I try to do that. I sure do look
forward to getting to glory when I'll be able to sing with a perfect
voice. That'd be nice, wouldn't it,
to lift your voice. What's it going to be like when
we get to heaven, all of the people of God, and everybody's
singing absolutely right on key. We'll sing of the redemptive
work of our Savior. That'd just be wonderful, wouldn't
it? I'm so looking forward to that. I really appreciated the words
of the songs that we sang this morning. I know that The first
one we sang out of the songbook, maybe you're not quite so used
to singing it. Marty said it had been a while,
maybe several months. I don't think we've sung it since
I've been here, but it will come back. I assure you of that. It
won't be very long either, because I really like that. I love the congregational singing. I appreciate the scripture reading
and the prayer. I tell you it's a difficult thing
to lead the congregation in public prayer. And there are times when we do lead
in prayer that God just especially blesses. were enabled to speak
on behalf of the congregation from our hearts. And I appreciate
your prayer. And the special song, He Included
Me. Thank God he did. I'm going to
try not to drop the ball now. Now it's my turn. Let's see what
God's got for us here from Hebrews as we look into chapter 10. And
I'll begin this way. As I was reading in preparation
for the message, I came across this story. It was somewhere
in England. There stood an old chapel. And when they built the chapel,
they also built an archway under which people would walk as they
entered into the chapel. And over the archway, they wrote
these words, we preach Christ crucified. And then around both sides of
the archway, they planted some ivy. A few years, several years went
by and preachers of the gospel faithfully set forth the message
of substitution, the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They did just exactly what the
sign said, we preach Christ crucified. And after several years, a new
generation kind of took over in the church. The old pastor,
he passed away and they got a new preacher and people said, you
know, we need more practical preaching, more preaching on
practical issues and maybe not so much on the crucifixion of
Christ Jesus. The ivy, it is said, was growing
up the size. And finally the ivy grew up a
little higher on one side and it covered that last word, crucified. So then as you walk through the
entrance under the archway you could just read, we preach Christ. And they said this is good because
he's our example for living. And we need to forgive as he
forgave. We need to be good to people.
We need to be concerned about people, but they didn't preach
the crucifixion part. They didn't preach his blood.
A few more years went by, and then somebody said, you know,
we need more preaching on social issues. After all, these are
different times in which we live. The ivy continued to grow. They
said, we don't need to hear so much about Christ Jesus. We need
to hear more about getting along with one another. And maybe we
need to get into politics. More of the social things of
the day. And the ivy continued to grow. And it covered up the name of
Christ to where it finally just said, we preach. And then somebody
said, you know, I think our services ought to be more about just kind
of sharing our testimonies with one another. And after all, we're
all the people of God. And, you know, preaching, that's
a thing from years ago. And the ivy, they said, continued
to grow to finally the only word that was visible was We. Just we. God forbid that from ever happening
here. Here's what the Apostle Paul
said, we preach Christ crucified. He said to the Corinthians, he
said, when I was with you, He said, you know, I had a determination
not to know any other subject among you except this, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now here's my subject for this
message. One offering for sin. And that's Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. One offering for sin. You know,
we are so bound by these chapter divisions,
which I'm grateful there are chapter divisions, but I think
sometimes we get so bound by them that we forget that really
when this was originally given by the Spirit of God to whoever
wrote it, maybe it was the Apostle Paul, maybe it wasn't, that really
is not, it isn't a vital issue to know here. The only thing
to be known is it's written by the Spirit of God. But when the
Spirit of God inspired whoever it was to write this. It wasn't
divided into 13 different chapters. It was just one epistle. It was
one letter to the people of Hebrew, to the book of Hebrew, the epistle
of Hebrews, that is to Jewish, to the Jewish people who needed
to be confronted with the fact that the old priesthood, and
the old covenant, and the old sacrifices, they were old and
they had been done away with. And he writes this book, this
book is written in the book of Hebrews that says Christ is better. He is better than the angels.
He is better than Moses. He is better than Aaron. That
covenant of the Lord Jesus is better than the Old Covenant.
