If you will take your bowels
and turn me to Psalm chapter 40. Psalms chapter 40. Tonight we'll be looking at verses
six through eight. Psalm chapter 40 and verses six
through eight. Read these verses together. Sacrifice. and offering thou
didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offerings and sin offerings hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will,
O my God. Thy law is within my heart. The title of the message tonight
is The Servant's All-Sufficient Sacrifice. The Servant's All-Sufficient
Sacrifice. Now, I have two points tonight
that I want us to see that are clearly revealed in this text
to everyone in this place. It is not difficult to ascertain
these two simple points. First of all, that the inefficacy,
the insufficiency of all human sacrifice and offerings. And
secondly, the all-sufficiency of the offering of Christ. These
two things are clearly revealed in this text. First of all, the
inefficacy, the inadequacy, insufficiency, whatever you want to say, of
all human sacrifices before God. Read the text with me in verse
6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened, burnt
offerings and sin offerings hast thou not required. Now, in the beginning, when our
father Adam sinned, When He had brought us into death and ruin
by His sin against God, we remember this, that God was the first
one to institute a sacrifice. God was the first one to institute
a sacrifice. When they had discovered their
nakedness, it was God who sacrificed an innocent animal so that they
may be covered that He may cover their nakedness. He instituted
the first offering. And we know that this was a picture. This was a type. And this was
to be perpetually done because we know that Abel also offered
a sacrifice unto God. And God says in His Word that
he had respect. to Abel and to his offering. We remember that God instituted
the law of Passover. He said, take a lamb, slay it,
and put the blood on the doorpost and on the lentil. We know that
God instituted the great day of atonement in which there were
two goats. One would be the escape goat
that He would pronounce the sins of His people on and they would
carry that goat away. And the other one would be slain. It was a sacrifice. And God instituted
it. God instituted these sacrifices. But let me make this very clear.
Never, never, never did God mean for those sacrifices to be able
or have the power to remove one sin. Not one. Not one. The Holy Spirit here declares
the insufficiency, the lack of God's acceptance with the offering
of these sacrifices and is made clear in the Scriptures. These
were only a picture and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His one sacrifice. They were only a type, only a
shadow, only a picture. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 2. We can go over there. Hebrews
chapter 1, look at this. Because this is going to be a
parallel passage here in Hebrews chapter 1. I mean, Hebrews chapter 10, verse
1. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things.
Can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would
they have not ceased to be offered, because that the worshipers once
purged should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices
there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For
it is not possible, there it is, it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. These sacrifices
never truly satisfied the justice of Almighty God. And this was
seen clearly. Why? Because they did them year
after year after year, day after day after day, and they never
stopped doing them. If they were sufficient to take
away sin, they would have done it once, and that would have
been the end of it. But every year, that great day
of atonement reminded them. Every day, that sacrifice, morning
and evening, what did that bring to their minds? It brought to
mind their sin. Constantly. This was why they were offered
And they never removed sin because they were just a type. Why then
did God institute these things? If they never accomplished anything,
why did God institute them? Well, friends, they had value.
They had value only in this, that these people who saw these
sacrifices looked forward to the Messiah who was to come and
take away their sin. That's what they did. They pictured
Christ. And as these Old Testament believers
sacrificed these lambs or these goats and these bulls, they sacrificed
them expecting the Savior to come and to truly deliver them
as was promised to Abraham, their father. In thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed. It was promised to Adam and Eve,
wasn't it? The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent, and he shall bruise his heel." And
then God killed the lamb to show him what it was going to be like.
God gave him a picture. He gave them a type. It was a
type of the offering of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, verse 5 in
Hebrews 10, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared
me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou had no pleasure. No pleasure. This speaks to us
of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. the incarnation
of Christ. He, being the sinless, eternal
son of God, came into the world and became a man. He became a
man. He who was God, all by himself,
sufficient and equal with the Father and the Spirit, Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God, became a man. A man. He took upon himself our
human nature, so that he was as much man as he was God, and
as much God as he was man. He was come. The Scripture says,
A body thou hast prepared me. God, you had no pleasure in those
sacrifices, but a body thou hast prepared me. Why? For sacrifice. For sacrifice. He prepared him
a body. He was born of the Virgin Mary,
the seed of the woman, so as to be a sacrifice. Why? Because God was never satisfied
with any other sacrifice. There was no other sacrifice
that we could ever make unto God that would be acceptable. Therefore, God in grace sent
His Son to be a man so that He might be offered as a sacrifice. Friends, therefore, by the deeds
of the law, no flesh No flesh shall be justified in the sight
of God. Not you and not me. Not by works and not by the law. Why? God has no pleasure in our
sacrifice. God has no pleasure in our sacrifice
or our offering. Man could offer no sacrifice that God would accept, because a sacrifice must be a
man. Romans chapter 5 tells us, for
as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. That's us. That's us by nature. Many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one man,
many are made righteous. You see, it was a man that plunged
us into death and sin. And it must be a man that is
sacrificed. It must be a man that dies. under the justice of God in order
for God to be satisfied. Those animals, they didn't represent
us. They couldn't represent us. Only a man could bring in righteousness. Only a man could offer a sacrifice
unto God that was acceptable. But not any of us. Not any of
us. All men by nature were represented
by Adam, and sinners by nature, and all men by nature, all they
do is sin. We are full of sin by nature. You say a man,
well, this person is better than this person. No. It doesn't matter who he is.
