And if you would open up your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, I'm going to read through verses 1-18.
! We are starting to see the end of Hebrews in the distance.
So Hebrews 10, 1-18, hear God's word.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities,
it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.
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.
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said,
Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me.
In burnt offerings and in 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.
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.
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.
And every priest stands daily at the 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 enemy should be made a footstool for His feet.
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.
After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.
Then He adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering of sin.
May God bless the hearing of His word.
Can you guess which virus this is I'm about to describe?
You've got a child or a grandchild with an itchy rash around the trunk of their body.
And then they start itching it.
They start, boop, boop, boop, boop.
You know what that is, don't you?
Chicken pox.
The symptoms of chicken pox are pretty easy to cite.
Do you know what the symptoms of legalism are?
Legalism is the belief that your eternal standing with God
is dependent upon your personal present obedience.
Legalism says your eternal standing before God depends on your daily obedience to God.
Legalism is a toxic distortion of the gospel of grace.
It says God's grace can save you plus something else, your obedience.
And the thing about this toxic distortion of legalism is that it's unhealthy for a Christian.
It's unhealthy for a church.
It can be oppressive.
It can puff up some people while totally kind of suffocating others.
It's a subtle shift of dependence off of the risen Christ and onto yourself.
So how do you know if you've got legalistic tendencies?
Well, do you have a tendency of thinking that your eternal standing before God
depends upon whether you're having a daily quiet time, reading your Bible,
or you're getting to church every Sunday?
Do you think that your eternal standing with God depends upon your up-to-date confession of sin?
In other words, if you were to die and not have confessed all of your sin,
do you think that your eternal salvation would be in jeopardy?
Maybe you think that your eternal standing with God is in jeopardy every time you sin.
Maybe you think that your eternal standing with God depends on kind of what's more in the columns.
More good works than evil works.
The thinking is, if I have more good works than evil works, then I'm in right standing with God.
Is that what you're thinking?
That's not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Do you think that your salvation depends in any way on your obedience,
on your performance, on your repeated sacrifices day after day, year after year?
Your eternal standing before God depends solely on the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.
The antidote to legalism is this once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.
And so here's what I'm going to try to convince you of from Hebrews 10, 1-18 this morning.
Here it is.
Hold fast to Christ and say good riddance to legalism.
Kick it to the curb.
In Hebrews 10, 1-18,
the author of Hebrews is kind of wrapping up a line of argument that he started in chapter 8.
He's been making a case that the new covenant is better than the old covenant
because the new covenant can actually rid you of all your sins
where the old covenant couldn't.
And remember, he's writing to a church that was suffering for Christ
and they were being tempted to go back to the ineffective animal sacrifices of the old covenant.
We're tempted to go back to the ineffective offerings of legalism,
thinking that is what makes us right with God.
And so there are two reasons from this text
why you should hold fast to Christ and kick legalism to the curb.
Reason number one, Christ's superior sacrifice.
And reason number two, Christ's superior priesthood.
So let's look now at these two points from this passage,
starting with Christ's superior sacrifice.
The book of Hebrews is one long exhortation to hold fast to Christ all the way to the end.
And one of the repeated kind of tools that the author of Hebrews uses to help exhort us
is by comparing and contrasting.
And so again and again, he shows us that Christ is better.
Again and again, Christ is superior of all different sorts.
And here in chapter 10, verses 1 through 10,
we have a comparison of sacrifices.
Let's look at the inferior sacrifice first.
It's spelled out in verses 1 through 4.
It starts with a reference to the law.
For since the law, the law of Moses,
has but a shadow of the good things to come,
of the true form of these realities.
The law of Moses is talking about the Ten Commandments,
all of the commandments spelled out in the first five books of the Bible.
And what we're being told here is that the law of Moses and the commanded sacrifices,
they're but a shadow of the good things to come.
If you look back at chapter 9, verse 11, we read this.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,
you see, the good things to come was Christ and all that he offered.
And somehow the law of Moses would point to him.
It was a shadow of the good things to come.
But it wasn't the good things.
And so that little phrase, the true form of these realities,
instead of the true form of these realities,
what it's getting at is the law of Moses and its sacrificial system.
It lacked substance.
