Hebrews chapter 10. The title of the message is One
Atonement, One Sacrifice, One Offering. That song was appropriate, wasn't
it? Once for all. Once and for all. The Word of
God sets forth one atonement. It sets forth only one sacrifice,
and it sets forth only one offering. And that one is Jesus Christ. That's why he said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. There is no greater study than
you and I can have than the person of Jesus Christ. It is the study
of God. To study Christ is to study Almighty
God. That's what it is. Jesus Christ
is set forth in the Word of God as the only way to God. Not many believe that. Many believe
there are different ways to God, that Jesus Christ is just one
of the ways. He said, no man comes unto the
Father but by me. There is absolutely no entrance
into God's presence apart from Jesus Christ, His blood and His
righteousness. It is Christ and Him crucified
from first to last. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians,
wrote this. He said, I am determined not
to know anything among you. He was not saying that he's not
interested in anything about them. But he said, let's get
this matter settled first before we can move on before any teaching
can take place, before any fellowship. Real fellowship can happen. Let's
get this established first. I am determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Let's get that
established first. Let's get how God saves sinners
first. Let's get how we can have fellowship
with God, and how God can be a just God, and have anything
to do with me and you. And that's Jesus Christ, Him
crucified. It is written in John 14, 6, Jesus saith unto them, I am the
way, I am the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. That's straight from the lips
of our Lord. Now, the first thing we are going
to see, and start in this chapter 10, and the writer of Hebrews
repeats himself here. You'll probably notice this as
I go along. But I tell you, I've learned
this, and I've heard this said before, and I've learned it in
preaching. If it's worth saying, it's worth saying again. If it's
not worth saying again, just don't say it at all. But what
we are going to see here, first of all, is the inadequacy of
the ceremonial law. It shadowed some good things
to come. Now, it did. God gave it. God gave it. Israel didn't come up with this.
God gave all those ceremonies, all those types, that were patterns
of the heavenly things. They were types of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is what they were. Now they shadowed good things
to come, but that's all they could do. They could not establish
anything. They couldn't establish righteousness.
The ceremonies, all those ceremonies that they went through, and all
those offerings, all those types, they never established justification.
They never established sanctification. They never established redemption.
That is established by Jesus Christ. He says, for the law
having a shadow of good things, good things to come. and not
the very image of the things. They were just shadows, but they
were not the image Jesus Christ is said to be in the very first
chapter of this book, the image of the invisible God. These things
were shadows, but they were not the image. They're just the types. They can never with those sacrifices,
which they offered year by year, same sacrifices, as it says later
on in the chapter, same sacrifices over and over and over. And he's saying to him, doesn't
that or didn't that tell you something? You offered this same
sacrifice last year. Now you're doing it again this
year and next year and next. And they did it for millenniums. Those sacrifices which they offered
year by year, continually, they could not make the comers thereunto
perfect. Couldn't do it. Shadows and types
could not save, is what he's saying. Anything short of Jesus
Christ cannot save. Anything short of Christ cannot
save. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. There was no life in the types.
And when he said they are dead, he means more than just they
died. They are dead, spiritually dead. They received no spiritual
life whatsoever from the types. All spiritual life comes through
Christ. all spiritual life. They spoke
of good things to come, such as acceptance, forgiveness, justification,
righteousness. They spoke of these things, but
it wasn't until Christ came that these things were established
by His person and by His work, by His substitutionary work. He established these things.
We are justified in Christ. We are not justified by anything
we do, anything we offer, We are justified by the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are made righteous in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are sanctified, made holy,
set apart in the Lord Jesus Christ. Chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world, set apart. All spiritual blessings were
given to us in Christ. They were never given in anything
else The types in the pictures, there was nothing given through
them. It was given through Him whom
they represented. And it says the types, here's
the blood of bulls and ghosts, they could never make the comers
perfect. That means complete. They could
never make them complete that offered these things. Turn over
to Colossians chapter 2. In Colossians chapter 2, in verse
9, he says, For in him, that is in Jesus Christ, Colossians
2.9, For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and ye are complete in him. You are perfect in him. which is the head of all principality
and power." He says in verse 1, it could not make the comers
thereunto perfect, but I tell you what, in Christ, everyone's
perfect. Everyone that's in Christ is
perfect before God. Perfect. Now, for there to be a shadow
There has to be an object casting that shadow. You see? You've got to be standing in
front of a light, and then you cast a shadow. That's why He's
saying here, these were just shadows off the object. Jesus
Christ has always been the object. He's always been the object of
faith. He's always been the object before God. God has always looked
to Him. He's never looked at anything
else. It says here, we'll get into this a little bit here in
a minute, but he took no pleasure in the sacrifice of bulls and
goats. What he took pleasure in is the one they represented.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He's the one who cast the shadow. He's the real. He's the real. Where there's no substance, there
would be no shadow, would there? There has to be a substance,
an object, to cast a shadow. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
the object of our faith, He's the object of our hope, and He's the substance that casts
the shadow. If you take Christ away, these
things mean nothing. If you take Christ away, you
can't understand these things. If you take Christ away, the
shadows are gone. The types are gone. They're meaningless. Meaningless. Now he says in verse 2, "...For
then would they not have ceased to be offered." In other words,
if they could have made the ones who brought them. If going through
ceremonies and doing these things that God had set up, originally. If they could have brought perfection,
if they could have perfected the ones who brought them, they
would have ceased to be offered. What he's going to show here
is how effectual the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is.
