom either. That's what most of the Jews
thought. And that's why they killed him. Matter of fact, that's
what most of his disciples thought. He came to do the will of his
father. He came to put his people's sin away. And that's what he
did. And what did he say on the cross?
Three words, it's finished. Look at verse eight, above, when
he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which
are offered by the law. God had no pleasure in those
things which were offered by the law. God had no pleasure
in all those sacrifices. And it was then said I, then
said the Lord Jesus, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. not to make it possible for you
to do it's not what he said i came to do thy will oh god now watch
this verse nine and he taketh away the first that he may establish
the second what's the first that he takes away the first covenant
that covenant made with adam he takes that covenant away and
he establishes a new covenant which is an everlasting covenant
everlasting covenant is a better covenant and Christ takes away
that old tabernacle. We don't have a tabernacle anymore.
Christ tabernacled among us. Christ is our tabernacle. It's
in Christ that we worship. We don't need a building to worship
in. Thank God we have one. Keeps us out of the elements,
the heat, the cold. But there's no sanctification
or redemption in a building. No, Christ is our tabernacle.
It's in Him that we worship. Christ takes away that old priesthood
because He's our great high priest. Now every believer is a priest.
Every believer offers sacrifice, not sacrifice, not of blood,
but of praise and prayer and thanksgiving to God for Christ's
ultimate sacrifice. That's what we offer to God,
our thanksgiving, our praise, our worship. Christ takes away
that old mercy seat, that old ark. He takes away all of those
things. He takes away all the old sacrifices,
the priesthood, the tabernacle, the covenant. He takes away the
first and he established the second. And it's better, better. What is that second? That's Christ. He's our high priest. He's our
tabernacle. He's our mercy seed. He's our
sin offering. He's our atonement. Christ is
all and in all. And we have nothing else to preach.
To preach anything other than Christ won't benefit a sinner's
soul at all. Romans 5 11 says we join God
through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have the atonement. Why? Because He is the atonement. Christ is our King. Christ is
our Prophet. Christ is our Sabbath. He takes
away the first. Christ has fulfilled everything
in the Old Testament that typified Him. He's fulfilled it all. There
was the old law of tithing. Christ done away with it. I hear
people today talk about tithing. People feel obligated to tithe.
Why? It's done away with. Believers
give because they love God. Believers give because of what
Christ has done for them. And if they're able, they'll
give more than 10%. No, there's no tithing. It's all offering of thanksgiving
and pray. He takes away the first, he establishes
a second. Our Lord said, lo, I come to
do your will, O God. Look at verse 10. And by that
will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. It's by God's will, it's by God's
purpose, and it's by God's design, we're sanctified. What does sanctified
mean? You know, it means set apart.
We're set apart from our sin. We're set apart from the world.
We're set apart from the lost. Set apart, sanctified. Sin's
put away. Transgressions are forgiven.
Iniquity is purged and sanctified. We're holy in Christ. We're unblameable. Above blame, we're unreprovable,
above reproof. Only in Christ, we are in God's
sight. How? In Christ. Our sins, past,
present, and future are forgiven through the blood offering of
God himself in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Now,
is there anything else to preach? Is there anything else to believe?
Christ came as the sin offering, as a substitute. The offering
of the body of Christ paid our sin debt once for all. Well, you think about that. No
more sacrifice for sin. No more sin offering. There's
no more atonement. Christ, once for all, put away
our sin. Can't ever be charged to us again. Look at verse 11. In this old
covenant, every priest standeth daily ministering offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. You know,
I looked at that again this week. That just was so clear to me.
It was just, it just couldn't be any plainer. I've heard people
say things like, well, you know, back then people were saved by
those sacrifices. No, they weren't. No sirree. I've heard men say the law back
then saved people. I've heard preachers preach that
obeying the ceremonies and the feast days saved people in the
Old Testament time. It absolutely did not. The scripture
says, every priest standeth. Why did the priest always stand?
Why didn't they ever sit down? Because their work was never
finished, never finished. The priest stands daily offering
the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin, so they
can never sit down. Verse 12, but, but this man,
this man, the God man, Jesus Christ, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down. He sat down. Where is he sitting? At the right
hand of God, making intercession for us, pleading our cause. He said, damn, because his work's
finished. Well, I know, brother, but we've got to, no, no, no,
it's finished. It's done, it's finished. The
priest of old were but men. Christ is the God-man. Christ
lived and died and he ever lives. The priesthood had an ending.
Christ is a priest forever. The priest of old entered with
animal blood. Christ offered his own blood.
Not just the blood of a man now, but the blood of God, the God-man. The priest of old were many.
Christ is just one. The priest of old offered many
sacrifices. Christ offered just one, and
it was enough. and it was affectional and God
accepted it. The old covenant priest ministered
in an earthly sanctuary, but Christ appears in heaven, the
scripture says, to put away sin by the sacrifice of his own blood. Their sacrifices were never finished,
therefore they never sat down. But Christ, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, he forever sat down. He sat down on the
right hand of God, henceforth expecting till all his enemies
be made his footstool. And they will be. And I was one
of them, but not anymore. Look at verse 14, for by one
offering, how many? One. Just one. He, Christ, hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. He came into the
world one time. He walked this earth in perfect
obedience to impute us perfect righteousness. He went to the
cross and he offered one offering for sin. That's all it takes
when it's God offering it. He offered one blood sacrifice
and by that one offering, He has perfected His people forever. That's good news. What does perfect
mean? Well, I'm convinced we don't
know much about what perfect is, but I do know this. It means
complete and that nothing needs to be added to it. If it's perfect,
it's perfect. Nothing needs to be added. You're
totally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. But what happens is this. It happens to me and it happens
to you. We start looking within. We start looking to ourself instead
of Christ. Just like Peter, when he walked
on the water, as long as he had his eyes on Christ, he walked
on the water. But the minute he took them off
and got them on the wind and the waves and the storm, he began
to sink. That's what we do. We've got
to keep our eyes on him. We can't add anything to what
he's done. He's perfected forever them that
are sanctified. And that's what God says, for
what if some did not believe? Shall unbelief make the faith
of God without effect? God forbid. Let me read that
again. For what if some did not believe?
Does that change anything on God's end? No. All those years
I saw those bumper stickers and signs, God said it, I believe
it, that settles it. That's hogwash. God said it,
that settles it. Doesn't matter if we believe
it or not. It doesn't change anything if we believe it or
don't believe it. It does for us. It changes some
things for us. But it doesn't change God one
iota. Does man's unbelief change the
truth of God? No way. Let God be true in every
man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified
in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Men are wicked, but God is true. Men are unfaithful, but God is
faithful. We sin, but God has promised
to put our sin away. How? By his own sacrifice, by
the shedding of his own blood. And that's why I know it's finished.
That's why I know it's accepted, because it's acceptable. We are
accepted where? In the beloved. That's where
I'm gonna rest. And if anyone tries to condemn
me, who is he that condemneth? It's God that justifies. Who's
going to judge me? It's Christ that died. That's
where I'm going to rest. And that's the only place we
can rest, and that's the only way to God. And what do we say? We say, Amen. So be it. This
is so. Amen.