The one who would come with the good things,
there's where the substance is.
And what is striking is what we read in verse 1,
the law and its commandments,
it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year,
make perfect those who draw near.
This is shocking.
The writer of Hebrews is saying that the law of Moses and all of its commands
and all of its sacrifices,
it's all of the Levitical priests,
all of what they were doing day after day,
was ineffective.
Powerless.
To make perfect those who draw near.
When the writer of Hebrews is using that made perfect language,
he's talking about being cleansed from your sin,
of having your sins fully taken away,
of knowing that you've been completely and fully forgiven by God,
that there's no condemnation for you.
God's wrath has been satisfied.
That's the point of verse 2.
If these animal sacrifices of the law of Moses
could actually cleanse your conscience,
then they would cease being offered.
But they were being offered day after day.
They were ineffective.
What they were effective at is reminding people of their sins.
Verse 3.
But they're ineffective because it's impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
That blood, that death lacked power.
When we apply this to our legalistic thinking,
when you think that your daily devotions,
your weekly church attendance,
doing more good than evil,
even the frequent confessing of your sins,
when you think that these are the things
that keep me saved,
you're making a mistake.
None of these has the power to take away your sins.
In verses 1-4, we have this
inferior sacrifices of the old covenant.
They're ineffective.
They're powerless.
And then in verses 5-10 comes the contrast.
Comes Christ's superior sacrifice.
In verse 5,
oh man,
the author of Hebrews does some crazy stuff here.
Remember in chapter 10, verse 1,
where he starts?
He starts by saying,
for since the law has but a shadow of the good things.
Look where he starts in verse 5.
Consequently, when Christ came into the world,
he said,
whatever he's about to say,
it trumps the law of Moses.
Jesus said,
I came not to abolish the law,
but to fulfill it.
If you would flip back to the beginning,
the very first two verses of the book of Hebrews,
here's what's going on right here.
Long ago at many times,
and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
Moses being one of them.
But in these last days,
he has spoken to us by his son.
That's what's going on here.
It's Christ's final word on the matter.
And what the author of Hebrews does is,
he puts the final word as fulfillment.
He has Jesus speaking
from Psalm chapter 40,
verses 6 through 8,
a Psalm of David.
And he's saying like,
this has been fulfilled.
It's in the mouth of Jesus.
And we read,
sacrifices and offerings
you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me.
In burnt offerings
and in sin offerings,
you have taken no pleasure.
When David wrote that,
he was talking about being
his heart fully unto God.
When the author of Hebrews
has Jesus saying that,
what he's saying
is something monumental,
a huge paradigm shift.
He's saying that
all of the Old Testament sacrifices
are now obsolete.
God takes no more delight
in them.
These were in reference
to the sacrifices
of the Old Testament.
In verse 7,
we read,
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.
That's David
originally saying,
I've come to do your will
as your king.
It's been written me
of the scroll of the book,
probably Deuteronomy 17,
these instructions to a king,
with Jesus saying it.
He's coming to do the will of God
to save all who would believe in him,
to establish a forever kingdom.
Do you remember when Jesus was in Gethsemane
and he said,
not my will,
but your will be done to his father?
Do you remember Isaiah 53.10
that says,
it was the will of the Lord
to crush him?
This will is God's will
and Jesus came to do it
and by him quoting Psalm 40,
6-8,
what the author of Hebrews is doing
is he's saying,
this is the one,
the descendant of David,
David's greater son.
Remember Psalm 110,
the Lord said,
to my Lord?
And the sacrifices,
there's a shift.
In verse 5,
we read,
but a body have you prepared for me.
This is talking about sacrifices.
And so in the words of Christ,
it's his body
that God has prepared.
It's a better sacrifice.
A once for all,
single,
for all time
sacrifice.
So what the author of Hebrews
is doing here
in extraordinary fashion
is he has Christ
speaking
Psalm 40,
6-8
in order to demonstrate
he's the final word
on the topic of sacrifice.
Because he is the sacrifice.
Maybe the question
needs to become this.
Why was it impossible
for the blood of goats
and bulls
to take away sin?
But why is it
that this single,
once for all,
sacrifice of Christ
can take away sin,
can make us sanctified?
Verse 10.