By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified,
them that are set apart, made holy. He perfected them forever. For them would they not have
ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged."
You know what it says over in Hebrews chapter 1 here? Let me
look back here. In Hebrews chapter 1, it says in verse 3, "...who,
being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, purged them. Now if you purge something of
something, it's gone. It's gone. Jesus Christ has purged us from
our sins. They are gone. They're gone. This is why the law can't condemn
me. This is why I can walk around
and not feeling woe as me all the time, and guilties all get
out. It's because the blood of Christ
has cleansed me. It's cleansed me. And he's saying
here, because the worshipers, once purged, should have no more
conscience of sins. Let me give you an example. Let's
say I'm guilty of a crime. And while walking down the street,
I see a policeman. He represents the law. And my
conscience cries, guilty! You know, I really want to turn
and go another way, or turn my head, you know, or hide or something.
You know what guilt does to you? It'll show all over you. It'll
show all over you. Guilty. And I want to hide. However,
If that sin guilt, that sin that makes me feel so guilty, and
I know I'm guilty, if it has been dealt with, and it has actually
been purged and taken away, and I've been set free, and I've
been justified from it, now when I see Him coming, I have no guilt. I have no guilt. That's why you and I can say,
along with David, Oh, how I love thy law." Paul
said in one place, the law of God is good. It's good, isn't
it? God's law is good. And when I see Him coming, I
can not feel guilty. I've got no accusing conscience.
I'm clear. My conscience is clear. It's
been cleansed by the blood of Christ. and I can shake hands with the
law. The law can't condemn me. It can't condemn me. God has
justified me. Now, this does not mean that
we have no more consciousness or awareness of sin. I know that. We know we sin, and we do mourn
from it. But there's a difference in mourning
over something and having a guilt-ridden conscience over it. There's a
difference. There's a difference. We're always aware of our sins,
but the fear and guilt of condemnation is gone. I can mourn over sinning
against God's grace. I can mourn over sinning against
His love. That causes us mourning. David did in Psalm 51. But the
fear and guilt of condemnation, of going to hell, being under
God's wrath, that's gone. That's gone. The law cannot condemn me now.
Christ was condemned in my place. Listen. And these scriptures
here, believers take to heart. You take these Scriptures to
heart. When you have something that's
troubling you, you can go to the Scriptures and lay hold of
the Word of God. Listen. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Are they not chargeable? I can
charge myself with thoughts today. You can charge yourself with
thoughts or deeds. We can charge ourselves. Satan charges. He's
the accuser of the brethren. But no one can charge any of
God's elect and make it stick. Can't do it. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. It
is God who justified them. It is God who cleared them. Whatever
the charge is, it's already been taken care of, cleared off the
books, and we're justified. Justified. Who is he that condemneth? Is
Christ that died? And we died in Christ. When He
died, we died. Now, brethren, that's real. That is real. When He died, we
died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us." Praise for us. Look over in Romans chapter 4. Let me start in verse... I'm
trying to see where I really want to start at. Let me go up
to verse 18. It's speaking of Abraham, who
against hope believed in hope. He believed the promise that
God gave him concerning the seed, that he might become the father
of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be. And being not weak in faith,
He considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb."
It's interesting, isn't it, the way Abraham's presented here?
Because what did we just look at in Bible class last week?
She said, Abraham, go into Hagar. She said, I'm old, you know,
I'm past the age of childbearing, going to Hagar. But when Abraham
is spoken of here, he's spoken of a man not weak in faith. He
considered not his own body now dead when he was about 100 years
old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief. You know, it's funny, I was reading
today over in Genesis where God spoke this to him again and he
laughed. Remember Sarah when she laughed?
And yet over in Hebrews 11 it says, by faith Sarah also received
strength to conceive. But in that tent she laughed.
