HEBREWS 10:1-182008 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Hebrews 10:1-18

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2008. This morning as we get started in Hebrews chapter 10, I've got some good news and some bad news for you. You want the bad news first? Okay, bad news first. Sacrifices and good works cannot make you perfect. I'm sorry, it's true.

It just will not happen. Sacrifices and good works cannot make you perfect. Now for the good news. You don't have to stay there in the absence of perfection. The good news is that Jesus Christ can make you perfect. In fact, he can perfect you forever as you are being sanctified. And that's what the author of Hebrews is explaining here in chapter 10. That the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is far superior than

to any other sacrifice. Now the author of Hebrews has been explaining and demonstrating the superiority of Jesus Christ from the very beginning.

Jesus is superior to angels, to Moses, to Joshua, to Aaron, his high priest, to the whole priesthood altogether, to what this morning he is looking at specifically, the sacrifices, and how the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is far superior, in fact, infinitely superior to the sacrifices that were given and commanded under the Old Testament, under the law.

And so we're talking about sacrifices and we'll see five different things about sacrifices this morning from this portion. Five points I want to highlight and the object or the objective in looking at these things is, although we won't get into it today, the next portion in Hebrews commands us that since we have Jesus as all of these things, since he is superior, that we're to draw near to him.

And so I want to encourage you as we look at these things that you would let them and allow them to be encouragements to you to draw near to God and walk with God, to enter His presence and get to know Him. The first point we see this morning from Hebrews chapter 10 is that sacrifices cannot take away sin. And we see that in verse 1.

It says, He starts explaining here about the law. The law, he says, has a shadow of the good things to come and is not the very image of the things. He says, He says,

The sacrifices which are contained within the law, therefore, cannot, it's impossible for them to make those who approach perfect. Those who approach God cannot be made perfect by sacrifices. He explains this because sacrifices were a part of the law, part of the old covenant, the commandments of God. And he says that the law was a shadow of the good things to come.

Now we've seen the tabernacle in the last few weeks as we've been studying Hebrews. We've seen the tabernacle and we've gone over this idea of the tabernacle as a shadow, as an empty box, as an image or a model. We've looked at it in several different ways.

But the tabernacle is a shadow. What we mean by that is that there's a reality that exists in heaven and the one that exists on earth was just a shadow. The substance wasn't there, but it had the outline of it. It was similar. It had similar components and features, but it was not the substance. In the same way, the law is a shadow or the law was a shadow.

The law is a shadow because it is not what God ultimately intended, but it was something that provided a covering. It was something that provided opportunity for man to approach God until the reality came. The effectiveness of a shadow is very limited. I'm sure you understand that. If I was to cause the shadow of my hand to go across your face, well, it wouldn't impact you very much.

But if I was to cause my hand to go across your face, you'd probably feel it. In fact, you would probably slap me back, right? Hope so. You'd turn the other cheek and slap me back.

The point is, the shadow across is not very effective. But the substance, well, there's something there. There's a reality there. In the same way, the law was a shadow, but it's not very effective. It's limited, and so the sacrifices that are contained in the law cannot make those who approach God perfect, because it's limited to the context of being just the shadow. A shadow, you understand, projects the silhouette of what is coming.

So you see the shadow of someone that you love and have not seen for a while. You don't go and embrace the shadow, right? You don't fall on the ground and, oh, I love you, I've missed you. Well, you don't do that because, well, the shadow just means that there's a substance there, there's a person there, a reality. And so you go and embrace the person because that's who you've missed and that's who you love.

In the same way the law was just a shadow, and what was a shadow of? He says it was a shadow of the good things to come. And what was the good thing to come? Well, it's the good thing that has already come in our case, and that is Jesus Christ. And Jesus has cast this shadow, which is the law, which is the sacrificial system, and those things have pictures of Jesus, and they foretell Jesus, they're all about Jesus, but they're not the substance of Jesus.

Because notice the subject here is it's those who approach God and the sacrifices cannot make those who approach God perfect. But the good things to come, you remember what Jesus said in John 14 verse 6, he says, no one comes to the Father except through me. The good thing to come, what God actually desired and intended was for you and I to have relationship with him through Jesus Christ.

