SPEAKER_00: Well, do turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the Epistle to the Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 through to 18.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to note that we're coming to the end of the doctrinal section of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for your perseverance and patience as we've gone through some very deep and profound parts, but it's the sections that now follow where this is applied and it calls for us to respond with action.
SPEAKER_00: But I do trust as we come to this climactic part of the doctrinal section that we would, as the prayer and desire has been every week, to see Christ and his marvelous grace.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hear from the word of the Lord, Hebrews 10, verses 1 through to 8.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord says, For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
SPEAKER_00: For then would they not have ceased to be offered.
SPEAKER_00: For the worshippers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
SPEAKER_00: For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when he had come into the world he said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me.
SPEAKER_00: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you had no pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: Then I said, Behold, I have come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God.
SPEAKER_00: Previously saying, Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin, you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.
SPEAKER_00: He takes away the first that he may establish the second.
SPEAKER_00: By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
SPEAKER_00: And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
SPEAKER_00: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, and from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.
SPEAKER_00: For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit also, but the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us.
SPEAKER_00: For after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.
SPEAKER_00: Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
SPEAKER_00: Now, where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
SPEAKER_00: That is God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: Please join me in pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for that eternal plan.
SPEAKER_00: A plan that you revealed to us through promises and prophecies and pictures, a plan that was revealed in the fullness of time, a plan that is unfolding and changing and transforming lives even in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: And a plan that will have the greatest display of success in the age to come.
SPEAKER_00: Give us understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to gaze at the beauty of our dear Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Remove from our minds any distractions.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to see the Lord Jesus with the eyes of faith.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this now in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 to 18 contains for us the greatest sacrifice in all of history.
SPEAKER_00: There never has been, nor ever will be, a better sacrifice than what's contained in these 18 verses.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who have been tracking carefully, there are words and images in Hebrews 10, verses 1 to 18, that should sound really familiar to you.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is the writer here is consciously repeating some of the themes that he's already established.
SPEAKER_00: That is the mark of a wise teacher.
SPEAKER_00: A wise teacher will often say the same thing in a different way.
SPEAKER_00: It's a way of helping reinforce truths to sink deep into our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_00: We are a forgetful people, and we do need to be reminded often.
SPEAKER_00: And in his genius style, the writer is taking concepts that he has been establishing, especially chapters eight and nine.
SPEAKER_00: And he, in this summary yet climactic moment in the letter to the Hebrews, places all of this together so that we would be reminded yet again that our Lord Jesus is our great high priest, that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished something that no one else has ever accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: He has fulfilled what the practices of the Old Testament were always pointing to.
SPEAKER_00: We learn in Hebrews 10, verses 1 to 18 that the glorious and beautiful and precious promises of God find their yes and amen in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The writer is striving for you to see that the Lord Jesus is matchless, that the Lord Jesus is marvelous.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are not clinging to him, you are truly missing out.
SPEAKER_00: But if you cling to Christ, you are holding on to the greatest of mercies.
SPEAKER_00: You are holding on to the greatest gift.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know, as we will see at the end of this message today, that to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and to hold tightly on him is more important than anything else there is in this world.
SPEAKER_00: You can have good health, but that will not get you through the day of trial.
SPEAKER_00: You can have great wealth, but that will not help you weather the storm.
SPEAKER_00: You can have many friends, but that will not guide you when the day of calamity breaks into your life.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus Christ has done something that no one else can do, and the consequences of what our Lord Jesus Christ has provided for you and me is most beautiful, is most precious, and we ought to hold on to it dearly.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to show you in Hebrews 10 verses 1 to 18 this morning is a progression.
SPEAKER_00: The progression really takes place by means of a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: The contrast is pretty easy to see.
SPEAKER_00: It's a contrast between the practices that took place in the old administration, in the old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Those practices are practices that involve the priesthood and the sacrifices that they made.
SPEAKER_00: And the key word that you need to note about that old administration is repetition.
SPEAKER_00: Those practices took place and they took place again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: The repeat button was pressed and they didn't stop.
SPEAKER_00: That is contrasted with the new administration, the new covenant, in which the Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator.
SPEAKER_00: And what the contrast is, what was seen as a repetition in the past is now seen as once and for all, never to be repeated by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That really summarizes what's going on in these 18 verses.
