Christ Offered Himself as a Sacrifice

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. For yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place once every year with the blood of others. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Would you pray with me this morning? Our Lord we come to you now just to offer this time to you as we look in your Word, as we have the Lord’s Supper, as we think about, Lord, your blood shed for us, your body broken for us.

We think about the causes and the reasons why that was necessary. Lord guide us in our study and our look at your Word. I pray that your Spirit would work in our hearts and would stir us up. Lord do your will. Lord you have great power and Lord you’re able to use your Word to accomplish your will in the hearts of each one of us. And so Lord we commit this Word to you and we ask you to use it as we look at it now in Jesus’ name.

Amen. So we look at, of course I’ll talk more about this in just a minute, but we talk about the bread and the juice that we use for the Lord’s Supper and we know that those things are symbols of the body and of the blood of Christ. But as we read, of course chapter 9 spends a lot of time talking about the blood of Christ and we’ll come back to that in a minute.

And then we get into chapter 10 which we will also see in just a minute. Chapter 10 spends a good bit of time talking about the body of Christ and how those things are necessary. And of course the Lord’s Supper is not mentioned anywhere in chapters 9 or 10, but the truths about the Lord’s Supper which is the substance, which is what’s important, not the form but the substance, not just the memory but the actual event that we commemorate when we have the Lord’s Supper.

Those are the important things and those are the things that the Lord not only wants us to remember when we have the Lord’s Supper, but he wants us to remember all the time. The Lord’s Supper is just one opportunity that the Lord has specified for us to remember these things. But when you think about the blood of Christ and you think about the body of Christ, before you can get to the blood of Christ or the body of Christ you have to think about what has brought us to that point.

And it’s hinted at, it’s mentioned in Hebrews chapter 9 and chapter 10. Think if you would at verse number 12 of Hebrews 9, Now this idea of redemption is an idea that’s related to slavery. In fact if you look in the Old Testament you’ll see the word redemption in reference to the treatment of servants. In other words a man has to, if a man, and I know we think often we think of slavery in terms of American racial slavery, but really slavery has existed pretty much everywhere in the world up until just like five seconds ago.

And so when you read it in the scripture there were specific guidelines about how servants were to be treated and what the stipulations were. And one of those was if a man was in debt, deep in debt, he could sell himself, he could sell himself to servitude in order to pay off his debt if he was in that bad of shape. And then he would work for his master until his debt was paid and then if he met the conditions he could redeem himself.

That is he could buy himself out of slavery and to be free again. And so we see this idea of redemption in many places in scripture. Even an offering in the Old Testament could be redeemed. Like you give an offering and you want to take it back. You could redeem that offering and buy it back. It just means to buy back. But the thing that reminds us of is the whole idea of redemption or buying it back.

It reminds us of the truth of sin. It reminds us that we’re in need of redemption. That we have been sold or we might better say we have sold ourselves into bondage, the bondage of sin and the slavery of sin and with it the bondage of certain death and destruction and punishment from God. We have given ourselves over to that willingly and voluntarily. Given ourselves to sin.

And we have put ourselves in a place where we need redemption and that has all come by our transgressing and breaking of God’s law. We have served sin. The Bible says that whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. So listen, this is why we understand that there is none righteous and if there is none righteous and we all sin that means that all of us have sold ourselves into service.

Into the service of sin. Look if you would at verse number 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

So you can see first of all in this effect of salvation. You know in other words because of what Christ has done the effect is supposed to be that it turns us from dead works to serving God. That’s supposed to be the effect of the gospel. But what I want you to see is the dead works. What are dead works? That’s works that come out of death and lead to death.

That’s the works of the flesh that’s transgressing God’s law with which is attached a penalty of death. The wages of sin is death. You are all familiar with this. But this is how the Lord describes the reason that the sacrifice is needed which is sin. Look at verse 22 we see it again. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

Remission is forgiveness. But why is forgiveness needed? Forgiveness is needed because of our sin. Forgiveness is needed because of our sin. Look at verse 26. For then he must needs have suffered since the foundation of the world but now once in the end of the world had he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You see there was no, the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ had to come is there was no way to put away sin.

