Welcome to our program. The message
today is entitled, Christ, Our One Sacrifice. Now back in the
Old Testament, it was established by God immediately after the
fall of man that salvation from sin would be by sacrifice. When Adam and Eve fell, in the
Garden of Eden. God came along and He pronounced
the provision of the Messiah, the promised seed of woman, which
is none other than Christ. And in that first promise was
the promise of salvation from sin by His free and sovereign
grace in Christ. And then after that, there's
a picture. And I believe in this picture.
It's in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 21. It shows the establishment
of the sacrificial system shedding the blood of animals to show
forth the gospel of God's grace in Christ, to picture Christ,
the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. God
slew animals. He shed blood, killed animals,
and made coats of skin. And what we have in that picture
is a beautiful picture of the gospel principles of representation. In order to be saved from sin,
I need a representative, I need a mediator, I need a high priest
to stand in my place, to represent God to me and me to God. And
then it shows forth that blessed doctrine of substitution. We
need a substitute, see. In other words, God's wrath must
be poured out where sin is imputed or charged. The soul that sinneth
must surely die. And either we're going to die
eternally for our sins, or a blessed, God-appointed, sufficient substitute
will take our place. And, of course, the only substitute
of God's provision who can get the job done is Christ, the Lamb
of God. He's the substitute. He took
the place of His sheep. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And he said he shed his blood
for them. He paid the debt that they owed to God's law and justice.
That brings me to the third gospel principle, which is imputation. God the Father made Christ to
be sin. He legally charged the demerit,
the curse of the sins of his people to the account of Christ. It was put on his account. He
became a surety. for his people. He took their
sins. He died for their sins, not for
his own. He had no sin and knew no sin.
But the sins of God's elect were laid upon him. They were imputed
to him. And then he satisfied, that's
the fourth gospel principle, satisfaction. He satisfied law
and justice. He kept the law perfectly. He
paid the debt for their sins in its entirety, completely,
and He established righteousness for His people, and that's imputed
or legally accounted to them. As a result of that being justified
before God, we receive new life, the new birth, regeneration and
conversion by the Spirit of God, which brings us to Christ. Now,
that sacrificial system was established all through the Old Testament.
And it was the way in which God would meet with sinners and worship
and commune with sinners. And here we're seeing in Hebrews
chapter 10, that's our text, we see that Christ is the one
and only sufficient sacrifice for sin. There is none other.
And everything that came before him in the blood of animals was
meant to picture and typify him. Now in the first 10 verses of
Hebrews chapter 10, we have two things that are stated here,
two points. Number one, we see what the law of God cannot do. What the law cannot do. And secondly,
we see what Christ alone can do and did do. So you see that,
what the law cannot do. And then what Christ can do and
what Christ did do. Now that's the issue of the first
10 verses. of Hebrews chapter 10. There's
a verse in the book of Romans in chapter 8 that summarizes
the first 10 verses of Hebrews chapter 10 and it's Romans 8
and verse 3 and it goes like this, for what the law could
not do, that's point number one, in that it was weak through the
flesh and then point number two, God sending his own son In the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, or as a substitute for
sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. Now that verse summarizes
the message today. What is it the law cannot do? Well, generally speaking, here's
what the law cannot do for a sinner. The law cannot justify a sinner
in any way based on that sinner's best efforts to keep the law.
It cannot do it. The soul that sinneth must die.
You see, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified. The law
cannot pronounce you not guilty based on your sins or based on
your works. Now, why is it the law cannot
do that? Not because there's fault in
the law, not because there's a weakness in the law, but because
of the weakness of the flesh. It's me. I'm the problem. The
law cannot justify me because I'm a sinner. The law cannot
pronounce me not guilty because I'm a sinner. Now, the law can
show me righteousness, but it cannot give me a righteousness.