And so he is the good thing to come. He is the reality, the shadow, the law, the old covenant was just the silhouette of what God intended. Just the hints and the shadows of what God was going to do. And as a result, since they are the shadows, they cannot take away sin. They cannot make a person perfect. He says...

the law having a shadow of good things to come can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year so not only is the law unable to make you perfect but just because you do a lot of sacrifices doesn't give you any advantage he says they make the same sacrifices over and over year by year continually they're offering sacrifices and these sacrifices that they're offering cannot make you perfect

And the number of sacrifices that you offer cannot change the reality that sacrifices cannot deal with sin, cannot take away sin. And they cannot make you perfect. Sacrifices were a temporary covering. And they were okay. They were fine for the appointed time. But when the reality came, the shadow is no longer needed. When the reality was there, the shadow is not necessary. And it's not significant anymore. Again, you don't go and hug the shadow.

Because the reality is there. It's the substance. It's the reality that is important. And so the sacrifices in the whole Old Testament, the whole Old Covenant, was the shadow of Jesus Christ. And that's why it all points to Jesus Christ. That's why later on he'll be able to say, in the volume of the book it is written of me. The whole book is about me, Jesus says.

Because it's the shadow that was cast. It was the shadow of the things which were to come that would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. They were not the reality. And so they were not effective at dealing with sin. Because sin for you and I is a reality. It's not just a shadow in our lives. There is sin. We fall short. We blow it. We rebel against God. And the law is ineffective at dealing with that reality in us. He goes on to elaborate on that in verse 2. He says...

For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshippers, once purified, would have no more consciousness of sins. So follow the logic here. It's not very difficult. The priests offer sacrifices continually, annually, year by year. They're not able to make those who approach perfect. He asked the question. If they were able to make someone perfect, then wouldn't the sacrifices stop being offered? Wouldn't they stop offering the sacrifices continually?

And of course the answer is yes. Because if I offer a sacrifice and I'm made perfect, well then I don't need to come back and offer sacrifices anymore. Because I don't have, well I don't have the sin issue that needs to be dealt with.

And so, yeah, sure, sacrifices would need to be offered, but it'd kind of be, you know, you go and you offer it, and then you're taken care of, and then, you know, pretty soon everybody's taken care of, and it's just, you know, the newborns, and when they grow up and they're of age, then they offer their sacrifice, and then the sacrifices would be finished. It would be taken care of. If the sacrifices were effective at making someone perfect, they wouldn't need to be going on continually. They would stop.

They would not sacrifice anymore. He goes on to explain the worshippers once purified, if they were once purified, they were made perfect by an offering. He says they would have no more consciousness of sins. This word consciousness, it's also the word for conscience. Conscience.

It's the idea of the awareness or the witness within ourselves of sin. So if they were made perfect, they would not have an awareness or the witness to their conscience convicting them of sin, so they wouldn't be coming to offer sacrifices any longer. They wouldn't have that awareness, and so not being bothered by their conscience because they're perfect, they wouldn't need to come to the temple or to the tabernacle to offer sacrifices any longer.

So then we might ask the question, well, if the sacrifices were not able to make a person perfect, what was the point of them then? Why did God command them? Why did he establish them? Well, we see that in verse 3. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. Here's the point of the sacrifices. It was not to make perfect, but it was a reminder of sin. It was a reminder that there was an issue.

The law was an illustration, it was a picture, it was a means of educating people so that we would know that we need a Savior and that we had fallen short. You know, like Paul said, I wouldn't know what covetous was unless the law said, do not covet. Because we have the law, we know our sinful condition. We know where we stand, we know we fall short.

If we didn't have those commands, we would just think we're okay because that's our natural tendency, isn't it? I think I'm pretty good. You ask the average person if they think they're going to go to heaven. Yeah, I do. Whether they believe in Jesus Christ, they usually do. Yeah, I believe I'm going to go to heaven because my good works outweigh my bad works and they have this system in their head by which they think that they can relate to God and they think they're a pretty good person. But it's the law that comes in. It's the law that educates us, that shows us

You're not as good as you think you are. In fact, you're a wretched sinner just like me. We fall short. We blow it and we rebel against God. And so the sacrifices were reminders for sin. The law foreshadowed Jesus and pointed to Jesus and showed us the need that we have for a Savior. The need that we have for Jesus Christ. Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

The point of the law, the purpose of the law was to teach us, to tutor us, to show us we need a savior so that we would come to Christ and be justified, be made right standing before God by faith in him. Not on the basis of our sacrifices, not on the basis of our good works, but on the basis of him and his work and what he accomplished for us. He goes on to say in verse four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. It is not, it was not, it was never possible for those sacrifices to take away sins. Again, I want to encourage you to understand the context of this writing. As the author of Hebrews is writing this, he's writing to those believers in Jesus who had been raised in Judaism.

