Christ’s Perfect Work (Part B)

You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. That was their day of atonement, a day of affliction to say before God, we're guilty. We are sinners.

We need to be saved. But Christ has fulfilled that now. And so we Christians, we do not celebrate a day of atonement. We have been atoned for by Christ. It's a one time deal.

It's done. The animal sacrifices could never cleanse. They could only cover it. Well, if the Old Testament sacrifices were sufficient, then you would only have to offer them one time it was done.

But they did not. Every year, at the day of atonement, they'd have to offer again to cover their sins. And so that is, he is saying, your own religion preaches this. Now the writer is Hebrew. But he's no longer practicing Judaism. He's a Christian now. Ethnically a Jew.

Spiritually a Christian. And he is writing to those who are supposed to share. In fact, those who he's writing to, they were willing to suffer for Christ. But in time, other Jews were getting to them. You need to come down to the temple. Yeah, okay, I know you think Jesus was the Messiah, but you still need to keep up your offer.

And they would just peck at them and peck at them until they began to cave. The only defense against someone who is wrong is, no, you're wrong. I don't believe that. This is what I believe. And I think you're the one that needs to fix it.

And here is why I believe it. And you will, I promise, make enemies that way. But you will also make friends.

You will probably make more enemies than friends. But because this is what they were not doing, they were succumbing. But because this is what they were not doing, they were succumbing. To the culture.

How easy. How many Christians behave like the world does? How many Christians look to the world to see how should we behave? How should we raise a family? How should we do this? How should the church run? Let's ask the world how we should do it. Let's don't ask God. Don't go to the Scripture. That will make us different. I'm not questioning their sincerity or their love, but a person can love Christ and be sincerely wrong nonetheless about the things that Christ wants them to do. Otherwise we would all be perfect.

And so, again, this is very real life. It's not removed from centuries ago. What we're seeing struggled, the struggle here with the Jews, before Christ goes on today in the church. There would have been no need for the crucifixion if the Old Testament sacrifices did the job. But they were not perfect.

They were not complete. So he says in verse 2, for the worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sin. The consciousness, the awareness that the guilt is there.

The whole guilt issue is not settled in the Old Testament. And so John's Gospel, chapter 8, verse 36, Jesus says, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. You're free from your sins.

Yeah, you will commit from time to time. You will stumble. You will cross the line. You will trespass.

You will be where you're not supposed to be. But that won't send you to hell anymore because the blood of Christ washes your sin. It does not applaud it ever. God doesn't think there's anything funny about a little sin. It cost the Son of God a gruesome death to have us forgiven. But the reality is we're still stuck in the flesh in this world. And until we are glorified and in heaven, we will be prone to stumble.

But he is still able to present us faultless before his throne with exceeding joy. And so the writer is saying, there's proof of what I'm talking about that they offered these offerings every year. They knew that sin was there on them and they could not enter heaven. Hebrews 9, verse 9, it was symbolic for the present time. It's all that Old Testament system, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience.

Maybe I should say it this way. Well, I'll clear it up a little bit. We are not saying the Old Testament has nothing to offer us.

It is everything to offer us. It is equal with the New Testament because it is God's word. However, there's been a development, a progression in God's word. And the rituals, the things concerning salvation, these are now fulfilled, making those shadows obsolete.

And so we have to separate that. When we go to the Old Testament, we look at the righteous lives, we learn from them, we admire them, we pursue to be like them, the characteristics of those characters that please God. But when it comes to salvation from sin, we do not use ritual. It is by faith we come to Christ.

He is the one that forgives us his blood, not the blood of bulls and goats and sheep. Leviticus 23, verse 27, the tenth day of the seventh month shall be a day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you.

In other words, a gathering of the nation. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. That was their day of atonement, a day of affliction to say before God, we're guilty. We are sinners.

We need to be saved. But Christ has fulfilled that now. And so we Christians, we do not celebrate a day of atonement. We have been atoned for by Christ. It's a one-time deal.

It's done. The animal sacrifices could never cleanse. They could only cover it. They could not deal with it. And so we have a conscience and a conscience is painful. It alerts us that something is wrong.

It says there's an urgent matter, there's an emergency, there's a moral emergency that you have to respond to. A conscience is meant to bother us. You can't convict them if you can't hurt the conscience. In other words, you have a sinner out there who's not a believer in Jesus Christ. How are you going to lead them to Christ unless you offend their position against Christ? Unless you say you have to confess that you are a sinner before a holy God, that he is not judging you compared to some other man. He's judging you compared to his son Jesus and he was perfect and you cannot match that. So you must confess and you must come just as you are and be changed, be cleansed by the Christ. And if you do not do this, you're doomed in your sin.

And so conviction, it is supposed to alarm them. You who believe in Christ, did you come to Christ? When you came to Christ, did you not realize that you were headed to hell without him?

