Alright, let's turn our Bibles
now to Hebrews chapter 10, entitled the message this morning, Longing
for Christ. You've heard me and many other
preachers say that the purpose of the law was to drive us to
Christ or to shut us up to hope in Christ, to show us that Christ
is our only hope. The purpose of the law was never
given by God as a way for men to earn a righteousness before
Him. The purpose of the law was to reveal our sin, to show us
we cannot keep the law and show us that the only hope of righteousness
we have can't be found in us. It's got to be found in Christ.
So we've got to run to Christ because we have no other hope.
And the law that we're going to speak of in some detail this
morning, and just like all of the Old Testament, all of the
Old Testament is given to us as a picture of Christ. The law
is given as a picture of Christ who would fulfill it to drive
us to Christ. And all the stories and things
that you read in the Old Testament are not just, you know, good,
heartwarming, moral stories. They're stories that are pictures
of Christ so that when a believer looks at those pictures and when
a believer looks at that law, they see a picture of Christ
and it makes us long for him, long for him that would come.
It's not just that I'm driven to Christ against my will. No,
if I know him, I long to be with him. I long to be made like him.
I long for him. It's not just that I go to Christ,
you know, reluctantly against my will, because he's the only
hope I got. And he is the only hope I have. But I long for Christ. If I know him, I don't want another
hope but him. Those pictures make us long.
for Christ. And I think I can illustrate
what I'm trying to say this way, with this illustration. When
Janet and I were 12, 13, 14 years old, we were boyfriend and girlfriend. Now, Janet lived in South Point,
and I lived in Williamsburg. And we didn't get to talk to
each other very often. There were no cell phones at
that time. Now, some of you all can't even remember a time there
were no cell phones. Janet and I lived in a day there
were no cell phones. And long-distance calls, now
they did have a phone line that went from Williamsburg to South
Point, but they charged you for using it. Long-distance calls
were very expensive. We didn't get to talk very often.
And there was no texting and no emails even. We had to write
letters to each other. Now, we're not sold we had to
carve them in stone. We did have paper and pen, and
we would write a letter and mail it, snail mail. You know, if
I wrote a letter and mailed it to Janet, And if she got that
letter and immediately responded to me, I still had to wait four
days to get a letter back from her. Four days. Two days there,
two days back. And I'm telling you, it was hard
to wait. And there was no social media. There was no FaceTime.
The only FaceTime we got was on Sundays and Wednesdays when
we saw each other at church face to face. And I mean to tell you,
I looked forward to Sundays and Wednesdays. And to my shame,
it wasn't because I was so religious, that's when I got to see my girlfriend.
She gave me a picture, a picture that I treasured. I still have
it. It's a picture of her in her
South Point cheerleaders outfit. Oh, that's a stunning. I look at it today. I mean, it's
a stunning picture. I carried that picture around
everywhere I went. I enjoyed having that picture. But this is what I found. When
I looked at that picture, it made me just long for her. And I loved the picture, but
I wanted the substance of the girl, not the picture. I wanted
to hold her hand. I wanted to feel her hand, my
hand. I wanted to smell her perfume.
I wanted to look into her blue eyes. I mean, I was heart sick. And it is the most happy misery
there is. That's the only way I can think
of to describe it. I just longed for her. That's what I'm saying
about the law and the Old Testament types and ceremonies and pictures. When we look at the picture of
the law, All that does for a believer is make us long for Christ. I don't just want the shadow
of Christ. I can't be satisfied with that
shadow. I want the person. I can't hold
the shadow, but I can hold the person. I want to feel the warmth
and the comfort of His presence in my heart. The law can't do
that. Only the person, only Christ
can do that. I want to see Him. I want to
learn more of him. I don't want to learn more about
him. I want to learn him. I want to be in love with him.
Because I can't have any hope for my soul in a shadow. But
I sure can't hope in a person. I can't hide from God's justice
in a shadow. But I can hide in a person. And
I can't be loved by a shadow. But I can be loved by a person.
