In this meaningful episode, we discuss the passage from shadow to substance, exploring how the old sacrifices were mere precursors to Christ’s ultimate offering. The love of the servant is beautifully highlighted through biblical references, focusing on Christ’s love and sacrifice for the church. With rich insights and practical applications, this episode is a spiritual feast for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of scripture.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
There are just two places for your sin. Either your sin is on you, or it’s on Christ. Welcome to Through the Bible. The quote that I just read from Dr. J. Vernon McGee perfectly sums up our study. So get ready, and as you can probably tell, it’s going to be a great time in God’s Word. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host and friend, here with you on the Bible bus. And we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us so much that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. Thank you that because of his death on the cross, our judgment has been paid and our future with you is secure. Humble our hearts, Lord, as we study together and help us to see Jesus. In his precious name we pray. Amen. We’re off to Hebrews 9 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
My friends, we were talking last time about the sacrifice that Christ made and the superiority of that sacrifice because he offered himself without spot and without blemish to God. Now, we were leaving off at the last part of chapter 9. And there’s quite a contrast made there between the offering that was made back in the Old Testament in the tabernacle and the offering that the Lord Jesus has made. He’s now gone into the very presence of God for us. And we are told that verse 25, nor yet that he should offer himself often. He did it once as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others. It was a thing that had to be repeated again and again. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the age hath he appeared again. To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He’s appeared once in the end of this age. Put away sin. Now, if that sacrifice that he made is not adequate and is not acceptable, notice what he says. And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment, the natural order of man, and it’ll be true of the unsaved, they’re going to die. And after death, nothing but judgment. That’s all you have to look for. So Christ, verse 28, 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, the important thing is, of course, he’s going to appear. But that he’ll appear the second time not to settle the sin question at all. He’s not going to come the next time and walk around the Sea of Galilee and through the streets of Jerusalem to see what man will do with this sacrifice. He’s coming in judgment so that today, and we can put it very simply like this, there’s just one or two places for your sins, not a third place. Either your sin today is on you, and you have not accepted the sacrifice of Christ, and you’re not trusting him, he’s no authority to you. Well, there’s nothing ahead of you but judgment, friend. Your sin is on you, and you’re coming up for judgment. And it’s the judgment of the great white throne. Nobody’s saying that. He’s just going to give you a fair chance to show you that he was right all along. And I have news for you. God’s always right. And it looks like we’re always wrong. So that today, if your sin is on you, there’s nothing in the world that can remove it but the death of Christ. Because even when he comes the next time, it’s without sin under salvation. He’ll complete the salvation. Because as we said before, salvation is in three tenses. I have been saved. I am being saved. And I shall be saved. Beloved, it doth not appear what we shall be, but we know when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We’ll see him as he is. Now, that’s going to be a great day. It’s going to be a great day for Vernon McGee. So don’t you be dissatisfied with me, will you not? God’s not through with me. Dear little lady down in Mississippi, got up in the testimony meeting under the brush arbor, had on a sun bonnet. And she said, you know, says most Christians ought to have written on their back. This is not the best that the grace of God can do. Well, I’m not sure what the little lady is not only right. But that every Christian ought to have that on them. God, he’s not through with us. Thank God for that. And so he’s going to appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He’s going to deliver us. But my friend, he will not come to settle the sin question for anyone that hasn’t accepted him. He’s coming as the judge. And therefore, that’s what he’s talking about here. Now, he moves right on in to the 10th chapter. For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually make the comers there unto perfect. Now, that is Hebrews 10, verse 1. Now, he continues the same subject right on into the 10th chapter. Now, we’re talking about Christ’s sacrifice for sin, you see. In other words, what he is saying here as he ended the 9th chapter, if Christ had failed to save in his death at his first coming, there’d be nothing afterward but judgment. And my friend today, if you reject Jesus Christ, You know that your funeral is going to be the saddest funeral that you possibly can have. I’ve had the funeral of all kinds of people. And I’ve had the funeral of unsaved people. And the family there was unsaved. And there’s no sorrow like that. And believe me, that’s the way it should be. This poor, dear wife, she was almost an alcoholic in there. Husband died. She leaned on him a great deal. That was down in Texas. I don’t mind locating that. And she came to me after I tried to give a message, not a comfort, but the gospel to them. And she came to me there and she looked up at me. She says, is there any hope at all? Well, I said, there’s a hope for you. There’s a hope for you. None for him whatsoever. He was a blasphemer. He had told me that he had no use for the church. He had no use for Jesus Christ. He had no use for anything Christian. Nothing ahead but judgment. Now, he goes on here and he says, for the law having a shadow. Having a shadow, good things to come and not the very image of the things. Now, the law served a good purpose. It was a picture. It taught Israel. And that’s the reason that they were judged as they were judged. How many times the Lord Jesus said, but I’ve gathered you and you would not. Now, if you don’t believe that judgment has