By nature, he is full of sin. No, he may not be as evil as
he can be. But he is still full of sin. Full. When you feel something to the
top, you can't get any fuller. Friends, we can't by nature be
more sinful than we are. And it's because of our sin that
God will not and cannot accept any offering that we give. Our
church attendance, that's not an offering to God for sin. That
will never pay for sin. Baptism, that will never pay
for sin. Why? Because we are full of sin
and everything we do is mixed with sin. Everything. God says
He's not going to accept our offerings. God in Genesis said
this, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil
continually. Isaiah says our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in the sight of God. What sacrifice then do
you think you could offer to God? What thing do you think you can
give God to satisfy His justice? What's that one thing you think
you can do that God would be pleased with of yourself? Well, Christ did everything but
this one thing. I did this. Rejected. rejected, because we are full
of sin. What can we offer to God when
all we think and all we do in our hearts is sin? Jesus said,
either make the tree good and the fruit will be good. If the
tree is corrupt, the fruit will be corrupt. Is that not simple? You can't get an apple tree to
produce oranges, can you? No matter how hard you try, you
can fertilize that tree, you can take care of that tree, you
can do as much as you can, you can't get that tree to change
its nature. You can't. If you have a dead
root, if the root is dead, the tree is dead. Even so with our
hearts. Our hearts are full of sin. They're
corrupt and they're dead by nature. Dead in trespasses and sins. And you can't get anything good
out of it. Not one thing can you get good out of this nature. Therefore, God says, by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. You can
offer what you will. You can be as sincere as you
want. God will not accept your sacrifices. They're insufficient. to satisfy
a holy God. Insufficient. Our sacrifices are ineffectual
and powerless to remove one sin. Just as much as those bulls and
goats could never take away sin, Even so, our offerings, our sacrifices
to God will never, ever, ever, ever take away one sin. Not one. If God the Holy Spirit would
open our hearts to see how corrupt this nature is, if God's shown
you these things, then I've got good news. I have got great news. Why? How can there be great news? I don't have anything to offer
God. That's okay. God has provided a sufficient
sacrifice. God has provided a sufficient
Sacrifice. That's my second point. Look
at this in our text in verse chapter 40 and verse six. He says, sacrificing and offering,
thou didst not desire. Here it is, mine ears, hast thou
opened. Burn offering and sin offering
hast thou not required? Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will,
O God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Because God will not
ever delight in our sinful sacrifices, yet God who is rich in mercy."
