Thank you for that excellent
song. Look at Hebrews this morning. I'm going to veer away from my
study in the prophecy of Zechariah and we'll go to Hebrews if you
would look with me in chapter number 10. One of the most well-known Baptist
preachers is a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon. I know Brother
Mahan read him quite a bit, and I would say I read something
that Spurgeon has written every day. I do enjoy reading his writings. He was sick for the last 24 years
of his life. He only lived to age 57. In fact,
he passed away on my mother's mother's birthday, the 31st of
January, 1892. 57 years of age. But he suffered
greatly over the last 24 years or so of his life, and he often
traveled to the southeastern part of France, a place called
Mentone, France, Mentone, France, not far from Nice. And he would
get a little relaxation, get away from the
wet, cold weather of London. And during his last illness,
in fact, he died there in Menton, France. He was asked about his faith,
said, speak to me in a very clear and simple way, just exactly
what it is that gives you great joy. And he said, Jesus died
for me. And they said, well, what is
this gospel that you believe? He said, Jesus died for me."
He said, what is the basis of your peace, of your hope? What is the basis of your assurance
that all is well between you and a holy God? And he kept answering
these four words, Jesus died for me. If you were to ask me, what is the basis, Jim, of your
hope? of your peace, of your salvation,
what is the basis of the reason you think one day you'll wind
up in glory? Well, my answer will not begin
with I. My answer is the Lord Jesus died
for me. You see, that is the gospel squeezed
into summarization. If when my soul exits this body
and goes to meet God, should the question be asked of the
angels or anyone else in that fair land, what makes you think
you'll be welcomed in this holy city? This will be my answer. The Lord Jesus died for me. It isn't what I've done for him
because I've really done nothing except that which by his grace
he enabled me to do. You see, it's not our prayers. That's not what gets us into
heaven. That's not the basis of our acceptance. It's not our repentance. Listen,
our repentance needs repenting of. Wouldn't you agree with that?
And our faith, our faith is weak. And there are times when those
of us who are the people of God, we even wonder, do I have faith
at all? No, my faith is not the basis
of my confidence that I'll be with the Lord Jesus in glory
someday. You see, everything is dependent
upon this. And this is what I want to drive
this home to you in a very simple way. I suspect that there are people
who are in this congregation and there are people who are
watching who have no hope in Christ Jesus. This has got to be your only
hope and your only plea. that when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, he died for me. That's my hope. And I fully expect upon that
basis only, I'll be with him in glory someday
because he bought me. As our brother read Isaiah 53, It so touched my heart again. Surely, none of the people of
God have read that portion of Scripture or listened to the
gospel of the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ
without being moved in our hearts because we know the only reason
we're saved, the only reason we are assured of heaven, The
only reason our sins have been put away. The only reason why
righteousness has been brought in for us is because Jesus died
for me. That's the only answer. I do believe that Jesus is the
Son of God. I do believe He's the Lord of
glory. But that's not the foundation
of my hope. The foundation of my hope is
the death of the Son of God. And I'll tell you, if your foundation,
if your hope, if your assurance is built on anything else, you have an unstable foundation. Because you see, if your confidence
is built upon your faith, That's a very shaky foundation because
you don't always believe with all your heart. In fact, I doubt
that any of us believe with all of our hearts. There's only one
sure foundation. Oh, that God the Spirit would
drive this home to my heart, your heart, everybody's heart
out there. And listen, Christ Jesus died
for sinners. That's our hope. That's our hope. You see, the King of glory took
my place. He died my death. He bore my
sins. He canceled all of my indebtedness
toward God's justice. God satisfied with his death. He rose from the dead, therefore,
and ascended back to heaven. and yonder seated at the right
hand of God is my Savior. And I say to you, He is all my
confidence. Not self. Not anything I've ever
done, have done, am doing, or shall ever do. On Christ the solid rock I stand. Right? Isn't that what you say?