It cannot make me righteous. The law can show me my sin, but
it cannot cleanse me from my sins or show me the payment for
the sins. Now, in Hebrews chapter 10, in
the first few verses here, this is what he's talking about. He
says, for the law, the law here, is the Law of Moses, the Old
Covenant. And he's speaking of the sacrifices
of the Old Covenant. And listen to what he says in
verse 1. For the Law, having a shadow of good things to come,
and not the very image of the things, can never, with those
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make
the comers thereunto perfect. That's the same thing Paul wrote
in Romans 8.3, in the first part of that verse, what the law could
not do. Now you think about it. The law,
the old covenant, ceremonial sacrifices, the blood of animals,
that earthly priesthood, the altar, the holy of holies, the
mercy seat, those physical representations, physical things in the tabernacle,
in the temple. The law, it was a shadow. The law having a shadow. You
know, a shadow doesn't have substance. A shadow is the absence of light. And when the light comes, the
shadow disappears. Christ is the light. You see,
He is the substance. The law sacrificed under the
old covenant. It was a shadow. It was a picture. It was a type of good things
to come. What good things to come? Christ
Himself. You see, that lamb that was slain
on Jewish altars, that lamb was a shadow. It was a picture. But Christ is the Lamb of God. Christ himself is the Lamb of
God, John said, John the Baptist, which takes away the sins of
the world. He's the substance. The blood of the Lamb could never
take away sin, but the blood of Christ did. His blood is the
substance. The law could never make a sinner
righteous, but Christ is our righteousness. His name is Jehovah
Sid Canu, Jeremiah 23, 5 and 6. He is the Lord our righteousness. Christ is the substance of the
law, His person, His finished work on the cross to save His
people from their sins. And so He says the law is not
the very image of the things. In other words, what the law
pictured and foreshadowed, it was in itself not. It wasn't
the very substance and image of the things which it pictured.
There's no salvation in the law, no salvation in animal blood.
But he said it could never with those sacrifices, those animal
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, it
could not make the comers, the worshipers, those who participated
in that law, it could not make them thereunto perfect, complete,
It could not save them from their sins. It could not wash them
clean from all their sins. It could not make that sinner
righteous and holy. It could not justify that sinner. It could not make him complete.
Only the blood of Christ can do that. For in Christ dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him. Not in the law. You see, Christ
is the fulfiller of the law. Where Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Well, he goes
on to prove that. Now, what the law cannot do.
He says, for then, verse 2, for then would they not have ceased
to be offered? Because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sins. Now, that's
a very important verse here. And what he's saying is simply
this. If that law, those shadows, the types, the pictures, animal
sacrifices, that earthly priesthood, if that law could make those
who worshipped under that law and served the tabernacle, who
participated, if that animal sacrifice, if it could have washed
a sinner clean from his sins, If it could have justified that
sinner before God, if it could have removed the guilt and the
defilement of sin, if it could have removed the curse and made
that sinner righteous, then those sacrifices and those oblations
and those offerings would have stopped. And the reason that
they would have stopped is because the worshippers once purged. What does purged mean? It means
to be cleansed. It means to be washed clean from
all our sins. It means to be free from sin.
Once purged, if that animal blood and those sacrifices could have
cleansed those people from their sins, then they would have had
no more conscience of sin. Now, what does that mean? That
word conscience there means more than just an awareness of sin. Listen, when God saves a sinner,
That sinner does not stop being aware, acutely aware of his sins. In fact, really, if you know
the Scriptures, you'll know that you don't even know what your
sins are, how much of a sinner you are, until God saves you.
And as you grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ, you come
to see more and more how much of a sinner you really are. I
really am. Even worse than what I ever thought.
We come to see that we're worse than we think. But we don't stop
there. We look to Christ and we value
Him and His blood and His righteousness as our only salvation from sin.
And we keep our eyes upon Him. But so what does it mean to have
no more conscience of sin? Well, the conscience is the seat
of judgment in the heart, in the mind, in the affections,
in the will. The conscience is that moral
standard whereby you either accuse yourself and feel guilty, or
you excuse yourself and feel not guilty. And this is the issue
of the conscience. It's the guilty conscience. What
he's saying here is this. If you can be purged from your
sins, if a sinner under that old covenant, one of those Israelites,
who was looking to that blood, the blood of an animal, if his
sins could have been washed away and the guilt of sin be removed
and condemnation be removed, those things would have stopped
because he'd have no more guilt, no more condemnation. Oh, he'd
be aware he's a sinner, but he'd be like David in Psalm 32, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. He'd know that
his sins were removed in God's books so that he has no more
condemnation. There is, therefore, now no more
condemnation to them who are in Christ. You see that? But the blood of animals couldn't
do that. And that conscience of sin means the guilt of sin.