And I can't love a shadow. But I can love a person. Christ
is who the soul of every believer longs for, because he can do
infinitely more than the shadow could ever do. And I want to
give you five things this morning that Christ does for his people
that the law can never do. I pray that God the Spirit will
take these things and make us long for Christ so that we won't
be satisfied with anyone or anything but him. Here's the first thing. The law cannot make us perfect
by our obedience to it. But Christ does. Verse one, Hebrews
chapter 10. 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. Now the writer
here tells us that the law is just a shadow. And a shadow is
something that's caused by something that gets between you and the
sun or gets between, you know, the ground and the sun. That's
what causes a shadow. Now a shadow can give us a pretty
good idea of the shape, you know, of something that's making the
shadow. But a shadow leaves out very important details about
that object. A shadow of a person doesn't
give you any details of their face, doesn't show you their
smile, doesn't show you their hair color or their eye color.
Well, the shadow of the law leaves out very important details about
God's grace, about who God is. The law completely leaves out
the love of God for his people. The law leaves out God's smiling
face. You cannot, it's utterly impossible
for a son of Adam to look into the law and see God's smiling
face because God can't smile at anybody trying to keep the
law because we continually break it. So a shadow leaves out very
important details and the details a shadow does give us can be
distorted. If I stand just right, my shadow
can look like I'm 10 feet tall and I'm not even 6 feet tall.
And this is the point I'm trying to make. Don't let anything get
between you and Christ. Don't look at a shadow Don't
let something get between you and Him because you're not going
to be able to see Christ as He is if there's something between
you and Him. You can't see Christ as He is
by looking at His shadow. Go straight to Him. Now the writer
says here that the shadow that's cast by the law is just a hazy
image of Christ and what He will accomplish for His people. No
son of Adam can be made perfect by our obedience to the law.
It's an impossibility. Because we can't keep the law.
We just can't do it. And there's no problem with the
law now. The law is perfect. It's holy and just and good.
The problem we have is we've got sin nature that cannot, that
will not keep the law, that hates the law, that hates being told
what to do. We can't keep the law. Just thinking
about breaking the law makes us guilty of breaking it all.
So the law is just a shadow. It's all its ceremonies and rules
and regulations is a cold, empty, lifeless thing. There's no substance
to it. There's no warmth to it. There's
no ability to save sinners found in the law. All the law can do
is say guilty or innocent, life or death. That's all the law
can say. If you break the law, the law has no ability to save
a sinner. And just goes to show you how
much that human nature loves law. People who call themselves
Christians today, they've just made up their own version of
the law. Go read the Mosaic Law. You don't want one thing to do
with that. So what they do today is they make up their own version
of the law that's a little bit easier, something they think
they can keep. And they think that God will be happy with them
if they kindly just don't enjoy things of this life. You know,
something that's in this life, well, I'm not going to enjoy
it. You know, I'm not going to dress
in fashion. I'm going to live a more moral
life than the rest of the world, deprive myself of pleasures that
other people have by living a more moral life than the rest of the
world. You know, I want to tell you something. If you're trying to impress God
by being better than the rest of the maggots that you live
around, you've set the bar pretty low. God's not going to be impressed
with that. In order for us to be accepted,
We can't be better than the other maggots that live around us.
We've got to be perfect, absolutely perfect. God will only accept
us if we have no blemish of sin, no spot, no stain of sin. Well, that makes it impossible
for us to be saved by our obedience to the law. I mean, we come forth
from the womb speaking lies. We're conceived in sin. It's
too late. We cannot be saved by our obedience
to the law. And I'll tell you what that does
for a guilty sinner. It makes a guilty sinner long
for Christ. Christ came to make His people
perfect. By being perfect for them. By
obeying the law for them. By doing what they could not
do. And obeying the law for them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
spotless land. Without blemish, without spot.
And Peter told us that's how we're redeemed. We're not redeemed
with corruptible things, the things we do or don't do. Peter
said we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot. Redemption's in Christ. Now look over at Ephesians chapter
five. I want you to see here what Christ,
the spotless lamb, has accomplished for everyone that he died for.
