A Living Sacrifice: God’s Solution

Transcript

JR 2
02/20/2022
A Living Sacrifice: God’s Solution
Hebrews 10:1-14
Jesse Randolph

Well, if you’ve paid any attention at all to what has been going on in the American economy over the past several decades you know that debt has become a major drag on the lives of people from many different walks of life. That can be credit card debt, mortgage debt, student loan debt, tax debt, you name it. While there are the fortunate few with no debt, there are others who find themselves struggling with debt, and others who find themselves drowning in debt.

With debt becoming a bigger and bigger problem in our times you’ve noticed that debt forgiveness companies have seemingly popped up everywhere. Maybe you’ve seen the infomercials, or the radio ads, or the pop-up ads on your computer. Maybe you’ve received the robo-calls. Call this number and have your financial problems resolved. Call this number to get creditors off your back. Call this number and get your tax problems worked out. It is a true cottage industry.

Now, while the debt forgiveness industry is booming, I’m sure many of you all know that there’s always a catch. There’s always a catch. Because when one of these companies tells you they can reduce or help eliminate your debt what they aren’t telling you is that you’re going to end up paying it some way on the back end. You’ll pay a fee to the debt forgiveness company itself.
You’ll still pay something to your creditors. It’s not as though you’re going to get away with paying them nothing!

You’ll pay something to the government in taxes because the financial relief that you have experienced from your debt forgiveness will be deemed taxable income to Uncle Sam. You’ll experience a major hit to your credit score which will impact the interest rates you are quoted and ultimately, the prices you will pay for major purchases.

So, as it relates to the debt forgiveness business in one respect, yes, your debt is being wiped away. But in another respect you will still very much be paying for it down the road as this year’s wages are still paying for last year’s debts, and next year’s wages will be paying for this year’s debts. See, Mom and Dad, and Dave Ramsey, were right. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

This morning, we were in the book of Leviticus. During our time this morning we examined the various types of living sacrifices that were offered under the Mosaic Law. You’ll recall we zoomed in on one specific type of offering that was made, the burnt offering. We focused on one out of the five, the five that are listed in the first part of Leviticus. As we set our feet in the Tabernacle this morning, as it were, we experienced the sights, sounds, and smells of all that was involved in approaching a holy God through the Old Testament system of sacrificial worship.

The final heading in this morning’s sermon was “The Atoning Purpose of Sacrifice.” But even as I made that point I left you with the reminder that the offerings, the sacrifice, the atonement that was available under this old covenant, Old Testament system of animal sacrifice, was merely temporary. When you provided a burnt offering under that system the remission of sin was short-lived. It covered you until your next feast, until your next festival, until your next incident of ritual impurity or until your next sin. Which meant not very long.

Put another way you remained indebted under that system. You were still always paying for your sins. Your sin debt was never paid in full, as today’s sacrifices were paying for yesterday’s sins and tomorrow’s sacrifices were paying for today’s.

But then everything changed. In the fullness of time, Galatians 4:4, at that appointed time God set into motion His perfect plans of redemption and salvation which He had eternally decreed would happen in eternity past. And according to those plans God Himself would enter into His creation in the person of Jesus Christ. He would walk on the earth He created. He would walk among people He created. He would be betrayed by one of His disciples and rejected by His own people, the very people He had come to save.

He was, truly, as Isaiah 53:3 says, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” But then to top it all off He would face agonizing torture. Crude nails ripping through the skin and muscles of his hands and feet. A mocking, twisted crown of thorns being rammed into His bleeding skull. Whips and cords being flung across his back. Being hung like a common criminal for public ridicule on this brutal Roman instrument of torture known as the cross. As Thomas Watson once put it: “He who crowned the heavens with stars was Himself crowned with thorns.” As gruesome and undeserved though as the death of Jesus Christ was, it was effective, and it was effectual.

As His predecessor, as we mentioned this morning, John the Baptist had earlier declared the spotless, sinless Lamb of God had indeed come into the world “to take away the sins of the world.” Which is why Jesus could say when He finally breathed His last, tetelestai, “It is finished.” Calvary had changed everything.

We are going to be in the book of Hebrews this evening and we’re going to be reminded of what the ultimate sacrifice the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross means for us.