All other ground is sinking sand. A rock, Christ Jesus, and this
rock of his substitutionary sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. It
is my prayer, therefore, that before you leave here today,
that each of you will be able to say with gladness and joy
and with confidence, Christ Jesus, died for me. And those of you
who are watching, maybe there's a person watching right now,
you're listening, and you hear what I'm saying. I pray that
the voice you hear will not merely be my voice, but the voice of
the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of God. You see, people think
that they're all right with God because of something they have
done or they are doing. That's not the basis for acceptance. The scripture says in Ephesians
chapter one, we're accepted in the beloved. The beloved is the
son of God. The one who loved us and gave
himself for us. I have no other hope. I have
no other plea. Do you? Right now, if the Lord were to
snatch your life away, you breathe your last breath, and all of
a sudden, the body gives up the ghost, it gives up the soul,
and you go back to meet God. You go to meet the Lord in His
righteousness and His justice. And we know that's going to happen
one of these days. What if it happened right now?
And you go to meet the God who made you, on what basis do you
think that God will allow you into His holy heaven? Where there will nothing enter
in that defileth, and yet we're defiled. Nothing will enter in that is
unrighteous, and yet we're unrighteous. So what makes you think? Now, stay with me. Oh, may God
help you to be serious about this. What makes you think that
if you died right now while you're listening to me speaking and
you go to meet God, what makes you think God will say, enter
into my holy heaven? Now, what's the answer that came
in your mind? And it better be this answer
or else you got the wrong answer. Christ Jesus died for me. The blood, the blood of the Son
of God, the righteousness of the Son of God. You see, it's
whose righteousness it is. It's whose blood it is. It's
whose sacrifice it is. It's whose atonement it is. It's the atonement of the Son
of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Now let me address you this morning
on this subject, Christ Jesus died for me, and I'll give you
four words. Four words here from Hebrews
chapter 10. And I'll give you the road map
right now. Here are the four words I wanna
give you. First word is sin. The second
word is, you with me, sin, shadow. And here's the third word, sacrifice. And the fourth word is successful. You got that? There's our roadmap.
Let me see if I can stay on the roadmap now. We'll get to the
right end if I can stay on the roadmap, and I believe I will,
but I hope you'll journey with me. So here we go. First of all, sin. Here in Hebrews
chapter 10, We begin to read verse one, for the law, what
law is that? Hebrews chapter 10 verse one,
for the law. That's the law that God gave
Moses. Now I know some people say, well,
that's the moral law. Well, you're just giving half
the truth there. It's all the law. You see the
law, the moral law of God. Let's take the 10 commandments,
okay? What was the reason God gave the Ten Commandments? To
identify sin and its just wages. Death. That's what the moral
law does. It wasn't given as a rule of
life. It wasn't given for us to put it up in front of the
courthouse and insist that everybody in the nation live by the Ten
Commandments. The Ten Commandments were given,
read Romans chapter three, to shut our mouths and leave us
guilty before God. But that's just part of the law.
The rest of the law, the other side of the law, is the ceremonial
law. And that makes one law. You see,
the ceremonial law pointed to the means by which God would,
in time, put away the sins of his people. So the part of the
law, the moral law, identifies sin, it defines sin. Thou shalt
have no other gods before me, and we're all guilty of you.
We don't need to go any further than that. We've broken that
all to pieces. But then the ceremonial part
of the law, Levitical law, we'll call it, it's called in the Old
Testament, it shows, it pictures the way by which sin, these transgressions
will be put away. The ceremonial part of the law
is like a signpost. It points to somebody who's coming. He's coming to do what the sacrifices
and ceremonies of the Old Testament could never do. They could never
put away sin, and that's very obvious here. Now, let's read
on. 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
there unto perfect. That is, it didn't deal with
the sin issue. You see, natural sacrifices,
offered by natural men on natural altars can never have a spiritual
result. Does that make sense? Natural
men offering natural sacrifices on natural altars can never have
a spiritual and an eternal result. That's an impossibility. That's
why it says it can't make the commerce there unto perfect.