They were Jews who had believed in Jesus Christ and become saved and started following God. And as he's writing, we can determine, we can see from the letter that is written here, there was some wavering that was going on and there was some pressures for them to go back and participate under the old covenant again. And so they were being pulled back to the sacrificial system.

And so you can imagine the impact as they grew up with this their whole lives. You can understand that, I'm sure. You have those things that you've grown up with. Those who have been raised in the Catholic Church have those things. You know they're things that you've been raised with and they're hard for you to get over. Even some of them you know are not biblical, but you still have because it's been part of your life for so long.

The same way these Jewish believers, the sacrificial system, the old covenant, has been part of their life for so long. The apostle, or whoever's writing this, is making it very clear so that they understand it's not possible. I know you're used to the sacrificial system, but it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

You can imagine this would be something very hard for them to grasp. And yet, it's something that is hard for us to grasp as well because the same thing that they struggled with in going back to the sacrificial system, we struggle with, whether we acknowledge it or know it or not, we struggle with the tendency to try to relate to God on the basis of keeping the law. We struggle with, we have the tendency to try to relate to God

On the basis of our good works. Now it's not necessarily on the Levitical system that we try to keep and try to relate to God based on. Sometimes we make up our own systems. You know, there's some who are very legalistic and they stick to the Old Testament and you got to eat these things and you got to do these things in order to have right relationship with God and still today they teach those things. But there's also in our own heads, we come up with our own system by which we say, okay, if I sin this way,

then I need to do these things and stay away from these other things and practice this so that I kind of make up for that sin that I have done. Now, I want to take a moment and just ask for some honesty, and I'm hoping I won't be the only one who raises my hand, but by a show of hands, have you ever tried to make up for sin or failure in your life with good works? Has anybody ever tried to do that? We've all done it.

It's something we struggle with. It's our natural tendency. We try to relate to God on the basis of our good works. And here he's making the point, it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. I'm not suggesting that you went and tried to offer a sacrifice and you went to Michael's backyard and killed his goat. I'm not suggesting that.

But we come up with a system of works. We come up with a system of, if I do this amount of this, or if I stay away from this amount of that, it kind of compensates for that wrong that I did. But here's what we need to understand. The law is what God established. Now, He established it as temporary. It was a shadow. But God established it. He's the one who put it in place. And the law was unable to make a person perfect and take away their sin.

So, if the law that God established was unable to do these things, the law that we establish and the system that we work up in our own heads will not be any more effective than the law that God established. We cannot deal with sin. We cannot take away sin by our system itself.

of good works or our system of sacrifices what we think we're offering to God in order to compensate for the sin or failure that we've had in our lives. We cannot approach God on the basis of our own works, our own goodness, our own system that we've made up in our heads. There's only one way and it's not through sacrifices and it's not through offerings and it's not through good works. It's through Jesus Christ and his once and for all sacrifice that we'll talk about in a few more moments.

So the point here, number one, as we start off this morning, is that sacrifices cannot take away sin. You cannot deal with sin by sacrifices, whether under the Levitical system or any other system that you come up with in your head. Number two, he goes on to say that God had no pleasure in sacrifices. Not only are they ineffective, but God had no pleasure in them. Look at verse 5.

He says,

And he's quoting this psalm and applying it to Jesus. And he's saying, when Jesus came into the world, when he was born, when he came to accomplish his purpose here upon the earth, here is what he said. Jesus said to the Father, sacrifice an offering you did not desire. Jesus did not come so that he could offer sacrifices at the temple. Although he did that, not out of necessity, but desire.

You understand? Just as he was baptized as an example. He kept the law. But he didn't come for that purpose. It wasn't that God needed someone else to come and bring more animals to be sacrificed. He didn't come for that purpose. He says, sacrifice and offering you didn't desire. But a body you have prepared for me. He says, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you had no pleasure. Now, if...

God didn't desire sacrifices and he had no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. And God's the one who established the law. You might ask, God, why did you put the sacrifices in there then? If you didn't desire them and you don't have pleasure in them, why did you put the sacrifices in there? Why is that part of the law if it's not what you desire? Well, and again, we go back to the subject of a shadow. Jesus said,

was the good things which were to come, the sacrifices which is what pointed to Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he would offer in himself. It wasn't that God wanted the blood of animals. And you can imagine, okay, if I offend you and then I say, man, I'm really sorry, I'm going to go kill a cat. Will that make you feel better? No. No.

