We are going to examine more closely the better sacrifice, come to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Recall that we have been saying over and over that the Older Covenant was insufficient to give new life, freedom from and forgiveness of sins? That the old ,while it covered sin for a time, didn’t remove sin’s judicial penalty?

But then Jesus came…

One sat alone beside the highway begging, His eyes were blind, the light he could not see.
He clutched his rags and shivered in the shadows Then Jesus came and bade his darkness flee.

When Jesus comes, the tempter's power is broken; When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away,
He takes the gloom and fills the life with glory, For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay.

From home and friends the evil spirits drove him, Among the tombs he dwelt in misery;
He cut himself as demon powers possessed him, Then Jesus came and set the captive free.

"Unclean, unclean!" the leper cried in torment, The deaf, the dumb, in helplessness stood near;
The fever raged, disease had gripped its' victim, Then Jesus came and cast out every fear.

Their hearts were sad as in the tomb they laid him, For death had come and taken him away;
Their night was dark and bitter tears were falling, Then Jesus came and night was turned to day.

So men today have found the Savior able, They could not conquer passion, lust and sin;
Their broken hearts had left them sad and lonely, Then Jesus came and dwelt, Himself, within.

Jesus came and the cry of the heart of mankind could be heard and answered and freedom to live , really live , was made available as well as access to God.

As is my habit I will see several thought groupings in this text:

1. The powerlessness of Animal Sacrifices 1-4

2. The Principle that the Old system was insufficient 5-10

3 The Perfection of Christ’s sacrifice. 11-18

 

From the outset of this book, the writer has been showing us that Jesus Christ is better. Better than everyone and everything in the universe, A better revelation than the Old, Better than creation for he nsi the creator, A Better sustainer, Better than Moses, than Angels. His priesthood is greater than Aarons because it is forever. And that brings us to Now. In Chapters 5-10 We began to look at Christ’s priesthood and saw that it had a better tabernacle , heaven itself, A better covenant and a better inauguration, not with animal sacrifices, but by Jesus’ own blood was it entered into.

Look at the greatness of Christ’s sacrifice with me again.

1-4: The major thought here is that because the old sacrifices needed to be repeated they were weak, only a shadow of the real, it can’t perfect you in the sense that it means forgive eternally. It reminds you of your sin, doesn’t remove it.

Verse 1:For, continues the thought of 9:15-28, and the repetitious nature of the old system. It was only a shadow, vague, not exact. A shadow of the good tgings to come. That refers to this very new priesthood mentioned in Psalm 110”4. And he says “the old system, the law, was only a vague copy, not an exact image (Icon) and its sacrifices year after year after year, couldn’t grant full forgiveness to those who came and obeyed.

Perfect here equals forgiveness forever and the law couldn’t do that. It was Maalox and what was needed was needed was surgery, a one time sacrifice that was big enough to do the job, remove sin.

Verse 2: For if the old sacrifices could have offered complete removal of sin then they would have stopped because the worshippers, once sin went, would need no more sacrifice their consciences would have been clean. NO more awareness of guilt before God, they would have known their sin was dealt with. But that wasn’t what went on No way!

Every time another year went by (v3) another sacrifice had to be offered. (V4 because the sacrificial system was not effective Bulls blood can’t remove sin.

So we repeat The Old system isn’t enough, it is powerless to remove sin, animal sacrifices are not enough.

He expands on that in verses 5-10 showing the principle that the Old system was not enough (that getting through?)

He quotes Psalm 40 in the next few verses (5-9) and we need to turn there and see the Old Testament context so as to get this right. Psa 6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

Here David knows, way back then that God wants more than sacrifice and offerings, God wants obedience from the heart as well. So David comes to God with the law in his hands ready to do what it says from the heart.

Now to the New Testament context.

God wants no more sacrifices at all, Christ came to earth with the idea of establishing a sacrifice less system. The writer of the letter puts these words in Christ’s mouth (a prophetic pun?) Let’s see the verses:

v.5 Therefore, Because bull sacrifices don’t work, a new system was predicted in Psalm 40. Verse 6 “because you don’t want sacrifices (V. 7) So I come with the roll of the book written for me to do thy will. He puts these words in Christ’s mouth. Verse 8 Because you don’t want the law system, I come to DO your will. And in doing that he takes away the first things mentioned, sacrifices and burnt offerings, the old way, and establishes the second. God’s will done, a new system Christ’s sacrifice once for all.

Verse 10 explains what God’s will is. God’s will was Christ’s body a once for all sacrifice by which we are sanctified. (Other OT references to this Is. 53 says it pleased the Lord to bruise him etc,)

In the original this is a grammatical construction which emphasizes the permanence of it. He is saying that God’s will was Christ’s body sacrificed for us by which we STAND saved. Not “here today gone tomorrow,” but we STAND, once for all. Which brings us to the third part and out main thought really, The perfection of Christ’s sacrifice. Verses 11-18.