Rich. Rich. Whatever you think of rich,
He's richer. Whatever you think is the limit
of God's mercy, it's infinitely higher and infinitely better
than we can possibly imagine His mercy to be. Why? Because
He has provided us eternal sacrifice. He has provided and purposed
in eternity to save some of the wretched race of Adam. Praise God He is determined to
save some. Praise God He's determined to save some. Maybe you. I pray that everyone in here
that God would save them. God is rich in mercy. Therefore,
He has revealed to us in this text that His servant, His servant,
has come and will offer a sacrifice that he will accept. Mine ears hast thou opened. This is the parallel in Hebrews
chapter 10 where it says, A body thou hast prepared for me. This
has reference to Exodus chapter 21, verses 1 through 6, regarding
the Hebrew slaves. If you remember, the law said
this, that if a Hebrew was enslaved or indebted to another man, he
would serve that man for six years. Then on the seventh year,
he would be free to go. But if during that time his master
gave him a wife, and he had children by this bride, Then he would
go free on the seventh year, but his wife and his children
could not go free. And the only way for him to be
able to stay with his wife and children was that he make a confession. He would confess this, I love
my master, I love my wife, and I love my children. Then they
would take that slave to a door post and they would take his
ear and bore it through railroad spike. And that man would serve his
master forever. He would be with his wife and
children and he would love his master and he would serve him
forever. How lovely does this picture
Christ as a willing, loving servant of God? This ear that God has
opened. Christ said, My ear, I am thy
servant, and my ear hast thou opened. He did this willingly. This pictures His love, not only
to God as His master, but also to His bride that God has given
Him. If you remember, we are in the
Scriptures, if we are believers in Christ, we are His bride,
and He is our husband. He is our brother. God is our
Father and we are His children. And because of this, the Lord
Jesus Christ confessed willingly that He loved God, that He loved
His church. And not only did He confess it
with His mouth, not only did He preach it when He was here
on the earth, but He also testified to it. In our day, it's pretty
much an easy thing to say, isn't it? I love you. And you know
what? We don't believe that anything
has to back up love. We can just say it and that's
it. You know, oh, I love you. Yeah, really? Okay. And never
do anything for anybody. That's not real love. Real love
is sacrificial. And the Lord Jesus Christ testified
to everyone of His love for His people by being nailed to a cross. He died in the place of His people. He died willingly as a willing
servant. Go to Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2. And look at verse 6. Who? Jesus Christ. Being in the
form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Jesus Christ is God. And He didn't
think twice about being equal with God. It's not robbery. It's not robbery. But He made
of Himself no reputation. and took upon him the nature
of a servant. And being 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."
Friends, because God purposed to save a people, to save His
elect people who needed an offering that they could not provide for
themselves. God sent His only begotten Son
into the world to provide what they could not, a sacrifice that
was acceptable, an acceptable sacrifice. By nature, we were
enslaved under the justice of the law of God. We needed one
to stand in our place, to stand between us and God. We needed
one to stand in our stead and endure the wrath of God for our
sins, or there was no hope for us. And God in love sent His Son,
and His Son willingly came. He became of no reputation. Notice the character of that.
The character of Christ, that He was a willing sacrifice, a
willing servant. Man, you tell somebody to be
subservient to someone else and they're going to go to blows
with you, aren't they? Of course they will. It's our
nature to kick against servitude. But it wasn't Christ. He made
of Himself no reputation. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. How low do you suppose that the
Son of God would have to come to be a man like us? How far
do you think He would have to condescend to come down and to
be a man? And not just any type of man.
Not a man that He was worthy of being. He was worthy of being
a ruler, wasn't He? A king. He was worthy of men
to come and to sing His praises when He was born into this world.
And yet, what does the Scripture say of Him? He was despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And
we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. You know what? I know what it's like to suffer
because of sin in this mortal body. We know that every sickness
we have and every trouble we face is because of sin. And you
know what? It's not exactly what we deserve.
We deserve worse than what we've got. But imagine Christ who was the
sinless Son of God and He got everything He did not deserve.
And He did it willingly. What love What love is this, O my soul? What love is this that He would
become a willing servant? He would become a willing servant
because He loved the Father and delighted to do His will. In
our text it says, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O God. He being found as a man obeyed
the perfect will of God and brought in an everlasting righteousness
by it. Made an end for sin. and fulfilled
all the prophecies of the law. It tells us in Daniel chapter
9 and verse 24, it says that in 70 weeks are determined upon
the people in the holy city to finish the transgression, to
make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity and
to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and
the prophecy. By the Gospel of God's grace,
I tell you tonight that Jesus Christ was successful in what
God sent Him to do. He was successful. Behold, the
Mediator between God and man, the High Priest, Jesus Christ. He alone delighted to do the
will of God. In Psalm 1, it said, Blessed
is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, and in that
law doth he meditate day and night. That can't speak but of one person.
That definitely doesn't speak of you and me. Jesus Christ is the blessed man. We delight to do sin. We delight to rebel against God. We delighted and long to have
God to bend to our will. That's what we delighted in. We, like Cain, were angry when
God rejected our sacrifices. Yet Jesus Christ became a servant
of God and always pleased the Father. God says, this is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Friends, we have even a more
sure word, Peter says, than the voice of God. You and I, right now, in your
laps, if you have your Bibles open, you have a more sure word
than if God Himself were to come down and speak This is the Word of the Living
God. This is it. And Christ sealed up this vision.
You know how He sealed it up? He fulfilled everything in it.
