Well good morning to everyone. Good to see you all here this morning, another beautiful day. I'm having a lot of those lately, so that's nice this time of year. 

We began a study last week in chapter 9 of the perfect one-time all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ. The truth that he has accomplished salvation, has finished the work, has satisfied the wrath of God for me in my place for my sins by his once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. That's really the emphasis of these two chapters: that he died once. He's paid the full debt for the sins of men by means of death. That's what we saw last time in chapter 9. His death on the cross, his burial, and resurrection on the third day. 

Well, the author is going to continue this same discussion in chapter 10, focusing again on the one-time death of Christ and setting that in contrast with the continual ineffective animal sacrifices of the old in reference to accomplishing salvation. We see the first word here in chapter 10, the word "for" at the beginning of verse 1, and it indicates a continued discussion of the perfection and the efficacious nature of the sacrifice of Christ. 

We must bear in mind that the animal sacrifices in the temple by the Jewish priests were still occurring at this time. They were still going on in the time of the writing of this letter. It was clearly written before 70 AD. The Jewish priests had repaired the veil before the Holy of Holies, rejected the sacrifice of Christ, and were continuing daily to offer the blood of bulls and goats for sins. 

You remember that the main issue in this book is that there was an immense amount of pressure on these Hebrews within the congregation to go back to that temple worship, to go back to all that they had known, to turn away from Christ, and to go back to the animal sacrifices and their families, their culture, their community, and really the true sacrificial system that God had given in the Old Covenant. So there was some merit to that in that it was from God, but they didn't understand that it had ended, and the New Covenant had been instituted, and Christ had fulfilled all of those pictures. 

So the intent of the author, particularly here in our text today, is to show the perfection, the completion, the efficacious nature of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his one-time death on the cross, as opposed to the ineffectiveness of the continual animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant concerning bringing a man to a state of salvation, of completion, of what the author calls perfection forever. 

Well, this is not unfamiliar territory for us, my brothers and sisters, but it's my job to say what he says in his word. The Holy Spirit's trying to drive home these basic yet profound truths to his audience that Jesus is better. His covenant is better, his promises are better, and his sacrifice and priesthood are better as well. Therefore, these Hebrews should hold fast to him. They should look only to him, find their sufficiency in him. 

And you know, that's the same message that we need to hear again and again for our edification and our sanctification as well. Let's look at our text together, Hebrews 10, 1. 

"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. For then would they not have ceased to be offered. For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. And burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, "Behold, I have come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God." 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." Then he said, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God." He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. By that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

And every priest stands ministering daily, and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."

I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, we see a representation. Second, a reminder. Third, a replacement. And fourth, a remedy. 

Well, again, continuing his argument here that Jesus' priesthood and sacrifice is better than the Old Covenant priesthood and animal sacrifices, the author writes in verse 1, "...for the law having a shadow of the good things to come." The key word here is "shadow." It's in the place of emphasis. The whole idea here is that the law and its sacrifices and priesthood were not of the substance; they were not the reality, but only a representation. 

Back in chapter 8, verse 3, it said, "...for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore it is necessary that this one, Jesus, also have something to offer. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law." And then verse 5 said, "...who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, 'See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.'" 

The law, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the whole shebang was a representation, a picture, a shadow of the substance. We've seen this point again and again, but it's vital to understand that a picture is not the reality. It's not the substance. It only represents, it only points toward, it only helps to explain the substance, the real thing. 

And that is what the Law of Covenant was. It was given to show the people their sin and their need for a Savior, to picture, to point to that Savior, to lead men to faith in Jesus Christ. I just want to look at Galatians 3 verse 19, if you'd turn there with me, because Paul makes this so abundantly clear in that passage. Galatians 3:19, he asks the question, "What purpose then does the law serve?" It was added because of transgressions until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 

Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor, a schoolmaster, to bring us or lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

In Romans 5, Paul explains that from Adam until Moses, there was no law. Paul says that the law was given, the law entered for the express purpose to magnify, to show us our sin. Think about this. It's one of our favorite illustrations, but it's a good one. We have people over to our house in the winter, and they have a young child, maybe two; we're always concerned about the wood stove in our living room. Now that child may be just playing nicely there on the floor, doing her thing, not bothering anyone, but if she gets too close to that wood stove, then we immediately whip out the law. 