What kind of reasoning is that? That doesn't make any sense. In the same way, the sacrificial systems, I'm making it a little bit lighter than it is, but you understand, the sacrificial system, the killing of animals, it didn't really deal with sin. It wasn't that God wanted more animals dead. It was the picture. It was the method that we would know that we can approach God, but not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of that which was to come, that which the shadow was pointed to,

fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he would offer. See, the point is that God didn't have pleasure in the sacrifice, but he had pleasure in the relationship that was brought about. He had pleasure in the people who would come to him by faith, knowing that it doesn't make a lot of sense that I killed this animal and my sin is covered, but by faith in God because he said it, I'm going to do it. He had pleasure in the relationship and it's what God desires is relationship with us.

It's not the sacrifice itself, but the relationship that it brings about that God desires and has pleasure in. We have an example of this in Matthew chapter 9, where Jesus there, he's eating at a table with tax collectors and sinners. And as he's spending time with them, he's eating with them, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, they see it and they're upset by this. And they go to his disciples and they say, hey, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

And Jesus hears about this. He responds to them and he says, go and learn what this means. Quoting from Hosea 6.6, Jesus tells them, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And he goes on to say, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. See, this is what the sacrifices were intended for. This is what God desires. This is the pleasure that he has. Spending time with people. Having relationship. And yes, they were tax collectors and sinners, but...

Because of faith, because of the work that was to be accomplished, God's able to have relationship with them. On the other side though, the religious leaders, they're trying to use the law for what it was not intended for. The law was not intended, well, let me back up for a second. Sacrifices were necessary because of sin. They were a means for sinners to come to God. And so Jesus says, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Him being the sacrifice. He's come to call sinners to repentance. That's what the sacrifices were all about. That's what the law was for. The law was not for... The sacrifices were not a means for people to be self-righteous and judgmental of others. As the Pharisees were doing. They're saying, we keep the law. They don't. Why are you associating with... Notice what they say. Tax collectors and sinners. They exclude themselves from the sinners category.

Why don't you hang out with us righteous? They don't deserve you. They're sinners. Why even bother with them? They use the law to be self-righteous and judgmental of others, but that's not what the law was foreshadowing. What was the law foreshadowing? Mercy. Mercy. It was foreshadowing God having mercy and having relationship and giving an opportunity for sinners like us to repent and come to Him and approach Him.

And so Jesus says, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. See, there's something better than sacrifice. Mercy is better than sacrifice. There's another thing that's better than sacrifice. And that's obedience. And that's point number three this morning. Obedience is better than sacrifice. We see that in verses 8 through 10. Again, verse 8 says, Previously saying...

So now the author, again, he's looking at that quotation from Psalm chapter 40, but he's analyzing it. He's breaking it down a little bit. And so here he points out the first part of the quote. The first part of the quote is, sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, offering for sin, you didn't desire, nor did you have pleasure in them.

And that's what verse 8 is all about. He's just calling to our attention, this is the first part. There's a second part. We'll get to the second part in a minute. But here's the first part. So you know what the first part is? The first part is that God did not desire nor have pleasure in sacrifices and offerings. Then in verse 9 he says, Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. So he quotes it again,

They're in verse 8 and then the first part of verse 9. And then he gives his analysis at the end. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. So you understand what the first is. Offerings for sin. God did not desire, nor did he have pleasure in them. So he takes away that in order to establish the second. What was the second? That's where Jesus says, Behold, I've come to do your will, O God. He points out the second part of the quote here.

replacing the first part. The first part is taken away. Instead of sacrifice and offering which God did not desire, Jesus says, "Here I am, ready to do your will." Obedience is better than sacrifice. Jesus came to live a life of obedience because that's what God desired. He didn't desire offerings and sacrifices for sin. He did desire a life of obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice.

You might remember the story back in 1 Samuel chapter 15 of Saul as he was king of Israel. And he was commanded by God to go against the Amalekites and to wipe them out completely because of what they had done and the sin that they were involved in. But if you know the story, Saul comes back not having been fully obedient to God. And he comes back and he has the king with him and he has some of the livestock. And so instead of wiping everything out as God commanded him, he comes back with

Some of the livestock. Some of the people. And Samuel challenges him. He says, what are you doing? And Saul, you know, he tries to explain it away and he makes all kinds of excuses. And he says, well, what we did was we thought it would be really cool to bring back the goats and the lambs and the livestock and then we're going to sacrifice them to God. So I had to be disobedient to God so that I could then come and sacrifice to God. And Samuel tells him,

In verse 22 of 1 Samuel 15, he says, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in the obeying of the voice of the Lord? He says, Behold, it is better to obey than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. Obedience is better than sacrifice is the point that Samuel is making. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Now, many times we're just like Saul. We're disobedient, disobedient,

And we like our disobedience. And so rather than changing our disobedience, what we do is we just try to offer more sacrifices to try to cover over and compensate for that failure, that sin, that disobedience that we're so content to have in our lives. God says, obedience is better than sacrifice. You can't disobey God and then try to make up for it by offering more sacrifice.

