Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. I titled this message, But This
Man. But This Man. A lot of things have been done
by men But nothing done by men can even be remotely
compared to what this man has done. Not even remotely compared. I'm going to start with verse
1 again. I think we left off verse 9 last
week, but I want to start with verse 1 again and then kind of
pick up in verse 7. For the law, the ceremonial law,
having a shadow of good things to come, they had a message. There was a message of redemption,
a message of forgiveness. But they in and of themselves
could not give it. They could not redeem. They could
not bring God's forgiveness to us, not in love themselves. But they were just shadows of
good things to come, and not the very image of the things
can ever, with those sacrifices which they offer year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. That's what this is all about,
isn't it? It must be perfect to be accepted. If we were going
to dwell in God's presence, we have to be perfect, absolutely
perfect. And these things could not make
us perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered if they had made the comers perfect,
the one who offered them. Had they made them perfect, then
they wouldn't have to be offered again. Because that the worshipers
once perished should have had no more conscience of sins. But
in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins
every year. You've got to remember those
sins every year, and those sacrifices say those sins are still there. They're still there. But it's not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. It's not possible
that the blood of an animal should take away the sins of a man.
That's not possible. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not.
That's not why he came. He did not come to offer the
blood of bulls and goats because he could do a better job of it
than the ones who were doing it. No, if he even offered them,
it still wouldn't put away our sins. If he had offered the blood of
bulls, and that's not possible, but if he had, it still wouldn't
put away our sins. A body hast thou prepared me,
a body to sacrifice, a body to live in and obey in and sacrifice. A body hast thou fitted me. You
fitted me for this purpose of redeeming, of satisfying, of
removing the curse. A body hast thou fitted me. and
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure,
then why did he give them?" Why did he give them if they gave
him no pleasure? Apart from faith in Christ, apart
from faith toward Christ, they gave him no pleasure. The one in whom God finds pleasure
has always been the Lord Jesus Christ. They represented him. But in and of themselves they
did not bring pleasure to God. Then said I, Lo, I come. Then said I, When? When it was
evident and proven that these could not remove sin, and that
they gave God no pleasure in and of themselves. Then said
I, Lo, I come. Frank spoke to us of the covenant,
and I was trying to find the verse in Isaiah, and it's hard
to try to find something and listen at the same time. But
he said, I have given thee as a covenant of the people. That
old covenant was written on stone and paper. That new covenant
is embodied in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is embodied
in him. It's like grace and truth. Scripture
says he's full of grace and truth. He's the embodiment of it. You cannot have grace, you cannot
have truth by experience and not have Christ. It's not possible. He's the embodiment
of it. He is grace and truth. It's just
like life. We're talking about spiritual
life. You cannot have spiritual life and not have Christ. It's
not possible. You can't have truth and not
have Christ. I am the way. I am the truth. He didn't just tell us the truth,
though he did. I am the truth, and I am the life. You cannot
have light and not have Christ. If you have these things, it's
because you have Him. You have Him. Then said, I lo, I come. In the
volume of the book it is written of me. What volume and what book? This one. The best hymn book
there is is this one. H-I-M, not H-Y-M. This one is the best hymn book.
It's all about him. In the volume of the book. That's
what he says. In the volume of the book. He
did not come into the world unannounced. For thousands of years it was
told someone is coming, and that someone is the Messiah, and that
Messiah is the Son of God. Then it said, I come. Who's coming? God. God's coming. He's not going to send a created
spirit, an angel. He's coming. The Eternal One's
coming, the Holy One of Israel's coming, the Lord of Hosts, He's
coming. This and I loathe, I come as
it's written of me. And why is He coming? To do thy will, O God. The only reason for the existence
of the man Christ Jesus, the human nature of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is to do the will of God. I wish that could be said
of us. I wish it could be said of me
that the only reason for me to exist is to do God's will. He
said my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. One day,
one day, everyone of his children can say that. One day when we
get rid of this flesh, one day we will be able to say, my meat
is to do the will of my Father. But you know what? In Christ
we did that. In Christ we did that. Who came? He said, I come, the
Redeemer. The Redeemer has come. Don't
look for another. Don't look for another. He said,
I come. And he came according to the scriptures. God became a man. The scriptures we looked at,
I believe last week, God is spirit. What was Winston Atkins looks
at in John, in John chapter four, God is spirit. Those who worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. God is spirit. But now, the same God that is spirit became
a man. Now listen, not in imitation
of a man, I mean a real living human being with a real soul except for sin. He knew no sin.
