WWUTT 1851 The Powerless Blood of Bulls and Goats (Hebrews 10:1-10)

The Powerless Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Need for a Greater Sacrifice

The blood of bulls and goats never had the power to cleanse a person of sin anyway. We are cleansed of our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary that we may be equipped for every good work in Jesus Christ our Lord. Please tell others about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

Hebrews 10:1-10 and the Shadow of the Law

This week we're back to our study in Hebrews and we'll be in chapter 10. I'm going to start off here by reading the first 10 verses from the Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of the things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins, year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice an offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me, To do your will, O God. After saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law, he then said, Behold, I have come to do your will.

He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And amen to that. As we read here in chapter 10, this is a little bit longer chapter, I think this is the longest chapter we've read so far with 39 verses.

And chapter 10 breaks up in this way. We've read verses 1 through 10, which are about the necessity of our Savior and his selfless offering once for all. The next part, verses 11 through 18, will expound upon the nullification for any further need of any other sacrifice.

And then when we get to verses 19 through the end of the chapter, verse 39, we'll be reading about worshiping in the new covenant, but also a warning about the consequences of rejecting this covenant.

So let's come back to the start of chapter 10, where we read, For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of the things, remember we've been talking about how these Old Testament things are types and shadows.

But Christ is the one who fulfills all of those things that had been illustrated in the law. So we have a greater high priest, we have a greater sacrifice, and not just a priest who offers sacrifices once per year, when you think of the Day of Atonement, but Christ offers himself once for all, and we have no need for any further sacrifice.

So all of those things which were just shadows of the things to come, they did not have the power to make perfect those who draw near. Now that's summarizing a statement that we had read previously in chapter 9.

Remember again verses 13 and 14. This is Hebrews 9, 13 and 14. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

It was through the Old Testament sacrifices, the things of the flesh were purified, but the conscience itself was not purified. The heart was not transformed. There was no change in the person, just by a sacrifice that had been offered on their behalf.

Or, you know, when I say that, I mean like bringing a bull or a goat to the tabernacle or to the temple to be sacrificed. It purified those things that were external, but it did not actually change the heart and the mind of the person.

All of those things were foretold to happen. David prayed, create in me a clean heart, O God. The Lord foretold through the prophet Ezekiel that there was a time that would come in which he would take out the heart of stone and he would replace it with a heart of flesh.

In other words, I'm going to take out your hard heart and I'm going to give you a new soft heart. And I will sprinkle clean water on you and cleanse you from all your uncleannesses. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

That was not happening under the old covenant system, in which the blood of bulls and goats were offered for the cleansing of external things, but it did not actually change the mind or the heart of the person.

But now in the new covenant, we have the spirit of God within us. When God puts his spirit into us, the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and gives us a new heart. And he ransacks the place. He destroys the idol factory that every one of us has in our hearts by our nature, raising things up into the place of God, thinking, this is what I want to worship, or this is what I think I need in order to be happy.

This is what I think I need to do in order to make myself righteous and declare myself a good person. All of these ungodly, self-righteous things that we desire or raise up within our own hearts. The Holy Spirit destroys all of that, giving us a new heart that instead of being in rebellion against God, we now desire God.

We hear the gospel and we believe it. We hear the proclamations of God through his word and we desire to do them. We're not just hearers of the word, but we do what it says and we obey God, no longer rebels against God.

But we are now part of his family, part of his kingdom, and desiring to obey his precepts and being careful to obey his rules, which we did not want to do before. But amazingly enough, now by the transforming power of Christ in our hearts, we have been raised from death to life to walk in newness of life.

And this is what should be happening in the life of every single believer, because the Holy Spirit has transformed us. And now we desire to do the right things of God. We can even keep his law in a way that's honoring to God.

You know, there are people that do not believe in God. They are not followers of Christ and they are capable of obeying aspects of the law. There are unbelievers out there who do not murder. There are even unbelievers out there who do not commit adultery.

They don't go sleeping around. They're actually faithful to their spouse, but they do not obey those commands in a way that honors God. In fact, they do it to honor themselves. That's self-righteousness and nobody's going to be saved on their own merit.

It's only when the Holy Spirit enters within us that we can obey God from the heart in a way that is honoring to God. Now, it indeed says that we're going to be judged by our works in the end. But those works that will be judged by are the works that have been carried out in God.