It means the conscience that condemns us because of sin. Now,
let me ask you this. Why does my conscience not condemn
me because of my sins? And I'll tell you why. It's because
I'm looking to Christ, who is my salvation. He's my wisdom. He's my righteousness. He's my
holiness. He's my redemption. As long as
I look to Him, there is no condemnation. He took my sins upon Himself. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn me? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
is risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father
making intercession for us. You see, I have no more conscience
of sin in the sense that I'm not condemned with a guilty conscience
because Christ is my Savior. Christ is my hope. He says in
verse 3 of Hebrews 10, but in those sacrifices there's a remembrance
again made of sins every year. Under that old covenant, this
is before Christ actually came and took his place on the cross
for the sins of his sheep, under that old covenant there was death
and wrath and condemnation. In fact, Paul called it in 2
Corinthians chapter 3, the ministration of condemnation, because in those
animal sacrifices, In those earthly ceremonies, and even in the Ten
Commandments, there was a continual reminder of the guilt and the
defilement of sin that condemns. And that was all given to point
them to Christ, to get them to look to Christ as their hope,
the schoolmaster. But in those ceremonies, there
was a continual reminder. Now in Christ, there's no continual
reminder. We'll see this next time. God
said, I'll remember your sins no more. There's no continual
reminder. We keep our eyes on Christ, and
we're not continually reminded of condemnation and guilt because
that's been removed from our conscience by the blood of Christ. And then he says why, verse 4.
He says, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins. That's why there's a continual
reminder of guilt and defilement and condemnation. because there's
no removal of sins, guilt, and defilement in the blood of animals.
The law cannot do that. Well, here's the second thing
then. Here's what Christ alone can do and what Christ alone
did do. He says in verse 5 of Hebrews
10, wherefore, or for this reason, when he cometh into the world. Now, who's the he there? That's
Christ. the second person of the Trinity,
the God-man. He's the Messiah, God the Son
incarnate. And it says, when He cometh into
the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In other words, when Christ
came into the world, the Son of God, you see, He saith to
the Father, Sacrifices, animal sacrifices, animal blood, would
not satisfy the law. It would not satisfy God's justice. But it took the body of Christ
to do that. The body of Christ, His flesh. You see, Christ had to be made
flesh and dwell among us in order that He might die the death that
we deserve. He had to come and stand under
the law. In the fullness of the time,
Christ was made under the law, made of a woman to redeem them
that were under. Made of a woman, that's His incarnation,
His human body. A body hast thou prepared me.
This human body was prepared for the Lord Jesus Christ in
the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit of God. It was
without the aid of man. You see, he didn't come through
man like you and me and contract sin. He wasn't born in sin as
we were, but he came by a miraculous birth, an incarnation, that holy
thing that was in Mary's womb. A body, a human body and soul
was prepared for him in order that he might accomplish what
the blood of animals could not accomplish. You see, he had to
be made flesh in order to die. God cannot die. God is life. You can't kill God. But this
person who is God did die, and that's to be attributed to his
humanity, his flesh without sin. So a body hast thou prepared
me, verse 6. He says, in burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Now that word
pleasure, when it comes to God, could just as well be stated,
satisfaction. Now God is holy. You've heard
me say this on this program several times. You have watched it every
Sunday. God is holy and he must remain
holy. God can never at any time, in
anything he says or does, be anything less than perfectly
holy. By the same token, God is just.
And He must be just. He cannot be anything less than
just. So, the Bible talks about a God
who is merciful, who forgives sin, a God who is loving, a God
who is gracious. Now, how can the same God, how
can He show mercy to a sinner and grace to a sinner? How can
He love a sinner and still be holy and just? You see, justice
demands payment for the sin. Justice demands death for sin. That's the penalty of sin. The
wages of sin is death. So how can he be both a just
God and a loving Savior? And the answer to that is the
gospel. The way God can be both a just
God and a Savior is through the blood of Christ who takes justice
upon himself. according to the mercy of God.
One of the old writers said it this way, when God saves a sinner,
he doesn't cease to be holy because it is his love that provides
in Christ what his holiness demands. You see, justice demands death.
