In Christ Alone (Hebrews 10:1-18)

[0:00] This morning we're going to continue in our study of Hebrews. And, you know, as this study has gone on, one of the things that I've noticed is many people have come to me and said, you know, Hebrews is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

[0:14] Hebrews is one of my favorite books of the Bible. I've said this a time or two saying that I love the book of Hebrews. But most of the time when people say that Hebrews is their favorite book of the Bible, many times what they're referring to is the last few chapters of Hebrews.

[0:31] Many times what they're referring to is the second part of chapter 10 all the way through the end of the book. I've not had many people who've come to me and said, you know, my favorite verse in all of the Bible is found in Hebrews chapter 7 where it talks about the priestly order of Melchizedek.

[0:51] I've yet to have that person come to me and share that. But there's a reason that the author spends so much time talking about these deep theological truths.

[1:04] In fact, he follows a pattern that many other authors of books in the New Testament follow. They share the theology in that they jump to show how that theology changes your life.

[1:17] Oftentimes we like to jump to application. We like to have things that are easy to understand that we can just package up nicely, put a bow on and say, all right, this is what you need to do now.

[1:29] We enjoy those things. We want just that one nugget that we can hold on to of an application that we can begin to apply to our lives. We like to read passages of Scripture that are easy to understand.

[1:42] Where it says, you know what, I know exactly what God is calling me to do with this. But, and again, there's nothing wrong with those things. Those are good things. I like passages that are easy to apply.

[1:55] The problem is that action and application that is not built on truth is not lasting. Application that's not built on deep theological truth isn't lasting.

[2:11] It may change for a short time, but it isn't something that will last. You know, I think my parents, like probably every parent that has ever lived growing up, told me, don't stick anything that's not supposed to go into an outlet into an outlet.

[2:26] Don't do it. I'm sure that we've all told our kids that before. We put little plugs in those to make sure that they don't do those things. We're told that don't stick something into an outlet that's not supposed to go into it.

[2:38] Well, that works great for a little while. And then curiosity sometimes gets the best of us. One time on a teacher work day, I was going with my mom to go elementary. And I decided to take two keys and put into the outlet right there.

[2:52] And all of a sudden, I had a truth to go along with the application. Thankfully, the breaker tripped and it just scared me to death. But all of a sudden, I had a truth to go along with that application.

[3:04] It wasn't just don't do this. It was here's the reason why. Here's the why behind it, the truth behind it. And so many times, that's what we need to see.

[3:14] You see, before I had the application, but now I had a truth to go along with the application. Since then, I have not placed anything into an outlet that's not supposed to go into an outlet.

[3:27] We have that truth to go along with it. The author of Hebrews has spent a lot of time talking about truth. And next week, we're going to begin to get into some of that application.

[3:38] But for one more week, we have some truths that are incredibly important for us to wrap our minds around. And in many ways, this section that we're about to read and study, Hebrews 10, 1 through 18, in many ways, it serves as a summary of everything that has come up to this point.

[3:59] And so if you have a copy of God's Word, I want to encourage you to open to Hebrews chapter 10. And we're going to read the first 18 verses. This is what the Word of the Lord says. It says, Otherwise, there would not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

[4:38] But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

[4:49] Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me.

[5:00] In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

[5:11] When He said, Above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law.

[5:22] Then He added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

[5:39] And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies would be made a footstool for His feet.

[6:05] For by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them.

[6:21] After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. And then He adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

[6:34] Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. And so from this passage, there's two statements that I want us to understand today.

[6:46] I want to make sure that we're clear on as we move forward. These two statements summarize much of the book of Hebrews to this point. And these two statements are foundational for us to build our lives on.

[6:59] The first statement that I want us to see clearly is this. And it is that we are insufficient to save ourselves. We are completely insufficient to save ourselves.

[7:10] Much of this passage in the previous chapters leading up to this deals with the insufficiency of the sacrifices made by the high priest.

[7:21] Verses 11 and 12 right here highlight both of these realities very clearly. Listen, it says this. And it says, Many of the distinctions between the high priest of the Old Testament and Jesus as our new and better high priest could be made by saying, The priest who stands versus the priest who sits.

[8:01] The many priests who stand offering sacrifices over and over again versus the priest who sits down at the right hand of God. Now we've already made this distinction in other places.

[8:14] But this is perhaps the clearest comparison. Under the Old Covenant, priests stood daily at God's service offering the same sacrifices repeatedly.