It can't ease the conscience that sin has been dealt with.
Look at verse two, for then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because if the worshipers once
purged should have no more conscience of sins. See, sin is the problem. That's the issue. What's the
issue between you and God? God's got an issue with you.
He got an issue with me. And the issue is sin. But all of the ceremonial offerings
of the Old Testament could never deal with that issue. Because
natural men offered natural sacrifices on natural altars. And there
could not be a spiritual or eternal result. Does that make sense?
That makes sense, doesn't it? So when the high priest, as in
Leviticus chapter 16 on the Day of Atonement, when he went in
and put the blood of the goat upon the mercy seat, having already
offered unto God that goat, he killed that goat, shed the blood. The shedding of that blood, it
pointed to another kind of blood that would be shed out in the
future, Christ's blood. But the blood of that goat could
not serve or result in a spiritual and eternal end. They couldn't
do it. Because if they did, the consciences
of the people who offered those would be soothed. They'd say,
okay, my sin's done away with. No, it wasn't done away with.
That's the reason. Next year, about the same time
on the Day of Atonement, I had to do it all over again. You see it says in verse three,
let me read. For in those sacrifices, there's
a remembrance again made of sins every year. Sin's the problem. So that's our first word. The
word of God says we're all sinners. I don't care who you are. You
are a sinner. The Bible defines what sin is. It's the transgression of God's
law. It's summarized, Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. This is summarized, the law of
God. Thou should worship the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love
your neighbor as yourself. You do that, that's the impossibility. You see, the law of God was never
given, never given as a means of salvation. It was given to
identify sin. Sin is the transgression, it's
breaking God's law. You are a lawbreaker. You, my
friend, each of you, this man, we're all lawbreakers, we're
all criminals before God. And we deserve to be thrown in
the dungeon of hell forever and ever because we're lawbreakers. Let me ask you this, don't you
think that lawbreakers today, breakers of the law of our nation,
don't you think it need be punished? Well, I think it need be punished.
I'm very much for the penalty of law. I think it ought to be
exercised. What about breaking God's law?
Well, you say, well, God's merciful. I talked to a person on this
past Thursday, a professional person. I talked about, I said,
salvation has to do with the justice of
God being satisfied. And this person who got a whole
lot more education than I got, You know, when you go in the
hospital, you got to see every doctor you've ever seen. Because
they all want a piece of the pie. I talked to her and she
said, well, God's good and God's merciful. He's going to take
all of us to heaven if we're good. I said, problem is we're
not good. That's the problem. Scripture
says there's none that doeth good, no, not one. We're all
bad. We're all sinners. We've all
gone astray. You read Isaiah 53, six. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all turned everyone to
his own way and the Lord has laid on Christ the iniquity of
us all, all the sheep. Well, sin, that's the problem. Sin is the problem, and that's
what we all are. And I tell you this, sin's not
gonna enter into heaven. Somebody's gotta do something
about it, and that's a task too great for you. In fact, here
in Hebrews chapter 10, we've already read that those sacrifices
that were offered couldn't do anything about the sin problem.
What are you gonna do about your sin problem? Well, I'm going
to do better, Jim. Well, do better. There's nothing wrong with that,
trying to do better. But that doesn't do away with
the sin problem. I've had people tell me, I'm
going to stop my drinking, I'm going to stop my cussing. At
least I'll try not to cuss as much. I'll try to be better. Well, you know, if there's some
bad habits you've got, you ought to lay them aside. I don't disagree
with that. But that's neither here nor there.
when it comes to eternal salvation. Something's got to be done about
the sin problem. All live sin and come short of
the glory of God. Our Lord Jesus, you remember
when Matthew was a tax collector, first book of the New Testament.
