Let's go to Hebrews this morning. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter
number 10. One Lord's Day morning, as a
mother prepared breakfast for her one child, a little boy about
seven or eight years old, She asked him, she said, well, did
you pray last night? He said, yes, ma'am, I prayed. He said, would you like me to
tell you what I asked God to do? She said, if you want to. He said, I prayed this way last
night. Oh God, help the preacher to
say something that I can understand. That I can understand. That's
good prayer requests. I'll tell you, I have the same
request. I'll just put it this way. I
pray, Lord, help this preacher to say something you can understand. We want to speak clearly and
use simple words. As you read through the gospel
narratives, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you read the words
of the Savior. Most of his words were just single-syllable
words. He was a preacher who spoke very
clearly, very distinctly, and whether men understood in their
hearts, now that's another matter, but they did understand in their
ears, in their minds, what he was saying. And I always want
to to speak in such a way that you can grasp what I'm saying. I'm always aware of that. I try
not to take for granted that people immediately know what
I'm talking about, or what the gospel's about. We make a mistake
when we assume those things. Years ago, I was preaching in
Charleston, West Virginia, and there were two speakers. The
first speaker, he got up to preach and he said, now, I'll liken
the things of God to cookies. And he said, I'm going to put
the cookies up on the very top shelf so that you'll have stretch
way up high, stretch spiritually to get what I'm saying. He said,
he'll do you good. And I followed him and I said,
well, our brother has said he'd put the cookies up on the top
shelf. I said, well, I'm going to put them on the bottom shelf
so that we can just bend over, stoop down to receive the things
of God. Let me speak in an honest way
to you, which I always want to do, and in an understandable
way this morning on this subject, one of my favorite, the favorite
subject, I have, One Sacrifice for Sins. Let me read two verses
to you here from Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11. And then verse 12, Hebrews 10
verse 11. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, this man, This
man of whom the whole Bible is about. This man, this God man. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, they offered many, many times,
he offered one forever. With their sacrifices, there
was always a repetition. And I kind of think that the
inspired writer is specifically thinking about the Day of Atonement. And on that day, sacrifices were
offered to God, for himself and then for the sins of the people.
But this happened every year. Every year. They kept offering sacrifices
that could never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, then he sat down on the right
hand of God. As you read through the Old Testament,
Genesis to Malachi 39. books of the Old Testament. You
cannot do so with any kind of attention, with any kind of remembrance
or awareness of the fact that animal sacrifices in the Old
Testament were of vital importance. And there is, beginning in Genesis
chapter three, there is a river of blood that flowed throughout
the Old Testament and it runs throughout the New Testament
as well. Now, in the Bible, when we read
about the blood, without the shedding of blood is no remission
of sins. What is that talking about? Well, it means, it's speaking
about death. That's what it's talking about,
death. I know it speaks of suffering, but it is suffering unto death. That's what it's referring to.
You see, the Bible doesn't say the wages of sin is suffering. It says the wages of sin is death. It doesn't say the soul that
sinneth shall suffer. It says the soul that sinneth
shall die. It doesn't say that sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth suffering. It says sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death. Death indicates suffering
unto death. That's what it's talking about.
The Bible says that the life of the flesh is in the blood. The Lord said to the Israelites,
I've given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for
your soul. All those references to blood
in the Old Testament. They all pointed, as we know,
to the Lord Jesus Christ and his one-time sacrifice for sins. The blood of the Old Testament
animals, they couldn't put any sin away. They couldn't benefit
a sinner as far as God was concerned. But they were not useless now. I know they didn't save anybody,
they didn't put any guilt away, they didn't wash away transgressions,
but they weren't useless. In fact, anybody who neglected
the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, they died in their
sins. So they were important. They
were important. And I'll give you several reasons.
Number one, because it was appointed by God. One of the things that's
brought out in this passage of Scripture is that the blood of
bulls and goats could never put away sins. They could never make
atonement for sin. Now God himself is the one who
appointed these things. Don't dismiss that which God
demands as being of unimportance. It was important. I know it didn't
put away Satan. I know it didn't satisfy the
justice of God. But because God himself is the
one who ordained them, they had to be important. I'll tell you another reason
they were important. Because those animal sacrifices reminded
everyone who offered a sacrifice of God's absolute holiness, and
that he will not tolerate evil. That's what it announced to them.
Every time an Israelite brought their morning sacrifice, their
evening sacrifice, and specifically on the day of atonement, when
Aaron offered up the sacrifices to God, It indicated that he
feared God and he considered the holiness of God, God who
despises evil. So don't dismiss the sacrifices
of these animals in the Old Testament as being unimportant or unnecessary. They were very vital. They were
vital because God Himself ordained them. Number two, because it
reminded the people of the holiness of God. I'll tell you something
else, it reminded them of their sinfulness that separated them
from God. They couldn't draw near to God
without a blood sacrifice. God would not hear them. God
would not receive them. God would not welcome them. God would not accept them without
a blood sacrifice. You see, they had no fitness
to come to God as they were. And God said, kill an animal.