SPEAKER_00: But if I could just stretch that out for you a little bit and let me give you a sentence that captures everything that's being said in these 18 verses.
SPEAKER_00: What we see in Hebrews 10, verses 1 to 8, is that there were shadow sacrifices in the past.
SPEAKER_00: But those shadow sacrifices were pointing to something greater.
SPEAKER_00: And that something greater is seen in one who brings a submissive sacrifice, and that submissive sacrifice results in a successful sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we can be confident that we have access to the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what storm rages, no matter what trial we must go through, no matter how hard a temptation will be, no matter how alone one may feel.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the submissive sacrifice, it has brought about a success that means that we have access to the glory of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And that should compel us to persevere in the Christian life, not give up, to press on and to be faithful, not out of a grit, but out of a gratitude for our beautiful Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to be the most different of people in this world.
SPEAKER_00: People marked by grace, joy, humility, and holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that a Savior has transformed us, and it's Him that we cling to.
SPEAKER_00: So there are three points today.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the shadow sacrifices, verses one to four.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the submissive sacrifice, verses five through to ten, and finally the successful sacrifice, verses eleven to eighteen.
SPEAKER_00: So I want us to track on this progression, but we begin first of all in those first four verses that take us back to the Old Testament, to that old economy, the old covenant mediated by Moses, in which we see the shadow sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: Have a look at how verse one begins.
SPEAKER_00: For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offered continually, year by year, make those who approach perfect.
SPEAKER_00: The writer here is telling us that these sacrifices that took place in the Old Testament did not bring about perfection for the people.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it did not atone for their sins.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't make them right with God.
SPEAKER_00: These sacrifices in the Old Testament that God had ordained, that God had ordered and required and stipulated for the people of Israel to follow, God designed them specifically to not be an and in themselves, but rather God made those sacrificial procedures to be a shadow.
SPEAKER_00: You'll notice he says in verse 1 that they are not the very image of the things.
SPEAKER_00: What things?
SPEAKER_00: The good things to come.
SPEAKER_00: And what are the good things to come?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's Christ.
SPEAKER_00: A Christ is the good things to come.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the one who brings salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Christ brings atonement for sins.
SPEAKER_00: All these pictures, all these practices in the Old Testament were real, but they were shadows.
SPEAKER_00: They were not the image of the thing to come.
SPEAKER_00: They were not the very image.
SPEAKER_00: It was John Kelvin who points out that the Old Testament practices were likened to a sketch that a great artist does.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine a great big canvas, and you have an artist stands there and with the pencil provides this sketch, provides this outline.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at it, you can see what it's pointing to.
SPEAKER_00: You can see a person in the image drawn.
SPEAKER_00: You can see trees in the background.
SPEAKER_00: You're able to even see a running river there in the midst, but it's not complete.
SPEAKER_00: And what Calvin points out here is that these shadows in the Old Testament, these practices of sacrifices, were just that.
SPEAKER_00: They were the sketches on a canvas.
SPEAKER_00: But the sketch is preparing us for the real image.
SPEAKER_00: And then comes the color.
SPEAKER_00: Then comes all the details.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, that sketch that gave you a vague understanding of a background all of a sudden becomes vivid in your mind when you see the trees, the hills, the color on a person's face, the expression that's seen.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the eyes on the image, you think, wow, it's so real.
SPEAKER_00: It's like they're looking just at me.
SPEAKER_00: And what we need to understand is this Old Testament practice of these sacrifices were only a shadow.
SPEAKER_00: They were pointing to something greater.
SPEAKER_00: They were there to remind the people that by doing this again and again and again, these procedures cannot remove your problem.
SPEAKER_00: And that's seen by the fact that they were offered continually, year by year.
SPEAKER_00: If they were able to actually take away the people's sins, then they would have ceased to be offered.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: For the worshippers, once purified, they would have no more consciousness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Why would they need to do the sacrifice again and again and again if the sacrifice actually would atone for their sins, but it didn't.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3 tells us that those sacrifices were a reminder of sins every year.
SPEAKER_00: The very presence of repetition reminded them that their sins have not been dealt with.
SPEAKER_00: Think about a part of your house.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it's uh just at the front door where people walk in and it's dusty.
