It is my prayer. That everybody
in this room. Will be enabled. To say with
understanding. And with joy. Oh glorious day. He took. My sins. Away. Wouldn't be something. If we
can leave. This place tonight. understandingly saying that. I've entitled this message Contrast
of Law and Gospel. In Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6, This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus and says, Now he hath obtained a more excellent ministry, more
excellent than the ministry of the Old Testament. By how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. Now this verse says the gospel
is better than the covenant of the law. It's better. It's infinitely better. The gospel, the covenant of the
New Testament, the covenant of grace, the gospel speaks like
this. I will and you shall. Your will is conditioned upon
what I will. The law says, and here's the
message of the law, God says, I will if you will. My will is conditioned upon your
will. Now the gospel is infinitely
superior. What do you want? A salvation
that's dependent upon your will or a salvation that's dependent
upon God's will? Which do you prefer? Go to chapter
10. Now, like I said, I've entitled this
message, The Contrast of Law and Gospel, and the writer is
specifically speaking of the contrast between the sacrifices
offered in the law. and the sacrifices of Christ. Now he says in verse one, for
the law, salvation by works, the old covenant,
salvation conditioned upon what you do, salvation in some way
dependent upon what you do. The law having a shadow. of good things to come. Not the
very image, not the reality, but nothing but a shadow. What's
a shadow do? How's it created? The blocking of light. There's
no substance to a shadow. All that, grab it. You can't,
can you? You can't feel it. You can't
touch it. There's no substance to a shadow. For the law having
a shadow of good things to come and not the very image, the reality
of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect. The blood of bulls and goats,
all these sacrifices, all these ceremonies could never make anyone
perfect. It can never take away sin. Verse
two, for then would they not have ceased to be offered if
you were made perfect. There wouldn't be the need for
another offering, would there? There wouldn't be the need for another
sacrifice, but these sacrifices were offered over and over and
over again. Why? They never really took away
sin. They represented something. They
had a shadow, but they never took away sin. If sin was purged, the people
who offered them would no longer have any consciousness of sins. If my sins were actually purged,
I wouldn't have conscious of sins, but in those sacrifices. And you think of all the sacrifices,
the morning and evening sacrifice offered every day for 1400 years. You think of the day of atonement,
you think of the Passover, you think of all the personal sacrifices
that were offered up. In those sacrifices, there is
a remembrance again made of sins every year. Now, if they actually
purged sins, they wouldn't have to be repeated, would they? But
over and over and over again, for it is not possible that the
blood of goats should take away sins. Now, there's some things
that just are not possible. I think of when the rich young
ruler that seemed like such a fine individual, and he's the one
who said with regard to the law, he said, all these have I kept
from my youth up. And he turned away and the disciple
said, if he can't be saved, who then can be saved? I mean, this
is the best humanity has to offer. Who then can be saved? The Lord
didn't say, well, it's difficult. He said, with men, it is impossible. It is impossible. If salvation
is dependent upon anything you or I do, you can forget salvation.
With men, it is impossible. I love the way the Lord in Matthew
24 was warning about false prophets. And he said, if it were possible,
they would deceive the very elect. But you know what? It's not possible
for one of God's elect to finally be deceived. It is not possible. I'm so grateful. I love it when Peter is preaching
on Pentecost, and he says with regard to the Lord dying, he
said, it was not possible that he should be holding of death.
It was not possible for him to stay dead because of who he is,
because of what he accomplished. It was not possible for him to
stay dead. And then Hebrews 6, 4, you're
there, turn with me there, Hebrews 6, 4. Verse four, for it is impossible. This can happen under any circumstance. It is impossible for those who
were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they
should fall away, to renew them again to repentance, seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open
shame." Now what he's saying is it's not possible for somebody
like that to fall away. If you've been enlightened, if
you've tasted the good gift of the Holy Spirit, if you've been
made partakers of the things of Christ and the things He describes
here, it's not possible for you to fall away. And under no circumstance,
is that possible? Without faith, the writer of
the Hebrew said in Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it is impossible
to please God. I mean, I must be given true
faith in Christ. I must myself believe the gospel.