Sin was the problem. Sin is the problem and has always been the problem. Look at verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Now go to chapter 10 verse number 4. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

You see this repeated. In other words every time you see this, the truth of the sacrifice of Christ it is always tied into this problem of sin because sin is the problem. Sin is the problem. Verse 12 of chapter 10. Look what it says. But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, that’s why the sacrifice was necessary, sat down on the right hand of God.

Chapter 10 verse 17. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Chapter 10 verse 18. Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin. For sin. So listen, this is the great problem that we all have. Let me tell you something. This is the great problem that you have with God. Between you and a holy and a righteous God is an ugly river of sin that you and I have committed.

It is the thing that will keep us out of God’s heaven. It is the thing that is offensive to him. That reeks in his sight. That is an abomination to him. I know in our world first of all the word sin is used only in religious contexts. In our world the idea of sin has kind of been blended together with the idea of a fault or kind of a mistake or an oopsie.

You know kind of a crack in our character or something like that and that all is related to it. But I want you to know, I want to remind you that sin is a serious matter before God. It is something that is deeply rooted in who you are and who I am. It is a part of our very nature. The Bible says that not only do we commit sins but we are sinners.

We are that thing. All the sins that we commit are just outworkings of our nature. It’s not that we’re good people who do wrong things sometimes. It is that we are sinners through and through as demonstrated by our constant continual and repeated willful violation of God’s law which is what sin is, the transgression of God’s law. God says don’t do it. We do it. And we excuse it.

And we do it. And we excuse it. And we do it. And we excuse it. So we look around and what do we see? Everyone is doing the same thing and so we feel somewhat comfortable with sin. But listen, the Bible says all the way back in the Old Testament, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now in that context in Ezekiel the Lord is describing how that each person is responsible for his own sin.

Not your children will die for your sin but you will bear your own. But that’s scary enough, is it not? You see, the great problem that we all had that made Christ’s sacrifice necessary was our transgressions of God’s law. That’s the problem. And that is the thing that will be our condemnation. That is why we needed a Savior. I know, again, when we think about or we talk about sin we speak of it in such light terms and often we commit it and we don’t think anything about it.

In other words, we know things are wrong. You know things are wrong and yet you do it without blinking an eye. That thing that God has attached to it, a penalty of death, banishment forever from His presence. And we do it and we don’t even blink. We don’t bat an eye at it.

Listen if you would at these verses and you know these verses but I’d like you to listen to them anyway as a reminder. John 3 verse 19, And this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world, And men love darkness rather than light, Because their deeds were evil. This is the condemnation. We love sin. This is what makes us stand before God in great danger.

Now if God was only a God who is kind and God is kind, if He was only a God of love and He is love, if that were all that God is, then we could stand before God as a law breaking criminal, which is what we are, and we could do so without fear knowing that the big grandfather God is going to wrap us up in His arms and everything is going to be fine.

But God is not only a God of love and of mercy and grace, He is also a God of justice and God, a God of truth and a God of righteousness. And when we stand before God in our sin, we are in danger of God’s justice.

That should cause you and I to have fear of God. That is not a minor thing. That is not something to just pass over without thought. To stand before a God who is just, who is holy. How many of you, is there anyone in here that has testified in court? Anybody?

That’s pretty nerve wracking, is it not? Was it criminal or was it civil? I mean, it’s basically the same either way. How many of you have ever been on trial? You’ve been the accused. Maybe we don’t want to raise our hands so readily. If you’ve got a speeding ticket, you’ve been that guy, right? I’ve gotten one. That’s what you are. Most people plead guilty because they, you know.

But anyway, listen, you know how nerve wracking that is. The bar of a human judge, right? But God, He is the judge of all the earth. No man with sin is going to stand before God out of danger. It is frightful. John 3.36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Listen to this. But the wrath of God abideth on him.