"Do not touch the wood stove. It's hot." This is a law: do not touch. Now that little girl was sitting there playing with that sin beast inside her all the time, inherited from her father, Adam. But we couldn't really see it; she's just playing nicely with her toys. But when we bring the law, when the law entered and we said, "Do not touch," what happens? The first impulse that little child has is to reach out and touch that stove, to rebel against the law. 

You see, the law entered that the offense might abound. The law was given to show us our sin, and the whole sacrificial system was meant to be a visual, visceral reminder of the sinfulness of man, the holiness of God, and the penalty that sin brings, which is death by the shedding of blood. But the picture, the representation, is not the reality. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins, could never make those who approach perfect. 

Look at verse 2 of our text; he says, "For then would they not have ceased to be offered. For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins." Here we just have a simple point of logic. If the old covenant sacrifices could take away sins, could purify the worshipers, then having purified them, they would have ceased. They would not continue. If something is accomplished, if something is brought to completion, then the work stops. 

If you have a broken car, say your transmission goes out; boy, there's a lot of work to be done, expensive work. But once the new transmission is in place and functioning, once the work is complete, you don't keep putting your car up on the lift and taking things apart and tinkering around. You take it out on the road, and you drive because it's been fixed. The work is complete. 

As you know, we've been making hay the last several weeks. It's a lot of work. It's hard work in the hot Sun. But last Wednesday we put the last of 2,354 bales in our barn. The barns are full. The work is done. Now I can rest. I can sit down because the work is finished. That's as soon as I have the manure spread. 

So the old covenant law, the sacrificial system, never accomplished the work of salvation. That's his point of perfection, of bringing men to completion. It was only a shadow. It was only a representation, and therefore it was never complete. The priests could never sit down and rest; there were no chairs in the tabernacle. Rather, that whole system was a reminder. A recollection. A bringing to mind, literally, of sins. 

Verse 3 of our text says, "But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year." For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Here we have a clear statement about the law covenant and the sacrificial system. It was never given to save, but only as a picture. And in it, there was a continual perpetual reminder of sins. And that was its intended purpose. That's why it was given. 

And in this, it was perfect and righteous and good. But in the work of taking away sins, of paying the debt for sins, and satisfying the wrath of God, it was completely impotent. So the problem is not with the law; it's not with the system. It was given by God; it was good. The problem is when men try to use it for a purpose which God never intended. 

The problem is when men do not see it as the picture, the sign, pointing them to their sin and a need for a Savior and leading them to faith in Jesus, but rather, they design systems of religion which incorporate the law, sacrificial or moral, into a means of salvation. Not a picture, not a tutor, but a means to accomplish our salvation. And this is true of every religion of man. Every religion says do, says keep the law, says participate in this ritual, trust in this sacrifice, this system of works and rites to earn your salvation. 

The only problem is that none of these things deal with the problem of indwelling sin; the necessity of death as a punishment for every sin; the satisfaction of a holy and righteous judge, the God of this universe. And therefore, they misuse the law. They lead people to a false hope with a false gospel of works righteousness. 

As Paul explains, the law is not to give life. The law is a ministration of death, of condemnation, 2 Corinthians 3. The law brings only wrath. The law brings to life indwelling sin which kills us, he says in Romans 7. My friends, it is a powerful argument that religion, the sacrifices, the law cannot save. 

And the author builds on this argument in verse 5. We see in our text a representation, we see a reminder, next we see a replacement. Hebrews 10:4, "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God.'" 

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." Then he said, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God." Now look at this amazing statement: "He takes away the first, that he may establish the second." 

The emphasis here is on the accomplishment of salvation, of the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ in contrast to that of the old. Concerning accomplishing salvation, a means of salvation, God had no pleasure in the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. And we see a quote here from the Psalm, Psalm 40, but I'd like for you to turn with me to a similar passage in Isaiah 1, really a powerful statement by Isaiah. 