Ephesians chapter five. Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify, cleanse it with the washing of water by
the word that, now here's why he did all that, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Christ, what did he do by his
sacrifice, by his obedience? He made his people just like
himself. He made him spotless. He is the spotless lamb of God.
He made his people spotless. Without wrinkle, without any
fault, he made them holy. Christ made his people perfect. And we've seen this over and
over again in our study of the book of Hebrews. Look back at
chapter seven of Hebrews. Verse 19. For the law made nothing perfect.
We cannot be made perfect by the law, but the bringing in
of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God.
And Christ is our hope. He is that better hope that the
writer's talking about. It's by Christ that we draw nigh
unto God and we come accepted because he made his people perfect.
Look here in chapter 10, verse 14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever. them that are sanctified. See,
the only way for us to be perfect is in Christ. That's what He
came to do and He did it. He made His people perfect. Now
that will make a sinner long for Christ. Because the only
way I can be made perfect is in Him. It's in Him. But you
know this word perfect, it also means complete or mature. Well,
you know the law can't make anybody grow in grace, can it? All the
law can do is kill. The law can't make you grow in
grace because the law knows nothing of grace. The law only knows
obedience, disobedience, justice. But believers grow in grace.
God's people grow in grace and they grow in grace the exact
same way they came to believe. It's by hearing Christ preached.
Look at Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians 4, verse 11. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
Now, why did God, does God give his church today pastors and
teachers? Here's why, verse 12. For the perfecting, the maturing,
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come with
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God,
unto a perfect man, a mature man, under the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro, not carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the sight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby
they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love,
that we may grow up in him in all things, which is the head,
even Christ. And the only way we're going
to be perfected, matured and strengthened in the faith is
through the preaching of Christ, the exact same way we came to
believe Him in the first place. Christ came and He has made His
people perfect. He causes them to grow in grace.
Yet as long as we're in this flesh, no believer will ever
be satisfied with ourselves. Never. That's why the Apostle
Paul said, I haven't arrived, brethren. I've not got there
yet. But this is what I do. He said, I keep pressing on.
I keep pressing toward the mark. I keep pressing toward Christ
because I'm not satisfied. I'm not satisfied with myself
in any way. I'm not satisfied with my faith.
I'm not satisfied with my love. I'm not satisfied with my knowledge
of Christ. And all that does is make me long for him to keep
pressing toward him, because the only way I'm ever going to
arrive, the only way I'm ever going to be made perfect is in
him. One day, there's coming a day
that Christ is going to perfect. He's going to finish that work.
He's going to call an end to this foolishness we call the
world. And he's going to gather his
people to himself. And when he does, they're going to be perfect,
body and soul forever. The law couldn't do that, could
it? Christ does. All right, here's the second
thing. The law can never purge me from
my sin, but Christ does. Hebrews 10 verse 2. For then
will they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the
worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of
sin. Now the word purged here means cleansed. Now my soul can't
be cleansed by a man sprinkling animal blood on my flesh. That's
what the Old Testament high priest did. He sprinkled blood on the
people. But that can't, on my flesh, can't make my soul clean. My soul can't be cleansed by
a man sprinkling water upon me. That water, all that is, is a
picture of cleansing in Christ. I was at this place one time
for a wedding, and I saw this little container, and it had
a sign over it, in case you didn't know what it was. They said,
this is holy. It said, holy water. I looked
down in that thing, and you know what? That water was stagnant.
It had green mold growing in it. And I said, as a teenager,
big old voice like what I got, well, that's not holy water.
I mean, there's mold in it and people are, but it's not like
my soul can't be cleansed by another sinful man dipping his
finger in that stagnant water and sprinkled on my flesh. That's
foolishness. I mean, they just, brother Henry
said, well, I've read an article recently. He wrote one time,
but I wish people would use the mind that God gave them. My soul can't
be cleansed from sin by anything I do with this body of flesh.