This man knew no sin, but this man, he knew no sin. Perfect man,
incarnate, God incarnate. Now God, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not. That's not why he was sent. God
found no pleasure in him, neither had pleasure therein which are
offered by the law. None of the Old Testament sacrifices
gave God any pleasure apart from faith in Christ. Those who offered
those sacrifices like Abraham, Isaac, and so on, the only pleasure
that it gave God was what? Was their faith in Christ. They looked beyond that sacrifice
to the true sacrifice. Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
He saw it and was glad. By faith, he sought, we'll see
this in chapter 11 when we get there. By faith, by faith, by
faith, it says. Without faith it's impossible
to please God. But what's the flip of that?
With faith it is possible to please God. But it's that God-given
faith in Christ. None of the Old Testament sacrifices
gave him pleasure in and of themselves. And he said, then said he, Lo,
I come to do thy will. Remember, he's writing to these
Hebrews. He's telling these Hebrews who this is their life. They've
been doing this. They grew up on this stuff, offering
and offering and sacrificing these ceremonies and doing all
this. They grew up on this. And he's telling them these things
in and of themselves gave God no pleasure. They put away no
sin. They did not redeem. It's only
the one they spoke of. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God." Now, why? Why did he come? Why did he come? Well, it says here, to do thy
will, O God, which is what? To take away the first, to take
it away. Listen, Christ came to take away
and to establish. He came to take away that first
priesthood. He came to take away those sacrifices.
He came to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He came
to take away the curse. He came to put away those ordinances
that was under that Old Testament that was written that was against
us. I'll show you this in the end of this in Colossians. He
came to take away that he may establish the second. And we
heard about it this morning. That second, that new covenant.
that he may establish that new covenant, wherein we have forgiveness,
we have righteousness, we have acceptance through him. It has absolutely nothing to
do with what I do. I'm not afraid to say that. I'm
not afraid to say that at all, because later on here, he's going
to say, we'll read in verse 16, They said, the covenant I'll
make with them after those days, says the Lord, I'll put my laws
in their hearts and write them in their minds. And in their
minds, will I write them? You couldn't do the old covenant
like that. But that new covenant is a living
covenant. And I'm not afraid to say I had
no part in it, I mean, as far as doing it. I have no part at
all in doing anything to obtain salvation in any way whatsoever.
It's all of grace, it's all of God, it's all of Christ. All
of it. He came to do what? He said,
thy will. He came to do the redemptive
will of God. It has always been the will of
God, the purpose of God, to redeem a people. out of Adam's race
and make them just like his son. It's always been his will, always
been his purpose. It's not that God changed his
will and his purpose and took another direction. This has always
been him. It's just that he gave us types and symbols and examples
and pictures and then he came. Then he came. And listen, he taketh away. Don't try to bring back what
God takes away. Don't do it. By the same will of God, the
same purpose of God, by which will we are sanctified, made holy, set apart. Salvation is not by
chance. God did not give me a chance
to accept Him, but God did not give me a chance to be saved. Salvation is by the determinate
counsel for knowledge, purpose, and will of Almighty God. I'm not trying to rescue a bunch
of rebels from going to hell. What kind of God is that? By the which will, the same will
we are sanctified through the offering of what? The body. A body hast thou fitted me. And
that same body, that same sinless body of Jesus Christ. By the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. And listen, how effectual it
was and is. or wrong. That would have been
a good title too. There have been a lot of good
titles going through this. Once for all. Here in this verse
is the very sum of salvation. The will of God. The will of God. God's will and
redemption. By the which will We are sanctified,
made holy, set apart, saved by God's will. By His will we've been set apart.
Redemption, salvation starts and ends, finds its final finality
in the will of God Almighty. You and I know what our will
is after. You know that. If every man and woman could
have their natural will, we'd all be rich. We'd all be living
in mansions. I mean, it would have nothing
to do with God. It would have absolutely nothing
to do with Him. But His will is to have a people. A people like His Son. Holy, just, righteous. And he says here, by the witch
will we are sanctified, sin put away. Sin put away. In Christ we are
holy. And he says, and he gives us
the way through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
A real man, a God man, but a real man hung on that cross, suffering
the wrath and hell that I deserve. And by God's grace, through the
offering of the body of Christ, I will never know what that is
by experience. I will never know what that rich
man that's in hell right now, lifting up his eyes in I'll never know that. Why? Because there was a man that
took my place. Took my place. And listen, once for all, that
is effectual redemption. There's no such thing as save,
loss, save, loss, save, in, out, in, out, in, out. Once for all! Never to be repeated. That's
how effectual the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ is.