Now, I know our Sunday evening crowd would know this given how well-taught you have been by Pastor Gil over the past 52 years, but the author of Hebrews is unknown. That is reflected in its placement in your Bibles. You have the four Gospels, then you have the Acts of the Apostles.
You have the 13 letters of Paul starting with Romans and ending with Philemon. Then you have the letters that were written by people not named Paul, the first of which is Hebrews.

The audience of Hebrews was this group of early Jewish Christians. They had never seen Jesus and yet they believed in Him. Their conversion had brought them a new object of faith. Namely, their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. But their conversion also brought them hardship and persecution which was harsh enough that it led some of them to slip back into their old practices of Judaism.

A major theme of Hebrews, then, was to encourage this early group of Jewish believers not to drift back. Not to slide back into their former Jewish practices. Not to apostatize. Not to fall away. Not to return to the sacrifice of bulls and cows and goats and lambs but to press on in their new faith in a better Lamb, the Lamb of God. To press on in their new faith in a better priest, the Great High Priest. And a better sacrifice, that of Jesus on the cross

If you are not there already, I’d invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. We will be in Hebrews 10 tonight. You wouldn’t be there already because I didn’t tell you what text we’ll be in. I’m sorry about that. We’re in Hebrews chapter 10 tonight, okay? Hebrews 10. We’re going to look at the first 14 verses of this chapter tonight. We’re doing the quick route tonight like we did this morning with Leviticus. I’m going to read the text in full and then we’re going to unpack it with the remainder of our time.

Hebrews 10, verse 1 “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,
‘SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.’ THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’ After saying above, ‘SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE IN THEM’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, ‘SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,’ waiting from that time onward ‘UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.’ For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

As we unpack this text tonight I want you to note the contrast between the old Levitical system of sacrifices that we went through this morning, and what Jesus accomplished through His work on the cross. As we spend our time this evening soaking in the glorious truths of the finished work of Jesus Christ going verse by verse through this portion I just read I want you to see this stark contrast between the unfinished work of the Levitical priests and the inferior sacrifices they offered at that time and the finished work of Jesus Christ, and His infinitely superior sacrifice, His “better” sacrifice.

Let’s dig right in. As we do so, the major preaching heading for this first section of the sermon will be this, “A Shadow of the True Sacrifice.” “A Shadow of the True Sacrifice.” Take a look again at verse 1. Verse 1 says, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.” The Law here refers to the ceremonial aspects of the Mosaic Law through which the entire Old Testament sacrificial system of animal sacrifices, priests, the priesthood, and the Tabernacle was instituted.

We peeked into that this morning in our walk through Leviticus 1. Well, not to take anything away from how the Spirit worked through the preaching of His Word this morning as we were going through Leviticus 1, but everything that we just looked at this morning in Leviticus 1 the author of Hebrews is now saying, in his words, “only a shadow.”

“Merely a shadow,” a faint outline, a reflection, a silhouette. Of what? It says, “the good things to come.” The “good things to come” is referring to the blessings of the New Covenant that Jesus would later usher in. Involving atonement for sin, cleansing from sin, forgiveness for sin. The Law was but a shadow of those “things to come.” In the same way that the Tabernacle and the Levitical priests were but shadows of the greater realities they pointed to.

Back to our text. It says that the Law was “not the very form of these things.” I’m still in verse 1. “The Law was not the very form of these things.” Or, as the ESV puts it, “not the true form of these realities.” Just as your shadow is of a different substance than your flesh and your bones so were the Old Testament laws and practices distinct from what they pictured and foretold.

While the Law foreshadowed the good things that were to come, those good things had not yet come during the age or dispensation of the Law that we looked into this morning. They were still to come. The author of Hebrews continues by stating that the Law “can never,” it says, “by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.”

Not one of the animal sacrifices that was brought into the Tabernacle during the days that Leviticus was written and later in the Temple days during which Hebrews was written, sacrifices that were offered continually year by year over a period of approximately 1,440 years, not one of those sacrifices had any saving power whatsoever.

Look at the words God has given us here. Right in the middle of verse 10, “can never.” That’s an absolute statement. There’s no way around the definite and terminal nature of this phrase. The Law can never do what? It tells us. “Make perfect.” The Law can never make perfect.