My soul can't be cleansed from sin by making a profession or
walking an aisle. My soul can't be cleansed by
the waters of baptism. The waters of baptism are a confession
Christ already did that. I'm not doing that to cleanse
my soul. It's a confession Christ already did that. My soul can't
be cleansed from sin by attending all kinds of religious meetings. I wish people would never miss
an opportunity of the gospel when these doors are open, but
attending those services is not going to cleanse my soul. Believing
in the Christ as preached will, but just attending them won't.
My soul can't be cleansed by dedicating and rededicating my
life to God. If any of those things did cleanse
my soul from sin, I would have to do them again, would I? I
wouldn't need to. I was already purged. I wouldn't
need to do them again. But if I'm trying to use those things
to cleanse my soul from sin, I've got to do them over and
over and over and over again. And I tell you what that makes
a filthy sinner do. It makes a filthy sinner long
for Christ. Come and in infinite love and
mercy, purge me from my sin. cleanse me from all of my sin.
That's what Christ came to do. And he did it. Remember that
back in Hebrews chapter one? Verse three. Who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins. He sat down on the right hand
of God. He sat down because he got the
job done. He purged, he cleansed his people
from all of their sin. And that makes the filthy sinner
long for Christ. That was the cry of David. The
man after God's own heart cried, purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. If you'll purge me, I'll be clean.
Wash me and I'll be whiter than the snow. That's my heart's desire.
In another place, he said, iniquities prevail against me. When I look
at myself, all I see about myself is iniquities. They prevail against
me. I can't fight against them. I
can't quit doing them. I can't make them go away. They're
damning my soul to hell. They prevail against me. But,
David said, thou shalt purge them away. See, that's confidence
in Christ. I want him to come and purge
my sin away. And that's what every believer
longs for. And that's what we have in Christ. And the proof
that he did what the law can never do is he didn't have to
offer many sacrifices over and over and over again. Look over
a page here at Hebrews 10 verse 18. Now, where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Christ doesn't have
to make another offering for sin. because by his one sacrifice,
he purged the sin of his people away. And the law could never
do that, but Christ does. All right, here's the third thing.
The law cannot give a clear conscience, but Christ does. At the end of
verse two, he said that they should have no more conscience
of sins. Now, the law can't give you a
clear conscience. The law, all it can do is constantly remind
us you're not perfect. not perfect. There's always more. I don't care how much you've
done in the past. There's always more to do. The law required
obedience every second, every minute, every day, every year. More and more and more obedience.
And it required sacrifices to be offered over and over and
over again. Every morning the high priest
got up and you know what he did? He offered another sacrifice.
You know why he had to offer a sacrifice this morning? He
offered one yesterday, first thing. That one yesterday didn't
take away sin. It didn't purge anybody's conscience.
So he had to offer another one. And he did the same thing at
noon. He did the same thing in the evening. And the same thing happened every
year on the Day of Atonement. And that's specifically what
the writer is talking about here. Now, the Day of Atonement gives
us one of the most comprehensive, clear pictures of what Christ
came to do in all of the Old Testament. But that Day of Atonement
with all of its ceremonies, all of its sacrifices. I mean, just
every movement that day of the high priest was a picture of
Christ, our high priest. All those sacrifices being offered
were pictures of Christ's sacrifice for sin. That blood being taken
behind the veil and sprinkled upon the mercy seat was a picture
of Christ taking His blood, not into a little room here on earth,
but into heaven itself to put away the sin of His people. And
they went through that whole exhaustive ceremony. There were
so many details in that day of atonement. I read that the high
priest and his friends would go through, they'd study that
day of atonement for weeks in advance to make sure they had
every detail down right because every detail is a picture of
Christ. And they did it, they did it just exactly like it was
written in the book of the law to do it. And the next year,
you know what they did? They went through the whole ceremony
all over again. You know why? Because even though
that's a good, clear picture of Christ, that sacrifice didn't
take any sin away. And their conscience told them
so. Their conscience told them, sin's still here. I'm still guilty. I need another sacrifice. I need
a different sacrifice. See, the law can't clear our
conscience. All the law can do is tell us,
you haven't done enough. We still have a problem with
sin. And man's free will religion can't clear the conscience either.