And the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus is better than all the
sacrifices of the Old Testament. So all of the book of Hebrews
is about Christ is better. It sets forth His superiority. It sets forth His supremacy over
all the events over all the rituals and over all the persons of the
old economy. The Lord Jesus is Himself better. Now in the chapter that precedes
this 10th chapter, from which our brother has read to us the
first 18 verses, in the 9th chapter, the Spirit of God shows us the
necessity for a death. The necessity for a death for
sin. For only a sacrifice would satisfy
the justice of God, but not just any sacrifice. Because all of
the sacrifices of the Old Testament, they did not do the job of removing
sin. And we learn that in the first
four verses of Hebrews chapter 10. They didn't put anybody's
sin away. It didn't remove the guilt. And
we'll get into that a little bit more as time goes by. But chapter 9. In the 9th chapter,
the Spirit of God shows us the necessity for a sacrifice that
would satisfy the justice of God. In fact, I would say between
chapters 9 and chapter 10, I would say this, in the 9th chapter,
we see the necessity of a better sacrifice, and in chapter number
10, we see the characteristics of that better sacrifice. We've
got to have a better sacrifice. Chapter number 9 tells us a sacrifice
is necessary. In fact, go back to chapter 9
and look at verse 16. Chapter 9 and verse 16. For where
a testament is, that is a last will and testament, There must
also of necessity be the death of the testator. That is whoever
wrote their last will and testament. If you have a last will and testament,
you've gone to a lawyer, or maybe you've got a legal kit through
the mail or whatever, and you've written out your last will and
testament, In order for that last will and testament to be
exercised, there's something that's got
to happen. You've got to die. You've got to die. And then once
you're dead, then that will is in effect. And whatever you stipulated
that so and so would have, that I would have, that's your brother,
sister, mother, father, whoever, whatever you've stipulated that
we would all get. That's in effect then. Our Lord Jesus, as it says in
chapter number 10, is that one offering for sin. You see, in
the old, back in old, old eternity, if I could put it that way, before
God ever got the clock, Before God ever said, Light be. Before
God created the heavens and the earth. Back when there was nobody
but God. Nobody but God. Our Lord Jesus,
He established His last will and testament. And in that last
will and testament, we'll call it the covenant of grace. Our Lord ordained all of those
who would be the recipients of the benefits of the inheritance
that He ordained for them. In that covenant of grace, God
the Father selected the Savior. The Lord Jesus is God's first
elect. And then we were elected in Him. And being chosen in Christ Jesus
before the world began, we were promised an inheritance. Incorruptible, undefiled, it
will never fade away. And in all the blessings of that
covenant, there was guaranteed to us salvation, redemption,
righteousness, justification, forgiveness of sins. Every blessing
that God can give a sinner in Jesus Christ in that last will
and testament. But I'll tell you this. Nobody
is going to be saved. No sin is going to be put away.
There will be no righteous garment for us unless something happens. Christ Jesus had to die. He had
to die. Now I know He is the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, so it couldn't wind up
any other way. But according to the feebleness
of our own mentality and our ability to handle eternal things,
the Bible sets before us the necessity of the death of Jesus
Christ. If He hadn't died, God's eternal
purpose wouldn't have ever come to pass. The last willing testament
of our Savior is in effect because He has sealed the covenant with
His own blood. That blood of the Savior is said
to be, in Hebrews chapter 13, the blood of the everlasting
covenant. He had to die. He had to die. There had to be a sacrifice.