Well, my sins deserve death. Why do I not have to die eternally? Because somebody took that death
for me. Christ is my substitute. And that's what he's talking
about. In burnt offerings and in sacrifice for sin, there was
no satisfaction to God's holiness, to God's justice, to God's truth. But in this body that God has
prepared for Christ, the man, Christ Jesus, there is satisfaction. And he says in verse 7, he says,
Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written
of me, It is written of me to do thy will, O God." The Lord
Jesus Christ, and what David is doing here, he's quoting from
the Psalms, a Messianic Psalm that's speaking of Christ. And
what he's saying here is this, Christ came into the world and
assumed human nature without sin in order to do the will of
the Father. Salvation is according to sovereign
will and purpose. It's not based on my will or
your will or our decision for Jesus or anything. It's by the
sovereign will and purpose of God. Christ said, I delight to
do the will of my Father. And he says in verse 8, above,
when he said, sacrifice and offering and burn offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not. neither hath pleasure therein
which are offered by the law." There was no satisfaction in
those animal sacrifices. They were types. They were pictures. They were shadows. No satisfaction
there, but only satisfaction in the one whom they pictured
and foreshadowed and typified, Christ and Him crucified. God forbid that I should glory,"
Paul wrote, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I can't
glory in the flesh. I can't glory in any flesh, not
even the animals that were shed, whose blood was shed. I must
glory in Christ, the God-man. So he goes on in verse 9, he
says, Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. Now, the first there
refers to the Old Covenant. That was the Old Covenant Law
of Moses. It was instituted by God in time
first, before the New Covenant. The New Covenant is the time
of Christ, His coming into the world and doing the work that
the Father sent Him to do. It's sometimes referred to in
the Bible as the New Testament. Now, I don't want to get complicated
on this issue, but I want you to see this very carefully. That
old covenant began when God brought Israel out of Egypt. He established
it through Moses on Mount Sinai. It was in effect for almost 1,500
years until the time of Reformation, as Hebrews chapter 9 tells us.
That time of Reformation, or change, was when Christ came. Now Christ came into the world,
the old covenant was still in effect, he walked the earth in
complete obedience to the law, and then he went to the cross
of Calvary for the sins of his people charged to him, he drank
damnation dry, he satisfied law and justice, and he finished
the work, he established righteousness. When he said it's finished, that's
when the old covenant was over and the new covenant began. So
the first here is the Old Covenant. He took it away that he may establish
the first, the New Covenant in Christ. So that all believers
in the New Covenant, we look back on a work that's been finished. The Old Covenant believers, they
looked forward by promise to a work to be finished, Christ,
but it's the same ground. They were saved by the same ground
that sinners today are saved, the righteousness and the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me close with verse 10
here. He says, by the which will we are sanctified. That means
we're made holy, set apart. Now how? How are sinners made
holy? You know, that seems like a contradiction
in terms. But he says it here, by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once. Literally once. It says once
for all. Who are they all there? All whom
he represented. All who are made holy. Somebody
said, well, that means everybody without exception. It couldn't
mean everybody without exception because it says they're sanctified. If you're sanctified, that means
you're made holy. That means you cannot die in
your sins and go to an eternal hell and damnation. So who he's
talking about here are those who are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ one time. Not every year,
not continually, but one time. Christ, He was on that cross
one time. And His blood, the blood of the
Lamb of God, is so powerful and effectual that it got the job
done. It paid for all the sins of all
His sheep, forever and forever and forever. It paid for all
the sins of His sheep in the Old Testament. It paid for all
the sins of His sheep in the New Testament, even those who
haven't been born yet. None of us were born when He
paid for our sins, but He did it on the cross of Calvary 2,000
years ago. Our sins were imputed to Him.
His righteousness was imputed to us. We were justified in Him.
How do I know that I participated in that as He was my representative? If we come to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the new birth. when God the Holy Spirit sovereignly
brings a sinner and gives him life and brings that sinner to
see Christ and Him crucified. That's the issue. Here's the
ground of salvation. Christ is the one sacrifice for
sin. And if He's the one sacrifice
for sin, don't look for another sacrifice. Don't look for another
offering. Don't look elsewhere for salvation.
That's the whole key of this. Don't look to the law, because
the law cannot justify you. The law can show you your sins
like an x-ray machine. An x-ray machine can show you
what's wrong inside, but the x-ray machine can't perform the
operation. It cannot prescribe the medicine.
It cannot cure you. It can just show you what's wrong.
And that's the same way with the law of God. It can show you
what's wrong, but only Christ in the gospel by grace can cure
us.