And if I don't, it is impossible to please God. I love where it
says it's impossible for God to lie. Don't you love that? It's impossible for Him to act
contrary to His nature. That's why He cannot lie. He
cannot lie any more than He can sin, any more than He can change. He's God. He's immutable. He
cannot lie. He's utterly holy. It's impossible
for Him to. You think how easy it is for
me and you to lie. You think how easy it is for
your children to lie. You don't have to teach them to lie. It
comes natural. But it's impossible for God to lie. And it is impossible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Now go
back to Hebrews 10 verse 1. For the law having a shadow of
good things to come. Now I want you to think about
the good things to come of the gospel. The forgiveness of sins. Having all your sins forgiven. To where the only way you can
think of your sins are as forgiven sins. Redemption. That's a good thing
to come. All your debts are paid. Jesus paid it all. Not Jesus paid a half the other
half I owe, Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. Satisfaction,
what a good thing to come. God's satisfied with Christ and
God's satisfied with me. He looks at me and he says, I'm
not looking for anything else. I'm completely satisfied with
that man because of what Christ did for me. Now, that's yours.
That's the good things to come. And you're satisfied with that,
aren't you? I'm not satisfied with anything else. I'm not satisfied
with my preaching. I'm not satisfied with my faith.
I'm not satisfied with anything about me. I'm really not. But oh how I'm satisfied with
what God is satisfied with. Jesus Christ the Lord. Think of being justified. Talking
about good things to come? If I'm justified, that means
I stand before God having never sinned. That's what it means.
This is better than being forgiven, although being forgiven is great.
If I'm justified, that means I'm not guilty. I have never
sinned. I stand before God without guilt. Is that a good thing to come? Sanctification, being holy. By the witch will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,
preserved, kept by the power of God through faith and to salvation.
Good things to come. One of these days, I'm gonna
be perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and I'm
gonna stand before God without sin, and even in my experience,
I won't be a sinner, and I won't even remember what it's like
to be a sinner. Now, can you imagine that? You wanna talk about good
things to come? Now, the law had a shadow of
those good things to come. There's so many good things to
come in the gospel. Faith, what a blessing it is
to believe the gospel. What a blessing it is to repent.
You change your mind with regard to God. You used to think this
way, and now you get rid of that thinking. You know it's wrong.
You repent. What a blessing the fruit of
the Spirit is, the good things to come. What a blessing communion
with God through Christ is. Oh, the good things to come. Now the law had a shadow of those
good things to come, but not the substance, not the reality,
not the possession, not the experience of those good things to come. For the law having a shadow of
good things to come and not the very image, the reality of those
things can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year
continually. That means the repetition of
these sacrifices. Here's what they couldn't do,
they couldn't make the comers there unto perfect. Now, God requires perfection. Do you believe that? He can't
accept anything less. Leviticus 22, 21 says, it shall
be perfect to be accepted. Now the law made nothing perfect. These sacrifices could not make
the comers perfect. And when I'm saying this, don't
be discouraged by the fact that you're looking at your own imperfections,
which is a terrible way to describe them because the perfection that
he requires, he provides. God requires perfection of you.
Somebody says, that's just too difficult. Well, he provides
the perfection he requires. The law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did. As a matter of fact,
Hebrews 7, 19 says the law made nothing perfect. All the law
does, and I love God's law. I love God's law. I love the
10 commandments. Law made nothing perfect. As
a matter of fact, all the law does is expose sin. The strength of sin is the law. As long as the law is, it's going
to tell me and you what sinners we are. If you can look at God's
law and say, well, I've kept that commandment, you just don't
understand what the commandment is. You don't understand how
sinful you are or how holy God is. The law made nothing perfect. I love the way Paul said, the
law was not made for a righteous man. You know, a righteous man
doesn't need law. I want you to think about that. A righteous
man does not need the law. Law is made for lawbreakers,
for crooks, for thieves. That's why there's law, not for
the righteous man. You know, the law, I said this
recently, the law never produces love. If you have anything that you
need to do, you're just gonna resent God. The law does not
produce love, but grace produces the love to God. The law made
nothing perfect. But the gospel makes everybody
it saves perfect. Perfect. Look in Hebrews chapter
10, verse 14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now this is what
the gospel does. It does what the law cannot do. It makes perfect.