really been a severe one, go to Jerusalem. Walk around the streets of old Jerusalem. Walk around in the area where we know that he moved. But all that’s covered with debris today. Why? Because that city has been judged. How many times he said, I’ve gathered you. Why? They had the Old Testament. They had the pictures. My ancestors were up here in Germany. Boy, were they heathen and pagan. And those over in Scotland, they were dirty and filthy. And then the gospel came, and thank God, some of them trusted Christ. And I had a grandfather on my father’s side that apparently was a godly man. I don’t know, but I’m thankful for him, you see. Thankful for him. That gave us Gentiles a break, you see. That gave us a break. He gave them the picture book, Old Testament, just ABC book for a bunch of babes, you see. That’s the reason so many today miss it. These theologians come to it, and they have to find something profound in it. It’s a picture book. He’s just trying to tell all of us little babies down here that he died for us. And it’s just as simple as that, friends. He died for us. The law having a shadow of good things to come. And you notice that the law had to do with the tabernacle and the sacrifices. This idea today you can separate the ceremonial law from the Ten Commandments. You’re just entirely wrong. If you want to get on the Ten Commandments, then you make your little tabernacle, start raising goats and sheep because you’re going to need them. But he finished all of that. Now we’re on a different basis, a higher plane today. And he wants to bring joy in your life. And the law never promised joy. There was thunder and lightnings and people were smitten dead at the giving of the law. But when Jesus came, he died. That we might have life today. Now, verse 2, for then would they not have ceased to be offered. You see, it’s interesting that when Jesus died, It was just a few years that that temple was destroyed. And Israel has not been able to put up another temple. They got a little miniature at the Holy City Hotel in Jerusalem over on the new side. But they don’t have a temple today. Doesn’t look like they’re going to get one soon either. You see, that ended it. For then would they have not ceased to be offered. They don’t offer now. And very frankly, I spoke to a very delightful Jewish guy, hair as gray as it could be. He said it was turned gray when he was 19. He heard that his father and mother, sister and brothers had been killed in Russia. And he’d been gray ever since. delightful fella. He took me around to show me this model. And I asked him, and maybe I shouldn’t, but I said, where’s the brazen altar? And he looked at me. Oh, he said, you know, today we’ve come past that. We have an ethical religion. A lot of folk today got an ethical religion. But my friend, that bloody sacrifice was necessary that you and I might have forgiveness of sins. And so he says, but then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience for sin. But in those sacrifice, there’s a remembrance again made of sins every year. So that actually what those sacrifices did was to remind these people that it wasn’t complete. or they wouldn’t have to come back and do it every day. And they were a shadow. In the Greek, it’s skion. That is just a hazy outline. And an image, a kona. We get our word icon from that. Just a likeness. And the old sacrifices were shadow, never substance. And my friend, you can’t live in the shadow of a house. You need the house. Again, we don’t have to repeat this if it’s complete. You know, if a man that says, you know, I’m cured of a disease and he’s taking medicine every hour, that man’s not cured, friend. You got to keep it up. My doctor gave me medicine for diverticulosis. And I said, will it cure me? He said, no, it’s just when you have an attack, you probably have it the rest of your life. So I keep taking it. I’m not cured. I know that. And when you bring his sacrifices every year, you’re not cured of sin. It doesn’t answer. It’s Christ made one sacrifice. Now he goes into that for in those sacrifices. Verse three. Now there’s a remembrance again made of sins every year. Here we go again. We’re going right through the great day of atonement every year. What does it mean? That the answer hasn’t arrived yet. But yonder on Golgotha, when he cried out, Tetelestai, it is finished. My friend, it was finished. And next year, there wasn’t any need for a day of atonement. In fact, he’s going to say that that’s to trod underfoot the blood of Jesus if you try to go through a sacrifice today. Now, we come to something that I think is tremendous here. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it’s written of me to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. 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 we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And that word for all is in italics. And it means once he died for your sins and my sins. Now, here is one of the most beautiful references you’ll have in the Bible. And I want to take time for that because I trust that we can be helpful to you. And having a word of God become very meaningful to you. Now, if you go back to the book of Exodus, and I’m turning there. The 19th chapter and the 20th chapter, 19th is preparation for the giving of the law. 20th chapter, you have the 10 commandments given. Now, after that, God makes a gracious provision for sacrifices and altar. Goes right along with it. Then in chapter 21, there comes something that seems to be very much out of place. Having given the law, this is an interesting thing. It says, verse 1 of chapter 21 of Exodus, and I’m reading. Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them. Listen to this. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. In other words, you couldn’t have a slave of your own people for longer than six years. Seventh year he’s free. Verse 3, if he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he was married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife and she have born him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters. He shall go out by himself. But listen now. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. Verse 6. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear. That is, the lobe of the ear would be pushed against the doorpost and through with an awl. And an awl would run through the ear. and he shall serve him forever. And if you saw a man walking around like that, you know that he’d been given a wife and that he had paid the price of permanent servitude. Now, that’s a tremendous law. Certainly, that’s a lovely thing. But what’s the meaning of it? Well, let’s follow the meaning of it. We go over to the 40th Psalm. And in the 40th Psalm, I read verse 6. sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened, or dig, just like you have back there about the servant. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book that’s written of me. Now, you have that quotation here in Hebrews, and it is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here’s one of the most beautiful pictures you have in the Scripture. The Lord Jesus came to this earth and he grew to manhood. 30 years of age, he began his ministry. And he could come to the end of that ministry and say, which of you convicted me of sin? He was wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He could have stepped off this earth any day that he wanted to back to heaven and left this earth in sins. and left you and me in the slavery of sin. But you see, he said, I love, I love those sinners. And God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. So instead of saying his eerie day, it says a body. Hast thou given me a body for what? Well, he died on the cross, friends. He died on the cross. And we’re told here, verse 10 of Hebrews 10, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. He could have left this earth without dying because nobody could convict him of sin. And he could have gone to heaven without dying. But he’d had to leave you and me down here. Even God had had to leave us down here. And back to that law, the servant, he can serve just six years, but he’s now going out free. But the master gave him a bride. And the Lord Jesus Christ has been given the church. You remember in the Lord’s prayer, he said, they are mine. And he says to the father, you gave them to me. He died for him. He died for you and for me. Because he loves us. And he had to pay that price. But the interesting thing, he didn’t stay in slavery. He went back. And he’s going to take us out of the slavery of sin someday. How wonderful it is. How wonderful it is. And he alone could do that. There’s a green hill far away without a city wall, where the dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. What a picture we have here. Now we are told in verse 11, And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. Oh, it covered them. It was an atonement, but never could take away sin at all. And all that offering every year did, it’s just a reminder that we are sinners and that the sin question had never been settled. But now verse 12 of chapter 10 of Hebrews, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of God. He sat down, why? Because he’s tired No, because he’s not going to do anything? No, his work is finished. One sacrifice for sins forever. Now, notice, from henceforth, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. He’s just waiting a few more to be saved. We pray, oh, come on, Lord Jesus. But he says, no, we’re going to wait because I want to save some more. And he’s given you an opportunity, friend, if you’re not saved. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, one offering… does what many offerings could not do. Now, if Christ cannot save you and keep you, then God has no other way to save and keep you. The Lord, even God’s run out of ways of saving you. This is the only way. Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them. After those days, saith the Lord, I’ll put my laws into the hearts and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now, as we’ve seen before in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, God says, I’m going to make a new covenant now with Israel. You see, he’s not through with Israel, friends. If you read your Bible, you will see that. But now if you’re going to read some of these new theologians who come up with some philosophical explanation, then you’re going to be way out your inner left field with probably a logical argument. But you see, we’re not following logic. We’re following the word of God. And I think if you’ll follow it through, it makes sense that it is logical. Now, let’s come to verse 18, and I want to get right here and leave off, and then we’ll begin there next time. Verse 18, now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. He’s made the one offering. Now, on the basis of what he has done, Well, you’ll notice this. “…having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Now, we’ve got a marvelous privilege here. And this boldness, by the way, means boldness to speak. This is not arrogance at all. This means that we have boldness to speak. We don’t have to come cowing. And I’ve heard people in prayer. Oh, Lord, we are not worthy to come to you. Of course, you’re not worthy. That’s what he’s been trying to tell you. But he says, now come with boldness. I’ve made a sacrifice for you. You’re my son now. And you can come as a son to the father. And how wonderful that is. And that’s the privilege that we have today. You remember in one of his books, he speaks of a group of men and he said they were gentlemen unafraid. We can be gentlemen unafraid in the presence of Christ. Now, here’s our privilege. But now he’s going to talk also about responsibility. Verse 22. Now, I’m not dealing with it now. I don’t have time. Let us draw near. Verse 23. Let us hold fast. Verse 24. Let us consider. You know, we have marvelous privileges, but we also got responsibility. Just as Israel. Life gives privilege, but it creates also responsibility. We’ll see that next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Listen to this message again or learn about the many other resources we offer to help you study the Bible yourself. You can download our app or visit ttb.org or just give us a call, 1-800-65-BIBLE is the number. And if God’s working in your life through our study together, would you share your story? You can click on feedback in our app, email BibleBus at ttb.org or mail your note to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. in Canada Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C, 6B1. You can also call and leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll meet you back here next time as we together go through the Bible.
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Jesus made it all All to him I owe. Sin had left the prince unsaved. He washed it white as snow.
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Through the Bible is a five-year study of God’s entire word, and together we discover God’s purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?