We need to camp out here for a minute because what the Bible teaches us in various places is that God so matchlessly holy, so spotlessly sinless, so incomprehensibly perfect that He cannot tolerate sin of any kind in His presence and survive. No one here could commit a single sin, not even one and hope to enter into His holy presence. One blemish, one infraction, one stain on our record would grossly offend God and His holiness. Indeed, just one sin committed against the holy God of heaven would eternally condemn both your souls and mine, and forever. So, in order for this transcendently holy God of the universe to accept us, that is, for Him to allow us in His presence we ourselves need to be perfect. We need to be batting 1.000 in terms of our conduct. We need to be perfect as He is perfect. Leviticus 11:44 “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And how are we imperfect sinners supposed to do that? More on that later. For now, though, what verse 1 is telling us, is this: we will never be able to draw near to a holy God through the offering of sacrifices like those made in the book of Leviticus.

I want us to note one other thing here in verse 1. The author of Hebrews says that the Old Testament system of sacrifices can “never make perfect” and he goes on at the end of the verse to say, “those who draw near,” “those who draw near.” What this implies is that there will always be some who are attempting to “draw near” to the assembly of God’s people but they themselves aren’t really of God’s people. This speaks to the situation of being religiously affiliated but not actually right with God. On the fringes of the fellowship but not truly saved. Hanging with the players but not actually on the team. If that describes you, please sit tight, I’m glad you’re here. You won’t want to miss the last part of this sermon.

But for the rest of us, let’s keep unpacking this text as we move on into verse 2. Look at verse 2. It says “Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered,” they meaning the offerings, “because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?”

We need to appreciate the reasoning that is being offered here. It’s brilliant. The author of Hebrews is effectively saying this: if these animal sacrifices were in fact making you pure and clean then why do you have to keep offering them?” It’s brilliant. You don’t re-wash a dirty dish unless what? The dish is still dirty! You don’t run the same clothes through a second load of wash unless what? The clothes are still dirty! The mere fact that these sacrifices had to be offered repetitiously shows that they were inferior. They weren’t working!

Under this old system of animal sacrifices though a person’s sin might temporarily be atoned for by the blood of an innocent animal, the person remained in their sin. They remained identified with their sin. And later we’d see how Ephesians 2:1 puts it, they remained “dead” in their sin.

Back home, I drive a black car. In addition to getting incredibly hot, especially during our scorching Southern California summers, it gets incredibly dirty, incredibly quickly.

So from time to time when I put gas in my tank and pay $5.50 a gallon, that’s what we’re doing these days out in California, I’ll follow the prompt to add the car wash to get it cleaned. But when I get my black car washed is it a permanent solution? Not at all! Does it change the color of my car from black to white? No! But it does temporarily cleanse my car getting rid of the water spots and the bird droppings and the dust and dirt that naturally accumulates on a black car.

So it was with those who made animal sacrifices in the Tabernacle and in the Temple later. By virtue of their animal sacrifice alone they weren’t given a new nature. The blackness of their sin did not suddenly turn white. Instead, they were temporarily washed until the next time they got dirty, and they inevitably sinned again. They continued to have consciousness of their sin. They continued to have guilt for their sins. They continued to have awareness that the guilt for their sin and their sin problem had not been objectively removed.

Which takes us to verse 3. Look at Hebrews 10:3. “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.” Every time that you, the Israelite worshiper, made eye contact with that innocent animal that you were about to kill you weren’t instantly presented as holy before God. Rather, you were reminded of your sins as you saw the fear in that animal’s eyes of your sin. You didn’t receive immediate redemption as you hauled that bull or cow into the Tabernacle. No! You received a reminder that you needed a more ultimate and lasting form of redemption.
You didn’t receive immediate forgiveness when you brought that animal to the Tabernacle to the priest. No! You received a reminder that you needed an ultimate and more lasting form of forgiveness.