SPEAKER_00: So you get a broom, you get a vacuum cleaner, whatever you use, and you clean up the dust, it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: And you look at that and you say, That is clean.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you at that moment convinced yourself that that one act of dusting up that mess by vacuuming it up, and you sit down and you decide this is all clean now, it is done, it is final, it is finished, you are going to be disappointed the next day, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00: One of the tasks that um I like to do on our church workdays is remove cobwebs.
SPEAKER_00: And I've learned that that act of removing them once is not permanent.
SPEAKER_00: The spiders come back and they make more webs and they get more sophisticated.
SPEAKER_00: The very act of repetition tells you that there is something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: There is something that is going to occur again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: But more seriously than that, we experience this in illness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reminded of the story in Mark V of that woman who for twelve years, twelve years, was afflicted by a horrible illness.
SPEAKER_00: She had an issue of blood, she saw many physicians, gave so much money, would have been given many remedies, but she still experienced the affliction.
SPEAKER_00: She could receive treatment, she could receive help, but none of that took away her affliction.
SPEAKER_00: The very taking of any remedy that she was given was a reminder that she was ill.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was there constantly.
SPEAKER_00: But isn't it amazing that she went over the Jesus and in just one touch of him, the affliction was removed once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: I think we have there a graphic picture of what the writer's trying to show us.
SPEAKER_00: That those practices in the Old Testament were real, but they weren't designed to remove, they were designed to reveal to the people the need for one who was able to remove our sins once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem for the people that this writer is writing to was they had forgotten that.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't relying on the Lord Jesus Christ, they were starting to rely on their own performance, their own outward acts.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you and I can be drawn into thinking that way.
SPEAKER_00: How are you living the Christian life?
SPEAKER_00: Is your Christian life based on your outward acts of repetition?
SPEAKER_00: Is your Christian life based on an outward showiness?
SPEAKER_00: Or is your Christian life based on the confidence that Christ and Christ alone is your Savior?
SPEAKER_00: And that only He can allow you to have access to God?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so easily, we can rely on our efforts, we can be proud, we can be filled with head knowledge, we can be boastful, we can brag.
SPEAKER_00: Are you relying on your outward performance?
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting the shadows and not the substance?
SPEAKER_00: These opening four verses challenge us, and it reminds Reminds us in verse 4 that it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
SPEAKER_00: It's not possible that those sacrifices that were done repetitiously would be able to remove sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so it is, it's not possible that any outward performance would be able to remove your sin from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We are not saved by our works.
SPEAKER_00: We are not saved by our church attendance.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saved by our participation in the ordinances.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saved by our baptism.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saved by the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saved by how much we read our Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saved by how much we claim to know.
SPEAKER_00: We learnt last week it's only the blood of Jesus that washes away our sins.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing we see in this passage is the shadow sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: Those sacrifices were actually a gift from God because they were a dramatic way of showing the people that in order for you to have access to your good and gracious Creator, there must be a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: There must be a substitute.
SPEAKER_00: But in the Lord's kindness, he allowed those sacrifices to be repetitious so that they would realize it's not these sacrifices that will do it.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to listen carefully to the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to listen carefully to the promises that God had made.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to hear the words of Isaiah 53, that there would be a substitutionary sacrifice that would take their place and receive the wrath of God on their behalf and make them clean.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's verses 5 to 18 that shows us who that sacrifice is.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that it's our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We know that He is the one that all the prophecies, promises, and pictures were always pointing to.
SPEAKER_00: That old system of sacrifices is once and for all gone.
SPEAKER_00: It is no longer needed, it is no longer to be instituted, because Christ has come.
SPEAKER_00: The one that it pointed to has arrived.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what the writer is laboring for the people to see.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see, secondly, the submissive sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in verses five through to 10.
SPEAKER_00: And the submissive sacrifice is seen in that the Lord Jesus didn't offer a shadow, he offered himself in submission.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to note about verses five to ten is that it's a quotation from Psalm 40, verses 6 to 8.
SPEAKER_00: This was a psalm of David.
SPEAKER_00: But David didn't fully realize that what David wrote in his own experience was actually a description of what Jesus himself was going to experience.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see here is the Lord Jesus comes into this world as a submissive sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And what do I mean by submissive sacrifice is that he comes in obedience to the plan of God to be the sacrifice that would atone for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: He submits himself to the whole process.