The Lord of glory, as our substitute, He must bear all the righteous
indignation of God toward our sins. And He did that on the
tree. And He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. And He arose again the third
day according to the Scriptures. The will is in effect. Chapter number 9 says there's
got to be a death to establish the will. And chapter number
10 says this death has happened. This death has taken place. Listen,
there is absolutely no possibility that anybody whose name was written
in that divine ledger anybody whose names were written in that
last will and testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's absolutely
an impossibility that anybody whose name was written in the
Lamb's Book of Life would ever fail to receive the inheritance
that God Almighty purposed for them and the blood of Jesus Christ
sealed that covenant, that last will and testament. We'll receive
everything He's purposed for us. And the greatest blessing, the
biggest blessing, really the only blessing that matters to
us is we have Him. And having Him, we have all things. We have all things. So in chapter
9, the Spirit of God shows us the necessity for a death, for
a sacrifice. Chapter 10, the sacrifice is
set before us. In chapter 9 it shows us the
necessity of a death in order to validate, perhaps that's the
proper word, if it isn't, I'm sorry. It's the only one that
comes to my poor brain right now. But the blood of Christ
Jesus validated or sealed the covenant of God. So that covenant
is in effect. I'll tell you something else,
in chapter number 9, look in verse 22, we see here that forgiveness
of sins, It just demands the blood. If there is no blood,
there is no forgiveness of sin. Chapter 9 verse 22. And almost
all things by the law purged with blood. And the Old Testament
under the law, some things they were purged by fire, others by
water. But without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. You go back and you study under
the law. Like I said, there are some things
they could be purged by fire. But you know, if we die in our
sins and we perish in the flames of hell, that fire cannot purge
us of our sin. It can't do it. In the Old Testament,
some sins, they were purged by water. But I can take you into the waters
of baptism. That is not going to purge you
of your sin. The only thing that will purge
a sinner of sin is the blood. And it's got to be the blood
of an appointed victim and an accepted victim. That is, a victim
appointed by and accepted by God. Well, that's what's brought
in in chapter number 10, you see. In chapter 10. We see the victim of God's choosing. That's the Lord Jesus. So we
read and go over to chapter 10 and verse 17. As a result of
the blood. Verse 17, chapter 10. And their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there's no more offering for sin. having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiness, by what way? By your baptism? No. By your
decision? No. By trying to keep the Ten
Commandments? No. having boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's the only way
you can enter in. And you come to God through the
blood of Jesus. My friends, you can come with
some degree of boldness. You come with reverence. And
you come with respect. And you come by faith. But you
can come with boldness into the very presence of God if you come
by the appointed way The bloody cross of Jesus Christ. Now right at the end of chapter
number 9, the Spirit of God mentions that our Savior has appeared. And that He appears now. And
that He's going to appear. Right at the end of chapter number
9, in the last 4 or 5 verses, He talks about the 3 appearances
of the Savior. First of all, His appearance
in His incarnation. Chapter 9, verse 26. For then
must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once in the end of the world He hath appeared... What
does that word appeared mean? Made manifest. He's been made
manifest. This is His incarnation. He appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Why did Jesus Christ
appear on this earth 2,000 years ago? And we know that He did.
There's just no argument about this. Even those who have designed
our calendar designed it around the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because all of time has a dividing
line. Before Christ, after Christ. It's absolutely foolish to deny
that He came into the world. The very calendar you go by every
single day of your life is an acknowledgement to the fact of
the first appearing of Jesus Christ. Here's the question.
Why did He appear? Why did He make an appearance
into this world? This world that He made. This
world to which He came to and when He came, people said, we
don't want you. He came into His own, His own
world, His own nation, His own family. He came into His own
and His own received Him not. Why did He make an appearance
in this world? The scripture says, to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The words to put away, you know
what that means? Write this down. Abolish. To abolish sin. To just absolutely
do away with it. To where it's not seen or heard
from ever again. Think about the scapegoat. Those
two goats that Aaron chose and then by lot one would live and
one would die. One died. That picture is the
death of Christ Jesus. One lived to be the scapegoat. That picture is the results of
the death of Christ. That scapegoat, Aaron laid his
hands on the head of that scapegoat and symbolically all the sins
of all of the nation of Israel were transferred to that scapegoat. That transaction had nothing
to do with the sins of the Egyptians, or the Syrians, or the Assyrians,
or anybody else in the whole wide world, just God's people. Can you see a gospel lesson there? Our Lord Jesus Christ, He bore
the sins of God's elect. He bore the sins of God's Israel,
as it reads in Galatians chapter 6. Learn the difference between
the nation of Israel and the Israel of God. There is a nation
over in the Middle East, that's called Israel. But there's another
nation, a spiritual nation, out of every nation, kindred, tribe
and tongue. That's the Israel of God. Aaron
laid his hands on the head of that scapegoat and all the sins
of the Israel of God was transferred to it. Just like our Lord Jesus,
all the sins of all of His people, of all of God's Israel were made
to meet on Him. Isaiah 53 verse 6, all we like
sheep have gone astray. In fact, all of us we turn to
our own wicked way. But the Lord hath laid on him,
read it in the original, the Lord has made to meet on him
all the iniquities of us all. All charged to one. All imputed to one. There was
all of the sin dead. Born by the Savior. Just like
Aaron laid his hands upon the head of that scapegoat. And then
Aaron looked out through the congregation and said, you're
a fit man, come up here. That fit man has a picture of
our Lord Jesus. He's the only one fit to do the
work. He's the only one qualified. Because the only one who can
take sin away has got to be equal with God in every way, but he's
got to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. And Aaron
said, you a fit man, come up here. He came up there. Aaron
said, now you take this goat. upon whose head I have, in a
symbolic way, transferred all the guilt of the nation of Israel.