[8:24] They stood every day because their work was never completed. They had to be done over and over and over again. Generation after generation because it was never enough.

[8:38] But verse 12 shows us how Christ is different. Once Christ offered a single sacrifice for sins, that was sufficient for all time.

[8:49] He sat down at the right hand of God. Jesus seated in authority and power at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.

[9:00] The priest who stand makes sacrifices repeatedly because it is never enough. Oftentimes we try to be good enough or do enough good to outweigh our bad.

[9:11] But those good deeds are insufficient. Everything that we could do is insufficient. And while we are insufficient to save ourselves, what this passage shows is that clearly Jesus is more than sufficient to save our sins.

[9:28] So the next statement I want us to see is Jesus is more than sufficient to save us from our sins. And I want us to see this by looking at verse 14.

[9:39] Verse 14 in many ways summarizes this section. Verses 1 through 18 summarize much of Hebrews up to this point. Well, verse 14 summarizes much of this passage.

[9:52] It says this. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Let's look at that just a little closer.

[10:03] For by a single offering, this lets us clearly know that Jesus is enough. By this single offering, he is enough.

[10:14] A single offering would have been a foreign concept for these early Jewish readers. Because they were used to offerings being made over and over and over again. So when he says for a single offering, this would be a foreign concept.

[10:27] They didn't have an understanding for this. But what the author is trying to communicate for us is the sufficiency of Christ's offering. He says for a single offering, he has perfected for all time.

[10:43] Jesus is enough to perfect you. When Jesus saves you, he saves you completely. He makes you perfect. He declares you righteous. Now right now you may be thinking, well, Brett, I'm not perfect.

[10:56] I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not perfect. I'm not righteous. Well, if you are a follower of Christ, you are. Well, Brett, I know me and I know that I'm not perfect.

[11:07] I know that I'm not righteous. If you are a follower of Christ, he's declared you to be perfect and righteous. Brett, you don't know what I've done. Even this morning on my way in, I've been frustrated.

[11:20] You don't know what I did last night. If you are in Christ, he's declared you to be perfect. Well, okay, well, I understand that for me. But I don't believe this because look at my spouse.

[11:32] Now some of you, they're smiling. But you're saying, look at all these people around me. They're not perfect. If you are a follower of Christ, he's declared you to be perfect.

[11:45] And so this is what we see. He is enough. When I say this, I don't mean that all of your actions are perfect. I mean that you are declared perfect and righteous. And sanctification, which we're about to talk about, is the process of becoming what God has declared you to be.

[12:01] This is a glorious truth for us. Because of this truth that we are declared righteous, that we are made perfect. Hebrews 8, if you remember, it tells us that he remembers our sins no more.

[12:13] And then it's repeated here in Hebrews 10, where he tells us that our sins are remembered no more. Romans 8 tells us that there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

[12:26] Those sins have been thrown into the sea of his forgetfulness to be remembered no more. And maybe what you need today is to stop remembering what God has already forgotten.

[12:39] Maybe what we need to be reminded of today is that Christ is enough. He is sufficient for all of our needs. And what we need to do is we need to stop remembering what God has already forgotten.

[12:50] We need to stop beating ourselves up for what God has already forgotten. You see, as a follower of Christ, sin does not define you. It doesn't have the final say in your life.

[13:02] Now, I'm not saying to not take sin seriously. We absolutely should. I'm simply saying that we need to take God's grace seriously as well. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

[13:20] As I mentioned a second ago, when you are saved, you are declared perfect. You are declared righteous. And then sanctification is the process of becoming what God has already declared you to be.

[13:33] You see, when you place your faith and your trust in Christ, you are declared perfect. You are declared righteous. And then this sanctification is the process of becoming what God has already declared you to be.

[13:47] What he's already declared you to be is becoming. You spend the rest of your lives becoming what he has declared you to be. Last night, I was right outside of Raleigh officiating a wedding for a beautiful young couple.

[14:03] And weddings are beautiful and exciting. And weddings, in a sense, are a picture of this change that happens when we are saved. If you are married, then I want you to think with me for just a moment about your life before you got married.

[14:18] If you're married, just think with me for just a moment about your life before you got married. For some of you, it may have been a long time ago. For some of you, it may have been a year ago. And some of you need to wipe the smile off your face right now as you think about that time before you got married.

