Please keep out your Psalter hymnal, turn in the back to page 40, and just place a marker there, page 40 in the back. I will be directing your attention to how our text today informs and supports what we confess on Lord's Day 30, but we will not be taking the time to read them aloud together. But I want you to be aware of the connections. And now turn in your Bibles this morning to the Epistle to the Hebrews. The epistles, the epistle to the Hebrews, it's in the New Testament near the end, after Timothy and Titus, but before James and Peter, and turn to chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, that's on page 1167 in most of the Pew Bibles, Hebrews chapter 10. Well, we've all heard it said, and we've likely said it ourselves, nobody's perfect. We often say to describe how humanity is flawed and often as an excuse when the flaw is our own. When we burn a batch of cookies or when we don't measure twice before cutting once that board too short, we find some small comfort in the fact that nobody's perfect. But we don't stop there. We want to use it when our imperfections are more glaring, when we are offensive to God and hurtful to others. The more moral the flaw, the more moral the imperfection, the more true the description, nobody's perfect. And the more empty the excuse, nobody's perfect. It's not always been this way, people of God, as we know. For in the beginning God created Adam, and he created him in his own image. He created him good. He created him upright and holy that he might know God as creator, that he might love him and that he might live with him in eternal blessedness. In the beginning, Adam was without flaw. He was not imperfect. But in Adam's fall, sin we all so that even though we still bear God's image, we don't bear the excellencies. We do so imperfectly so that we are no longer fit to live with our God. We are no longer fit to live on his holy hill. All of our flaws, from the smallest of quirks to the most grave evils that we commit, whether they be in thought, word, or deed, these are imperfections that grow from an imperfection in our nature, which is the result of the fall. Now, we might learn to curb our imperfections and hide them from ourselves and hide them from others, but we can't hide them from God. We can't hide the root from our God. And therefore, we know that no man will stand under the wrath of God against sin unless he is somehow perfected. Unless all our sins are forgiven, unless all our guilt is removed, unless all our pollution is washed away. We will be barred from the presence of God forever. That is the state of fallen man. We can't perfect ourselves. We're imperfect. So what is it that can bring about the perfection of sinners? The Jewish Christians to whom this letter was addressed were tempted to find the answer in the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Even though they'd made perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ, they still longed for the tangible and more sensual ceremonies of the Old Covenant worship. Compared to the rather ordinary means of grace in the New Covenant, the preaching of the Word, the ordinary bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, the plain water of the baptismal font. The Old Covenant religion had a lot more smells and bells, a lot more to involve the people. And this letter was written to them to encourage them to press on in the faith and to warn them against turning back. And our text this morning does both by making it clear that the perfection of sinners is unattainable in old covenant sacrifices. That it originates with the triune God in heaven and that it is accomplished by Christ's new covenant sacrifice. So we read God's word this morning with that in mind. chapter 10 of Hebrews beginning at verse 1 through verse 18 hear now God's word the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming not the realities themselves for this reason it can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near to worship if it could would they not have stopped being offered for the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins but those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins therefore when Christ came into the world he said sacrifice an offering you did not desire but a body you prepared for me with burnt offerings and sin offerings you are not pleased then I said here I am It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, O God. First, he said, sacrifices and offerings, a burnt offering and sin offering you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, although the law required them to be made. Then he said, here I am. I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. once for all. Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again, he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool because by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. the Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this first he says this is the covenant I will make with them after that time says the Lord I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds then he adds their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more and where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sin here ends the reading of God's word we trust that God by his spirit will apply it to his people well the author begins in verses 1 through 4 by making it absolutely clear that the perfection of sinners is unattainable by old covenant sacrifices this fundamental point is made already in verse 1 the core of which is this the law can never make perfect it has no power to make perfect but he has in mind a particular aspect of the old covenant law namely the same sacrifices repeated endlessly in particular those that were offered year after year on the day of atonement and on that day the high priest would slaughter a bull for his sins and then he would slaughter a goat for the sins of Israel and with the blood of bulls and goats the high priest could enter the temple into the holy of holies, into the very presence of God and not be destroyed. And what he has to say about that sacrifice, he has to say about all the other sacrifices that were offered day after day and year after year, again and again. He states it very clearly in verse 1. The law, the law can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near. Why not? because, according to verse 4, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. And