[0:00] and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. Now we don't have a temple to go to today, and we don't go running around sacrificing animals.
[0:13] We'd have the animal rights group after us if we did things like that. But I think we still make our own little sacrifices, don't we? Paul Tripp, a great writer who I encourage you to read, in this little book of his it's called Whiter Than Snow, Meditations on Sin and Mercy.
[0:34] It's just one page little writing, some of them stories, some of them poems. And in this one he writes about us offering our sacrifices to deal with our guilt.
[0:48] This is what he says, perhaps if I give you some of my time, perhaps if I give you some of my strength, perhaps if I give you some of my things, perhaps if I give you some of my thoughts, perhaps if I give you some of my success, perhaps if I give you some of my relationships, surely these sacrifices would bring you delight.
[1:15] Surely these offerings will bring you joy. I'm quite willing to give a tithe. I'm quite willing to interrupt my schedule. I'm quite willing to volunteer to serve.
[1:27] I'm quite willing to do my part. But I get the sense it will never satisfy. I get the sense that this momentary giving, this momentary service, this momentary ministry, this momentary sacrifice, will not satisfy or deal with guilt.
[1:51] The problem is, our sacrifices do nothing to clean our guilty conscience.
[2:03] Look at verse 2 again. If it could, would we not have stopped offering our sacrifices? They would have cleansed us once and for all, and we would no longer feel guilty for our sins, past and present.
[2:24] So what can deal with our guilty conscience? Well, first thing we want to look at is, why our sacrifices always fail.
[2:37] Our sacrifices always fail. Our sacrifice, whatever form it takes, never deals with the problem of guilt. Look at the middle of verse 1 of chapter 10.
[2:51] Or we'll read all of verse 1. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly, year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
[3:11] The same idea is expressed back in chapter 9, verse 9. Here he's been talking about the whole temple and sacrificial system, and this is his conclusion. He says, this is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and the sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper.
[3:35] Literally, these sacrifices could never perfect the conscience of the one coming to God. Now, it's important for us to grasp how useless our sacrifices are.
[3:49] Two things. First, first, our sacrifices don't clean us of our guilt. Look at verse 2 of chapter 10. If they could, would they not have stopped being offered?
[4:02] For the worshippers would have been cleansed once and for all, and would no longer have felt guilty. It's not surprising, is it, that whenever we say or do something wrong, we have this feeling of being dirty and unclean.
[4:21] We've all experienced that. And in a desperate attempt to try and feel clean, we sacrifice. We make more of an effort in our lives.
[4:33] We get more involved, or we take part in a new ministry, or we give a bit more money, but they don't make us clean on the inside. Chapter 9, verse 13.
[4:47] It says there, it's a mask, it's a cover-up.
[5:21] We feel a little bit better when we do something good. Others look at us and think that we're also doing very well, but inside, we're unclean.
[5:33] We feel dirty. Still suffering under a weight of condemnation. Still feeling a useless failure. No good to God or to anybody else.
[5:48] Sacrifices don't clean us of guilt. Second, they just remind us of all of our guilt. Look at verse 3 of chapter 10.
[6:02] But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
[6:12] You know, every time we sin and every time we mess up, we fall into this trap of thinking, I can deal with my guilt. All I need to do is just add a little bit more to my little sacrifices, and then everything is going to be okay.
[6:28] But in the act of sacrificing, whether it's just giving up a little bit of time to help somebody else, whether it's reading my Bible a little bit more, or just putting in an extra few prayers, every time we sacrifice, all we're doing is just reminding ourselves again and again of my sin today and my sin from the past.
[6:51] That's all we're doing. We're heaping guilt upon guilt. Sacrifices don't clear our conscience. All they do is remind us of how terrible we are and what a failure we are.
[7:09] That is the problem of our sacrifices. They just fail. Look back at verse 1, the middle of verse 1 of chapter 10.
[7:21] For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
[7:33] Now how many of us live in that relentless cycle? Making repeated sacrifices week after week, year after year, struggling with sins of the past, struggling with sins of today, with the weight of it upon us somehow trying to get it out of our lives and the memory of it gone.
[8:00] And we increase our commitment, we raise our effort, we take on more responsibility, or we just hide away and we suffer with our guilty conscience that just cripples us and crushes us.
[8:19] It reminds us that we are in desperate need of a better sacrifice than what we could ever offer. And that's the big second picture that I want us to grasp.
[8:35] That not only do our sacrifices always fail, but the sacrifice of Jesus is so much better. Instead of us making sacrifices, Jesus becomes the sacrifice for us.
[8:52] Verse 5 of chapter 10. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, quoting Psalm 40, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.
[9:06] He's saying it's when Christ came into the world, he came in as a physical human being like one of us. With burnt offerings and sin offerings, you were not pleased. Then he said, here I am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, O God.
[9:25] Well, what is God's will for Jesus and for us? Look at verse 8. Then he said, sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, although the law required them to be made.
[9:44] Yes, God had said in his law that sacrifices were to be made, but only because they pointed forward to a better and a greater sacrifice to come.