I know I fail here. I know I do this. I blow it here. But I'll just, you know, read my Bible more or give more money to the church or help that homeless guy or just do some other good things or I'll not watch TV for a week. And that'll kind of make up for this disobedience. It doesn't work that way. Obedience is better than sacrifice. And so Jesus comes. He says, you didn't desire sacrifice. That's not what you're looking for, God. So here I am. I've come to do your will. Jesus came to do God's will.

A clear example that hopefully pops into your head is Jesus there in the garden in Matthew chapter 26 as he's praying to the Father. Right before he's about to be led away to be crucified, he says, Lord, if there's any way for this cup to pass from me, let it be that way. But he closes the prayer saying, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. Jesus came to do God's will. He went to the cross. Not his will. God's will. He went to the cross.

Because he came to do God's will. But you know, it wasn't just a one-time act of obedience there at the end of his life. It was how he lived his life. Earlier on in John chapter 6, verse 38, Jesus says, I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, which is what made his sacrifice meaningful and powerful. If Jesus had not lived a life of perfect obedience, his sacrifice would be meaningless.

But he lived a life of obedience. Perfect walking the will of God. Verse 10. By that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By that will. What will? Jesus says, I've come to do your will, O God. And the author of Hebrews says, it's by that will that Jesus came to fulfill that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

You know, sometimes we get the picture in our head that the Father is an angry God and that He's always ready to strike us down. But, you know, it's a good thing for Jesus because He's there. He kind of intervenes, stops the lightning from hitting us, kind of deflects it a little bit. Man, if it weren't for Jesus, God would strike us down. But that's the wrong picture. He says, look, by that will, by God's will, it's God the Father's will that we be sanctified. And that's why He sent Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.

It's God who loved the world. It's God who loved you, who loved me. That motivated him to send his son to die on the cross for us. It's God's will that none should perish, 2 Peter 3 tells us. Again in John chapter 6 in verse 40, Jesus says, This is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Here's God's will. That everyone who believes in Jesus will have everlasting life. God the Father is not an angry God ready to strike you down. He's a God who loves you and desires relationship with you. Desires for you to have everlasting life and to spend eternity with Him. That's why He sent His Son. It's by that will that we have been sanctified. It means to be set apart from

Set apart has two aspects to it. We're set apart from sin, set free from the bondage to sin and death, Romans tells us. We're set apart from the world. We're set apart from the flesh. That's the first part of sanctified. But the second part of sanctified is we're set apart unto God. Not just from sin, not just from the world, not just from flesh, but we're set apart to God for His purposes, for His will, for His calling.

unto God, being sanctified unto God means that we are to live a life of obedience. We're set free by God, set apart by Him, not so that we can live our own lives and party it up and, hey, you know, it's all under grace and no problems. You can just live your life in disobedience. You're sanctified. You're set apart to be free to obey God, to walk with Him, to follow Him and to

Live your life in submission to His will as Jesus. We're following the example of Jesus saying, Behold, I'm here to do your will, God. Not my will, but your will be done. Because obedience is better than sacrifice. God is not looking for us to try to sacrifice and offer these things and do these good works to make up for our sin. He's looking for us to be set apart unto Him. To live a life of obedience because it's better than sacrifice.

Point number four this morning is that one sacrifice, it's one sacrifice for sins forever, rather. One sacrifice for sins forever. Verse 11. Again, he's looking at the sacrificial system.

And as the author of Hebrews is writing this, at the time of this writing, as they're reading this, the temple was still standing. And sacrifices were still going on. Jesus had already come. The fulfillment, the substance had already come. But the sacrifices were still going on. They were still happening. And he says, every priest, they stand ministering daily and they're offering repeatedly those same sacrifices which can never take away sins. And that's not something new.

Because Jesus came. They could never take away sins and that's why we have the quotation there from Psalm chapter 40. He didn't desire. He had no pleasure in sacrifices. But they stand there ministering daily, repeatedly the same sacrifices over and over and over again. Sometimes you think your job is meaningless. Think about their job. They're offering these sacrifices continually, repeatedly, over and over and they were not effective. They could not take away sins.

The Hebrews that he was writing to, again, they're wanting to go back to those sacrifices. And he's saying, look, they can't take away sins. You can't go back to those things because it's not effective at dealing with sin. It was useful for a time, but now Jesus has come. Let me give you an example.