he echoes this in verse 11, where he refers to the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. You can't get much clearer than that. But in case that's not clear enough, he goes on to offer evidence that supports the claim. He asks a very revealing question in verse 2. He says, if it could, would they not have stopped being offered? If those sacrifices could really take away sin, if they could really make perfect, if the law could really remove all guilt and cleanse all pollution, then the results would have spoken for themselves. Worshippers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins and the sacrifices would have stopped. The fact that the same sacrifices had to be repeated endlessly proves that they were and continue to be insufficient and ineffective for that purpose. Well, then how can that be when he comments in verse 8, and what we know from the Old Testament, that the law required them to be made? Because according to verse 3, they were not required for that purpose. They were not required to cleanse from sin. They were required to be an annual reminder of sin. The law of which the sacrifices are the most tangible part is only a shadow. It's only a sketch of the good things that are coming, not the reality themselves. The bloody sacrifices of the old covenant were given by God to his people as a perpetual reminder of what sin deserves, what they deserve, and the price that would have to be paid. And the people were to look beyond them to the hope that they pointed to. To look beyond the shadow to the reality to the Messiah who was yet to come. The Messiah who would be crushed for their iniquities. Who would be pierced for their transgressions. The one who would make his life a guilt offering for them. The one who, according to Daniel, would finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for wickedness, and bring in everlasting righteousness. They would see these sacrifices and see their need, that they would look forward to the one who could fulfill it. The good things that were coming for the people of God in the Old Testament, according to Hebrews 9, verse 11, are the good things that have come in Christ Jesus, in the new. So with Christ has come the perfection of sinners. But before we consider how it has been accomplished, we want to spend a moment to consider from whence it has come. The author wants us to know that this is not because of what man has done. This is because of what God has done. And using the scriptures to make his case, the author lets us know that the perfection of sinners originates with the triune God. In verses 5 through 10, he instructs us from Psalm 40, which we sang this morning. And in these verses, we are invited to listen in on and be instructed by one side of a conversation between Christ, who's speaking, and his Father, who's listening. And Christ, speaking in the flesh, we are told, makes reference to things already established before he came into the world. Things established from before the foundation of the world. And the author begins in verse 5 by reminding us of what we've already considered. He says, Therefore, because the law is powerless to take away sins, because the law is powerless to perfect, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering you did not desire. With burnt offerings and sin offerings, you were not pleased. Even though the law of God required these sacrifices, God the Father never desired and never took delight in the countless bloody sacrifices of so-called perfect animals that were slaughtered unwillingly, offered by sinful priests that could never take away sin. From this we can infer, and I think we must infer, what would delight him. What he did desire. And that was the bloody sacrifice of a willing victim. And not only a willing victim, but a perfect victim. And not an animal, but a man. Who would be offered by a sinless priest. And that his offering would take away sin. But this presents a problem, does it not? For all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. and there's no one, righteous, not even one, there's no man qualified to serve as the priest or to serve as the sacrifice. There's no earthly hope of a solution. We're all stuck in our imperfection. We're all doomed to experience the wrath of God unless the solution is provided by God himself, our triune God. The solution is found in Christ, The Son of God who took to himself a body, who took to himself flesh. Conceived in the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. And all this in accordance to the will of God. Therefore we read in verse 5 that when he came into the world, when he came in the flesh, when he came as he celebrated Christmas, he also said, a body you prepared for me. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, announced the purpose for which he came in the flesh. Saying, here I am. I have come to do your will. And in verse 7, this announcement includes a reference to a scroll in which it is written about Christ coming to do this. It's an obscure reference. I don't know if it refers to a scroll in heaven or to the scroll of the scriptures. But in either case, it refers to the will of God. And Jesus Christ has come to fulfill the will of God, his Father. As he explained himself in John chapter 6, verse 38, saying, I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And he proved his claim. First at the Garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed to the Father, Father, if it's possible, remove this cup from me. Don't make me drink the cup of your wrath. Don't make me experience the cross. And he poured out his heart and he poured out his soul and in the end he says, not my will, but your will. And he went to the cross and he took our sins upon him and he died. According to verse 10, it was the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all that fulfilled God's will, as it is written in the scroll. as the only sinless high priest. He willingly sacrificed himself on the cross, pouring out his blood, the blood of a perfect man. And according to Paul, this sacrifice in his blood purchased redemption. Paul writes in Romans 3, verse 24, Redemption is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. That's why Christ came into the world. But the author of Hebrews also, a little further down in verses 15 to 18, refers us to the prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31. And according