I want you to take this goat out there in the wilderness,
and nobody's going to go anywhere. This is not going to be intermission. We're going to stay right here
until we see you get all the way on site. And you leave that
goat out there, and you come back, and we'll have a time of
rejoicing. Yes, sir. And in the covenant
of grace, God the Father said to his son, I'm going to make
to meet on you all the sins of all of my people of all the ages. And you'll die under our wrath.
And you'll take sin away. And you'll come back without
them. And I can just see in my mind's eye When Aaron gave that
cord that was tied around the head of that goat to that fit
man, he gave that cord to him and said, lead him out of town.
And I bet you there wasn't a, you could have heard a pin drop
if you could hear a pin in the sand. All the way out and everybody
watched. There he goes. Can you see him? Daddy, can you
see him? No, get up here on my shoulders.
Can you see him? Yeah, I can still see the top of his head.
Somebody else got up on the highest vantage point. You still see
him? Yeah, I still see him. Aaron said, you still see him?
Yeah, I still see him. What about now? He's gone. This is wonderful. And nobody went home. And that man up on that lookout
said, I see a man coming back. Aaron said, got anything with
him? No. No. He doesn't have anything
with him. And the people said, oh, bless
the name of God. Our sins are gone for another
year. They had to do that over and over and over again. That's
the first four verses of Hebrews chapter 10. The fact that they
had to keep on doing that year after year after year after year
showed sin had not yet been dealt with. But Christ came. One offering for sin. And God
laid on Him all the sins of all of His elect. And we watch at
the cross. We watch. And we see Him suffering. We see him bleeding. We see him
agonizing. We hear him cry, my God. God blots out the sunshine. God Almighty put His hand in
front of the sun so that nobody could see while He did business
with His son. While redemption was transacted. While the price was being exacted
from our substitute. No eye could see. Don't you try
to delve into the darkness. There's some things just not
meant for us to know about. I think that's where preachers
get in trouble. We try to wade into the darkness,
try to figure out what went on. You don't know except this. The transaction took place and
then God took his hand away and Christ Jesus said, it's finished.
And he died. He died. And when he came back
from the dead, he's like that man who led that scapegoat out
of town. And I get up on the highest vantage
point I can see. He came back. He came back from
the dead. Does He have our sins with Him?
No! No! He doesn't bear them. And bless the name of God, I
don't bear them either. None of His people bear sin. The first appearing put away
sin. How do you do that? By one offering. By one offering. Look over here
in chapter 10. Watch this. Look at verse number
10. By the witch will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for all. Now look at verse
14. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. All who are set apart in divine
election. By one offering He perfected
us. He took that sin away into a
land uninhabited. Never going to be seen or heard
from again. My daddy served in World War
II in the Navy on a light cruiser called USS Biloxi. I'm proud of his service. And
I asked him one time, I said, what did y'all do with the garbage?
I asked him that because he had sent me out to burn garbage in
a 55-gallon drum that we had, and I bet you a bunch of y'all
used to do the same thing. In fact, some of you may still
do it that way, I don't know. I said, what did you do with
the guards? He said, we waited it down, threw it over, it's
gone. Sunk down in the bottom of the
Pacific. And never see it again. That's
what happened to our sins. He waited them down and he threw
them overboard. They're gone. Gone, gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. Now my
soul is free and in my heart's a song. Buried in the deepest
sea. Yes, that's good enough for me. I shall live eternally, praise
God. My sins are G-O-N-E, gone. Now what you say? They're gone.