This was the dual reality. This dual reality of knowing that while individual sins where atoned for temporarily as Leviticus 1:4 describes, you would still continually in this system and under this old system be reminded of your sin every time you marched that little bleeting lamb into the Tabernacle. Now by way of contrast, note what Hebrews 8:12 says about us who live now and have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. Hebrews 8:12 says that God will remember our sins no more. But in case there be any misunderstanding about the inferiority of the Old Covenant system of approaching God through animal sacrifices, look at verse 4 of Hebrews 10. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Impossible. There’s another absolute term, terminal term. It is totally, absolutely, and completely impossible for the blood of animals to take away sins.

Now this might be where some of you in the room who were here this morning might want to throw a flag. You’ll point to this morning’s sermon where we saw in Leviticus 1:4 that the burnt offering may be accepted to make atonement and you may be tempted to think that what God is saying in Leviticus is somehow inconsistent with what God is saying here in Hebrews. But is it? Of course not! And there are at least two key explanations for this.

First, the sacrificial system recorded in Leviticus and elsewhere needs to be put in its proper perspective. The atonement that’s described in Leviticus 1:4 from this morning, what was passing and partial, it was neither permanent and lasting. And whatever effectiveness it did have in its time was fully dependent on the coming sacrifice of Christ to which it pointed.

Second, what is being said here in Hebrews is not that God outright disapproves of animal sacrifices, or at least in this time. After all He was the One who instituted that sacrificial system.
The point is that God did not, never did, want animal sacrifices for their own sake. Turn with me if you would to Psalm 51. Psalm 51, a very familiar psalm if you’ve been in the faith for any amount of time. Psalm 51, David’s infamous prayer of repentance after his sin with Bathsheba. Look at Psalm 51:16. Toward the end of the Psalm, David moved by the Holy Spirit here says “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.” And then look at the contrast in the very next verse. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” What these two verses set in contrast showcases that what God desires, and has always desired, is the heartfelt devotion of His people.

We see this all over the Old Testament. Isaiah 1:11 “‘What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?’ says the LORD. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.” Hosea 6:6 “For I delight in loyalty,” this is the Lord speaking, “rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Amos 5:21-22 “I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings.” Micah 6:6-7 “With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in the thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” The implied and obvious answer given here in Micah chapter 6 is no. And then in Micah 6:8, a familiar verse to all of us, He tells us what He is looking for from His worshippers “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” No one was ever saved in the Old Testament through the offering of blood sacrifices which shows the utter bankruptcy and total incapacity of not just animal sacrifices but all forms of outward religious ritual to take away our sin.

In today’s context think about the Roman Catholic Church. According to most recent Vatican figures there are 1.2 billion people on this planet who affiliate with this apostate institution. And the Roman Catholic Church, which has officially rejected the Bible’s teachings of a person being made right with God through faith alone in Christ alone is unapologetically sacrament-based. According to Rome, there is something you must do. There’s something you must do. Some ritualistic sacraments you must go through. Some holy hoop you must clear to have any hope of being made right with God. That’s what St. Joseph’s and St. Peter’s and St. Mary’s here in Lincoln are teaching their people today. But what our text today is showing us is that no baptismal water, no confession, no Eucharistic practices, no sacraments, no priests will ever be able to take away sin.

But its not just the Catholic church. We could have the same problem in the Protestant church if we’re not careful because the reality is no church attendance, no home group involvement, no financial giving, no singing of hymns will ever, in their own right, save our sin-sick souls. What does Hebrews 10: 4 say? “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” And its impossible for any other religious ritual to take away sins.

What this means is that we need a better sacrifice. A better sacrifice that only the Son of God could offer which takes us to our second major heading for tonight’s sermon which is this “The Provision of a Better Sacrifice.” “The Provision of a Better Sacrifice.” What we looked at this morning in Leviticus and what we’ve looked at so far in our first few verses tonight of Hebrews has all been preparatory for what God is now going to show us through this text which is this. What the Old Covenant animal sacrifices could never fully accomplish could only be accomplished through the once-and-for-all-time blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 5. Hebrews 10:5 “Therefore, when He comes into the world,” meaning Christ, “He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me.’ ” The author of Hebrews here is saying when Christ comes [or came] into the world he is referring to the Lord’s incarnation. When the Second Person of the Trinity entered into this world in the body of a baby in a manger in Bethlehem. And then the author goes on to quote Psalm 40, verses 6-8 in this section of Hebrews 10. Now we know that Psalm 40 was a Psalm written by David. And since David wrote it the Psalm had its own unique application to David’s life, but what we have here in Hebrews is Jesus, while still in heaven before His incarnation, taking and appropriating the words of Psalm 40 and reapplying them to describe His own dialogue with God the Father as He prepared to enter into the world.