to verse 15, the good things to come which originated in heaven were announced in advance on the earth before the Son of God came. The Holy Spirit testified to them in the promise of a new covenant that would come and would supersede the old. According to verse 9, that was the logical conclusion of Christ coming in the flesh to do God's will, that he sets aside the former, the first, in order to establish the second. He sets aside the old in order to establish the new. And the author makes the same point earlier in chapter 8, verse 13, where he says that by calling the covenant new, He has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. See, the good things to come with the establishment of the new covenant, according to Jeremiah 31, according to what the Holy Spirit testifies, includes the work of God to make his people willing and able to do his will, no longer imposed from the outside by the law, now inwardly expressed, desired, and acted upon by God's people. That's what the new covenant would bring. But more than that, it would, according to verses 17 and 18, it would bring the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins. The pardon of sins. The removal of guilt. The washing away of pollution. And there we read that their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. I will no longer accuse. That which the Old Covenant sacrifices could never do would be done in the New Covenant. God will remember no more the sins of his people because they have been truly and forever forgiven. All guilt is gone and all pollution washed away forever. That's the promise of the New Covenant. The question then is how is that accomplished? The Old Covenant sacrifices couldn't do it. The new covenant would bring it, but how would it be accomplished? Well, the perfection of sinners is accomplished by Christ's new covenant sacrifice. Christ's sacrifice is superior to all the old covenant sacrifices rolled up together. They can't compete. In verses 11 through 14, the author quickly and powerfully nails home the point that the perfection that sinners need is accomplished only by the sacrifice of Christ. His sacrifice alone is sufficient and effective to accomplish the perfection of sinners. In verses 11 and 12, the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice is contrasted with the insufficiency of the Old Covenant. Verse 11 tells us that in the Old Covenant, Every priest, and there were a lot of them, offers the same sacrifices day after day, again and again, which can never take away sins. One after the other, each priest stands and performs his religious duties. There is no end. There is no rest. It's never finished. The old covenant sacrifices are insufficient. By way of contrast, verse 12 says that But this priest, speaking of Jesus Christ, offered one sacrifice for all time, which is four sins. His sacrifice was powerful. It was sufficient to satisfy for all sins. Because it is absolutely sufficient to cover all sins, it does not need to be, nor can it be, repeated or continued. Therefore, once he had offered it, he sat down at the right hand of God. He rested from his earthly ministry. And Jesus announced the sufficiency of his sacrifice on the cross when he said, it is finished. It is finished. And then in verses 13 and 14, the efficiency, the effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice is highlighted. The Old Covenant sacrifices were powerless to make perfect anyone. They didn't have any ability. And the author here clearly states that Christ's sacrifice is powerful to do just that. His sacrifice does make perfect. His sacrifice does take away sin. We read, by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. He says it another way in verse 10, saying, We, meaning we who believe, have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. It is done. It is not only finished, it's applied. The effect of Christ's sacrifice is the perfection of sinners who believe on his name. Now, these words raise a little bit of a question. What do we make of the fact that those who have been made holy are also those who are being made holy? Rather than being contradictory, opposite to one another, these statements are actually complementary. And they speak of the double benefit that Jesus Christ has effectively secured at the cross for his people, their justification and their sanctification. Because Christ's sacrifice was once for all. Through faith in him we are already justified. That was your assurance of pardon this morning. From Acts chapter 13, through Christ everyone who believes is justified. For the sake of Christ God forgives all their sins and credits his righteousness to them. For the sake of Christ he justifies them. In the words of our text, he perfects them. So that they are fit to live with Him forever. And all that God has justified, He has also made holy. He has set apart for Himself. He has separated from the world. He has, in the word, sanctified them. By definition, if you are justified, you are set apart. You are sanctified. The text says you have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. By definition, you're holy. We are already sanctified by definition, given a status that we can never lose in Christ, even though in our experience, in our living, we are not yet entirely sanctified. We are not entirely holy. We still have to confess our sins, not only in corporate worship, but day by day before our Lord, because we continue to serve ourselves instead of Him. But we have not lost our status. We just need to know that in our experience, we are moving toward that status. By definition, we're sanctified. In experience, we're not fully sanctified. Throughout our days, we are being progressively sanctified to meet that image, that status. So that in the end, when we stand on God's holy hill, we will be fully sanctified, entirely sanctified. We live in the tension of already being justified and set apart but not yet pure in all of our thoughts, words and deeds. And we live in that tension that began when Christ's sacrificial work on earth was done. And we will live in that tension until his heavenly work at the right hand of the Father is done. And he comes back for us when our justification and our sanctification will be consistent and complete in him. You see, it's only because Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to merit the forgiveness of all sins and is effective to do so completely