You know, men say, okay, well, the law doesn't clear my conscience,
so I'll make up a different religion. We'll call it man's free will.
You guys decide to be saved. But you know what? Man's free
will religion does the same thing law does. It constantly reminds
you you haven't done enough. Constantly. We still have a problem
with the guilt of sin. And all of our activity is only
adding to it. That just leaves the sinner with
a conscience that's screaming, you're still guilty, you're still
guilty, you're still guilty. And that makes that guilty conscience
or that guilty sinner with their conscience just pressing them
down. It makes them long for Christ. Christ came to give His
people a clear conscience. Christ came, we just saw, He
made His people perfect. If you're perfect, your conscience
is not bothering you. He made His people perfect by
His obedience to the law, by His sacrifice that purges their
sin. If He took away the sin, your
conscience has got nothing to scream at you about. His blood
makes His people white as snow. He makes them not guilty. Now, a man who's innocent, his
conscience is not bothering him. The believer's conscience is
clear because there's nothing left to feel guilty about. Sin's
gone. And the believer who has a clear
conscience still works, they work, they work serving the Lord
and worshiping the Lord, but not because they're trying to
make God happy with them. They're not serving the Lord, trying
to quiet their conscience. They're serving the Lord out
of love. See, that's the way the law works. The law is a slave
driver that makes people work, keep working, keep working, keep
working by sending them on a guilt trip. That's what the law does. But God's people don't serve
him because they're on a guilt trip trying to make God happy
with them. They serve God out of love because their conscience
is already quiet. Look back at Hebrews chapter
nine, verse 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience, not from guilt, from dead works,
to serve the living God? Now, dead works are works that
we do trying to make God happy with us. We've got to think,
I've got to do this work to make up for the sin of the past so
God will be happy with me. Those are dead works, because
all the law can do is kill us when we're not perfect. God's
people serve Him with living works, with good works. And you
know what a good work is? A good work is something that's
done purely to help the body of Christ. When that woman came
to anoint the Lord, and with that expensive ointment, and
they were thinking in their minds, thinking it was secret from the
Lord. Oh, this is a waste. This could have been sold, money
given to the poor. And the Lord said, you leave
her alone. She did a good work on me. She came to anoint my
body for bearing. She came to anoint him before
he was ever crucified. Somehow she knew I'm going to
get to him afterwards. I'm going to do it now. The Lord
said what that was done on my body is a good work. And that
what he means is all of his people. You remember the in Matthew 25,
the Lord was talking about the judgment day. The Lord comes,
he'll divide the sheep and the goats, put the sheep on his right
hand, the goats on his left. And he's going to turn to those
on the sheep, on his right hand, and he's going to tell them,
you know, everything you did for the very least of my people,
you did it unto me. And you know what? They're going
to be surprised. They weren't keeping track of their good works.
They didn't have to keep track of their good works to see, am
I doing good enough? They already had a clear conscience.
They just served the Lord out of love and thanksgiving. They
weren't keeping track of them. They didn't even know they did
them. They said, Lord, when do we do that? When did we see you
sick and come visit you? When were you in prison? When
were you hungry and we fed you? When were you naked and we clothed
you? I don't remember doing that. They didn't remember because
they weren't keeping track of them. They didn't have to. Now, if you've
got to present those good works at the judgment to get you into
glory, you're going to keep track of them. But if Christ is your
salvation, your conscience is clear. You have to keep track
of those things. My right to glory is Him. Your conscience
is clear. And God's elect. are going to
enter the kingdom of heaven because Christ purged their sin and saved
them by his grace. And along the way to glory, those
very same people are going to serve him for the same reason,
because he purged them from their sin and saved them by his grace.
Be sure we understand this. We talk about a clear conscience.