It was one offering, one time for the sins of a multitude of
sinners that no man can number. And he put them away. And he'll
not have to do it again like the old priest of old had to.
Every morning, every evening, kill a lamb, kill a lamb, kill
a lamb. That'll never happen again, once
for all. Now, brethren, that's effectual. That's effectual. And every priest
standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sin. This sums up the old
covenant. Here it is, ineffectual. That sums it up, totally ineffectual. They could not of themselves
put away sin, ineffectually. But this man, you see, they are
ineffectual, the priesthood, I mean, all that they did, did
not put away sin. But this man, oh, a different
story. A different story. This man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, What about new sins? There is
no such thing as new sins. My sins were put away by Christ
at Calvary before I ever committed the first one. I wasn't even
born. That was about 2,000 years ago.
I wasn't even around. I wasn't born until 1955. There is not a sin that his people
will commit that he has not put away, sanctified, made them holy. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin, sat down on the right hand of God. This
is no ordinary man here. This is not just a good man who
did some good things and offered himself up in the place of someone
else. This is the God-man. This is
God. You know, over in the book of Acts, his blood is called
the blood of God. It's called the blood of God over in the
book of Acts. Pilate said, Behold the man!
What a man! I mean, now he's the man's man.
He's a real man. He's a sinless man. He knew no
sin. He's a substitutionary man. He's
the mediator man. He's the high priest man. He's
the sacrifice man. He's the man. He's the man. This man. What did this man do that was
so different? He offered up himself without
spot to God. Aaron did not offer up himself.
He offered up an animal. All those priests, the common
priests, the high priests, they offered up animals. This man
offered up himself. He offered up himself without
spot to God. He offered one sacrifice for
sin, himself, forever, never to be repeated. Now look, after he did this,
what did he do? He sat down, and he cried on the cross, It's
finished. Brethren, it's finished. Amen. It is finished. All those ceremonies
of type, they're finished. They're out of the way. They're
gone. Redemption finished. Removing the curse finished. Oh, my soul. He said, Al, the
place of power, the place of acceptance, the place of honor,
the place of glory. Listen, a real man is seated
right now at God's right hand, a man of flesh and bones. It
was said to Thomas, flesh and bones, the Spirit hath not flesh
and bones. There is a man seated at God's right hand on our behalf,
ruling and reigning over all things. You know, when God told
Adam, He said, have dominion over the fish of the sea, the
fowl of the air. Well, put that on an infinite scale now concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus. He's over all principalities
and powers. He said, let all the angels of
God worship this man. He was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. He's not lower now.
They worship him. They worship this man. And we
worship him also, because he's God. And he's seated at the right
hand of God. No other priest ever did that.
No other priest ever went in the sanctuary to sit down, because
there's no seat in there for him. But your job's not done. I told Jeremy the other day,
I had two or three chairs in my room. I said, I'm going to
move all these chairs out of my room out to shop. I said, that way
when people come in, they don't have to sit out so long. They
can get up and go finish their job. And I did. I took a chair. I said, if I
want them to stay, I'll go get it. There's no seats in that
sanctuary. Because you're not going to sit
down. Your job's not done. But this man. There was a seat
reserved for him at the right hand of the Father. And that's
where he's seated right now, ruling and reigning over all
things. And he's doing it without stress. You and I rule over anything,
there's a lot of stress in it. A lot of stress. But he's sitting there just composed,
at rest. You know, the war is over. The
victory has been won. There's just a lot of people
who don't know it yet. But they're going to know it. Because he says here in verse
13, from henceforth expecting till his enemy be made his footstool.
That's what he's doing right now. This man right now is seated
at the right hand of power, at the right hand of God, expecting. And that word means waiting.
waiting till time shall be no more. Our Lord not only waits till
the last sheep is brought into the fold, but He's also waits
till the last enemy's been crushed and brought to be His footstool. And He's not doing it anxiously.
He's doing it quietly. with all power and authority.