And the Lord pointed that out and she denied it. She said,
no I didn't. No, I didn't. Aren't you glad
salvation's all of grace? Oh, I am. I am. What a mess. But when God has,
the Holy Spirit moves him to write of Abraham, he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he
had promised he was able also to perform. and therefore is
imputed to him for righteous now. It was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead." Here's the verse now. Here's the verse I
want to read. "...who was delivered for our offenses." Now, all of them or some of them? Just the ones up until we believed
and then what? No, it's all of them. He was delivered for all
my sins, and I wasn't even born. That's been 2,000 years ago. I wasn't born yet. And He was
delivered for my offenses. This is how God can call me. This is how God can be merciful
to me, as He's already satisfied toward me through His Son, who
was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
Justification. But now he says in verse 3, I've
got to move on. But in those sacrifices, plural,
many, how many millions do you reckon were offered until Christ
came? A lot. A lot. You can back count that up really.
Well, you can count up some of it. the Passover, you know, that
was once a year. It was 2,000 years from Adam
to Moses, from Moses to Christ. But in those sacrifices, many
of them, there's a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Listen, here's the key. There's a remembrance again made
of them, not a putting away of them. It didn't put them away
every year, it just brought them back to remembrance. and brought
it back to remembrance. And the remembrance is made which
says, they're not taken away yet. These sacrifices didn't
do the job, so you got to come back next year. You got to keep
offering these sacrifices, these daily sacrifices. Just think
of the daily sacrifices that were offered, day after day after
day, every day, morning and evening, morning and evening. And all those sacrifices have
one thing to say, it's not yet. Your sins have not been taken
away yet, not by these. Why? For he says here, it's not
possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins. That's an easy way out, isn't it? Wouldn't that be an
easy way out? If the blood of bulls and goats,
if I go do something sinful, And I just go take a lamb and
take it over and say, here, kill it. You know, this is for my
sins. That's an easy way out. He said, it's not possible for
blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Why? Sin is a transgression
of a moral law. It is the transgression of a
moral law. Animals are not moral beings. They are animals. They're animals. And the blood is not the same.
If you have to have a blood transfusion, they're not going to go get a
dog or something and give you its blood. It's not the same
blood. It must be the same kind of blood
that's sin. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is God, had to come into this world, take upon him flesh,
become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, that he might have
the proper blood to offer to put away our sins." And then sin deals with the mind,
the heart, the soul, and animals don't have these things in the
way we have them. Adam was made in the image of
God, but no animal was made in the image of God. Adam was. By man sin entered the world,
and by man satisfaction has to be made. It has to be by man. It has to be the same nature. I heard this years ago. Boy,
it cleared things up for me. It's the same nature that sin
has to be the same nature that makes satisfaction. That's why
Christ had to become a man. That's why God Almighty had to
do that. Here's the solution. Here's the
solution. It's for God to become incarnate. Verse 5. Wherefore... Now notice this. He's going to
reach back in the Old Testament in Psalm 40. Psalm 40. I think it's Psalm 40 verse 6.
But he's going to reach back to the Old Testament, and he's
going to take the testimony from the Old Testament, and he's going
to apply it to Jesus Christ. He's going to show them how that
person speaking in Psalm 40 is really Jesus Christ. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me, hast thou fitted me." The
body of Christ, the human nature of Christ was fitted for him
to serve God in, to produce a righteousness in, and to sacrifice. We are saved by a sacrifice. I haven't sacrificed anything.
Have you? You and I haven't sacrificed anything. Jesus Christ laid down
His life. He sacrificed Himself to the
wrath of God. He gave Himself up freely, freely,
willingly, ready to do it. sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not. That's not why I came. I didn't
come to offer the blood of bulls or goats. I came to offer up
myself." Another translation of that is,
instead of saying, a body hast thou prepared me, the Greek translation
is, my ears hast thou opened. God gave him a human body, He
made him a human body and a human soul. And He gave him ears to
hear like you and I. And when he heard, he was obedient. He was obedient. My ears hast
thou opened. You have fully instructed me,
furnished and fitted me for the work. He's the perfect Savior. He's the Messiah we need. That's
what he's saying. Here's these Hebrews. He's the
Messiah we need. The Scripture says, He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. They turned thumbs down
on Him. But the writer here is saying,
He's exactly what we need. I need a perfect man. I need
God. I need God Almighty to take my
place and deliver me from Himself. That's what I need. And only
God can do that. Only God can do it. Someone said
this, true service consists not in material sacrifices, but in
obedience to the will of God. See, most of them, most of them,
most of them, they'd bring the lambs in the mornings and the
evenings, they'd make the sacrifices, but their hearts weren't in it.