He fulfilled it. He accomplished it. He said,
I come to do Thy will, and He came to do His will, and He did
His will. How do we know? He fulfilled
every prophecy that God had spoken of Him. This is the eternal book of God. And what is the volume of these
Scriptures but Christ? It is the incorruptible seed,
the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. It is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's the sum and substance
of this book. And every time you read it, you
should find Him. Why? Because God put Him here.
God determined Him to be here. If you can't find Him, it's because
of our limited capacity. Jesus said, Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things and entered into His glory? And
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them
all things, the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. His
Word was written concerning His righteousness and His sacrifice
of Himself for God's elect. Go to this passage in Isaiah
chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. And look at verse 18. This first verse is a declaration
to the lost. Hear ye deaf and look ye blind
that ye may see. If you haven't seen Christ, it's
because you're deaf and you're blind to the righteousness and
justice of Almighty God. And God says, look, you blind,
hear, you deaf, Look and hear at what? This right
here, who is blind but my servant and deaf as my messenger that
I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but thou
observest not, opening the ears and heareth not, the Lord is
well pleased for His righteousness' sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. Behold, Christ was blind and
deaf to sin, as you and I are blind and deaf to righteousness.
He was blind to sin. He saw nothing that would tempt
Him to sin. He heard nothing that would move
Him to sin. And God says, I am well pleased
with his righteousness. With his righteousness. He alone
magnified the law of God and made it honorable. Jesus not only fulfilled the
scriptures in his life, but mostly also in his death. God did not
delight in our offerings. But God delighted in his one
offering. It's so amazing that in the Gospel,
God provided Himself, the one that was offended, provided Himself
an atonement. Have you ever heard of such thing?
One that's offended providing for Himself an atonement for
the person that offended Him. You remember Abraham and his
son walking up the mountain and his son said, Father, here's
the wood and here's the fire, where's the sacrifice? You see,
Isaac knew something was missing, a sacrifice. And he knew him
and his father was not able to provide that. And what did Abraham say? My
son, God will provide himself a lamb. God will provide Himself
a lamb. This is a picture of Christ who
was provided as a substitute. The only reason Isaac was able
to get up off that altar is because there was a ram caught in the
thicket. If God hadn't provided that,
surely Isaac would have been killed on that altar. And surely, if God had not provided
us a sacrifice, God's justice would swiftly take us away into
hell forever. We were under the knife of God's
justice, but praise God, there was a ram caught in the thicket.
It's Jesus Christ who was caught in the thicket of our iniquities,
of our sins. And friends, in the volume of
this book, it was written of Christ to do what the sinner
could not do for himself. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. The wages of sin is death. The blood of Jesus Christ, therefore,
is the only offering that God will accept for sins. The only death that saves sinners
from death. His offering is the gift of God
to sinners for eternal life. Because Jesus gave Himself for
us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto
Himself a peculiar people. There is nothing more peculiar
than a believer in Christ. There is nothing more strange
and weird to this world than a man who has been resurrected
by the power of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because he believes in a
man that for his only salvation that no one else can see. They
can't see him. They can't know him. And yet
you do. He was the one that was in the
mire and pit of our sins. And God brought him up. out of an horrible pit and set
His feet on a rock on the throne of Almighty God where He rules
now even this night over all of you and myself and all of
the world. He rules and He has His will
in everything. What is His will? What is the
will of the one that died for sinners? It is to save His people
from their sins. And He'll do it. He'll do it. He's made the sacrifice. God
has accepted the sacrifice. And friends, this sacrifice is
an all-sufficient sacrifice. Hawker says this, Christ has
done more to honor God than all the sins of men have done to
dishonor Him. Yea, so infinitely precious,
so incalculably great, hath been and is the vast merit of bloodshedding
of Christ in doing away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. that over and above the honor
restored to God by the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a redundance
of merit that millions of ages can never so full recompense. So as to say, the whole is paid
and nothing more is due. The whole is paid. Oh, that sinners might cease
from trying to please God by their worthless religious offerings
and sacrifices. Oh, I gave up fish today. I gave up this yesterday for
God. God doesn't want you to give
up anything for him. The only thing God wants is his
son. And if you're not in His Son,
you have no hope. Oh, but if you're in His Son,
there is no more work to be done. No more fretting. No more wondering if I've done
enough to satisfy God. Why? He has satisfied God completely. He was a servant of God. He did
the will of God. And He offered a sacrifice that
removes all of the sin of His people. And everyone who believes
on Him has His righteousness imputed to their charge. You know that God Himself Because of the sacrifice of sin,
God Himself cannot find my sin. God Himself cannot find my sin. Why? Because He provided Himself
a sufficient sacrifice. rest in Christ. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.