Jesus said that the ones who will enter the kingdom of heaven are the ones who did the will of the father. And we do the will of the father when we have that new heart by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that is within us, causing us even to hear the gospel and recognize our sin and need for a savior.

And Jesus Christ is that savior. He alone has the power to transform the heart, the mind, the conscience, whereas all those external things in the old covenant did not have the power to transform the person in that way.

Verse two, if they did. If those types and shadows did have the power to change a person, then they would only need to be offered once. Otherwise, they would not have continually been offered because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins.

Now, you might be thinking, well, hang on a second. I believe in Jesus. And it's saying here in this section that he was offered once for all. And as a follower of Jesus, I still have consciousness of sin.

So what's that supposed to mean? Well, that is in reference to our guilt. Indeed, we do have consciousness of sin. We have consciousness of every time we sin. The difference being that before you were in Christ, you didn't really care about your sin.

You weren't really doing anything to try to get rid of your sin. But in Christ, you know about your sin and you desire to get rid of it. Whatever I need to do to not have sin in my life, pursue righteousness, become more Christlike.

That's what I want. That's the desire and the intention of your heart. Whereas previously it was just, you know, whatever makes me feel good. Sure, there were probably limits on the amount of sin that you entered into.

But that was God's restraining hand on you, that he was not letting you fall into deeper sin, which the depraved heart wants more and more of. If God hardens the heart, they fall into deeper and worse sins.

But you were not falling into sins like that because because of God's restraining power, though you did not know it was God that was keeping you from worse sins. It was indeed he who was doing it. But now in Christ Jesus, you're aware of your sin and need for a savior and you don't have guilt for those sins anymore because you know that Christ, who has offered himself once for all, has taken away those sins.

So you don't have the guilt of the former sins. That's what's in view here with the statement that that if the old things were good enough. Then a person would only need to be cleansed once and they would no longer have consciousness of sins, they wouldn't feel guilty anymore, there would no longer be guilt upon them.

We have been justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he justifies us, he declares us innocent before a holy God. But that was not the case with Israel, even on the Day of Atonement. So we continue on in verse three, but in those sacrifices, talking about the Old Testament way, the Old Covenant, in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year.

The very fact that there's Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, very fact that that day exists reminds the people of God that their sin and you still need to be cleansed of that sin. Now, you might be thinking, well, goodness was anybody in the Old Testament, anybody under that Old Covenant, were any of them ever saved?

The answer is yes, they were saved in the Old Covenant, just like we come to salvation in the new were saved by grace through faith. But under the Old Covenant, there was the expectation of a savior that was to come that would fulfill all of these things that they had to do in the present.

And then when that savior came, when Jesus Christ came, when he died, he died not just for the sins of those who would believe in him, but he died for the sins of those who did believe in him in the present and even in the past, those who had the expectation of him who was to come.

His sacrifice once for all was not just for those in the future. It was even for those in the past, those who believed and by their faith, it was credited to them as righteousness. So is said of Abraham and therefore is also said of us.

Abraham is even our example, according to Romans four and Galatians three, just like Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. So that is the case with us as well. But in that Old Covenant system, all of these things are types and shadows looking for the one who would truly die and justify us once for all.

And that is Jesus Christ. So while the Old Covenant was at work, then it was it was a reminder, a year by year reminder of our sins and need for a savior and that hope that hopeful expectation of the savior who was to come.

Verse four, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Now, we've read something like that previously in Hebrews, but here's the first place where it's stated exactly that way.

The blood of bulls and goats never even had the power to take away sins anyway. All of the millions and millions of animals that were sacrificed, hundreds of millions, who knows how many it was. I mean, we read about some celebrations that took place in which there were tens of thousands of animals sacrificed in just that celebration, probably even hundreds of thousands.

When you look at the the the consecration of the temple, once Solomon built it and then there was a weeklong celebration, which there were sacrifices continually that were going on, however many sacrifices that would have been.

Hundreds of millions of animals sacrificed during the time of the Old Covenant. You could have sacrificed hundreds of millions more and it still would not have been enough to take away sin. All of that, again, was just types and shadows of the one who was to come, who was the true spotless lamb who would take away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist called him.

These things were just a reminder of sins. The blood of bulls and goats never had the power to take away sins. Therefore, verse five, when he comes into the world, he says. And then we have this quotation from Psalm 40, verses six through eight.