They're gone. And that chorus says, yes, that's
good enough for me. It's good enough for God. It's
got to be good enough for God, doesn't it? And it was good enough
for God. That's what His first appearing
was to do something about. He said, put it away. Abolish
it. Abolish it. That's the reason, like I told
our son's class this morning, I said, you know, the Bible says
the law's not made for a righteous man. We're not under the law
because we're righteous men and women of God. We're righteous.
The law doesn't have anything to do with us. We're innocent.
We're innocent in Christ Jesus. You're looking at a bunch of
innocent people here this morning. We're justified people. We're
righteous people in the sight of God. We don't look like much
before the world. And a lot of times we don't look
like much before each other. But I tell you what, before God,
we're His jewels. That's right, we're His jewels. And He sees in us neither spot,
nor wrinkle, nor any such thing. He sees the righteousness of
His Son. He smells the fragrance of the
obedience of Jesus Christ. And He says, well done thou good
and faithful servant. In His first appearing, He put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. But I tell you also
right there at the end of chapter 9, It talks about His appearance
now. Look at verse 24. For Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. Well, preacher, when
is now? It's whenever you read it. It's
whenever you read. It was now when the inspired
writer wrote this, about 2,000 years ago, maybe a little bit
less, and it's still now. He now appears in the presence
of God for us, and five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary,
they ever plead for us. We have an advocate. We have
a lawyer. We have a go-between. And you
know who He is? Jesus Christ the righteous. He
now appears in the presence of God for us. He represents us. He's the head
of His body. And it's not like He's begging
the Father to forgive us. His very presence there as our
advocate says, Their sins, they'll never be remembered against them.
They're gone. The third appearance at the end
of chapter 9 is verse 28. So He hath appeared, that's His
incarnation. And He does appear right now,
that's His intercessory work. And in verse 28, here's the appearance
of His second coming. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He
shall appear the second time. He's coming back. You men of Israel, why stand
you here gazing up into heaven watching Jesus of Nazareth ascend
back to heaven? This same Jesus shall so come
again in like manner as you've seen Him go. He's coming back.
He shall appear the second time without sin. Without sin. Who shall He appear especially
for those that look for Him? That's what it says. Watch it
now. And unto them that look for Him. Are you looking for Him? Waiting
for Him? I am. I'm looking for Him. I'm
waiting. I'm waiting till that day he
either comes in the clouds and receives his bride unto himself,
or I'm waiting till that day when he's going to take me home
by a heart attack or cancer or car wreck or whatever. He shall appear to take us home. And that's when our salvation
will be consummated, you see, in his second coming. I believe
my soul is saved. But I tell you, this body has
got a little bit more work to be done on it. Actually, a whole
lot of work done on it. But He is going to save this
body because He redeemed this body. That's right. He redeemed
this body and soul. And even though like Job, even
though worms may devour this body, I believe that in my flesh
I shall see God. He's going to appear the second
time, take me home to glory, and I'm looking for Him. And
here's what Paul says. It's what he says in this one
offering for sin. He said, now listen, no sacrifice
under the law could take care of the sin problem. It just couldn't
do it. And after thousands of years
had gone by, And it had been just shown beyond a shadow of
a doubt that man by his wisdom can't know God. Man by his efforts
can't come to God. God sent his son. And when he came into this world,
he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. God prepared a body for him. And in that body, in that body,
he met all the law, obeyed it, and then he paid the penalty
of divine justice by dying in our stead. One offering. One offering for sin. And I'll
tell you, this is my hope. My hope is in that one offering
for sin. Is that true of you? That's my
only hope. Preacher, you've been preaching
all these years. Don't you think that counts for
something? You hadn't been listening, have
you? Hadn't been listening. All that we do is just a bunch
of unrighteousness. When we serve the Lord, when
we labor in the gospel, we're still just unworthy servants,
aren't we? And that's what the Scripture
says, just unworthy servants. We're just doing what we ought
to do. But what He did, what He did freely, voluntarily, livingly,
saved His people from our sins. to God be the glory, great things
He had done. So loved He the world of His
people that He gave us His Son. I want to make, could we just
sing, change that last song to God be the glory? What is it?
449? Is that what that is? See I'm just