[14:31] But we think about those times and there's a change that happens. There's a change that happens when we are married. Before you got married, you didn't ask anyone before you made a decision about something.

[14:44] You just did it because you didn't have anyone to ask. If you're a guy, you may or may not wash your clothes before wearing them again. You may or may not leave the pizza box beside the chair where you were sitting when you ate it.

[14:57] But once you get married, there is a moment where you go from being single to being married. There's a moment where your life changes.

[15:08] But you will spend the rest of your life becoming what that officiant declared you to be that day. There will be days when it is difficult to live as a married person.

[15:20] But that doesn't mean that you're not married. It just means that you have some work to do to being what you are declared to be. But if you are truly married, then you will spend your life going from being single to being married.

[15:34] In a moment, you are married, but it takes a lifetime to learn how to be married. For some of us, we're slower learners than others. But we all continue to grow in this for the rest of our lives.

[15:49] In a moment, you are married. But then you spend the rest of your lives growing in that relationship, growing and becoming who God has called you to be in that relationship.

[16:01] When you come to faith in Christ, there is an unbreakable covenant made in heaven where you go from death to life. Where you go from an enemy of God to his child.

[16:13] Where you go from a sinner to a saint. And it has happened. And if this has happened, then you will spend the rest of your life becoming what God has declared you to be.

[16:26] You'll spend the rest of your life growing in this relationship. What this passage is doing is it's explaining what theologians refer to as the great exchange.

[16:36] When you exchange something, that means you give somebody something and they give you something. In this great exchange, we give Christ our sin, our shame, our regret.

[16:48] And he gives us his righteousness in return. He gives us his righteousness in return. He is that high priest who makes it possible.

[16:59] You see, Christ is the only one that can do this. And we've talked so much about a high priest here lately. Sometimes I wonder and worry about this.

[17:11] Are people getting tired of all this high priest talk? Are people connecting with the Melchizedek? Should we skip over some of this? People are coming in today, myself included, with all kinds of worries and fears.

[17:25] Wanting a nugget that they can apply to their lives. Something they can easily digest and hold on to. Do we really need to focus this much time on Jesus as a high priest?

[17:38] And I would argue yes. You see, every single thing you need in every single situation of your life is found in God.

[17:51] There is nothing that you need that God doesn't have. But here's the problem. Because of sin, you can't get it.

[18:03] Because of sin, there's a separation between you and God. Our sins have separated us from God. And that is why you need a high priest.

[18:14] That is why you need one that is better than all the others. This is why there's this much emphasis on Christ being our perfect high priest.

[18:25] This is why we need a mediator to go before us to take the wrath that we deserve. This truth is foundational to everything else. This truth is what we build our lives on.

[18:38] This truth is what we need for lasting application. This truth is what we need to not just have something to apply, but to apply it and it stay with us.

[18:50] And so are you ready to give your life to this truth? If you've not placed your faith and your trust in Jesus, are you ready to go from death to life? Are you ready to go from a sinner to a saint?

[19:03] That change in position can happen today if you want to place your faith and your trust in Him. But if you have done this, then I want you to ask yourself a question.

[19:15] Is your life given to becoming what God has declared you to be? Is your life being lived out becoming what God has declared you to be?

[19:26] And if not, then I want you to seriously ask the question, what needs to change to make that happen? Heavenly Father, I thank you so very much for your word.

[19:38] Lord, I thank you for what it teaches us about you. Lord, I thank you for these truths that we find in your word. Truths that are deep and theological and rich that we can apply to our lives that change everything about us.

[19:52] And so, Lord, I pray that as we think about these truths, as we prepare for these things to be applied to our life in the weeks to come, Lord, I pray that these truths would sink in.

[20:03] They would be something that resonates with us, that we can look to you and understand the gift that we have been given because you are our high priest, because you are our priestly king, because you are our mediator who takes away your wrath.

[20:21] And so, Lord, thank you for that. And, Lord, I pray that there's someone here today that has never placed their faith and their trust in you. Lord, they would have that change of position, where they would go from death to life, where they would be declared righteous, where they would be declared perfect.

[20:39] But, Lord, for the rest of us, I pray that we live in that, that we'll spend our lives becoming what you have already declared us to be.

[20:50] And so, Lord, give us the boldness and courage and strength to do what you've called us to do. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to invite you to stand.

[21:02] We're going to sing a song of invitation. The Lord is speaking to you this morning. I want you to respond as we stand together and sing.