This is that judge who is righteous and who is just. John 8.24. Jesus said, I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. There is, listen, there is nothing. There is nothing. There is nothing worse for a human being than to die in his sin. Because sin is the greatest problem human beings have, and therefore it is the worst thing that can happen to them.

When you, see, when you die in your sin, you die with all hope and all opportunity dies with you. To ever be redeemed, to ever be brought back, to ever be saved, to ever be forgiven, that hope dies with you. There is no purgatory, and there is no second chance whereby others, by lighting candles or giving offerings, can make any difference for a person who dies in their sin.

There is no second chance. So Jesus warns us, he warned those in his day not to die in their sins. Romans 6.23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin is death, death from a God who is just, who will give you, listen, a God who is kind and loving, yes, gracious, yes, but a God who is holy and who is just, and who will not give you worse than what you and I have earned.

Galatians 3 verse 10 says this, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Please listen to me. I want you to listen to this verse one more time very carefully. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

This is the curse upon all sinners. How do you think we’re going to fare standing before a holy God with a curse upon us? I want to ask you something before we move to the next thing. It’s this. Do you fear meeting God? Do you know that you’re going to meet God in your sin?

Are you afraid to meet Him? You see, if you are in your sin, you should be afraid. That is not irrational fear and it’s certainly not fear-mongering. It’s the truth. If you committed a crime and you were arrested and you went before the judge having committed the crime, you should be afraid. He’s going, if He’s righteous, He’s going to judge you. He’s going to punish you. God is righteous.

It’s not something He takes pleasure in, it is something that His justice demands that He do. And this, our sin, the greatest problem we have, not our health, not our finances, not this world, certainly not political parties, our greatest problem is that we as individuals stand guilty, judged guilty before a God whose law we have broken millions of times.

We are criminals in His court. And that is what makes the sacrifice that the Lord’s Supper memorializes necessary, required. And so a sacrifice was offered. This is the second thing I want you to see. A sacrifice was offered. Look at chapter 10 if you would. Verse 5. Well if you look at verse 4 in the context it says, For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

So all those animals sacrificed in the Old Testament, they never did one thing to take someone’s sins away. Verse 5. Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, But a body hast thou prepared me. That’s what we’re talking about today when we have the Lord’s Supper is the bread, Jesus is the bread of life, it’s connected with the manna, right?

Jesus is the bread of life, but His body is represented by that bread. And it says, When He cometh into the world. So this is the incarnation of Christ. When He who was the Word, right? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, when without Him was not anything made that was made.

That same Word became flesh in John 1, 14. Here He cometh into the world. He who came into the world, He came, and He was given the name Jesus, which means Savior. He came into the world, and when He came, it says, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not. He didn’t want any more of those animal sacrifices that never took away sin, but a body hast thou prepared me.

Jesus took that body. He was manifest in the flesh, verse 6, In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Jesus speaking, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. You see, Jesus came into this world, and His mission was to do the will of God. And in this body, which we see in verse 5, but a body hast thou prepared me, which is what this bread symbolizes.

He came, and in this body, in this world, our Lord did the will of God impeccably in every way. He said, I do always those things that please the Father. Compare yourself. Listen, we fancy ourselves to be righteous because we look at other sinners who are sinners to varying degree, but nobody ever compares themselves to the one who always did those things that pleased His Father, who never bore the curse of breaking God’s law like we read in Galatians 3, 10.

He was perfect. He was sinless. And that’s how He must be. Because you remember that the bodies of those animals, the bodies of those animals had to be impeccable, had to be without blemish you read in the Old Testament. And if there was any blemish in those animals that were used as sacrifices, only as pictures, then they were disbarred. They were disallowed for sacrifice. So it was with the Lord Jesus.

He was without sin. He always did the will of His Father. At no point in time did He ever do anything that violated God’s law or sin in any way or had any fault whatsoever.