[9:56] Verse 9. Then he said, here I am, I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first, he puts aside this old system to establish the second, to bring about a new way, a new sacrifice.
[10:13] The sacrifices of the animals that we read about in the Old Testament, all they are there to do is to point us forward to something better and to someone greater.
[10:26] Or go back to chapter 10, verse 1. He says there the law which is encompassing the whole of this whole sacrificial system, he says it's only a shadow of the good things that are coming.
[10:39] They are not the realities themselves. And if we are to follow the shadow through of the Old Testament, all these old sacrifices, if we follow that shadow and we reach the end of that shadow, we meet the person of Jesus Christ, the true sacrifice.
[10:59] It is his shadow that falls back across the Old Testament and it's the person of Jesus that we meet in the new. And he's saying to us in these few verses here, the only sacrifice that is going to work, the only sacrifice that is going to deal with our guilty conscience, past and present, is that of Jesus Christ.
[11:22] Two things about this sacrifice. First, the sacrifice of Jesus makes us perfect. Look at verse 10.
[11:32] He says, and by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ.
[11:45] Through his death on the cross we have been made holy. We get the same idea in verse 14. Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are living holy lives.
[12:01] Now when we talk about perfection here being made perfect we don't mean a moral perfection where we never mess up and sin again.
[12:12] It's not a moral perfection. It's all about a relational perfection where we can now relate to God and enjoy God and love God and serve God even though we mess up and fail again and again.
[12:31] it's not a moral perfection where we will never mess up and sin. It's about a relational perfection where we can still serve God and relate to God and enjoy God even though we keep messing up day after day.
[12:48] Look back at chapter 7 and we'll try and get a bigger picture of this. Chapter 7 verse 18. Again it's contrasting here our sacrifice and the perfect sacrifice of Christ and what that does for us.
[13:08] Verse 18 of chapter 7 The former regulation that's the old sacrificial system is set aside why? Because it is weak and useless for the law made nothing perfect.
[13:20] Our sacrifices do not do anything for us. And a better hope is introduced. That's Jesus by which we draw near to God.
[13:31] By which we can have a relationship with God and enjoy Him. Go to chapter 9 verse 13 again. Again look at the contrast.
[13:43] Chapter 9 verse 13. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
[13:55] How much more then will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we can or that we may serve the living God.
[14:18] Christ's sacrifice deals with our guilt so that we can relate to God that we can enjoy Him. Verse 14 is talking about the blood of Christ it's about His death.
[14:32] When we think blood we think a mess we think a stain. But the picture here is that through Jesus His blood becomes the cleansing agent for our guilty conscience.
[14:46] His sacrifice applied to our lives perfects us relationally so that look at the end of verse 14 of chapter 9 so that we can serve the living God even though we continually mess up and fail.
[15:03] How many times do we get it into our heads that where something goes wrong we say something or do something we're overcome with guilt we think we cannot serve God anymore I can't do it. But He cleanses our conscience so that we can serve the living God.
[15:22] I think I've mentioned this before but I was plagued as a teenager with this. For years I had a Bible beside me and well my parents always encouraged me to read it and I would constantly move it I would never read it but I would move it around the room just to give the impression that I'd read it.
[15:42] But the reason why I could never read it the reason why I felt I could never do anything for God was because of guilt. and I still sometimes fall into that trap and we all do.
[15:55] We feel we can't serve we can't do anything but He has cleansed our conscience so that we can. The sacrifice of Jesus makes us perfect.
[16:07] Second the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient. Verse 11 of chapter 10 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties.
[16:26] Again and again he offers the same sacrifice which can never take away sins. But when this priest that's Jesus had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God.
[16:40] Like our sacrifices the priest here had to offer sacrifices again and again and again. He was so busy making sacrifices look at verse 11 he was always having to stand and perform his religious duties.
[16:58] He could never sit down and have a break. No sooner was one sacrifice done then he had to do another one and by the time he'd finished that the person who had started was there again. And no sooner do we make one sacrifice for sin then we're having to make another one again and again.
[17:18] But when Jesus sacrificed himself for us verse 12 look at what he does. He's not standing and performing his religious duties what does he do?
[17:29] He sat down at the right hand of God. It's telling us that his sacrifice is complete. It's sufficient.
[17:41] We don't need to be adding our little acts of sacrifice. It's done. It's final. It's over. It is finished. But more than that the impact of this what we might call a once for all sacrifice is that it's eternal.
[18:03] Look at verse 14. Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever.
[18:15] He doesn't make us perfect for one day and then we have to kind of go back again and start all over again. It doesn't mean that kind of at the end of a month or at the end of a year we kind of have to do something extra special.
[18:27] No, because of one sacrifice he has made perfect forever. He removes the stain of our guilt perfectly and sufficiently.
[18:42] Everything dealt with. Now the big question is this. How can we, how can I experience a cleansed guilty conscience so that I can live my life fully for God and no longer be plagued and bogged down in my guilt?
[19:07] Well, third, how the sacrifice of Jesus is experienced and becomes a reality in our lives. If we're going to experience the benefits of a cleansed guilty conscience then we need two things and we find them in verses 15 to 18.