for all who believe that God will remember sins no more. And from this, the author draws the powerful conclusion of verse 18. Where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore the author of Hebrews to the Jewish Christians says don't go back. There's nothing there. To go back to the old covenant sacrifices is to deny that Christ is sufficient. It was sad then. And it's sad now because in our day there are evangelical Christians that want to build the temple and they want to slaughter animals again to somehow worship God. Denies the cross of Christ. But when he says there's no longer any sacrifice for sin he also means that there's nothing that we can add to what Christ has already done. Nor can his once-for-all sacrifice be repeated or continued. It is finished. He has sat down. This is why we maintain that the Roman Catholic Mass is not the same as the Lord's Supper. It's not the same. Christ's once-for-all sacrifice, which has completed the perfection of sinners like you and like me, is that which we remember today in the Lord's Supper. And that which we participate in today through faith. In answer 80, now turn to page 40. We sometimes don't like this question because it seems harsh. And there are movements afoot to have it, not in our circles, but in other Reformed circles, to have it put into a footnote. But Heidelberg question and answer 80 testifies to what we have been considering today very clearly. It affirms these two things, that we remember the Lord's one and only sacrifice in the Lord's Supper and that we participate in it through Christ who is at the right hand of God in heaven. And it says it this way, First, the Lord's Supper declares to us that our sins have been completely forgiven through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ which he himself finished on the cross once for all. And secondly, the Lord's Supper also declares to us that the Holy Spirit grafts us into Christ. Through faith he joins us to Christ who with his very body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father where he wants us to worship him. Can you hear the echoes of Hebrews 10? It's very clear. But answer 80 goes on to rightly identify that the Roman Catholic Mass denies these truths, even though in circumstance it can look very similar. Now, for me, this is not a theoretical statement. This is not a theological conclusion. This is, I've experienced this. I grew up Roman Catholic. I was an altar boy. I know the Mass. And I know what is done there. And this is a fair and accurate summary of what it teaches. So listen carefully. The Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have their sins forgiven through the suffering of Christ unless Christ is still daily offered for them by the priests. The conclusion of this is drawn lower down in the answers, saying in this the Mass is basically nothing but a denial of the once-sacrifice and suffering of Christ. See, the Mass denies both the sufficiency and the effectiveness of the Lord's sacrifice. It denies the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, saying that once for all is not enough. Like the old covenant sacrifices, which were proved powerless because they were given never-endingly, day after day, year after year. The Mass teaches that the same sacrifice must be offered again and again, day after day, in order to take away the sins. of the living and the dead. Once for all, isn't enough. It also denies the efficacy, the effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice, saying that these ongoing sacrifices of the Mass, which they maintain, are a continuation of Christ's sacrifice. They deny that He has sat down in that sense, and they claim, the Mass claims, that it can only take away minor sins. What the Old Covenant would call unintentional sins. What the Roman Catholic Church calls venial sins. It's only good for little stuff. Something more, something additional, another sacrament is needed if you have really bad sin to take care of. You see, the Mass denies the cross of Christ. And secondly, the Mass also denies worship to Christ. Christ is seated in His glorified humanity at the right hand of God in the heavens, and there He is to be worshipped. The Mass teaches that Christ is bodily present here on earth in the form of bread and wine, that He might be worshipped here. And in this, the Mass, we conclude, is a condemnable idolatry. It is. This is not harsh. This is true. So when we come to the Lord's table today, remember, we are seeing, This is a sacrament that points us to a reality greater than itself. It points us backward to the one and only sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And it points us upward to where he sits at the right hand of God the Father. And where we partake on him through faith. That we might be nourished in our souls. Those who come to the Lord's table this morning are to come as those convinced from the scriptures. From Hebrews 10 alone. That though they are displeased with themselves because of their sin, they are continually being made holy because Christ, by one's sacrifice, has made them perfect forever. This we are to believe because the perfection of sinners is unattainable by old covenant sacrifices or any other sacrifice, for that matter. That it originates in the triune God and not with men. And that it's accomplished by Christ's new covenant sacrifice once and for all. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we are warned today and we are encouraged today. We are warned to look against looking elsewhere for any other sacrifice that might save us from our sins. Whether they be old covenant sacrifices, whether they be the promise of repeating them again in the future, whether it be those things that claim to be a repetition or a continuation of what Christ has already done. And you've encouraged us to look only to the cross of Jesus Christ, The Son of God who came in the flesh to live and die for his people. And that through the shedding of his blood that he has perfected his people. We thank you, Father, that through faith we can count ourselves as those who have been made perfect in Christ. Those who have been made holy in him as well, set apart for your purposes. Those in whom the Holy Spirit continues to work to mold us to conform to that status that we now enjoy. We remember our Lord's death today until he comes again in glory. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.