A Better Obedience

0:03I don't know why I always feel the need to say good morning when I stand up here to start. I think I've already said that to all of you many times, but nonetheless, good morning. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Hebrews. Mother, my this mic is seems very hot. Maybe that's why I'm um a little louder than normal. So Hebrews chapter 10 is where we are this morning to start. Hebrews 10. If it feels as though there is a lot of themes that are coming back around in repetitive nature this morning and mornings to come, that is because the nature of Hebrews, especially the last couple chapters, are very repetitive in nature. Some of the themes that we are talking about on a weekly basis are themes that can continually reoccur throughout the book of Hebrews. There is possibly a reason for that. This is just some speculation perhaps on my part. But given the fact that much of Hebrews is talking about the repetitive nature of the old sacrifices from which we have now come, perhaps that is some reason why the repetitiveness of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ is something that we continually talk about. It's a contrast against the repetitive nature of the sacrifice from which we came. Not unlike perhaps Christ's relationship with Peter, where Peter denied him three times and then when Christ restores him, there is that same threefold repetition of do you love me, feed my sheep? So there is this contrast or comparison against the repetitive nature of the denials versus the repetitive nature of the redemption. So there is perhaps some of that at play. Nevertheless, when we approach the text this morning, or when you sit here and hear the word, if you think to yourself, hasn't he said that before? Yes, I probably have. Some of the commentaries I read, um, or one and one in particular, uh gave an illustration to begin their thoughts here on the text this morning, which I think is fair and valid. Uh and that is that looking back in time, right, in hindsight, with hindsight, we always see wisdom that we missed in the moment, right? I mean, this almost seems like obvious. Everybody has experienced this. I know Amanda and I have many times talked with respect to raising kids, for instance. If only if only we knew 20 years ago what we know now, we would have been so much better parents, uh, perhaps. So when we look back, we always see things with a different perspective, with a more clearer perspective. This is exactly what the author of Hebrews is continually showing us, is looking back with this new light of uh the experience of having the fullness of Christ revealed, looking back at the Old Testament with some degree in the Old Law with some degree of um I'll say compassion and mercy, realizing that they did not have the fullness, they did not experience the fullness of revelation that we have. Um so of course, looking back now, us having uh seen the fullness of Christ, we can see all of the ways in which it is so clearly foreshadowed to us in the old, but understanding with some degree of compassion and mercy and grace that those in that time did not yet have the revelation and they didn't have the fullness of the revelation that we have now. Um so that is to say that Hebrews is showing us the wisdom of now looking back and seeing where and how everything points forward to Christ, right? We've talked about this many times now. The priesthood of the old reveals to and points us to Christ. The covenant with Moses reveals to and points us to Christ. The elements of the sacrifice, the bread of the presence and the altar and all those things reveal to us and show us the sacrifice of Christ. The blood of those sacrifices reveal to us and show us Christ. The mediation of the priesthood reveals to us and shows us Christ. All of these things, as we will continually see, all of those things shadowed in the old, point us to and reveal to us and Christ. And we will see that this morning when we look at this idea of obedience. Obedience in the old ultimately reveals to us and points us to the obedience of Christ. And so that is our title or our theme this morning as I, in the midst of these repetitive nature of these same themes under the kind of the heading of Christ's sacrifice once for all. I'm gonna do my best this morning to pull out this theme of Christ as a better obedience. What does it mean that Christ is and offers for us a better obedience? Uh and to that, uh and and under that theme, there are three points for those who are taking notes. Uh the true form, that Christ is the true form. We're gonna look at that uh as our text shows us, that there, that there is a reminder of sins in the old law of which Christ ultimately fulfills, and then we'll look at the will, the will of God or Christ's obedience to the will of God and how that shows us a better obedience in Christ. So I know that's a long introduction, we're probably gonna be late today, but nonetheless, stand with me as we read Hebrews 10, starting in verse 1. Hebrews 10, verse 1, and I'm reading all the way through verse 10. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, these are offered according to the law. Then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second, and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray and ask now, Lord, please, please speak for Christ's sake. It is in his name that I pray. Amen. Uh John Calvin has a great illustration with respect to this idea of the Old Testament foreshadowing the new. He says far more eloquently than I ever could, and I'm not reading it, I'm just uh telling you the illustration, is that the Old Testament is, or the Old or the Law, however you want to say it, there's a lot of different terms that we could use, but for the purposes we'll just say the Old Testament, is like the pencil sketch that an artist does before they paint something, right? It is the outline of what is going to be ultimately filled in with paint by the painter at some point later, right? It is those shadow lines, those things that are not quite detailed, but you can kind of vaguely see the outline of what the ultimate final product will be, and you can kind of get a picture of it, but there is no detail, there's no fullness yet. And in that respect, there is unity between the old and the new. There has to be unity between the old and the new. Far too often in our day we try to disassociate the old from the new as though these are different things, but there is unity between them. The old is the pencil sketch, and the new reveals the fullness of those details. So when we begin our text this morning, we read in verse 1 of chapter 10, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. The law, then, the Old Testament and the law is only a picture of the true form, right? It is the pencil sketch. It