Shed the blood. That's how you'll draw near to
Me. Don't you dare try to enter into My presence without a sacrifice
on your behalf. It reminded them continually
of their unfitness, their unworthiness to enter into the presence of
God. And then fourthly, why did God
appoint these animal sacrifices? Because it directed their attention
to an innocent victim who would come in due time and be the sacrifice
for sin. You see, all of those, and we
know this, all of those animal sacrifices, Throughout the Old
Testament, rivers of blood flowed. Thousands upon thousands of animals
died. But they died in order to direct
the attention of the offerer unto the ultimate sacrifice who
would enter into this world, who was predicted to come back
in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 called the seed of the woman. All of them directed the attention
of the one who brought the sacrifice to the ultimate sacrifice, the
Lamb of God. And I'll tell you something else.
Fifthly, the reason God gave those animal sacrifices, because
the offering of an animal sacrifice averted, averted, kept away temporal
punishment and judgment. And it directed their attention
to the fact that one day there will be a sacrifice that will
forever keep away the judgment of God. So as you read through
this portion of scripture in Hebrews chapter 10, that talks
about the sacrifices of animals, and as you go back and you revisit
passages like in Exodus, and most especially in the book of
Leviticus, and you read about those, remember this, they were
very important. Very important. The blood of the... animals of
the Old Testament pointing to Christ Jesus. You know, when God shed the first
blood for Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three, toward the end
of Genesis chapter three, you know how long it was before the
true sacrifice came into the world? 4,000 years. 4,000 years. And there's no way to estimate
the number of animals that died between then when God killed
those animals, and then the next recorded sacrifice is Abel offering
the first sling of his flock to God. There's no way to tell
or to escalate how many hundreds of thousands, maybe millions
of animals, no doubt millions of animals died, but they all
directed the attention of the one who was offering it to that
one who would do the job that these animals couldn't do. You'll notice back in verse one,
let me just revisit these verses and I know some of you, most
of you have studied these before. But look at verse one, for the
law. Notice the first word is for. And this is a word of inference. It infers. This is gonna be true
because of what's been said. Well, what has been said in the
previous chapter, in chapter nine of Hebrews? There's been
the mention of our Lord's first appearing, and of His second
appearing, that He's coming again. Go back, go back into chapter
nine, because we know this, these chapter divisions are very helpful,
very beneficial, but they weren't inspired of God. So when it says
for, it's based upon something. Here's a conclusion to be drawn
because of something that has just been said. Well, what has
just been said? He's been talking about the writer
of the book, Paul, or whoever it was. It was the Holy Spirit
for sure. He's been speaking about our
Lord's first coming and then that He's coming again. Notice
back in chapter 9 and verse 24. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but in the heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. How does he appear? As our advocate,
right? As our antecessor. He now appears
as our great high priest. We have one who stands between
us and God, and He's in heaven. He's in heaven based upon the
fact that He finished the work of redemption that God gave Him
to do. And God then took Him home to
glory and seated Him at His own right hand. And He now appears
in the presence of God. There's a man in heaven who appears
in the presence of God for us. He represents us. He went to
heaven as our forerunner. Jesus, our forerunner, has already
entered in. There's a man in heaven, a man
seated, seated on His throne. He's one of us. He's our brother. He's our elder brother. He's
the one who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and yet
at the exact same time, God of very God. And he's in heaven
now. He appears in the presence of
God for us. And the reason we will one day
enter into the presence of God is because he's there. He's there. And he got there by way of a
bloody cross. All right, now look at verse
25. Nor yet that he should offer himself often. as a high priest
entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of
others." That's the reason we think it's talking primarily
about the Day of Atonement. Aaron, the high priest, entered
into the holy place every year with blood. But our Lord Jesus
didn't have to offer a sacrifice for Himself and then for others
because He had no sins of His own. He's the sinless, blameless
Son of God. So He didn't have to offer Himself
often. as the high priest that entered
into the holy place every year with the blood of others, look
at verse 26, for then he must often have suffered since the
foundation of the world. He didn't suffer often. See,
that's what's wrong with the mass. That's what's wrong with
the mass. You say, you wouldn't dare say
anything negative about the Roman Catholic Church, would you? Why,
yeah, their doctrine is of the devil. It's absolutely wrong. Today, they will celebrate the
mass. They're killing Jesus Christ
all over again. That's heresy. That's absolutely
wrong. See, once, He appeared once in the end of the world to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. We don't celebrate a mass. We're
not going to kill Christ Jesus all over again. Last Lord's Day,
when we observed, we partook of the Lord's Supper, the bread
and the wine. We absolutely deny the heresy
of transubstantiation. Now, there's a word you probably
have trouble understanding. That's a big, that's a foul word
there, transubstantiation. Well, what does that mean? That's
the belief that that little bit of bread you ate literally turned
into the body of Jesus Christ. And that that little bit of sweet
wine that you drank, it literally turned into the blood of Jesus
Christ. Only blind people embrace such
foolishness. And we ask God to open up their
hearts, give them understanding that our Lord Jesus Christ died
once for all. Once for all. So now, once in the end of the
world, hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. How did He put away sin? By the
sacrifice of Himself. He laid down His life. He said,
I have the power to lay down my life, I have the power to
take it again. No man can take my life from
me, he said. This is the sacrifice of himself. He went to the cross willingly.