Now listen to these scriptural descriptions of the believer.
Holy. Unblameable. There's nothing
to blame me for. Unreprovable. There's nothing
for which I can be reproved by God himself because of the work
of Christ in my behalf. Without blame, without fault,
faultless, without spot. These are scriptural descriptions.
These are not my manmade descriptions. These are scriptural descriptions.
Without blemish, no wrinkle or spot or any such thing complete. Complete in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete, lacking
nothing. Completely full. You can't get
any more beautiful to God. However beautiful Jesus Christ
is to God, that's how beautiful you are to God. However much
God accepts Jesus Christ, that's how much He accepts every believer.
All the law, the sacrifices of the Old Testament, they couldn't
do this. But oh, what the gospel does, truly I am perfect in Christ. Now, when somebody says I'm not
perfect, I want to say, I know that. You didn't need to tell
me that. I got that figured out. And to
call somebody, I'm not perfect. Well, yeah, that's, that's an
understatement. I'm not, we are very imperfect, flawed creatures. But in Christ I am perfect, that
is no exaggeration. Not only will the Lord perfect
that which concerns me, I've been perfected once for all by
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ." Now, there's the contrast
between the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the sacrifices
The sacrifice of Christ, one can never make perfect. The other
makes perfect. You're looking at a perfect man
in the very sight of God. That's true with regard to every
believer. Perfect in Christ Jesus. Now look in verse two. If the animal sacrifices did
make anyone perfect. Then would they not have ceased
to be offered because the worshipers once purged should have no more
conscience of sins. Now, if the law, the sacrifices
of the law did make someone perfect, then those sacrifices would cease
to be offered. They would no longer be needed
because the worshipers once purged. Now listen if you're perfect.
Listen to this. If you're perfect, you can't become unperfect. You
can't lose perfection. If you can lose it, it's not
perfect in the first place. If you have absolute perfection,
you can't lose it. Now these people had to have
sacrifices again, which showed obviously they weren't truly
perfected or purged by those sacrifices. For then would they have ceased
to be offered because the worshipers once purged should have no more
conscience, no more consciousness of sin. Now, I always in my experience have
a consciousness of sin. Always. with regard to this sermon I'm
preaching? Would I want God to judge that
on its own? No. Anything that I do, because
I did it, there is sin in it. And I'm always conscious of that.
David said, my sin is ever before me. And when someone makes some
kind of claim contrary to this, they're not scriptural. My sin is ever before me. I don't have a clear conscience,
but there is something that satisfies my conscience. Peter put it this
way in verse Peter 3, 21. The answer of a good conscience
by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Now this is what
satisfies my conscience to where I really know nothing else is
needed. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. God accepted
what he did. He's totally pleased with it.
When he raised him from the dead, he said, I can't ask for anything
else. I don't want anything else. I'm
completely satisfied with what my son did and who he did it
for. And do you know, my conscience
rests in that. Do you know the only thing that
a conscience can rest in is perfection? That's it. Now your conscience
might be seared and be so bad that you can find rest in something
else. But if your conscience is instructed by the Holy Spirit. And if you're born of God, the
only thing your conscience can ever be satisfied with is perfection. And we have perfection in Jesus
Christ. Verse three, but in those sacrifices, There is a remembrance again
made of sins every year. Now in those sacrifices under
that Old Testament sacrificial system, let's just think of the
morning and evening sacrifice. You know, every morning there
was a sacrifice. You know why? That morning you
were a sinner. And every evening there was a
sacrifice. Why? You were still a sinner. morning and evening, they never
really took away sins under that Old Testament economy. But in
those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again, made of sins every year.
But listen to this with the blood of Christ, his sacrifice, there
is a non remembrance of sin. So that God has no memory of
those sins. And the reason God has no memory
of those sins is those sins have been put away. They're gone. It's not like they're there and
He knows they're somewhere, but He's got a perfect memory. And if there was anything for
Him to remember, He would remember. But look what the Scripture says.