Look at verse 11 (And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: )

But verse 12 ( But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; ) But this man… the crisis point of eternity. Buut God, But this man. IN contrast to the every priest ineffective sacrifices, This man….After he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever SAT DOWN. At God’s right hand.

An allusion to Psalm 110:1 here Sat down and he will until his enemies are made his footstool, perhaps during the Millenial kingdom.

He sat down because (v. 14), by that one sacrifice he has done what the old system could never do, bring eternal forgiveness, eternal security, to those who are saved. Verse 15 says that the spirit witnessed that to us inJeremiah 33:33-34 ( Majority text Heb 10:16-17 "This is the covenant which I shall covenant with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws on their hearts, and I will inscribe them on their minds, and their sins and their lawless deeds I shall by no means remember any longer." )

God prophesied this a long time ago, promised that he would not remember, not remember the sins. The Old system was a reminder of sins, a continual offering was a continual reminder that sin was only covered, but Jesus fulfilled the promise of God (v.17) and brought remission, dismissal, a relaeas a pardon from penalty. He erased the sin debt. And if sin is erased, says verse 18, you don’t need any other sacrifice.

You don’t need the Levitical system, let it go, let go of the shadow, come to the reality and that reality is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

If Christ shall se t you free you shall be free indeed. We talk of freedom in our witness, but a lot of what we call freedom isn’t free at all.

The following from Steve Brown, Scandalous freedom,Howard books 2004 pp6-8)

Listen… much of our freedom in Christ which we proclaim is more like the stuffed dog. It looks nice and reminds us of something that was once alive and vibrant, but it has become only a semblance of the real thing. Our words say one thing but the reality says something else.

When Jesus used the term “Free” as in the truth will set you free, he used a term that means liberation from bondage. IN other words the Greek word for free, means free…so does the Hebrew word by the way.

Webster defines free as “ an exemption or liberation from the control of some other person or arbitrary power” It should be that easy. If Jesus said we are free we should accept that declaration as given and run with it. It ought to define us, but it doesn’t Christians will do almost anything to get away from the simple meaning of that word and the wonderful experience of freedom.

Something about freedom scares the stuffing out of us. We continue in our bondage and that is a sad situation, a tragedy. Why? Because Christ went to so much trouble to set us free. There is so much more to being a Christian than obeying a list of rules and doing religious things and being nice. And it is a tragedy because we have a rich heritage and we have …

We say “Yes we are free, but that doesn’t mean we are free to do whatever we want.” Well then you aren’t free. Or it is a weird freedom at best. Paul wrote “The Lord is a spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”

We say “We are free, but that doesn’t mean we are free to sin, it means we are free not to sin.”

That sounds real spiritual and I believe there is something to that. As a matter of fact I have the freedom to do some great things. I can love more than I did, I am a lot kinder that I was and I sin less than I did. In one sense doing wrong brings a terrible bondage, while being free to live God’s way brings freedom. BUT it isn’t freedom if it doesn’t include the freedom to do it wrong.

Paul said in Gal 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another. ) He didn’t want them to, but they could. Why? They were free.

 

A Christian does have and advantage over an unbeliever. We know the truth about what God wants and he gives us the power to do it and the desire to do it. But if we do not have freedom to not do it then we have redefined freedom.

We are afraid that people will take advantage of it if we teach freedom. What is that all about? Afraid they will Take advantage of freedom by being free? That’s not freedom, that is a new kind of bondage.

Jesus wants us to live free. To love freely and that’s that.

and if you think I told you to go and sin…Then you didn’t hear me very well.

 

Abraham Lincoln’s is said to have bid on a beautiful young slave girl. As she came off the platform where she had been auctioned off, she looked at him and her eyes spoke what she thought. Another white man to use and abuse her and then sell her.

Lincoln looked at her and said “Young lady, you are free.”

She said “Does that mean I can say anything I want to say?”

“Yes,” Mr. Lincoln replied.

Does that mean I can do whatever I want to do?”

“Yes”

“Does that mean I can go where I want to go?”

Yes,” Mr Lincoln replied.

“Then I think I Want to go with you.”

Friends, You too are free, bought with a price, owned by a new master and he says to you:

“Young lady, you are free.”

“Does that mean I can say anything I want to say?”

“Yes,” God replies.

Does that mean I can do whatever I want to do?”

“Yes”

“Does that mean I can go where I want to go?”

Yes,” The Father answers.

“Then, we would say if we understood, I think I Want to go with you.”

Travel light friends, walk in freedom…