Isaiah chapter 1, verse 4 will begin. "Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord; they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel; they have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints." 

"From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed or bound up or sued with ointment. Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom; we would have been made like Gomorrah." 

"Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me; the new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they are trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood. 

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil from your doings before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow." 

This great statement in verse 18: "Come now and let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." God did not want a people who practiced evil, who rebelled against him in their hearts, and then came and went through the rituals of sacrifice and religion. It was an exercise in futility. They were just going through the motions. God is interested in the heart, in faith, in obedience. He desires to save. He says, "Come, let us reason together. I have made a way of salvation, a sacrifice to atone for sins, a Savior to look to, to believe, to trust." 

But God is not pleased. He is weary of empty hearts practicing religion, and worse yet, religious men attempting to establish their own righteousness through law. The will of God, as prophesied in the Old Testament again and again, as the center and the core promise of God's entire salvation plan worked out through Jesus Christ, was that the Messiah would come. He would take on flesh and become a man. He says, "A body you have given to me," so that he could be a substitute, the sacrifice, the sufficiency to accomplish salvation and satisfy the wrath of God for sins. 

My brothers and sisters, this is the message that the Hebrews had to get. They had to take hold of and hold fast for themselves. God is not interested in religious works. He is interested in a pure heart, a heart turned to the Lord in faith, a heart that looks to Jesus and His perfect one-time sacrifice in faith and thankfulness. 

It was always God's plan to bring full and final salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The Old Covenant pictured this, pointed to the fulfillment, was to lead men to the Savior. But when the fullness had come, when Jesus instituted the New Covenant in His blood, when He raised that cup, when He died on the cross, the Old was replaced by the New. 

We saw this in Hebrews 8. 8:6 says, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises." He goes on to tell us that He's going to institute a new covenant, God's promise in Jeremiah 31, "I will bring a new covenant, not according to the covenant I made with them at Sinai." And in verse 13, He says, "In that He says a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." 

We've studied this in several passages already in the book of Hebrews, but the distinction between the Old and the New Covenant is vital for us to understand if we are going to understand why we can and how we should live a fruitful abundant life in Christ. There's a great deal of confusion in the church today concerning the replacement, the fulfillment, the making obsolete, and the vanishing away of the Old Covenant. Men want to hold on to the law, to divide up the law of Moses and take parts and pieces and make them binding on the believer. 

What we see in the New Testament is that Jesus has fulfilled the law. He has brought in a new covenant to replace the old. The old has vanished away. It served its purpose in the life of the man who has been led to faith in Christ. We are no longer under the tutor. And Romans 6 teaches us that we have died to sin. Romans 7 teaches us that in our union with Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection, we died to the law. 

This is so important, my friends, we no longer live by the letter, but by the Spirit. Listen to Romans 7:5, "For when we were in the flesh, when we were in Adam, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death." But listen to the glorious contrast: "But now, we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." 

In the new covenant time, the covenant that Jesus instituted in a pre-fulfillment in the church age, which will be fully and finally fulfilled in Israel, we now experience as those promises foretold in Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31, that of a new heart, a new spirit, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in us. We are new men in Christ, new creations, regenerated, and our old man has been crucified with Christ. We died so that the body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered powerless. We have been freed from sin, freed from the bondage to fear of death, and no longer live under the law. 

The old man and Adam lived under law, sin, and death, but we in Christ now experience grace, righteousness, and life. Why? Because of what Jesus accomplished, my friends. Because of the will of God, determined before the foundation of the world, that Jesus would be the full and final sacrifice, accomplishing salvation and delivering man from the penalty and the power of sin. For this is the will of God. The new has replaced the old. 

To somehow mix the old with the new, as we see in some circles today, is to confuse the issue, is to deny the sufficiency of Christ, is to miss the new covenant life in Him. So important that we understand these truths. 