When we say the believer has a clear conscience, we're not
saying that the believer doesn't have any sense of sin, that they
don't feel guilty about the things that they've done wrong. There's
something wrong with us if our conscience doesn't tell us you've
done wrong, something wrong. You've got a dead conscience
if your conscience is not telling you that. But the believer has,
even though we feel guilty over our sin, the things we've done,
the believer has a clear, still yet has a clear conscience because
while I see my scene, or at least I see some of it. Well, I have
some idea that everything I do is sinful. My conscience is still
quiet because the Lord Jesus Christ already paid for that.
My conscience is quiet in this way. My conscience is quiet. It's not telling me you got to
do something to make up for that. You better look out now. God's
going to get you. The believer's conscience doesn't have to say
that because Christ already did that for us. He already suffered
that for us. So our conscience is clear. His
sacrifice already paid for our sin. That's how the believer's
conscience is clear. All right, here's the fourth
thing. The law can't make sin be forgotten, but Christ does. Verse three, Hebrews 10, but
of those sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made of sin
every year. See, the law just keeps reminding
us we're still sinners, and it won't let you forget it. No matter
what you've done in the past, you've got to obey today. No
matter how many sacrifices you offered in the past, you've got
to offer new ones today. And looking at those sacrifices,
the only benefit of those animal sacrifices, which they offered
continually, their only benefit was they were a picture of Christ.
They couldn't put away sin, but looking at the picture made us
long for the one who would come and accomplish what these sacrifices
could not accomplish. Just doing those sacrifices over
and over and over again just kept reminding the people our
sin hasn't been put away yet. And every time we look at ourselves,
if we look at ourselves with any honesty whatsoever, we see
all we are is sin. There's just no escaping it.
When we look at ourselves, we see the guilt of sin. We see
the ugliness of sin. We see the filth of sin. Everything we do, say, and think
is sin. Everything. That's the way we're
described in Genesis chapter six. Everything about us is only
evil continually. And no amount of religious activity,
no amount of moral living, no amount trying to keep the law
as best we can will ever take that away. That memory of sin
makes the sinner long for Christ. Earl had no idea this is where
I was going this morning. He told me about a conversation
he had with some friends talking about getting old and forgetful.
And he said, my problem is not being forgetful. My problem is
I can't forget. I can't forget. All these horrible, just embarrassing
things I've done, that sin, I just can't forget them. That makes
us long for Christ. Christ came to, by His sacrifice,
make the sin of His people not exist anymore. It's been blotted
out under His blood. It's not just that it still exists
under the blood and you can't see it. It's blotted out under
the blood, washed away. washed white as snow, made not
to exist anymore. Christ's sacrifice makes His
people sinless and righteous in Him. There's no sin left for
you to remember if Christ died for you. Now, we've got to be
honest here, don't we? There's still, just like our
conscience is not bothering us, there's something wrong with
us if we've forgotten all those sinful things we've done in the
past. There's something wrong with us. All the harsh words
and the thoughtless actions, open rebellion against God are
things that haunts God's children forever. I think, oh, I wish
I hadn't done that. Think about things I've done. I just cringe thinking about
how could I have done something like that? And you're thinking,
well, preacher, you just said your fourth point is, The law
can't make sin be forgotten, but Christ does. Doesn't sound
like you've forgotten your sin. You're right, I haven't. God
has. And that's what I long for. Look
over again later in this chapter, Hebrews 10, verse 16. This is
what I long for. The fulfillment of God's promise
in Christ. This is the covenant, the promise.
This is the covenant I'll make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts and their minds
while I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. That's what I long for. I might
remember my sin, but if God's forgotten them, I'm accepted. All right, here's the fifth thing.
The law can never take away sin, but Christ has. Verse four, for
it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sin. Now, that applies to all the
ceremonies of the law. It's not possible. Those ceremonies
can take away sin. You're trying to keep the tithe.