He'd been going to the cross ever since old eternity when
he became the everlasting surety of his people, the representative
of his people, the savior of his people. He always pointed
his face, as it were, like a flint toward Calvary. And he appeared
to put away sin. to put it away, to lift it off,
to lift it off His people, and then take it away, clean away. To where God Himself can't even
see them. That doesn't mean God's not aware
of our sins. God knows that we sin, we confess
our sins, we say, Lord, I'm sorry I've sinned. He doesn't remember
our sins in judgment. There is no condemnation, there
is no judgment, there is no wrath to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Why not? Because Christ Jesus took all
the sins of all of His people off of us like a great weight,
like a mighty mass. He took them The hymn writer
says, he took my sins and my sorrows and made them his very
own. His very own. He said, this is
my debt. This is my debt. This is my responsibility. He suffered, bled, and died under
the wrath of God, and in giving Himself as the sacrifice for
our sins, He put our sins away. So that, look what it says over
here in Hebrews, the next chapter, chapter 10 and verse 17. And
their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. No more. The justice of God cannot
demand any more. Why not? Christ has died. Christ
has laid down His life. This is the sacrifice of all
sacrifices. One sacrifice for sins. That's why He appeared to put
away sin. by the sacrifice of himself.
Now look at verse 27. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after that the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, the many that the Father gave
him, the many assigned to him in covenant grace. And unto them
that look for him shall he appear the second time. The second time,
without sin, unto salvation. Unto salvation. And then you
get into chapter 10, and especially the first, oh, half of the chapter. It shows us that our perfect
standing before God is based upon the fact of that one sacrifice
for sin. We have a perfect standing. because
his sacrifice did what the Old Testament sacrifices couldn't
do. Look at Matt 10 in verse one. For the law. What law? Well, generally, the
law of God is divided into the moral law. You know what that
is? Ten Commandments. even though
there were a bunch more, but that's what we typically think
of is the moral law and the Levitical law or the law of ceremonies
and rituals. Well, he's talking about the
law of ceremonies and rituals now. For the law with all of
its offerings for sin was just a shadow of good things to come,
just a shadow. In other words, there wasn't
anything substantial. You see a shadow, there's nothing
substantial to a shadow. You can see a shadow, but you
can't touch it. You can't feel it. It doesn't
have any real being. There's no reality there. It's
just a shadow. But in order to have a shadow,
you've got to have a substance. And the One who is the substance
is the Lord Jesus Himself. And He casts a big shadow. And all of the Old Testament
sacrifices, all those offerings, all those animals that died were
just shadows of that One who is the substance, that One who
is real, that One who is tangible, that One who has a body and a
soul, our Lord Jesus Christ. for the law having a shadow of
good things to come. In other words, they just announced
something better is coming. Someone better is coming. They weren't the very image of
the things. They weren't the likeness of
him who would come. Because those sacrifices they
offered year by year continually, they couldn't make the comers
there into perfect. couldn't accomplish their salvation? Because if it had, look at verse
two. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? Because that the worshipers once
purged should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices,
there's a remembrance again made of sins every year. Two things,
two things are absolutely necessary. in this salvation, in this relationship
between us and God. There's got to be a sacrifice
that makes peace with God and gives me peace within. Right? There's got to be a sacrifice.
And these sacrifices of the Old Testament, number one, they didn't
give anybody peace with God. And therefore, didn't give them
peace in their hearts. Because you see, like it says
in verse 3, there's just a remembrance made of sins. Every time they
brought an offering, every time they offered an offering to God,
a sacrifice to God, it was a remembrance, this thing's not settled yet.
And they couldn't have any real lasting peace in their hearts.