SPEAKER_00: And what you need to be reminded of with regards to this submissive sacrifice is that the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus offers, namely himself, was not a reactionary thing.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that somehow God looked at the Old Testament sacrificial system and saw that it was deficient and thought, oh well, I'm going to improve on this deficient system.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should create a sufficient system and I'm going to send the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And the Son agrees to go.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not how it happened.
SPEAKER_00: The submissive sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ took place as a result of that blessed eternal covenant in which the Father, Son, and Spirit made an eternal pact in which a people would be given to the Son before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And there, in the beauty and wisdom, and grace and glory of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God submitted himself to such an act.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God was pledged to anoint him, and that is why he is called the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into this world and he says, I come to do your will, what will?
SPEAKER_00: He's coming to fulfill the will that was a part of that sovereign pact, that covenant of peace, that glorious covenant of redemption before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And what this should remind us of and get us excited about is that salvation has never been an afterthought.
SPEAKER_00: But salvation is the result of our God and his eternal covenant.
SPEAKER_00: God would be so kind and gracious to then express this to his people through promises, as I said, through prophecies and through pictures in redemptive history to show that the Lord Jesus Christ would carry this out.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the stunning description that we read in verses five through to seven.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, Can you just for a moment pause there?
SPEAKER_00: The eternal Son of God comes into this world.
SPEAKER_00: This world is filled with those who stand in rebellion to God.
SPEAKER_00: Lawbreakers.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are condemned.
SPEAKER_00: People who hate God.
SPEAKER_00: He came into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what he said.
SPEAKER_00: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.
SPEAKER_00: But a body you have prepared for me.
SPEAKER_00: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: Then I said, Behold, I have come.
SPEAKER_00: In the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God.
SPEAKER_00: In summary, the Son of God is declaring that I am going into the world to carry out the will that we have determined, that eternal pact for it to be unfolded.
SPEAKER_00: To borrow from John 17, I am coming to secure those that you gave me before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And in order for him to secure them, he must live the life that we have not lived.
SPEAKER_00: And he must die the death that we deserve to die.
SPEAKER_00: He begins by saying, You've prepared a body for me.
SPEAKER_00: That friends is the incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: God becomes flesh and dwells among us.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it before.
SPEAKER_00: But in John 1.14, when it says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, you know what that word dwell means?
SPEAKER_00: He tabernacled among us.
SPEAKER_00: He became the temple in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: It was always pointing to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes.
SPEAKER_00: You've prepared a body, and as he has this body, it's the body of a human.
SPEAKER_00: He assumes a human nature, truly God, yet truly man.
SPEAKER_00: So that he could live as a true substitutionary sacrifice for us.
SPEAKER_00: Not a goat symbolically representing the people, but a man representing man, a real substitute.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes, you have prepared a body for me, and he comes into this world.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, he grows up and he obeys.
SPEAKER_00: He grows in wisdom and in stature.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus studied, he read, he learned, he grew.
SPEAKER_00: In his humanity, he developed.
SPEAKER_00: But he did it perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: And we see the climactic point here is this was necessary because you are not pleased by the sacrifices and offerings.
SPEAKER_00: You don't desire for the people to just simply do these outward acts.
SPEAKER_00: To obey is better than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is the people can't obey.
SPEAKER_00: So I will do it for them.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he came.
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed where you and I haven't.
SPEAKER_00: You, me, we are lawbreakers.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus came to obey, to obey the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed and upheld all the law of God, the law of God, which exposes to us our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus upheld it all.
SPEAKER_00: And he did it in the midst of conflict.
SPEAKER_00: He did it in the midst of harassment.
SPEAKER_00: He did it in the midst of those who would seek to undo him.
SPEAKER_00: Satan was raging like you wouldn't believe it through the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot.
SPEAKER_00: But our Lord Jesus Christ was not removed from the task that he came into this world to do.
SPEAKER_00: You have prepared a body for me, and I have come to do your will, O God.
SPEAKER_00: You and I do not always walk in the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you think you do, you're self-deceived.
SPEAKER_00: We do not walk in the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: We sin.
SPEAKER_00: Even if we manage to disguise it from others, it's going on in the inside.