Look at the whole section here of verses 5 through 7. “Therefore when He comes into the world He says “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired.” I want you as I read these words to hear this inter-Trinitarian dialogue between God the Son to God the Father. “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offering and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God’.”

So as God the Son stood on the edge of heaven, as it were, preparing to enter into the world, He begins this dialogue with God the Father. He starts by saying “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired.” Again, it’s not that these offerings that had been provided were against God’s will because after all, they had been dictated by God in His Word. So in what sense were they not desired by God? In the sense that they could not take away sin. They were ineffective. They did not save. The purpose of the Old Covenant sacrificial system instead was to help people to see and understand that they were lost and needed to be saved and that a Savior, their Messiah, was on the way.

Look at the next line of this quote from Psalm 40 in Hebrews 10:5. It says, “But a body You have prepared for me.” As God the Son here is speaking to God the Father He is referring to the physical body into which He would be born into this world. Jesus had no earthly father. If He had had an earthly father, He would have inherited His father’s sin nature and himself been a sinner. But a sinner can’t be a Savior, so Jesus had to be born outside the system. God thus performed a miracle in the womb of Mary and prepared a body for Jesus. A physical body albeit without a sin nature like ours.

It would be in this body that Jesus would take on our sins, as He hung on the cross. It would be in this body that Jesus would die for our sins, as He shed His own blood. It would be in this body that Jesus would serve as a living sacrifice for sin paying the ultimate, substitutionary price for sin. This is why God became a man. This is why God the Father prepared this body for God the Son to be a living sacrifice.

Now, look at verse 6. Going on in this quote from Psalm 40 it says “in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.” Once again, in the eyes of a holy God no bulls or cows, no lambs or goats, no pigeons or turtledoves, no burnt offerings or sin offerings, no amount of religious observance or ritual can remove sin!

And then verse 7. “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.” As Jesus, 2000 years ago, is preparing to leave heaven and to enter into this world through the womb of Mary, He says: “I have come to do Your will, O God.” And what was the will of God? The will of God for God the Son was that He would “seek and save the lost.” To “give his life a ransom for many,” Mark 10:45. Or as Matthew 1:21 says to “save His people from their sins.” Jesus Christ came into this world to accomplish a mission of salvation and redemption. And He did so, as it says in verse 7, as it is written in the book, “in the scroll of the book.” Jesus the Messiah of Israel, Jesus the Savior of the World had come to fulfill the various prophecies that were made about Him in the Old Testament as He accomplished the will of His Father.

And then look at verses 8-9. “After saying above, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will.’ ” This is repetition of the author’s quote of Psalm 40. Any of you who have any teaching experience you know repetition is a great teacher. As my Greek professor once taught me, he would say, all the time in class “repetition is the key to learning, and the key to learning is repetition.” “Repetition is the key to learning, and the key to learning is repetition.” And the cycle would keep going. You would kind of get what he was trying to do and suddenly the
Greek parsing would somewhat make sense. The more he would say things the more they would stick! That’s sort of what’s going on here with the author of Hebrews repeating himself to underscore. Almost as if with a yellow highlighter just how inferior the Old Testament system of sacrifices were. No amount of religious sacrifice. No amount of blood. No amount of burnt offerings would ever take away sin. Only Jesus coming into the world on a mission to do His Father’s will to serve as a living sacrifice would remedy our sin problem.

Now look at the last part there of verse 9. “He takes away the first in order to establish the second.” “He takes away the first” is a reference to the Old Testament system. The Old Covenant system of ceremonial animal sacrifices and offerings under the Mosaic Law. Jesus did away with them and He did so it says “in order to establish the second.” The second being the New Covenant which is established, Luke 22:20, in His blood which is the source of our salvation. The author of Hebrews couldn’t make any of this more clear! The Old Testament living sacrifice system had been done away with because the New Covenant brought in by the blood of the one, true Living Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, had been ushered in.