Many of you know, I'm sure most of you know, I have a thyroid condition and so they've been doing different things to deal with that and most recently they killed the thyroid. Well, it's in the process of dying really. And so in a couple of weeks, I'm going to start taking thyroid medication to bring my thyroid level to where it should be. It will be deficient. It will not be producing enough. It will fail to perform as it should. And so I'll be taking medication to bring it to the appropriate level where it's supposed to be.

Now, let's say, hypothetical, I'm taking the medication, my thyroid's where it's supposed to be, and then God decides, I want to heal Jerry. And so he heals my thyroid, makes it completely fine, it produces a sufficient amount of thyroid on its own, it's exactly in balance, it's where it needs to be, it's a healthy thyroid. If God decides to do that, then I'm healed. Then I don't need to take that medication any longer. You with me so far?

I don't need to take that medication any longer because it's working well, it's healthy, it's doing what it's supposed to do. However, if I then go back to taking that medication that was used when it was deficient to bring it back up, well, if I take medication and add that onto a healthy thyroid, it will make me sick. It will make me unhealthy. My body will be in all kinds of distress. In the same way,

The sacrifices were good because man is deficient. And so the sacrifices were a temporary covering in order to make up for, to take care of that failure on man's part. But when Jesus came, there's a spiritual healing.

When Jesus came, the fulfillment of those sacrifices are there. Those sacrifices are not needed any longer because you can have a healthy relationship with God through Jesus Christ and there's not need for any sacrifices or offerings of that sort. No need to compensate for sin, to compensate for where you fall short. But if you then go and add on sacrifices, if you start taking the medication even though you're healthy,

If you add on good works, you add on legalism, you add on this system that you've come up with by which you approach God on the basis of what you do and how you perform, it'll make you sick. You won't have a healthy relationship with God. It will distort it and destroy it. Now there is complete healing in Jesus Christ. And so it's more than useless. It's dangerous to go back to sacrifices and works. You can't say, well, just in case, you know, Jesus doesn't cover all my sin because I'm a big sinner. I'm going to do these extra works.

No, it's not just useless, it's dangerous. It will distort and mess up your life, your walk. You will not have a healthy relationship with God. He says those priests, they stand ministering daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, and they can never take away sins. In contrast to that, verse 12, But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.

So in contrast to the priests there standing, ministering every day, continually offering sacrifices, which cannot take away sin, this man, Jesus Christ, offered one sacrifice. One sacrifice for sins forever. One sacrifice for sins forever. They offer repeatedly, daily sacrifices, continually. They can't take away sin. Jesus, one sacrifice. No need for it to be repeated. It's not going to run out and then he'll need to do it again.

It's one sacrifice forever for sin. He offered one sacrifice. There's no further sacrifice needed. His sacrifice is able to do what the animal sacrifices could not. And a testimony to that is that it says He sat down at the right hand of God. He sat down at the right hand of God. That speaks to us of a finished work. There was no chairs in the tabernacle. There was no chairs in the temple or in the courtyard.

No lazy boy for them to kind of kick back for a little bit. Look again at verse 11. And every priest stands ministering daily. They're not seated. Why? Because there's work to do. They're offering the sacrifices. They're not doing anything, but they're offering them. But Jesus, His work is completed. It's a finished work. And so He's seated at the right hand of God. It speaks to us that His work is completed, that He's done. It also speaks to us of His position there at the right hand of the Father.

We've dealt with that in chapters past, so I'm not going to spend some time there. But he's there at the right hand of the Father, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. The work is finished. The battle is won. And he's just allowing history to play out. He's allowing it to all come to pass. The reality of it to be made known, to be complete. Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice for sins forever. Verse 14 says,

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. By one offering. Again, not many. His offering was complete and perfect, satisfying every point of the law and satisfying all righteousness. And so He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified by that one offering. Now consider that phrase, those two words together, perfected forever. Perfected forever.

Perfected forever. Can you get any more complete than that? Perfected forever. You know, right now my car is in need of some attention. It's leaking gas, I think. It smells like gas anyways. And I think some oil as well. And possibly some steering fluid, power steering fluid. There's fluids everywhere I go and wherever I park. And so I make sure to park on the street or away, you know, not in people's driveways. Perfected forever.

Because it's in some serious need of attention. Now Jonathan says, hey, can you drive some kids up to the winter camp this weekend? Well, I'm going to put my car in the shop this week and make sure it's all taken care of. Get those things fixed and my car will be prepared. It'll be ready. It'll be fixed by the time we head up the mountain on Friday. But it's only until the next time.