SPEAKER_00: God sees it all.
SPEAKER_00: He knows it all.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot hide it from him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the discerning may see it, but God always sees it.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and he obeyed the will of God and he did it perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings, these would not wash the sins away, and they will not wash your sins away today.
SPEAKER_00: You can even put in your best efforts, you can be the most impressive outward Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can put on a show, you can look good, you can sound good, you can talk all the sweet talk we want, but none of that is going to be pleasing to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing more than hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: And God hates hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: He hates showiness.
SPEAKER_00: He hates this outward display that denies an inward reality.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if there's anyone here today who has deceived themselves by living a life of outward showiness.
SPEAKER_00: Are you relying on your own efforts?
SPEAKER_00: Is your Christianity a sham?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus came to be a submissive sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: He submitted himself to the Father's will to obey.
SPEAKER_00: And he did it perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: There is no one else in the world that could obey the law of God the way he did.
SPEAKER_00: We even see that he had the greatest of attacks right at the start of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days, recapitulating the failure of Israel, who was in the wilderness for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days and he does what Israel failed to do.
SPEAKER_00: He fed upon the words of God and he obeyed.
SPEAKER_00: He was attacked by Satan, he resisted.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus Christ had no scandals in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, many accusations were leveled toward him, but none of them could stick.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is the holy, harmless, innocent Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only one without sin.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the emphasis of these verses.
SPEAKER_00: He came into this world with a body prepared.
SPEAKER_00: And not only did he have a body prepared, he obeyed all the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this obedience secured something.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what we see in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: Because of his obedience to the will of God, he brings about a sanctifying work through his offering to those that are his.
SPEAKER_00: That sanctifying means he sets them apart for himself.
SPEAKER_00: He accomplished what no one else could accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: And that really just opens us up to this last point.
SPEAKER_00: It's verses 11 to 18, and that is the successful sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Christ was not only a submissive sacrifice, but his sacrifice was successful.
SPEAKER_00: This is seen by means of a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: It's seen in verses 11 to 12, and every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
SPEAKER_00: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice to sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: I love that imagery.
SPEAKER_00: The imagery here is saying, look at the two different priesthoods, look at the two different economies, look at the two different covenants, look at the old covenant, look at the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And the difference can be seen in the fact that their priests stand because their job was never done.
SPEAKER_00: They have to keep standing and they have to keep on doing, they have to keep on sacrificing.
SPEAKER_00: But then he says, Now look at this man, look at Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He made his sacrifice once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: And what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He sat down.
SPEAKER_00: He went to the grave, he rose up again, and in the glorious coronation train, he went to the right hand of the Father and he sat down.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason he sat down is because he got the job done once and for all, never to be repeated.
SPEAKER_00: This is a sacrifice like no other.
SPEAKER_00: This is what all the Old Testament has been pointing to.
SPEAKER_00: And the writer here, with thrill and excitement and an exhortation, says, look to the Lord Jesus Christ and look what he has accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: And he did it once.
SPEAKER_00: One death, one life.
SPEAKER_00: Successful.
SPEAKER_00: He is seated.
SPEAKER_00: But what's taking place with our Lord Jesus Christ as he sits down?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to note that when the Lord Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of the Father, it was not sitting down because he was weary.
SPEAKER_00: It is not sitting down out of passivity.
SPEAKER_00: It is an active sitting.
SPEAKER_00: It is an authoritative sitting.
SPEAKER_00: It is taking the seat of king.
SPEAKER_00: It is in a place of waiting for what is going to unfold.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see in the next part of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: He sat down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Sitting at the right hand reveals the place of highest honor.
SPEAKER_00: This is a kingly position.
SPEAKER_00: And what is the Lord Jesus Christ doing as king?
SPEAKER_00: He is convincing sinners of their sin.
SPEAKER_00: He is subduing them.
SPEAKER_00: He is drawing them.
SPEAKER_00: He is bringing them into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He is gloriously cleansing them of their sins.
SPEAKER_00: He is saving them.
SPEAKER_00: He is raising them up to newness of life, in which they are now seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus Christ is gloriously and powerfully building his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The world goes on as normal.
SPEAKER_00: The world can't see it with their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: But the kingdom, my friends, is growing.