Which brings us to our last set of verses and to our third major heading for this evening’s message which is this. “The Sanctifying Effect of Christ’s Sacrifice.” “The Sanctifying Effect of Christ’s Sacrifice.” Look at verse 10. It says, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” When Jesus came in the body God had prepared for Him, when Jesus was lifted upon the cross in that body, He dealt fully and finally with our sin problem. Jesus has sanctified, through His cross work, His people forever.

What does it mean that we have been sanctified? It means we have been set apart. We have been consecrated unto God. We have been made holy. Remember, God is the only one who is truly holy and to come into the presence of God, we must “be holy as He is holy,” Leviticus 11. But the text says that through the death of Jesus Christ, verse 10 here, that we are made holy, sanctified, hagiasmenoi, through the blood of Jesus Christ. Through His death on the cross. Through our belief upon His name, God positionally declares us to be holy and sets us apart positionally unto Himself. Practically, of course, we can continue to sin. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” But positionally, God has drawn us out of the miry bog of sin. All of its guilt. All of its defilement. All of its punishment and He has set us apart unto Himself so that now we are positionally holy as God is holy. And positionally holy as Jesus Christ Himself is holy. That’s because as 1 John 1:7 says, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The Christian is set apart fully and completely. We are not only set apart fully and completely, but we are also permanently. Again, in verse 10, look at the last few words of verse 10. That sacrifice was “once for all.” No Old Covenant animal sacrifice could have ever accomplished anything of this sort.

Now as we get into the remaining few verses here we see yet another aspect of the contrast between the inadequacies of the Old Covenant system and the superiority of the New. Look at verse 11. It says, “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” “Every priest stands.” The work of the priest was never done. They never had a day off, a month off, or a year off. A priest couldn’t take a 10 minute or a 30-minute break. There were no chairs, break rooms, or vending machines in the Old Testament Tabernacle. You see the people of Israel were continually living in the pollution of their sin and their offerings were continually being offered to mediate that sin so the priests could never rest. Their work was never done. They were always on call, and as the text says, “standing,” offering the same monotonous forms of offerings and sacrifices day after day.

But then in verse 12, we see a stark contrast presented. “But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.” He sat down. What a contrast between this verse and the one before it! What tens of thousands of animal sacrifices could not accomplish Jesus accomplished with one sacrifice forever! Christ has offered a single sacrifice which is effective for all time. No more blood needs to be shed. No more sacrifices need to be made for sinners because Christ through His once-and-for-all-time death has made perfect atonement for sinners making us holy through His blood when we repent and believe His gospel.

Verse 12, it does say, He “sat down at the right hand of God.” Since Jesus’ sacrifice achieved its goal, His work is finished. And since His work is finished He has no need like the priests of the Old Covenant to keep standing. Rather, He sits at God’s right hand triumphant over sin and death. In this regal position of honor in the presence of God the Father. From the shame of the cross He has been lifted to the place of highest exaltation!

And now we see in verse 13, He is “waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.” That’s a reference to Psalm 110 of course which is often referred to in Hebrews. You could jot down a few of the references to Psalm 110 in Hebrews. There’s Hebrews 5:1-6; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:4-7; and Hebrews 7:17-24. Those are all Psalm 110 references in the book of Hebrews.

What is being said here in Hebrews 10:13 is that from the time Christ sat down at God the Father’s right hand He has been eagerly awaiting the final overthrow of His enemies by God. These words will reach their complete fulfillment when our Lord returns. And when He does, all who continue to rebel against Him, all who die in their unbelief, all who die as sons of Adam, will be struck down with His rod of iron and will be condemned to the fires of hell.

Last for us this evening is verse 14. “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Christ has accomplished once for all what generations of Levitical sacrifices could never do by offering Himself. Christ’s perfect sacrifice has removed the guilt and the penalty of sin in our lives once and for all. Again, this does not mean that believers are sinless. Instead, it means that Christ has fully secured our justified status before God. Though we do not deserve it we have been made right positionally before God and permanently.