When you have all power and authority, you can sit there reposed and resting.
All you have to do is speak a word. The centurion said, Lord, all
you need to do is speak a word and my servant will be healed.
He does not have to muster up an army. He just speaks a word
and it's done. If He says, or if He commands
life, you're going to have life. I'm telling you, you're going
to have life. If He commands life, you're going to have life. Whatever He commands, you're
going to have it. For by one offering, by one offering, He hath perfected.
Now, remember back over here in, let's see, Let me say an
earlier part of this verse. In verse one, it says, those
sacrifices with which they offer year by year continually make
the comers thereunto perfect. They couldn't make them perfect.
But look at what it says here. For by one offer he hath perfected.
He has perfected forever, not just
a way for them, because he is the way, and that way is perfect. But he's perfected them. He's perfected them. For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Now you can write by that verse,
a work done for us. This is the work of God in Christ
for us. By His one offering. By His obedience,
by His death, He has perfected forever them that were set apart,
them that were chosen. He's perfected them. Well, how effectual is His offering? It perfected everyone it was
offered for. That's effectual. Christ has made us By His one offering of Himself,
He has made us perfect. He did what the law could not
do. He perfected them that are sanctified,
set apart and made holy. And the Holy Ghost is a witness
to this. If you're going to call a witness, Could you call one better than
God the Holy Spirit? Whereof the Holy Ghost is also
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 when I write them. Now, by this verse,
you can write out a work done in us. You see, he perfected them by
his one But now, it does not stop there. It does not stop
there. Here is the work done in us.
This is the covenant, that new covenant, that covenant of grace
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'm
going to write another one on stone, on some parchment. I'm going to just write out some
new laws and commandments. No, he said, I'm going to put
it in their heart. I will put my laws in their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them." That's different, isn't
it? You see, that old covenant was
just written on cold stone and a bunch of cold people trying
to keep it. A bunch of cold, dead-hearted people trying to
keep it. There was a few that was able
to see Him by faith, just like you, you who believe. You see
Him by faith. That new covenant is now written
on the heart. And listen, it's not written
on the old heart we were born with. It's a new heart. It's
that new nature born of God. It's written on it. This happens
in regeneration. It's a living covenant. It operates
in the heart, and its motivation is love. Paul said it's the love
of Christ that can what? Constrains me. Not the fear of
hell. It is not the fear of, if I don't do this, God's going
to take something from me. He's going to hurt me. No, it's the love of Christ that
constrains us. That's what constrains us. and their sins and inequities
will I remember no more." Is that not the best news you've
ever heard? If you know anything about sin, it is. Now, if you've
never had a real conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, that
doesn't mean anything to you. It doesn't mean anything. But if God has ever convicted
you for me of sin, that's the best news. That is the best news
you've ever heard. There are sins and inequities.
Will I remember no more? What did they do every year under
the Old Testament? Made a remembrance of sins every
year. That's what it says. In verse
3, chapter 10, but in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again
made of sins every year. But here he says there are sins
and iniquity. Well, I remember no more because they exist. No
more. They're gone. They are gone. That's good news. Now, where remission of these
is, where there is true forgiveness, there is what? offering for sin. No more offerings. The one place to find real forgiveness,
to find real peace, is where God has put it, in His Son, in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We confess our sins. Now listen, there's no more offering
for the sins we confess because He put them away. He put them away. Under the Old
Testament, they confessed sin, they'd kill another animal. Confessed
sin, they'd kill another animal. We confess our sins and He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins because of this one
offering. This one offering. We offer up
nothing. We look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Be careful not to try and use
restitution as an offering for sins. I know a man, and the reason
I say this, I know a person. Some years ago, he said the Lord
saved him, but it wasn't under the gospel, this gospel. And he started going back. and
giving things back that he had taken and apologizing for things
he had done. I don't need to do that. I don't need
to do that. Because there is a sense in which
I'm making an offering here and doing these things. If God has forgiven me, He's
forgiven me. And move on. Move on. Now let's look over Colossians
chapter 2, verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and put in
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins,
and in the circumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Listen to verse
14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, he took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. Having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Now he said, let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day.
or the new moon or the Sabbath day, which are a shadow of things
to come, but the bodies of Christ." Blotting out, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances, that was against us. That's what he did. He took
away the first, that he may establish the second. This man did it. This man did it.