Because that was not part of the turning point. That he is Lord God Almighty and I have offended him, but he makes a way back for me and I'm going to receive it. I cannot earn it, I have to receive it. To say I can earn my salvation is to insult God. What do you mean you can earn it? You're not good enough.

You're not clean enough. If you could earn it, why did my son die? I just let you go ahead and earn it if that could happen. You must receive it. The flesh of many folks or the flesh of all people, they don't like that.

They want to feel like they paid for something. There's something good about me. Well, maybe there is next to someone else, but again, we've been quoting this verse from Isaiah. All my righteousness, said the prophet, is like filthy rags.

And so I'm not good enough, I need the Savior. He says in verse three, but in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. Verse four, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Animals, slaughtered animals, represented involuntary death of the innocent. The animal didn't say when Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were nude, the animals did not say, you know what, maybe Lord you should slay us, skin us, and then you can cover their sin.

They had no choice. God being God is prerogative. He slew the animals, took the skins and covered Adam and Eve. Jesus Christ, in contrast to the involuntary, innocent animals, is voluntary. He chose to come, to deal with his life, to be crucified. And not only is he innocent, but he is holy. He is pure and perfect. And he is the one that does not cover sins and he removes it. Thus John's words about Jesus Christ, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Jews understood sin was not taken away.

It was only covered, kophar. That's the word for their atonement, their yom kippur, the day of coverings. Now, there is no inbuilt power in animal blood. Voodoo and witchcraft may think so, but God has never thought so. In fact, the blood drops of Christ had no inbuilt power in them, in and of themselves in this sense. The Roman soldiers, when they crucified him, no question got his blood on them. They did not, oh I'm saved now, the blood touched me. There's no magical feature to the blood. We speak of the blood, we speak of his sacrifice, his will, his power. The blood is the emblem of that. Otherwise we'd all have to get that blood sprinkled on us. It's spiritual, it's not physical.

And there's nothing like it. The blood, when we say the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Does that mean what he has done and who he is and how he has done it? The blood of Jesus Christ and nothing else cleanses us from sin. And I hope I didn't lose you on that, because there would be those who would, if they could have put the blood of Jesus Christ in a vial and sell it to you as a relic, they would. The Bible doesn't teach us that. Jesus says, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are true. And that's what we are after, the deed of Christ, the person of Christ.

Now I'm sure somebody would be bothered by that. Because again, you are making a relic out of a superior act and be cautious, be cautious there. In verse five, therefore when he came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offerings you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. Verse six, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Now he's quoting Psalm 40, verse six. And he's saying the blood of those animals even God knew and the Jews knew from way back when this was not enough. And that's why he is referring to this verse, appealing to his audience. The audience would say, as Jews, we know that verse. And that's right, we know that the blood of animals cannot remove the sin of humans.

There's no magic going on here. It's an act of God that we need to happen. And that's why he's sending them back to this verse so they can say, yes that's right.

Going down to the temple is not the solution. Believing in Christ by faith you are saved. Not water baptism, not going to church, not following your parent's religion, not reading the Bible.

It is by faith in Christ the person. This is a reference to the virgin birth. Therefore when he came into the world he said, sacrifice and offerings you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. Christ did not come to say, okay I am going to offer the sheep and bulls for the sinners, and that will make them perfect because I'm the one doing the offering.

That is not what he said. He said, I'm not here to offer sheep and bulls, otherwise he would have come as a Levite. He came to offer himself according to the order of Melchizedek. And so, Christ offers himself, he says, but a body you have prepared for me. Well he needed a body in order to offer himself the final sacrifice.

Hebrews 2 verse 1, and as much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil. Now I had a pause here. Maybe you're listening to me and I'm sharing more doctrinal things right now than anything else, and you're finding it a little boring. Well you can blame me, it's not the text, it's you. Well I cannot argue against that, but the text itself is strong and it's powerful. Don't trick yourself into thinking that these are mere words.

It's the God of the universe in back of every single word. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and this is it. That it proceeded from God's mouth to the stylus of a saint makes it no less God's word.

And so it's very serious what he is talking about here for all of us. Christ did come in human form, the Holy One of God. He allowed them to destroy him. No one else has come born of a virgin except him, and no one again good enough to die to take away the sins of others except him. Verse 7, then I said behold I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will O God.

He will repeat this again in this section because it is that important. But as planned by God and revealed in the scriptures, Christ was going to come and do battle with the devil for sinners. All the way back in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. The scene is the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve have sold the dominion to the devil. He now has become the God of this age where Adam and Eve were entrusted to have dominion over creation there in the garden.

But their disobedience forfeited that. And when God comes and confronts them, Adam of course blames Eve. Eve blames the devil.