I'm going to go ahead and read that straight from Psalm 40. And you're going to notice a few differences here, because what we have in Psalm 40 is quoted from Hebrew or it's translated from Hebrew. What we're reading here in Hebrews 10, the preacher is referencing the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

And because it's gone from Hebrew into Greek, there are some slight variations in the wording here. Nonetheless, it's from that translation the preacher is preaching from. So though there's some variation in the wording, the meaning has not changed.

It's still preserved. The Holy Spirit of God has preserved the meaning exactly. And we'll observe that here in just a moment. So let me read from Psalm 40, verses six to eight, sacrifice and meal offering.

You have not desired my ears. You have opened burnt offering and sin offering. You have not required. Then I said, behold, I come in the scroll of the book. It is written of me. I desire to do your will.

Oh, my God, your law is written within my inner being. And I apologize, I actually added a word there, it's just simply your law is within my inner being. Now, that was Christ. He had the law of God within himself and the desire to do it.

And he did it perfectly and fulfilled it. So that all who are in Christ were given that same heart that desires to do the law of God and fulfill it. Now, of course, we don't do it as perfectly as Jesus did, but that's our sanctification.

We are growing in holiness and in righteousness with a desire to do God's word, just as Jesus desired to do the will of his father. The heart of Christ becomes our heart when we become a follower of Jesus.

So coming back to the way that this is quoted in Hebrews 10, 5, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. Now, already we see the first difference in Psalm 40, verse six.

It says, my ears, you have opened. It doesn't say a body you have prepared for me. But nonetheless, they both mean the same thing. It means to hear and to do what has been said. You have given me the ability to hear and therefore do it and carry it out.

And so it is the same with this reference to the body you have prepared for me, the body to be obedient unto the Lord from within. Verse six, in burnt offering and sacrifices for sin, you have taken no pleasure.

And then I said, behold, I have come in the scroll of the book. It is written of me to do your will. Oh, God, it was prophesied that Christ would be the one to do the will of God. And Jesus is the one that comes and fulfills that and did it perfectly.

And so we who are in Christ would likewise desire to do the will of God. So the preacher goes on here in verse eight to say, after saying above sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them.

And that's all referencing back to what he had just quoted from Psalm 40 above. All of those things are offered according to the law. Then he said, verse nine, behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

Now, what's the first? Well, the first is the old covenant laws that required sacrifices, and he takes them away. Jesus takes them away. Now, of course, in Matthew, chapter five, Jesus said, I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

So doesn't taking them away, doesn't that sound like he's abolishing the law? No, he fulfills the law so that that's taken away. We don't have to offer sacrifices anymore because Christ offered himself once for all.

Therefore, we don't have to have this practice of constantly offering things which did not even have the ability to cleanse us of sin anyway. So Christ has shown that those things are of no value. They were inefficient and praise the Lord.

He has done away with them by the sacrifice of himself in his flesh so that he may establish the second. Now, the second, the second covenant is to do the will of God. The two stand in contrast with one another.

There's the inefficiency of the former covenant in order that the necessity of his coming to do the will of God would be fully recognized. If the first covenant was good enough to take away sins, then there would have been no need for him to come and make an atonement for sins.

But just the fact that he has come and sacrificed himself, even that is a declaration that the first covenant was never good enough. It is the new covenant through which God has taken away our sin and brought us to himself and granted to us, promised us an inheritance through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So let me finish up with this last verse, verse 10. By this will, we have been sanctified. By this will, by doing the will of God, by Christ doing the will of his father, we've been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

He will never die again, as it says in Hebrews, because death no longer has dominion over him. So he has died once for all, all who are in Christ. He's died once for all, all of our sins. He's died once for all.

He is the sacrifice and there never needs to be another. Amen. Glory. Hallelujah. And in Christ Jesus, our sins are truly forgiven. Whereas the blood of bulls and goats did not have the power to forgive a person of sins.

Jesus does. He even declared it in his earthly ministry, saying to those whom he healed, your sins have been forgiven. And so all who are in Christ, we have been justified, declared innocent before a holy God and promised eternal life with him.

Let's stop there. We'll come back to our study of Hebrews 10 again tomorrow. Heavenly father, we thank you for the goodness that you show us in Christ. And may we continue to live in keeping with your will no longer in the sins and the passions of our flesh in which we formerly walked.

But we put those things to death for Christ has died for us that we might live to him. And today we are obedient to you from the heart. As said in 1 John 1 9, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Create in me a clean heart. Oh God, in Jesus name. Amen.

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