They'd just bring it because that's what they're supposed
to do. But Christ's heart was in it. My meat is to do the will
of Him that sent me. His sacrifice would be worthless
if His heart wasn't in it, if obedience wasn't first. Obedience,
the Scripture says, is better than sacrifice. If the obedience
is not there, the sacrifice is worthless. It's worthless. Listen, let me read you something
I haven't marked here over in 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel chapter
15, let me read you something. This is where Saul was disobedient
to the command of the Lord. And Samuel took on the task over
it. And in verse 22, Samuel said, has great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices. Does he have more delight in
that, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey
is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." Obedience first, or the sacrifice
is meaningless. It's meaningless. And our Lord
was obedient. He was a willing servant. He
was an obedient servant. Everything He did, He did out
of absolute, perfect love to His Father and to you and me. He did love His neighbor as Himself.
He did love God with all His heart, soul, mind, and body.
He loved Him. And note who prepared the body.
A body has thou prepared me. God prepared it. Now if God prepared it, it's
got to be perfect, right? God's not going to prepare anything
that has blemish. It was perfect. Sinless. Now in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. God had
no pleasure in them apart from the one they represented." That's
what he's making clear here. He said, if you take Christ out
of it, God has no pleasure in His service. He has no pleasure
in the blood of these bulls and goats. He has no pleasure in
what's going on there. He has no pleasure in it apart
from Christ. Christ is the one who gives Him
all the pleasure. And I can say that in preaching. If my preaching is not Christ,
God has no pleasure in it, and He's not gonna honor it. He's
not gonna own it. He's not gonna own it. He had no pleasure in it. God
had no pleasure in those sacrifices apart from Christ. And He had no pleasure in those
sacrifices apart from a heart of obedience. No pleasure. This is my beloved Son, whom
I am well pleased." Now there's the pleasure of God. Those that miss the message of
the types, miss salvation, because they preach Christ. They preach
Christ. Then said I, verse 7, then said
I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. You had the first five books
of Moses. I don't know how they was all put together at that
time. But I do know this. Everything concerning Jesus Christ
was written down in a book. And now we have the book. Everything concerning Christ,
everything I need to know about Jesus Christ, absolutely everything
I need to know about God is in this book. It's in this book. Then it said, I lo, I come, and
the volume of the book is written me to do thy will, O God. This is why I'm here. The only
reason, Jesus Christ is saying, the only reason I'm here is to
do your will. That's it. That's it. Our Lord came in the flesh. He
came as a real man. He came to do His Father's will,
which was to save His people from their sins. God is going
to populate heaven with the people just like His Son. That's how
pleased He is with His Son. He's going to have a whole innumerable company of people just like Jesus
Christ. Perfect. Perfect. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. It's evident,
he taketh away the first, he taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. What is the second? His will
and testament that we looked at last week. He took away... Listen, God took
away the first man. Adam died. He's going to take
away the first earth. He takes away that old first
nature, that old nature. He takes away that first covenant.
He takes away the first sacrifices of the bulls and the goats, that
He may establish the second one, which is actually the oldest
of all, that covenant of grace. And it's established upon better
promises that depend upon the personal work of Jesus Christ,
who cannot fail. Behold, my servant My elect whom
my soul delights, he shall not fail." He's going to establish, he may
establish his will and testament to all the errors. Can you imagine
being an error of God? Did you ever sit down and think
about that? When you go home and you're sitting down by yourself
and if you can find a quiet place Think about who you are the heir
of. You are the heir of God. You go outside, you look at the
stars, you look at the universe, you look at the earth, you look
at all of this. What must that new earth be like,
that new heaven, new earth? And what must all that's included
in God's glory? And we are the heir of it. Kind of makes you, it's a little
embarrassing that we just try to hold on to these little trinkets
so long, doesn't it? Shows you how shallow we are.
Now, let me close here. Verse 10, By the witch will we
are sanctified, that we are permanently set aside, chosen of God, made
holy. sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This ain't happening
again. That's what he's saying. It's
not going to happen again next year. This is once and for all. That's how
effectual his sacrifice is. It's God's will that all his
children be sanctified, set apart, consecrated, made holy once for
all. And he did so through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. And every priest, standing daily,
ministering, offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can
never take away sins. Every priest, as many of them.
They didn't have a seat to sit down. Their work was never done.
But this man, this man is different. He's different. His priesthood
is different. That's why the old one has to
be done away with. There's a new priesthood. There's a new law. There's a new covenant. God said,
I'll take and write my law in your heart. You ain't gonna write
it on tables and stones. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, only one offering, one sacrifice, one
offering, one atonement, forever sat down on the right hand of
God, as I said earlier. Right now, he's seated. He's not worried. He's not concerned. He's not tore up. He's not negotiating. He is comfortably seated. And he's expecting, he's waiting.
He's just waiting. As time rolls by, as the ages
roll by, and as each time rolls by, his enemies are conquered,
and they're all going to be made his footstool. His footstool. Something to put his feet on. That's how effectual The work, the blood, the sacrifice,
the offering of Jesus Christ is. It perfected us. All who believe, it perfected
us. All right, Craig.