God in speaking to those characters, all of them could hear what he was saying and we can too and this is what is said. God says I will put enmity between you and the woman, he's speaking to Satan at this point, between your seed and her seed and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Well the woman has no seed, that is the man. It's a reference to the virgin birth. It is a reference to Christ being born of a woman and placed there by the Holy Spirit. The writers of the Old Testament continue to develop this. Isaiah says for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder. Now up to that point you could say that about King David. You could say that about any of the kings that were righteous. But then he takes this turn, Isaiah does, to narrow it down just which child is he talking about. Which we know more about than Isaiah knew at the time. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. All of those things belong to him. He says of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

You cannot say that about anyone else. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward. Even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. And so verse 7 where it says behold I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me. Well there it is.

There's just two places there of course. Hundreds prophecies concerning Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Not to mention all the sacrificial offerings pointing to him. Verse 8 previously saying sacrifice and offerings, burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire and had no pleasure in them.

Which are offered according to the law. Now maybe I've lost you. Maybe you say I don't know where you're at. Offering, sin, blood, sacrifice, priest, Christ coming.

I don't know where you are. I'm speaking to believers. Well then you have a lot of homework. You have to catch up. You do not automatically know the scripture when you become born again. When you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior do you memorize the Bible instantly? Do you know what everything means?

Of course not. None of us can exhaust it. But we have work to do.

You've got to plow the book. You've got to go into it and learn what is being said so God can work through you. You know we have a saying it's not all about you. Much of it is about you but not all of it. That part that is about you is supposed to be a channel. You're not just supposed to be a trough that holds things.

But you're also supposed to be an instrument through which things can pass through one to another. The Word of God, the teachings of God. We were singing that they will know us by our love, Christian love. That's a whole sermon right there. How difficult is it for Christians to love how easy it is for them to criticize in the name of love?

I love you brother but that's an ugly tie you got on. If that was the worst criticism I had to handle I'll take it. But unfortunately Christians can be more vicious than that. Oh you go to that church? Well what's wrong with that church? Unless you've got a biblical doctrinal or moral issue you better keep your mouth shut. You better be careful who you are messing with when you mess with God's people and his pastors. And so the work begins when you come to Christ. Christ did the dying work but you've got a lot to do. And you should be following me on these things. He said this to his audience, I thought you'd be ready for meat at this time in Hebrews 5.

But you still need milk. People get insulted, that's their conscience sounding the alarm. It doesn't mean they're going to respond the right way. I mean what happens if at the firehouse the alarm goes off and they just turn over and go to sleep?

The house burns down. Christians we are susceptible to such poor behavior. And may we not give in to it. Verse 8 previously saying, I read verse 8, verse 9. Then he said, behold I have come to do your will O God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. Well the New Testament, the new covenant in Jesus' blood, superior, overruling the first covenant.

And to distinguish the one from the other he makes it clear here that one is the new and one is the old. Verse 10, by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. His single death removed all of our guilt, saved us from the wrath of God, those who come to him. God is not going to do something else to redeem the loss.

He's done it all. Charles Spurgeon writes this. And if you don't know who Charles Spurgeon is and you are a Christian you are missing out. As part of your homework assignment if you are a Christian still in need of milk and you want to get strong enough to take the meat of the word. You need to start reading the scripture. You need to be under the teaching of men who will teach the word of God. And with that will come familiarization with what God has done with other saints over the centuries to this present day. But Charles Spurgeon, that great pastor of all, said no new victim is expected or required. There is nothing left to be presented by so-called priests on earth or to be made up by the panaceas and payments of their dupes.

By powerful language. In other words he is saying Christ has done it all. We don't need a priest to get into heaven so you can go directly to Christ. And if you think you need a priest to get to heaven you are a dupe.

You're disagreeing with what the scripture said. Next section when we get into Hebrews he's going to say we can boldly come into the throne room of God. Boldly we come. We don't have to have a representative, a human representative. We have Christ himself representing us, standing for us, inviting us in. And so when he says by that we will have been sanctified, two parts to sanctification.

One is justification, our position with God. We are set aside. We are saved.

The second part is we are developed in Christ. We are learning. We are growing. We are making mistakes. We are recovering from mistakes. We are being used by God. We are stepping out in faith and we are failing and we are stepping out again in faith.

Because we believe him and because that is what it takes. That is sanctification. The world does not have it. They are not sanctified. They are doomed. The wrath of God abides on them.

We are here not to be opponents to them but to reach them wherever we can. And you cannot do it if your sword is dull. Because it is going to take knowledge of scripture to reach their conscience. You cannot convict them or you cannot convert them if you can't convict them. And conviction comes by truth and so Jesus says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. But the word of God is going to hurt sinners.

It is supposed to do that. It will slaughter man's self-willed opinion of himself and bring him in touch with a loving God who has his arms stretched out to receive any sinner that will come. Verse 11, And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.

That's his whole point. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's CrossReferenceRadio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at CrossReferenceRadio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.