That can't take away sin. That's already there. You know,
we just add more sin to it. We try to cheat it. You know,
at least somebody might, I was going to say like we try to cheat
our taxes. I don't, most of y'all don't try to cheat on your taxes,
I don't think. But, but I sure would like to find another deduction,
wouldn't you? That's how we cheat the tithe. If I can find another
deduction, you don't have to pay as much. Trying to keep the
Sabbath day. That's not going to take away
sin that's already there, because we cannot rest. Now, physically,
you know, we can rest. It's in human beings to be lazy
and not work. But I tell you what's also in
a human being, to not rest from our works of the law, trying
to make God happy. We can't rest from those things.
Trying not to lie. If I just be honest, you know.
You ought to, but that can't take away sin. It's already there.
We just keep adding to it by we're lying, saying we quit lying.
You know, that's what the law does. And the same thing with
the sacrifices, those sacrifices were required by the old Testament
law. This is the way God's to be worshiped
through blood sacrifice. But those animal sacrifices couldn't
take away sin, could they? Sin is a moral transgression
against God's law. Animals aren't moral creatures.
So they can't be the sacrifice for our sin. An animal doesn't
have the same blood, doesn't have the same nature as a man.
So animal blood can't be our sacrifice. Sin has to do with
the soul. This is what people do not understand. Sin doesn't have to do with the
outward. Sin has to do with the soul. Well, an animal doesn't
have a soul. So an animal can't be my sacrifice.
And looking at those sacrifices, you know what that makes a sinner
do? Makes us long for Christ to come and take away my sin. To take away the guilt of it.
To take away the stain of it. To take away the burden of it.
And Christ came able to do just that. The Son of God was made
flesh. He was a moral man. a real man,
just like we are. He's a moral man. So he could
be the sacrifice for the sin of his people. He could pay for
that moral transgression. The son of God was made a real
man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, so that he could
be the substitute for his people. The son of God was made a real
man with both a body and a soul. And because of that, he can take
away the sin of his people by making his soul and offering
for sin. See, the law could never give
you any rest. The law just keeps heaping burden
upon burden upon burden upon burden on the poor little shoulders
of sinners. And that makes the weary sinner
long for Christ, long for him to come and take away this sin. And the Savior said, that's what
he came to do. Remember that day he stood up
and he said, anybody weary? Anybody heavy laden? The burden
of sin overwhelming you? Come unto me. I will give you
rest. And Christ gives his people rest
by taking that horrible load off of them. Putting it on him. Taking it
away. Leaving the sinner without a
burden. with rest, rest. You don't have to try to take
that great burden of sin anymore. That burden crushes our poor
little shoulders, but he put it on his great shoulder and
took it away. He took away sin itself. He took away the very existence
of it. So when Christ took sin away,
he took the burden of it away and set his people free. Now
picture can't do that. Can't do it. So looking at that
picture, you know all it does? It makes us long for Christ. And like I said about being a
teenager and that heart sick, love sick feeling, it's the most
happy, miserable experience that I know of. That's the life of
a believer on this earth, isn't it? It's the most happy, miserable
experience there is. All the happiness and joy, how
thankful we are, full of joy we are that Christ the person
came and fulfilled all those pictures. But you and me are
still in this flesh, aren't we? And that makes us long for him,
long for him. The songwriter said, what a day
that'll be. What a day that'll be when I
can lay down these pictures and I can look in the face of the
Savior who came and did for me what I couldn't do in love and
pity and mercy for my soul. What a day that'll be. I pray
God give us the faith to long for Him, to search for Him. Let's bow together. Our Father,
How we thank you for your word. We read in your word and you
promised that your words not return unto you void, but it
will accomplish the purpose or until you send it. Father, as much as you've enabled
us, we preach the gospel this morning. We've heard your word
preached. And father, we beg of thee that
you send it forth to accomplish a purpose of mercy and grace. Send it forth to give life to
your people. Send it forth to comfort and
edify and strengthen the hearts of your people as we continue
through this journey here below. Cause us to look to Christ, to
find our rest and hope and peace in him. It's in his precious
name. We pray and give thanks.