Well, something happened. You don't put your car in the shop and then it's perfect forever. Anybody ever had that experience? I just put my car in the shop once, it's perfect forever. No! Another 10,000 miles down the road, you know, then it's going to need some more attention. Another 100,000 miles, it's going to need some serious attention. It's just, it's perfect right now, after it's fixed, but it's not going to last forever. That's not the case with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.

With one offering, He perfected forever. Once and for all. Completely perfected and will never need to be renewed or repaired. His offering takes care of it forever. Forever. He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. So those who believe in Jesus Christ have been perfected forever.

At the same time that we're being sanctified. Now, you see the difference in the tenses here. He has perfected forever, past tense, those who are being sanctified. There's the past tense, He already did it there upon the cross. But then there's also the present tense, those who are being sanctified, being set apart. There's a spiritual reality right now that is that we are perfect forever. We've been perfected forever. There's a physical reality right now that we're still in the process.

We're being sanctified. God's doing the work. In fact, we should have signs on us that says, God's working. I know I mess up and I know I offend you, but God's working on me. I'm not finished yet. I'm being sanctified. Jesus' sacrifice was complete and perfect. It was one sacrifice for all. One sacrifice for sin forever. Never needing to be repeated, renewed. It's one sacrifice for sin forever.

Point number five is that there is no more sacrifice for sin. That's really the conclusion of point number four. If there's one sacrifice for sin forever, then, therefore, point number five, there's no more sacrifice for sin. Look at verse 15. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us. For after he had said before, verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days.

Now he's quoting here from Jeremiah chapter 31.

And we dealt with this in greater detail in chapter 8 of Hebrews. So I encourage you, if you missed that one, you can pick up the CD or spend some time on your own and study those things because I'm not going to go into it right now. But the author of Hebrews is using this quotation to confirm the point that he is making.

He says, under the new covenant, God will be working from the inside out. That's where the Lord says, I will put my laws into their hearts, in their minds I will write them. He's going to be working from the inside out. That's what we discussed in Hebrews chapter 8.

But he's using that to make the point because later on after that he says in verse 17, then he adds their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. So under the new covenant, not only will God do a work from the inside out, but also God will not remember their sins anymore for those who are under that covenant through Jesus Christ, for those who have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Sins will not be remembered. Why? Well, because the once and for all sacrifice is

has been made. He won't remember them because they've been paid in full. I'm sure you've received a ticket probably in your lifetime and you know what that's like. When you get a ticket, whether for speeding or parking or whatever, you get some kind of notice and it says, this is the fine that you're to pay. And the government, the law enforcement, they're pretty good at reminding you, if you don't pay, that you need to pay.

And sometimes if you need to have this intensity of a reminder, they'll put some bars in front of your face to remind you, you need to pay it back. You got to pay this fine. There's this debt that you owe because of what you have done, because of your breaking the law and your failure to keep the law.

But let's say you have a ticket, you have this fine that you receive notice, you have to get it paid, and so you go to the clerk and you get to the window and you say, okay, I need to pay this fine. Here's the numbers, here's the account, here's my name, all that information. They look it up. It's not in the system. But I need to pay this. Well, no you don't. It's not in the system. Can you double check? Make sure I don't have to pay this? Yeah, it's not in the system. It's taken care of.

There's no more sacrifice for sin. Why? Well, that lawless deed is not remembered. In the same way, now, it's not in the same way that God will just kind of forget. It's like, hey, I just kind of forgot about your sin. No. Jesus paid the fine. Someone went and paid the fine ahead of you. They paid the fine before you. So you try to go pay the fine, offering your own sacrifices, doing your own good works. Okay, I got to make up for my sin. And God says, it's not in the system. What are you talking about? That's already taken care of. It's paid in full. He says, their sins and their lawless deeds are not remembered.

I will remember no more. Verse 18, Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. See, where it's been pained and full, where it's been taken care of, where sin is no longer there because it's been fulfilled, the law has been fulfilled, the judgment has been fulfilled, the fine has been paid, there's no longer an offering for sin. God will not remember our sins and lawless deeds under the new covenant. Therefore, there is no offering that we can offer. There is no sacrifice that we can make

To cover sin. To take care of sin. To deal with sin. Because it's already paid. No more sacrifice for sin. There's no more sacrifice for sin. And so yes, you and I fail. And we fall short and we mess up. But again, look at where all this started. In verse 1 of Hebrews 10.