You see, there had to be an offering that did these two things. Make
peace with God. And you read in the book of Ephesians,
he made our peace. He is our peace with God and
he made it through the blood of his cross. And as the spirit of God brings
us to rest in him who died, in him who satisfied God, that gives
us peace in here. That everything's all right.
It's gotta be a two-way peace. And the Old Testament offerings
didn't do that. That's why it says in verse five,
wherefore, when he cometh into the world, who's the he? The Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
sacrifice an offering, thou wouldest not. In other words, all those
Old Testament sacrifices and offerings, you wouldn't receive
them as full payment for sin. because they couldn't put any
sin away. So what was necessary? A body thou hast prepared me. And by body, it not only means
his liberal fleshly body, but also his soul, his human nature. You've prepared for me a body
and a soul. Verse seven, then said I, As
He came, as He came to the womb of Mary, He said, Lo, I come,
in the volume of the book of God's eternal predestination,
it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God, I come to do Your
will. His will of redemption, His will
of satisfaction. What the Old Testament offerings
could never do, He came to do. And that's the will of God. He
came by the will of God. Above verse 8, when He said,
Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin,
thou wouldest not, neither hath pleasure then. That is, it brought
Him no satisfaction. Tell you something else about
those Old Testament sacrifices. This is what he's telling us.
They didn't bring any satisfaction to God. And if they didn't bring any
satisfaction to God, no pleasure, no satisfaction to God, then
they brought no satisfaction to the hearts of the offerers.
Just like there's got to be peace with God and peace within my
heart that everything's all right with God, God had to be satisfied
and the Spirit of God brings us to be satisfied with the offering
of Christ Jesus. Listen, I'm satisfied with His
offering, aren't you? I need nothing else. You say, but when you bring,
when you, You're brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
brought to repentance toward God. Aren't you brought to be
sorry for your sin? I am. And every sinner who comes
to Christ is sorry for their sins. That's called repentance. But
that doesn't put sin away. A man goes out here and robs somebody. Goes into a store. He robs somebody. And then they arrest him, take
him to court, put him on trial. He testifies and gets up, gets
sworn in. He says, I just want to say to
the store owner, I'm really sorry. That's a stupid thing I did.
I wish I'd never done it. I truly apologize from the bottom
of my heart. Well, good for you. And I hope
you are sorry. But that doesn't settle the issue
now. There's still a matter of the law that's been broken that
demands satisfaction. I'm sorry for my sin. You are
too, aren't you? I'm continually sorry for my
sin, but that doesn't put any of them away. No, sir. God doesn't find satisfaction
in your repentance. God doesn't even find satisfaction
in your faith. He finds satisfaction to His
justice one place. One place. The substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it says, neither hath pleasure
therein, no satisfaction which are offered by the law. Then
said He, now the inspired writer says, then said He, the Son of
God, lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first,
the first covenant. that He may establish the second."
Boy, I'm thankful for that. You know anything about these
two covenants? Basically, one's a covenant of works, the other
one's a covenant of grace. One of them, all the blessings
are conditioned upon your obedience. The other one is all the blessings,
spiritual blessings, everlasting blessings, are dependent upon
the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, which one do you
rather be in? The old covenant or the new covenant?
He taketh away! He taketh away the first! I don't
want anything to do with the first one! Oh, that second one. It's a covenant
of grace. And it's conditioned upon, or
I think a better word, dependent upon the obedience unto death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the which will, verse 10,
we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. We stand, we stand before God, perfect and righteous. due to the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. And so then he says again, and
every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices. Now he goes from the day of atonement
to the daily offerings. But they could never take away
sins. But this man, This man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down
on the right hand of God. From henceforth, verse 13, expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering,
he did what the animal sacrifices could never do. Look back up
in verse one again. 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. In other words,
it couldn't accomplish salvation for them. But in verse 14, for by one offering
he did, what those animal sacrifices couldn't do. He perfected us. He perfected us. He accomplished
our salvation. He finished the work of redemption. And He finished it forever for
all those who are sanctified. What does that mean? Set apart.
Set apart is what sanctified means. Set apart. Set apart by
the Father in covenant grace. And I'll just read a little bit
further, whereof 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 will put my laws into their
hearts. and in their minds will I write
them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now
where remission of sin, remission of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. There is no more offering for
sin. And I tell you, God the Spirit has got to get us interested
in this one offering for sin. And it's got to be removed from
your mind any idea that something you can do will put away your
guilt. There's nothing you can do. The
work has been done. Oh, may God bring us to rest
in Him who did the work, who finished the work that God gave
Him to do. The reason He's seated at the Father's right hand is
because He did accomplish that work of redemption assigned to
Him in the covenant of grace. This is the Savior we need. This
is the Savior who offered one sacrifice for sins forever. I
bid you come to Him. Believe Him and rest in Him.