SPEAKER_00: It's expanding because Christ Jesus is bringing people into the kingdom of light.
SPEAKER_00: Those who were once captive in darkness are now being stormed and brought out and brought to life.
SPEAKER_00: And in his kingly rule, he continues to subdue us of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: He continues to convince us of our unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: He continues to show us the loveliness of the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he is continuing to pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's doing while he's sitting.
SPEAKER_00: But not only is he actively ruling and reigning, he's waiting.
SPEAKER_00: What is he waiting for?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: From that time, from what time?
SPEAKER_00: The moment he sat at the right hand of the Father, from that time till his enemies are made his footstool.
SPEAKER_00: And what that tells us is there is a moment in the future in which all the enemies of God, every foe, will be vanquished, and they will be brought in submission, and they will confess with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They will be brought to his feet.
SPEAKER_00: They will be placed at his footstool.
SPEAKER_00: And the active work that is taking place through history is the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This battle is not fought by flesh.
SPEAKER_00: It is not fought by our violence.
SPEAKER_00: It's not fought by enforcing any kind of external religion.
SPEAKER_00: It is fought by the proclamation of the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is fought by Christian marriages displaying the beauty of Christ and the church.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, wherever there is a gospel witness in this world, wherever Christ is preached in his kingly power and glory, wherever there is a husband and wife that says we will display the beauty of Christ, wherever there are people who go around sharing the gospel of Christ, the enemy at the gates will rage.
SPEAKER_00: But what we must remember is the king wins.
SPEAKER_00: And he is seated, and he is reigning, and he is ruling, and he will wait till every enemy is brought to his feet, and there we will see the final crushing of all things in which God will be all in all.
SPEAKER_00: We have to end, but I want you to note what he goes on to say.
SPEAKER_00: For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
SPEAKER_00: Those that he atoned for have received this perfecting work that only he can accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to say that the Holy Spirit testifies of this.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit promised that in the inauguration and application of the new covenant, prophesied in Jeremiah 31, inaugurated in the upper room when Jesus had the bread and the cup.
SPEAKER_00: And in their minds, he writes them.
SPEAKER_00: Their sins and their lawless deeds are remembered no more.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because what Christ has come to accomplish is successful.
SPEAKER_00: And this is our mediator.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to be reminded this morning that where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
SPEAKER_00: We do not need to make ourselves right with God by any efforts, by any showiness, by any knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: By any religious practices, what we need is the blood of the Lord Jesus and to be cleansed by that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that this matters, though, for all of your life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to think about the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus as something that just meant something for you when you became a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that it means something for you right now where you're seated.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what everyone here is experiencing in their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I know some things.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know everything.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's weighing you down.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what uncertainties you're facing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what trials you might be experiencing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what temptations are getting the best of you right now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how alone you might feel.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the difficulties that you're experiencing you do.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know that I or anyone here cannot change your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to pretend that there is a way in which just do this and your circumstances will change.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to know is this that there is one thing that whatever you're going through, it cannot take away from you.
SPEAKER_00: And that is your acceptance before God is not based on your performance or on your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: It's based upon what the Lord Jesus Christ once and for all accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you, no matter who you are or what you're going through, gaze at the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Hold tightly to him.
SPEAKER_00: And when we gaze at him, it's amazing how insignificant everything else is.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to make much of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Know that his once and for all act not only has secured your salvation, but it also unlocks for you constant access to the throne of God, where you can bring all your pleas, all your struggles, all your hurts, and bring them to the feet of the Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: And there is the Lord Jesus Christ there who will purify all your stumbling and messed-up prayers and present them faultless to the Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: Cling to the Lord Jesus Christ, and may our church family remember that the most important thing that we are to be about above all is the proclamation of our sovereign Savior.
SPEAKER_00: May Christ and His glory and his beauty and his brilliance be on display, not just in our words, but in all that we do.
SPEAKER_00: May God help us.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our gracious and mighty God, I thank you for our sovereign Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We need him.
SPEAKER_00: We know how much we drift away, how much we take our eyes off him, but help us to delight in him and to live for him and to be conform to his image.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to cling to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Mighty Lord, if there be anyone here today who has never truly been cleansed of their sins, be gracious and merciful to them, show them their sinful way, and help them to find refuge and life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.