[19:27] The two things we need is the word of God and the spirit of God. Not separately but together.
[19:37] The word of God and the spirit of God working together in partnership. First, the word of God, verse 15. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this.
[19:53] First he says, this is the covenant I will make with them. After that time, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds.
[20:06] Now some of you will know that this quote here in verse 16 is a quote from the prophet Jeremiah about a new covenant, a new relationship that God has promised to his people, one we enjoy today.
[20:19] But instead of saying in verse 15, Jeremiah testifies to them, look at what it says, the Holy Spirit also testifies to us.
[20:32] What Jeremiah spoke to the people then is the same word that the Holy Spirit speaks to us today. As we read the word of God, so the Spirit of God takes that same word and applies it to our lives.
[20:54] So what does this word tell us? Well, look at the end of verse 16. He says, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds.
[21:07] So rather than our hearts being filled with a guilty conscience, our hearts are now filled with God's word. Rather than our minds being weighed down with an unclean conscience, our minds are now set on God's pure word.
[21:24] And the Spirit takes that which is in our hearts and our minds and he begins to work it out into our lives. Which brings us to the second part of this.
[21:37] It's not just the word of God we need, we need the Spirit of God. Verse 17. Then he adds, their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.
[21:48] And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Our conscience has been cleansed.
[21:59] Therefore, verse 17, God has no remembrance, he has no record of our sin. And the Spirit takes that word, the truth about Jesus and what he has done for us, and he constantly reminds us of what we have.
[22:18] Every time we think of our sin and we think I'm useless, I'm too much of a failure, I can do nothing. Supernaturally, the Spirit takes the word and brings to our memory that our guilt is gone.
[22:35] There's sins and lawless acts I remember no more, I remember no more, I remember no more. But more than that, look back at verse 16 again, the last part.
[22:48] He says, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds. It's like the Spirit takes the word and carves conscience cleansed across our hearts.
[23:07] It's as if it's been carved into our lives. So every time we're tempted to think of how awful or how bad, the Spirit helps us to see what Christ has done.
[23:24] You see, a heart that is filled with God's word will no longer be crushed by guilt. A mind that is filled with God's word will no longer be crippled by guilt because the Holy Spirit takes that word, applies it to our lives, constantly reminding us, speaking to us, that our conscience has been cleansed.
[23:53] The documentary that I mentioned at the beginning, one of those children, he was standing before an audience just like this, and he was talking about all the atrocities that had happened in World War II, and he was reminding the people there that his grandfather was responsible for all of those acts.
[24:18] And one of the pupils asked, how did he feel, and he said, I just feel this overwhelming sense of guilt and shame. And then there was this old man in the corner, and he waved his hand, and he said, I was in one of those camps.
[24:40] my family had been killed by your grandfather. And he walked up to the front, and he embraced this man, embraced him.
[24:56] And they cried, it was emotional, and he said, it's not remembered, it's gone, it's gone. And I think just that image, that picture, and that's what I want us to go away with here, is that it's like the Spirit and the Word come to us, and they embrace us and put their arms around us, reminding us and telling us, your guilty conscience has been cleansed.
[25:35] you don't need to bring it with you anymore. It's gone. It's finished. It's over. Let's pray.
[25:48] Let's pray. I'm just going to read a verse that comes from Hebrews 10 verse 22.
[26:14] And then I'm going to pause and I'd just like there to be some silence that each one here can reflect on what we've said, can confess where we need to confess, and can ask God that by His Spirit He would take His Word and give us that sense of a cleansed conscience.
[26:44] let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure water.
[27:09] Let us draw near to God with full assurance, and have our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.
[27:23] Let's just talk to God individually in our own hearts. Let's do that now. команд toctoral mówi bears from to Russians to amoil enjoying the stations to have ihn at
[28:27] All right.
[28:57] How much more then will the blood of Christ cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God?
[29:15] Father, help us to live in the freedom that you have given us. You have set us free.
[29:27] Help us to love you. Help us to enjoy you. Help us to live with you. Giving of our lives in response in full sacrifice to you.
[29:39] As an offering of our praise and our thanksgiving for all that you have done. We thank you for the great God you are.
[29:51] In Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing a great song that takes some of these themes and these thoughts.
[30:04] it's a song that takes us to the cross it takes us to Calvary it shows us the perfect and sufficient sacrifice of the Lord Jesus who dies for us who took the blame who bore the wrath who takes all our guilt and all our shame cleans our conscience once and for all never to be remembered let's stand and sing and give our thanks to God Amen Oh to see the dawn of the darkest day Christ on the road to Calvary try by sinful men torn and beaten then nailed to a cross
[31:21] Christ on the cross Christ became name for us took the blame for the last week for the last week and forgiven and forgiven and forgiven Oh to see the pain written on your face bearing the awesome every bitter thought every evil deed crowning your blood crowning your blood and brown and forgiven this is the power of the cross of the cross
[32:36] Christ became Christ became Christ became sin for us sin for us took the blame for the last week during the extraordinaire in capuch