Thus, He was qualified to be the sacrifice. And you see, it is for this same reason. This qualification is the very reason why it is utterly impossible for us to atone or to pay for our sins in any way by any religious work or anything that we might do. It cannot be done and here’s why. Because even if we gave our very life to atone for our sins, it wouldn’t be good enough because we’re not qualified.

We have not kept God’s law. We are blemished. I would say I’m blemished from head to the crown of my head to the bottom of my foot. We are disqualified and a defiled sacrifice. Notice if you will at verse number 10.

Well, verse number nine to pick up where we left off. Then said He, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that He may establish the second. By the which will, by the will of Christ who said, I come to do thy will, we are sanctified through the, what does it say? Offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

You see Jesus Christ was, Jesus, His body, which was without blemish, that is He was without sin, was offered in verse 12. Look down at verse number 14. For by one offering, He hath perfected forever for them that are sanctified.

That was verse number 14. Verse 12 says this, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. You see when, this is speaking of Christ’s body now. Christ’s body was offered. It was a sacrifice. These words offering and sacrifice show us that the events that happened on the cross was not simply a case of a wrongly convicted, wrongly executed person, a wrongly executed innocent man, although that was also true.

That was not what it was about. Listen, a man dying on the cross wrongly or a man put to death by firing squad or electric chair wrongly when he didn’t do the crime, that is not an offering. It might be a misjustice, but it is not an offering. You see what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered was more than just an injustice, it was an offering.

His body was offered. Upon the cross, our Lord was offering Himself as a sacrifice for sins once and for all. Isaiah 53, look at Isaiah 53 really quick. Because we see these same elements in Isaiah 53.

And in Isaiah 53, we see these same elements in Isaiah 53. Speaking prophetically of the Lord Jesus Christ, verse four, or verse three is an example. I just wanna show you this distinction. Verse three says, He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we, Israel speaking here, hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not.

You know what verse three is? Verse three is the physical suffering of Christ. It’s what man did to Him, but that’s not the offering. There was something more going on at the cross than just Jesus being mistreated. There’s something greater going on.

Although it’s covered in verse three, look at verse four. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, not His own, but ours. He was without blemish, yet we did esteem Him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. What do you see here?

You see the problem I mentioned a minute ago. Transgressions, iniquities, that was why it had to be done. He was suffering, He was an offering because of those things. So we can say for certain, listen, because of your sin and because of my sin is the reason the Savior’s nailed to the cross. Not only that, because of your sin and because of my sin is the reason that He is an offering.

That’s the cause. I know it’s been redefined, and it’s kind of been skewed a little bit to describe, oh, how much do I love you? I love you this much, you know, and that’s true, and we know the love of God was displayed on the cross, but there’s more than just that. It wasn’t just a big love hug. It was our Lord’s body being offered because of our sin required it.

Verse six says this, therefore, sorry, verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. There it is again, same thing. That’s another description of our sin. We have turned everyone to His own way. That’s another description of our sin, which is our problem. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Notice, you see the sacrifice language? Who performed the sacrifice? Jesus offered Himself, but who is the performer of the sacrifice?

You don’t have to go any further than look at Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah, right? Isaac offered Himself as a sacrifice, but who was doing the sacrifice? Abraham was. He’s the one that lifted the knife before the Lord stopped him. Who in this verse, in verse six, who is doing the sacrifice?

The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. God is sacrificing His Son. He, yes, is offering Himself, but God is the one performing the sacrifice. Verse number 10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He, the Lord, hath put Him, Jesus, to grief, when, here it is, thou shalt make His soul an offering of life. An offering for what? For what? For sin.

So on the cross, what you see is not just Jesus being mistreated by the Romans or the Jews. That’s true, but you see Jesus offering Himself as a sacrifice, and you see the Father performing the sacrifice. Why? Because you and I have thumbed our nose at God’s law and have justly brought His anger and His justice our direction. And there was no way that a guilty sinner like you and like me could be forgiven unless an offering was made.