And by that will,
we have been sanctified
through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all.
How does that work?
Well, remember
who Jesus is.
He's totally God.
Totally man.
He's totally man.
He is the perfect
representative man,
yet without sin.
Remember that?
from Hebrews chapter 4, 15.
He was tempted
in every way
yet without sin.
And he is God.
His death satisfies
God's wrath forever.
That's why Jesus' blood
is better than
the blood of animals.
His blood is the power.
power.
The power to deliver us
from our sins.
What we have here
is quite a comparison
between the inferior
sacrifices of animals
and the superior
sacrifice of Christ.
The repeated offerings
of these animals
points to their
ineffectiveness.
But the once for all
sacrifice of Christ
it points to
how effective
it is.
Christ alone
takes away
our sins.
For the legalists
in the room,
this is really good news.
Because what this means
is that your
eternal standing
with God
depends
not on
any repeated
effort of yours,
but on the
once for all
sacrifice
of Christ.
Amen.
Christ's superior
sacrifice
is amazing.
Imagine
you owe
50 million dollars
in debt.
But you're responsible.
people.
So you set up
a payment plan
to work with
your
$75,000
a year income.
And so you
are able to
set aside
$300 a month
to start
paying down
this debt.
So for the
next 50 years,
every month,
you are paying
$300 a month
on the nose
and your credit
rating starts to go up.
You're like,
oh, this is good.
I am paying
off my debt.
I'm doing
what I can.
You're feeling
pretty good
about yourself.
And then when you
come to the end
of your life,
you realize
that these
50 years
of paying
$300
a month
amounts to
$180,000,
which is
less
than half
of 1%
of the
$50 million
debt
you owe.
not even
a dent.
It's a picture
of Old Testament
sacrifice
of animals.
Not even
a dent.
It shows us
our sin
but does
not take
away sins
fully
and finally.
But imagine
if you've got
a billionaire
uncle
and he
loves you
dearly.
he finds
out that
you've got
a $50
million debt
and with
one single
check offering
once for
all for
all time,
he pays
off your
debt
in full.
Now that's
effective.
Now that's
superior.
That's
done.
And if you
pulled out
your checkbook
and said,
okay uncle,
can I start
paying you
$300 a month?
He'd be like,
no, you don't
get it.
This is a
gift.
Enjoy it.
Live free.
The antidote
to legalism
is what we
see in
verse 10.
And by that
will, the
will of God,
we have been
sanctified through
the offering of
the body of
Jesus Christ
once for
all.
He's a
superior
sacrifice.
Hold fast
to Christ
and kick
legalism to
the curb.
God's
second point.
Reason number
two,
Christ's
superior
priesthood.
There is
another
comparison and
contrast in
this passage.
And it's in
verses 11
through 18.
And the
contrast is
between the
inferior
priesthood of
the Levites,
old covenant,
and the superior
priesthood of
Christ,
new covenant.
And both
priests deal
in sacrifices.
So let's look
at the inferior
priesthood first
in verse 11.
We read this.
And every
priest stands
daily at his
service offering
repeatedly the
same sacrifices,
which can never
take away sins.
One of the
things you're
aware of about
these inferior
priests is that
there are more
than one.
There are many.
many.
And all of
these men,
they lived and
then they died.
And then all of
these human
priests were
sinners.
Do you remember
how they would
have to offer
sacrifice for
themselves before
they had to
offer sacrifice
for the people?
They were
sinners.
They had to
offer sacrifices
for themselves.
And what we
see here is
that they were
offering repeated
sacrifice, the
same sacrifice
of animals,
bloody messes
that couldn't
take away sins
over and over
and over again.
And the result,
verse 11,
it could never
take away sins.
This past week
I was reading
in one of the
commentaries and
one of the
writers pointed
to Sisyphus,
the figure from
Greek mythology.
Remember this guy?
The gods punished
him for eternity.
And they punished
him because he
had to push this
boulder up, this
huge hill.
And then once he
got to the hill,
the boulder would
just go roll down
again and then he
would have to push
it back up,
strenuous, repeated,
time and time
again, and he
never got it done.
It's this repeated,
ineffective picture
of futility.