Matthew was a tax collector. He's sitting there collecting
taxes. The Savior walked by He said, follow me. And he just,
I guess he gave his money and everything to his assistant and
said, here, you take care of all this. I'm done. Consider
this my resignation. I'm following Jesus of Nazareth. And he believed him. And he was
so absolutely happy that the Savior passed his way. He said, I'm going to throw a
big shindig tonight. We're going to have a big feast.
And I'm inviting a bunch of publicans and sinners, tax collectors like
me. Asked the Savior, would you come
be the guest of honor? Well, the Savior, he received
sinners. Yeah, he was there. Outside within earshot. There's some Pharisees saw the
Lord Jesus eating with publicans and sinners and they said to
his disciples, does he know who he's eating with? He's eating
with publicans and sinners. Ah, the Lord heard. And he said this, I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now you need to
go learn what that means. This is the way Paul put it in
1 Timothy. He said, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. He came to save because
the shadow couldn't do it. See, the problem is sin. We got
that down. But the Old Testament sacrifices,
they were like shadows. A shadow has no substance to
it. You can't touch a shadow. The substance is Christ Jesus
and His sacrificial death because actually He's the Lamb who was
slain before the foundation of the world. And He casts a big
shadow. He's the substance. Those Old
Testament animal sacrifices, they're just shadows. like a
shadow of a dog can't bite you, the shadow of substitution and
sacrifice can't save you. The shadow. And therefore, there had to be
a real sacrifice that would satisfy God. Drop down here. Verse four says, if it's not
possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins,
wherefore when he cometh into the world, When he cometh, he
saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body
thou hast prepared me." He's saying, Father, you weren't satisfied
with all those Old Testament sacrifices, but they pointed
to me. So therefore, in order that I
would be the perfect sacrifice offered to you, you prepared
for me a body. And about 2,000 years ago, the
Son of God, the God of glory, came into this world and inhabited
a body. He joined Himself to that body. And He came to full term in Mary's
womb, and He was born into this world. This person that I talked
with last Thursday, She's talking about sickness and heart troubles
and so forth and so on. And she said, well, nobody's
perfect, you know. And I said, there's one perfect
person. There's one perfect person in this world. She said, yeah,
that's absolutely right. She said, Mary. I said, no. I said, Mary wasn't a perfect
person. She was a sinner. She said, my
soul doth rejoice in God my savior. I said, who needs a savior but
a sinner? I said, the only person who ever
lived in this world is the Lord Jesus Christ who came from heaven
and joined his deity to become the man Christ Jesus. She said,
he was a God, but he wasn't a real man. Where in the world do people
get this stuff from? He's the son of God, and he became
flesh and blood. Because God, pure God as spirit,
can't suffer, bleed, and die. You see, those sacrifices of
the Old Testament, they couldn't satisfy God. because of three defects. Three
defects. Number one, they were not of
the same nature as the offender. They weren't man. They were animals. Number two, they were not of
the same nature as the offended one, God. And number three, those animals
could not voluntarily consent to die in the stead of the guilty. Enter in, therefore, the Lord
of glory of the same nature as the offenders,
the real man. Isn't that wonderful? A real
man. You say, you sure about that?
Oh, I'm absolutely sure about that. He's the man Christ Jesus.
There's one God, one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus knew fatigue. He knew hunger. He knew thirst. He knew suffering. He knew agony. And he died, he really died. He died for sinners. He died
that God might be just and justify the ungodly. There's no defect
there. No defect there. Christ, the man, a body thou
hast prepared me. And in that body, as the God-man,
not a God. Not a God, the God-man. In that body, he honored every
stipulation of God's law and showed he was perfectly qualified
to be my substitute. To die the death that the wages
of sin demanded for Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. The sacrifice of the Son of God. Real man died a real death and
he did it voluntarily. And he died for me. Said, Jim,
it seems like you get a little excited over this. I'm real excited
about it. I wish you was as excited about
it as I am. And I'm sure some of you are,
several of you are. Our Lord said, look at verse
seven. Then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy
will. Lo, I come. I'm coming for them. I'm coming for these that I love.