That’s what this bread indicates. So when you think of the bread being broken, when you think of the bread being broken here, I know we think of Jesus on the cross, breaking the bread, it’s His body being broken. We think, man, the spear and the nails and all of that is true, but there’s something way bigger going on.

And that is His Father is offering His Son as a sacrifice. He’s laid the iniquity, if you will, transferred the iniquity of our iniquity, our sin upon His Son, and then judged His Son.

Wow. So when you think of this Lord’s Supper and the breaking of the body of Christ, it is not just the nails and the cat of nine tails and the spear, it is the Son’s body as an offering. Because our sin required it.

Look, if you would back at Hebrews chapter nine, and the third and last thing I wanna show you is in chapter nine. Hebrews nine, verse 12, neither by the blood of goats and of calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

How was redemption accomplished? By what means was it accomplished? Redemption came from one thing and one thing only, and it came from the blood of Christ, shed for sinners.

Notice in chapter nine, verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, here it is, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. What purges the conscience? You know what purges the conscience? Do you know what purges us from dead works to serve God? It is the blood of Christ, shed 2,000 years for us.

Look at chapter nine, verse 22. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood, without shedding of blood is no remission. What does that mean? That means that had Christ not shed His blood, offered Himself, and then followed through, and His blood shed like that animal, that throat cut, bled out, and then offered that blood, which is what happened. He offered His own blood.

That’s why the resurrection is necessary. After His resurrection, He offered the blood in the place before His Father for us that our sin required and was necessary. And He says, without shedding of blood is no remission. What that means is you and I have no hope of being forgiven of sin, the sin that we have committed. God cannot, God will not forgive us, except through Christ.

You know, the Muslim can call out to God all day and all night for the rest of his life, and he will never be forgiven. The Baptist can pray the sinner’s prayer every day and every night for the rest of his or her life, but without Christ’s blood, there is no forgiveness.

It is all of Christ. What He did is the redemption. His offering is the remission. You understand? I know we have these religious practices and things that we focus on, and there is absolutely, a person must absolutely, by faith, receive Christ and this truth. That is true.

But the core, the essence, the root, the most important aspect is this, that Christ died for sinners, that He took our place. He gave Himself an offering for our sin. His blood was shed for our sin, and that is our forgiveness. God doesn’t forgive us because we ask.

God forgives us because Christ’s blood was shed. Jesus said, referring to this fruit of the vine, which is what this symbolizes, His blood, He says, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Now, I know this is a simple and basic truth, but hear me out. Christ’s blood is shed for the remission of sins. That’s how He died for sinners.

He died for the remission of sins. That’s how you get remission of sins. Romans 3.25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. Are you trusting in the blood of Christ, or are you trusting in a religious experience? And listen, I had a religious experience, August 4, 1999, when I called upon Christ, and I trusted in Him, but my trust, I might forget that one day.

That’s not the point. That’s not what makes the difference. It’s faith in His blood, Romans 3.25, through faith in His blood, my sins, Christ died for them, my trust in His blood for me.

Romans 5.9, much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. I stand now before God, not as a guilty sinner as I used to, not, certainly not because I’ve always done right, but I stand justified, that is, righteous before God, by His blood.

Ephesians 1.7, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. So it is not forgiven because we ask, but forgiven because of Christ. Not redeemed because we ask, but redeemed because of the blood of Christ. Colossians 1.4, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, Revelation 1.5, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.

Do you know why, if you are forgiven right now, if you’re clean, you’re clean because of the cross and Christ’s blood shed for you, is your hope, I just wanna ask you, listen, I know where we are. Everyone in this room pretty much has heard about Jesus your whole life.

And probably believed in Jesus your whole life to some degree or another. But I wanna ask you, is your hope for heaven, is your hope for forgiveness, are you forgiven in the sight of God and is that hope for forgiveness resting on Christ offered, body offered and blood shed for you at this moment, is that your trust?

It’s either Christ or I have no hope at all. Let’s pray.