And what we see
going on here is
that the Levitical
priesthood,
though set up by
God, those
serving to expose
our sin,
it's Sisyphus-like
in its ineffectiveness
and in its futility.
It doesn't take away
sins.
This is the inferior
priesthood that has
now been made
obsolete.
By the superior
priesthood of Christ.
And we see this
superior priesthood in
verses 12, 13, and
14.
We're not talking
multiple priests,
we're talking one.
And we're talking one
priest in the order
of Melchizedek who
died and then was
raised from the dead.
He's alive today.
It's a single
offering, 12 and
14.
And yes, he's
human, but he's a
human who never
offered a sacrifice
for his sins because
he never sinned.
He was sinless.
He's totally human,
so he can represent
us fully, but he's
also totally God.
Flip back to
Hebrews chapter 1.
We read in verse
3,
He, the Son,
Christ, is the
radiance of the
glory of God and
the exact imprint of
His nature.
And He upholds the
universe by the word
of His power.
He's God.
And all of God's
power and He's
human in all of
humanity without sin.
A superior
priest.
Christ.
And the sacrifice
that He offers
is far better.
He didn't need to
offer an animal
because He never
sinned.
What He did is He
offered Himself for
our sins.
This totally God,
totally man,
priest, king,
offered Himself,
as one commentator
talked about,
the offering and
the offerer are
one and the same.
Single,
once for all,
for all time.
Did you see that in
verse 14?
Sacrifice for our
sins.
Do you know what
is striking about
this passage?
it's the posture
between the
priests.
If you look at
verse 11,
every priest
stands
daily.
They're busy.
Busy offering
ineffective sacrifices.
But then when you
look down to
verse 12,
when Christ had
offered for all
time a single
sacrifice for
sins,
He sat
down
at the right
hand.
of God.
It's a reference
to Psalm 110
again.
He sat
down.
It's a picture
of being done.
Remember from the
cross, He said,
it is finished.
If you go back
to Hebrews 1,
we read this.
Verse 3,
after making
purification for
sins,
He sat down
at the right
hand of
majesty.
Work
finished.
One and done.
single.
Once for all.
For all time.
Done.
It's an amazing
work.
Through His death,
He has perfected
for all time
those who are
being sanctified.
God.
And now He
waits.
He's alive.
He's waiting
on His throne
and look at
verse 13.
Waiting from
that time
until His
enemies should
be made a
footstool for
His feet.
It's like a
picture of
Jesus lounging
with His feet
kicked up and
His enemies
are His
footstool.
It's a picture
of authority
and dominance
who are His
enemies.
Sin,
death,
devil.
We're one
day closer to
them being
eradicated.
Thrown down
forever.
And for a
church that
was originally
received this
who are
suffering for
Christ,
that would be
a huge assurance
for them.
That Christ
is in control.
He's not
standing,
wringing His
hands.
He's seated.
And one of the
things that He is
doing for us
as our
great high
priest.
And we know
this from
chapter 7
verse 25
is He's
interceding
for us.
That we
would live in
the good
things that He
has come and
established.
The fullness
of our
salvation.
If you
are
tending
towards
legalism,
what this
helps us
to see
is this.
You're
not your
own self
appointed
priest who
mediates his
or her
salvation
through your
own
offerings.
Christ
did that
once as
your high
priest.
Once for
all.
And now
He's bringing
it to bear in
our lives
from the
throne of
grace.
There is
no
service,
amount of
service you
can render.
There is
no amount
of offerings
you can
give.
There's
no end
to your
confessing
of your
sin that
will make
you
holy in
God's
sight.
It's only
through the
blood.
Christ's
blood.
He is
no
Sisyphus.
It's a
contrast between
the ineffective
feudal
offerings of
the old
covenant
and the
effective
and profitable
and fruitful
offering of
the one
time
all
once for
all sacrifice
of Christ.
He secured
our eternal
redemption.
And when
we get to
verse 14,
we read that
his once
for all
sacrifice,
well,
it took
away all
of our
sins.
It perfected
for all
time.
That's
flying in
the face
of
10-1.
These
animal
sacrifices
can never,
by the
same
sacrifices
that are
continually
offered
every year,
make perfect
those who
draw near.
Whose
sacrifice
can?