I'm coming for my people. I'm coming, Father, to honor
you and satisfy the fullness of your justice. I'm coming to
die the death that they deserve, to suffer all their hell, just
gather all the hell that they would have suffered themselves,
gather it all together, concentrate it together, and pour it into
my soul. And that's what happened. His sacrifice. took care of the sin problem. It wasn't a shadow, there's the
substance. There's the substance, the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, that sacrifice
satisfied God and saved me. It satisfied God and saved me. The reason I'm gonna be in glory
one day is because Jesus died for me. That's the only reason. He took my hell. He took my death. He took my punishment. There's
no condemnation therefore for me. You understand that, don't
you? I know you do. And the last word I'll give you
is successful. Successful. Let me read down
through here. Look at verse nine. Then said
he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first
that he may establish the second. By the which will we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this
man, don't tell me he wasn't a man. This man, the Bible says
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
he sat down at the right hand of God because his work was done.
Tabernacle in the wilderness and in the temple and the holy
of holies there was no chair for the high priest to sit down
Because he's never finished with his work He gonna have to do
it over and over and over again But Christ Jesus when he offered
the sacrifice for the sins of his people so satisfied God and
so brought in Everlasting righteousness for his people and put our sins
away that when he got the glory the father said sit right here
Sit right here And he wouldn't have sat down
if the work wasn't finished. Verse 13, from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Let me give
you several things here just in the last three or four minutes.
He satisfied the demands of the covenant of works and therefore
he abolished it for all of his people. Don't you try to put
me under the law. He abolished the law for me.
I'm not under the law, I'm under grace. I don't fear its threats
because it doesn't threaten me. The law of God howls out death
for sin. Doesn't scare me. I'm coming back the other day
from Sam's Club in South Point. And they got, you know, the troopers
keep the radar going on 52. I saw him there. Already had
my crew set on 55. You think I paid any mind to
him? Car in front of me, well, he had passed me. That car put
his brakes on. I ain't put my brakes on. I ain't
doing nothing wrong. I don't fear the law when I'm
not a lawbreaker. Christ Jesus satisfied the threats
of God's law. It don't have anything to do
with me. Hey, I'm driving 55 all the time in that sense, to
make an illustration of it. I'm not a lawbreaker. Christ
satisfied the law. Number two, he sanctified his
people. That's successful. He pardoned
our sins. We're holy in Him. Well, Jim,
aren't you trying to be more holy than you are? What? An old and holy man in himself
trying to be holy? I'm holy in Christ Jesus. He
is my holiness. You can go ahead and hang on
to yours if you want. But I'm just quite satisfied
and God is satisfied with the holiness of Christ. He put away
the sins of all those for whom he died. Look at verse 12. This man, I fear, offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, he set in. What was the result?
Was his sacrifice successful? Yeah. He offered one sacrifice
for sins, that's it. Verse 13, from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool, he'd been made Lord
of all. Verse 14, for by one offering
he perfected forever them that are sanctified. Verse 15, wherefore
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws in their hearts
and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. You want to know how powerful
the blood of Christ is? Erase the memory of God as far
as the sins of His people are concerned. Surely the words of God mean
something. Their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. And don't you tell me, well,
the Lord's going to bring them up again at the judgment. Fooling
on you. I don't want to hear that kind
of stuff. That's not right. God said, I'm not going to remember
him anymore. And that's why verse 18, now
where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin. How do I know his death was successful? Because look
at verse 19, having therefore brethren boldness to enter in
to the holiest by the blood of Jesus. I know it's successful
because I can boldly enter into the presence of a holy God. upon
the basis of this, Jesus died for me. Brings it full circle,
doesn't it? Jesus died for me.