We've seen in our text this morning representation, we've seen a reminder, we've seen a replacement, and finally we look at the remedy in verse 10. "By that will, God's will, to save men through the sacrifice of Christ, by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." 

I understand that these are very familiar doctrines to us, my brothers and sisters, but will you just take a moment to ponder these words, these truths, these promises, and their implications. 

Listen again, "By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified," is literally what it says. 

The author wants these Hebrew believers and the unbelievers in their midst to know that it was God's will, expressed repeatedly in the Old Testament scriptures, that he would provide a sacrifice, a spotless Lamb of God, the death of the Savior, a substitute in my place, in my stead, to pay the full price for my sins, for the express purpose to save me, to bring me to completion, to perfect me forever. 

Isn't that profound? Isn't that amazing? Don't you just want to shout amen? It's okay, you know, to say amen to such truth, such grace, such good news. It is God's eternal will to accomplish salvation by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ by means of death. This was a one-time, complete, all-sufficient sacrifice. Jesus died once, and it's finished. And he sat down, and his enemies will be made his footstool. There is no doubt, he is victor, the battle is won, it is finished, and we are now waiting, eagerly anticipating the consummation of all things. 

It was God's will, God's plan, Jesus accomplished it, and there's no need for any more sacrifice, no need for any more propitiatory, expiatory work of any kind. Did you process that? Because the implication of this truth is that every works-righteous religion, so-called Christian or otherwise, is false. Anyone who would teach Christ plus works, plus sacraments, plus sufferings for salvation, by definition, denies the one-time, once-for-all, complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 

And John says that anyone who denies Christ denies the Father, and the truth is not in him. The old covenant sacrifices of animals could never take away sins, and they needed to end. The whole system had been made obsolete, and God did end them in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem. The old sacrifices could never take away sins, but Jesus' sacrifice was once-for-all, taking away the sins of the world. 

And finally, we see the great promise of verse 14: "By one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified." Perfected forever; what does that mean? Well, the word "sanctified" means that we have been set apart. This verse speaks of the one who turns to faith in Jesus, who forsakes his own righteousness, his religion, whatever he's trusting in, and turns to the Lord, to his death, burial, and resurrection, receiving the righteousness of God by grace through faith alone. 

He is set apart; he is sanctified for God's purposes, and this says that the one who believes Jesus is perfected forever. The words speak of completion. He's brought to a point of completion concerning his salvation, his justification before a holy and righteous God. Salvation is fully and finally his, the man who believes Jesus, his because of what Jesus has done and because of his faith. 

Jesus is the only remedy for the sin problem of every man born in Adam. His death on the cross paid the penalty for my sin, allowing justification, allowing me to come into a right relationship with God through faith in him. His burial and resurrection, my death and resurrection with him, allows me to live a new and holy life, being outwardly conformed to the inward truth of who I am in Christ, sanctification. 

And the fact that he's a living Savior, having risen from the dead, who dies no more, the truth that he intercedes for me, he keeps me, he's promised to come again and take me to be with him forever, guarantees my glorification, eternity in heaven with him. Through Jesus alone and what he has accomplished, I am released from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and I will be finally and fully released from the very presence of sin. He has perfected forever those who are by faith in Him. 

We have a secure salvation in Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life with Him. And there are dozens of scriptures we could go to. John 10 that pastor read this morning. You continue that passage. He keeps us. He holds us. We're secure in Him. Peter: we're kept by the power of God. Our salvation is reserved in heaven. Romans 8 over and over and over speaks of this truth. 

And at the end of that chapter, he gives us a comprehensive list, and he says, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels or principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height or depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Praise be to God for the fact that Jesus, by His one-time sacrifice, has perfected, has brought to completion, full salvation for everyone who believes in this new covenant in His blood. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful that you continually teach us these truths, that you focus our attention, our minds, on Jesus and His sufficiency. And I just pray that you'd help us to believe you, to trust you, to speak the truth in love so that men might be encouraged, that men might be saved, and that you might be glorified. Thank you for the complete salvation that we have in Jesus. Thank you for the new covenant. It's in His name we pray. Amen.