Christ's
has.
is
perfected
for all
time.
We're
completely,
utterly
forgiven
of our
sin.
If you
put your
faith in
Christ,
you are
forever
forgiven
of your
sin.
And we
are now
being
sanctified.
This one
verse holds
two things
at the same
time.
Your
position
as being
kind of
brought into
right standing
with God,
you've been
perfected,
you've been
sanctified,
we'll often
use the
word
justified,
you're in
right standing
with God,
and at the
same time,
we are
being
sanctified,
we are
being
transformed,
we are
being
conformed
into the
image of
Christ.
In chapter
12,
we will be
sharing more
and more
in the
holiness
of God.
Both
are true.
And it's
because of
this once
for all
sacrifice
that set
it into
motion.
So
positionally,
we're
secure based
upon this
finished work
and
experientially,
we are
becoming
more and
more
holy
as God
is holy.
And you
can't confuse
the two.
You being
holy doesn't
make you
perfect.
God by
his grace
makes you
perfect through
Christ's death
and then he
makes you
experientially
holy.
This is
Christ's
superior
priesthood.
This is why
he's
interceding
for us
right now
from the
throne
of grace.
You're
not your
own
self-appointed
priest.
When it
comes to
your salvation,
when it
comes to
making you
perfect,
when it
comes to
taking away
all of
your sins,
Christ
offered
himself
for
your sins
once and
for all
and sat
down.
Done.
It is
finished.
So let me
just say it
this way.
Christian,
there is
absolutely
nothing you
can do
to add
to what
he has
done.
Nothing.
And now
he ever
lives
to make
intercession
for you.
What a
great high
priest we've
got.
In verses
15 through
18,
the writer
of Hebrews
comes full
circle.
He comes
back around
to quoting
from Jeremiah
31.
And after
quoting from
Jeremiah 31,
he says
this in
verse 18,
where there
is forgiveness
of these,
where there's
full forgiveness
of your sin,
where the new
covenant has
come,
where Christ's
once for
all,
for all
time,
sacrifice
has come
to bear
and it
has.
There is
no longer
any offering
for sin,
no need
for animal
sacrifice.
It's been
made obsolete.
So what this
means for us
is this,
we hold
fast
to Christ
and we
say good
riddance
to legalism.
there's no
hope in it.
There's no
salvation in it.
So what do
you do
when you
start seeing
legalistic
symptoms
start to
show up
in yourself,
whether that's
towards yourself
or maybe
towards others?
Maybe you
start
wondering
or fearing
that your
standing with
God is now
in jeopardy
because you
haven't had
your quiet
time in
three days
or you
haven't been
to church
in three
weeks
or maybe
because you
haven't confessed
your sin
recently
or maybe
it's just
because you
just don't
feel like
you're good
enough.
You take
your eyes
off yourself
and you
set your
eyes
on Christ
and you
hold fast
to Christ
his once
for all
sacrifice
and his
ongoing
interceding
priesthood
and you
say good
riddance
to these
legalistic
fears.
Would you
repeat after
me?
Christ is
my
risen
and reigning
priest
and king
the anchor
of my soul.
who now
intercedes
for me
the once
and for
all
sacrifice
for my
sins.
Knowing
that Jesus
is your
perfect
substitute
who has
paid for
all of
your sins
now you
read your
Bible with
joy.
now you
come to
church as
often as
you can.
Now you
confess your
sin whenever
the spirit
brings it to
your mind
and now you
do good
works
not because
you're earning
your salvation
because all
of these are
outworkings of
your salvation
and there is
joy
and at the
heart of it
is the
once and for
all sacrifice
of Jesus
Christ.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus
we are so
grateful for
what you have
done and
what you are
doing.
Thank you
Lord Jesus
for bearing
the full
weight
of our
sin and
God's wrath
towards that
sin.
And thank you
that now
we get to
live for you
with a clear
conscience
and we
can make
much of
reading our
Bibles and
coming gathering
together on
Sundays and
confessing our
sins and
doing good
things because
we've been
freed of
thinking that
these somehow
make us
acceptable in
your sight.
Through
Christ's death
you have made
us acceptable
in your sight.
Thank you
Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Thank you so much for
coming from