Now those of us who have been made right with God, who have been set apart to God, who have been perfected by God and in the sense described here, we understand that our right standing before Him can be traced to this once-for-all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We understand that Jesus Christ is our perfect sacrifice. We understand that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We understand, as Ephesians 5:2 puts it, that Jesus Christ “loved [us] and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” We understand that we have not been rescued from our sin by a goat, bull’s blood, a priest, or a tabernacle. Instead, we understand that we have been ransomed. As 1 Peter 1:19 puts it “with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” We understand that Jesus Christ is our ultimate burnt offering. He has ransomed guilty sinners like us once and for all which has turned away God the Father’s wrath so that we might be reconciled to Him.

Now, if you’re here tonight on the off chance that you’ve stumbled into an Indian Hills Sunday evening service, and you are not right with God, if you have not been reconciled to God, if you have not been washed in the blood of the Lamb, if you have not been saved, there are some things you need to know. Things that I need to say. Things that may be may be hard to hear but things I can assure you they come from God’s Word and they come from love. If you are outside the family of God, if you have not been reconciled to God through Christ what you need to know is that you are a wicked, depraved, enemy of God. The Bible teaches that God is a righteous judge, who is angry with you, Psalm 7:11. You need to know that every day that you get up, in the state of sin that you are in, you actually do deserve to die. But according to God’s kindness, you haven’t died yet. But you must not presume on His kindness! Psalm 7:12 says: “If a man does not repent, He [meaning God] will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.” That means that should you die today or tomorrow or the next day without truly being born again there will be no purgatory. There will be no second chances. There will be no reviewing of your resume. And there will be no hope. Instead, you will be cast into the flames of hell forever. And there, in hell, for eternity you will be the object of God’s just punishment. In the anguish of those flames, He will rightly inflict His fury on your guilty soul giving you the just penalty for your sins that you deserve. And that we all deserve but for the blood of Christ.
There will not be one moment of relief for you. Not one moment of rest. If I’m talking to anyone in the room right now whether you are open in your unbelief or whether you are resting on your laurels of being a ‘good person’ or on ‘Nebraska nice,’ know that this is where you stand.

God has offered to you His mercy, forgiveness and grace through the ultimate living sacrifice, Jesus Christ. And the only way your guilty soul might be purchased by God and set free is through the cross of Jesus Christ. The only satisfaction for the anger of God currently toward your soul is through the cross of Jesus Christ. And the only way to be spared the terrors of hell is through the cross of Jesus Christ. You don’t need better practices. You don’t need better friends. You don’t need to start living a better life. You don’t even need the good life here in Lincoln. What you need rather is to repent. You need to turn from your old way of living. To turn from all in your life that dishonors God and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. To come to the end of yourself, to humble yourself before almighty God in heaven and declare in your heart, “God have mercy upon me, a sinner.”

If I’m talking to any one of you tonight may you find this very evening the salvation and forgiveness that God alone can provide to you. Lay your hands on the Lamb of God. Place your guilt on Jesus Christ. Ask Him to be your substitute. And know God truly, and forever.

If you are sitting here tonight and you are a part of the family of God. If you have been born again. If you have truly been saved. I simply want to remind you of the unfathomable depths of God’s love for you, as shown to you through the cross of Jesus Christ. It’s not a limited love. It’s not a shallow love. It’s not a reckless love. It’s an eternal love. It’s a limitless love. It’s a sacrificial love. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins, but the blood of the Lamb can and did.

“O praise the One who paid my debt. And raised this life up from the dead.”

Let’s pray. Our great God we thank You for another time to be in Your word. We thank You for who You are and how You have revealed Yourself through Your Son Jesus Christ. And in our day, and in our era through Your timeless, matchless, sufficient, inerrant Word. Thank you for what we’ve been able to study today looking at the Old Covenant system of animal sacrifices and what they ultimately pointed to with the true, better, and complete sacrifice, effective sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank You that we who have trusted in Christ can call You truly, our Father. We thank You that our hope is secure, Your promises are true, and that we can rest our head on the pillow tonight knowing that no matter what happens we will be with You forever. We have today, present day, eternal life. If there are any here who do not know You I pray that today would be their day of salvation. The day they would repent of their sin, trust in Christ, and be saved. Thank you for the dear people of this church, the joy it has been to minister Your word here this day. We ask that You would be glorified in all that we do this week. In Jesus name, amen.