This is with regard to the sin of everybody that Jesus Christ
died for. Look once again in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12. For I will be merciful. Now this is the gospel. I will
be. He doesn't say I will be. If I will be merciful, if they
just asked me for it, I will be merciful. If they do fill
in the blank, whatever it is, he says, I will be propitious
is the word. I will be propitious. And the
word propitiation means a sin removing sacrifice. I will be. perpetuous to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. And I love thinking about this.
I don't, I know it by faith. I don't know it by experience,
but I love thinking about being in heaven and God looking at
me and there's no sin for him to remember. And I won't remember it either.
I want to remember what it's like to be a sinner. Their sins
and their iniquities, I will remember no more. Let me repeat,
the only way that can be is if there's nothing there to remember.
That's how Christ removed the sins. He made it to where there
is nothing there to remember. Look in chapter 10, it's repeated,
verse 17. Their sins and their iniquities,
I will remember no more. Now, how can that be? Because
of His sacrifice, there are no sins to remember. Turn with me
to Jeremiah chapter 50. Jeremiah chapter 50. Remember,
I introduced this message saying, oh, that we might be enabled
to say, oh, glorious day, he took my sins away on the cross
of Calvary. And that's what took place when
he said it is finished, the sins of everybody he died for. were
made to not be. He took them away. Now look in Jeremiah chapter
50 verse 20. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for
and there shall be none. Now if there's anything
there to find, God's going to find it. The iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for by God, and there shall be none. Blotted out, these are scriptural descriptions of what Christ did
by His sacrifice with our sins. Blotted out, cancelled, disannulled,
Separated as far as the East is from the West, cast behind
God's back, cast into the depths of the sea. These are glorious
descriptions, but they're not as glorious as this. There shall
be none. None. What sin? He's perfect in my sight. That
is what the blood of Jesus Christ does. It makes me perfect in
God's sight. And I'm not talking about just
in title, but in God's sight, every believer is holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable. In heaven, it will not be just
as if I never sinned. I never sinned. Verse four of our text, Hebrews
chapter 10. Now in the sacrifices of the
law, there's a remembrance again made of sins every year, but
in the sacrifice of Christ, there is a complete non remembrance
of sin. Verse four, for it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Now, while it's not possible for the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, when Jesus Christ
died, sin was taken away. He was manifest to take away
our sins. And in Him is no sin. Now, every time we talk about
the blood of Jesus Christ, we need to remember His blood is
always successful blood. It would be impossible for Him
to die for somebody and they wind up in hell. I realize that
most of this religious world we live in says that Jesus Christ
shed his blood for everybody, but it's up to you as to whether
or not it's gonna work for you. There's no gospel in that message.
Listen, if he died for you, you don't run the risk of the hazard
of being anything but saved. If Christ died for you, and the
evidence he died for you, is you're relying on him only. Are
you relying on him only as all your acceptance before God? He
died for you, and you must be saved. Look in verse 10 of Hebrews chapter
10. By the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified through The offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Declared by God to be holy. Once for all. The blood of Christ
makes this real and puts in our possession all of the good things
of the gospel. The sacrifice of Christ makes
us perfect. The sacrifice of Christ satisfies
our conscience by his resurrection. The sacrifice of Christ makes
the non-remembrance of sins because the sacrifice of Christ actually
put those sins away. Now may the Lord give me and
you the grace to say and understand how this is so. And when we put
our head on our pillow tonight, may we all say, oh, glorious
day. He took my sins. Away. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
sacrifice of your dear son. that perfected us forever, that
took away our sins, that paid the debt we owed because of our
transgression, that honored your holy law. Lord, how we thank
you for the sacrifice of Christ. And we ask that you would take
this word and bless it to our heart. And Lord, I'm asking in
Christ's name that every one of us might be enabled by your
grace to believe on your son. and to know that he is our salvation,
and enable us to say, oh glorious day, he took my sins away. Bless
this message for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.