He talks about the law and it has the shadow of the good things to come and the sacrifices, but he ends verse 1 saying, it cannot make those who approach perfect. The real subject here is approaching God, coming to God, getting to know God, having relationship with God. And the point that he's making is that the sacrifices and sacrificial systems...

Although we wouldn't go to the temple because it's not there, and we don't offer sacrifices because it's not our culture, it's not part of what we were brought up in, and the temple is not there. We cannot relate to God. We cannot approach God on the basis of our works, of our goodness, of our keeping of some system that we've created in our head. We can't make an offering for sin. We can't make payment for sin. We can't compensate for our failure because it's already been paid in full. And so the point is, he will go on in Hebrews 10,

We won't look at it today, but in verse 19 and following, the point that he says is, look, because we have Jesus, because he's far superior, because of the work that he's done for us, verse 22 of Hebrews 10 says, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Let's draw near to God. The whole point of all of this is so that we would then draw near to God. So that we would know, hey, you don't have to earn access to God.

You don't have to compensate. Yes, you blow it. Yes, you mess up. Yes, you fail. Yes, you sin. Yes, you rebel. Yes, you flat out spit in God's face and do what you know He doesn't want you to do. But you don't have to compensate for that. You don't have to offer sacrifices for that. There's no more offering for sin. No more sacrifice for sin. Because where there is remission of sin, there's no longer need of a payment. And under the new covenant, by faith in Jesus Christ, your sin is paid in full. Your sin is paid in full.

And so his point is, so come. Don't stay away. Come to God. Draw close to Him. Draw near to Him. You know, this week, God often allows me to experience things that I'm about to teach. And so this week, He's allowed me to have a good sense of inadequacy and failure. Definitely not to the full extent of where, you know, of how great I fall. There's much more I'm sure He could show me. But I thank Him for the little bit that He shows me.

And so he shows me, he gives me this awareness of, man, I blew it. Several different ways, several different avenues, several different people I've affected and impacted. Man, Lord, why am I, why do you show me these things? God says, look, I'm just testing you. What are you going to do? Are you going to try to compensate for those failures by doing good works? Are you going to try to compensate for them by reading more, by worshiping more, by...

offering these sacrifices, by staying away from these things, by adding on these things, by holding yourself to this standard? How are you going to deal with that? Are you going to enter into the presence of God? That's a challenge every one of us faces because we all fall short. The question is, what are you going to do with that failure? Are you going to go back to the sacrificial system, try to make up for it, try to make payment for that? You can't do it. Number one, sacrifices can't take away sin. Number two,

So even if you try that, it's not effective. Number two, God has no pleasure in sacrifices. So offering those sacrifices doesn't mean that God has more pleasure with you. Like the Pharisees, you know, you hold yourself to this strict thing and, oh, God's really pleased with me. You missed the point. God has no pleasure in sacrifices. No, He has pleasure in obedience. Live a life of obedience. Live a life according to the will of God. Because He offered one sacrifice for sins forever.

And what's God's will? What obedience does God want you to walk in? What is the work of God? To believe in the one whom he has sent. God wants you to walk in faith, believing in Jesus Christ and entering into his presence because he sent his son as the one sacrifice for sins forever so that there's no more sacrifice for sin, so that we can't compensate for failure, that we can't add to what Christ has done, that we have full access to him forever.

That we have full opportunity to relate to him. That he loves us completely and is pleased with us by faith in Jesus Christ. Not by what we do or how we perform. Not even if you drop your Bible in the middle of service. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. God, that it's not up to us, it's not up to our sacrifices, and it's not based upon what we do or how we perform. God, that it's based upon you and what you've accomplished for us.

Jesus, we thank you that there's no more sacrifice for sin. There's nothing more we can do to take care of sin. It's paid in full completely. God, I pray that you would help us to really grasp that. Lord, that we would not be tempted or that we would keep ourselves from going down that path of trying to relate to you on the basis of our good works or our sacrifices or how well we do. Lord, keep us from that. Help us to walk by faith and not by sight.

Lord, doing those good works and doing those sacrifices might make us feel good, but Lord, there's no substance to them. Those things were just the shadow of what was to come. So Lord, may we walk by faith and not by our feelings, receiving the full and complete sacrifice that you offered for us once and for all forever. And may we never try to add on to that, to make up for our sin by paying these prices that we've made up ourselves or think that you require.

Lord, you paid the price. And so may we be obedient to you then. May we walk according to your will in relationship with you, entering into your presence and allowing you to transform us from the inside out. Help us, God, to walk with you. Take us into your presence. Lord, never let us go. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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