is a picture of the true form. It is not the reality. The true form, the full image, is only found in Christ. Christ then is the true form of the realities that were foreshadowed in Christ. I'll give you one other illustration to kind of put this in your mind. And forgive me for not citing this properly. I don't remember where I read this, but this is not original. It is as though the glory of God, this bright, shining glory of God like the sun, is shining through the whole of human history, the whole of time, the whole of redemptive history, and standing in that way is Christ. Standing in front of the glory of God is Christ. And he casts a Christ-shaped shadow on all of human history. So when we look at everything, we see an outline of Christ. Whenever we read the Old Testament and read it properly, we see an outline of Christ who is standing in the gap between the glory of God and us. Everything is outlined by Christ. And if that's true, and it is, the law and the Old Testament must point us to Christ. And it being only a shadow, it in and of itself has no real power. It is only outlining ultimately Christ. And that's what the text tells us there in that first verse, is that there's no protection or no perfection that's offered into the offered by this shadow. It isn't the real thing, is it? We cannot, church and must not be shadow chasers. We don't chase around the shadows. They aren't the real thing. The law is only a shadow. That theme will continually come back as we move through the text this morning. And in verse 2, he illustrates or further elaborates, if if the law for us, if it did offer any substance or any perfection, why did the sacrifices continue? Why didn't those sacrifices actually do anything? If it was more than a shadow, if there could be some perfection obtained by and through the law, why was it continually done every single year? Why was there no perfection? Why was there no cleansing of our consciousness? Why consciences? Why was it just continually done repetitively? There was a continual need, because the sin and the consciousness of sin were never really dealt with, right? Because it wasn't the true form, it wasn't the substance, it was only the outline, it was only the shadow. And this is exactly what Christ taught his disciples for forty days in between the time of his resurrection and to the time of his ascension, which today is providentially ascension Sunday, the day we celebrate Christ actually returning back to heaven. But in that time between his resurrection and the ascension, what did he teach his disciples? Well, we know what he taught because of passages like the road to Emmaus and the men that he met there. He taught them how the old was foreshadowing himself. He taught them the scriptures, he opened up Isaiah and all the various scriptures to them and showed them, showed his disciples how it is that all of this ultimately points to him. How he is the fullness of the picture, how he is the detail of the outline sketch, how Christ is the fulfillment of all of these things. That's what he taught them, wasn't it? And no more wonderful and perfect example of that can be found in Scripture other than in Acts 7. And you can turn there if you want, you don't have to. Acts 7, of course, if you know, is Stephen's speech. And Stephen does exactly what you would expect Stephen to do if he had been taught by Christ or taught by the disciples and the apostles who were taught by Christ, this idea, this thing, in which we see that all of the Old Testament is foreshadowing and leading to Christ, because Stephen systematically goes back all the way to Abraham. He goes through Abraham's life, he goes up into Joseph, details how Joseph goes forward into Egypt, how that brings forth Moses, and how then Moses gives the law and how all of that leads forth ultimately to Christ. How all of that foreshadows and points to Christ. Ultimately, the the climax of Stephen's speech there comes in verse 51 of Acts 7 when he says this, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and in ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law as delivered by the angels and did not keep it. And did not keep it. So then the Old Testament, this law, shows forth Christ, but it also evidences to us that we can never keep it. We need Christ because we can never obey it. The Old Testament shows us that we need a cure, doesn't it? But the current prescription, i.e., righteousness gained through obedience to the law, is ineffective. That is essentially what Stephen is telling these Jewish people. William Barclay says this, quote, a man is ill, a bottle of medicine is prescribed for him. If that medicine affects a cure, every time he looks at that bottle thereafter, he will say, that is what gave me back my health. On the other hand, if that medicine is ineffective, every time he looks at the bottle, he will be reminded that he is still ill and that the recommended cure was useless. The law shows that we are sick. That we need a cure. And when we look at the law, it should be as though we are looking at a bottle of medicine that was ineffective to us, and every time we see it, we think to ourselves, that didn't work. I didn't obey it. I didn't do what it said I needed to do, and therefore I am still sick. This law that was received, that was delivered and received by the angels, they did not keep it. It was not effective for them. They needed something else. We need something else. The Old Testament then demands the new. So not only does it foreshadow, but it demands the new. The old, the law, demands something better, something new. Everything in the old is looking for a fulfillment, is yearning for, and is longing for a fulfillment. In the same way a pencil sketch would demand that it be finished, that it not sit there like that. Richard Phillips says this in just that sense, we must see the Old Testament as a question demanding an answer, a cry awaiting its comfort, a hunger awaiting the bread of life. How long, O Lord, was a cry on the lips of many a prophet. It was the collective longing of that covenant that was the shadow of better things to come. The sacrifice of Christ, then, or as we'll say, the summation or the summary of the new, it is the answer. It is the comfort. It is the bread of life. It is the fulfillment. It is the fullness. It is the true form, as it says, it is the details filled in. It's the full picture given to us. And to stay in the old and to continually try to be justified by the law and by the old ways and by the old sacrifices is to stay in the shadows, to stay unfinished, to stay unfulfilled, to stay without answers, to stay without comfort, to stay lost, hopeless, and unsaved. But to receive Christ, to receive his sacrifice, to receive his obedience is to be fully satisfied, is to be saved. So back to Hebrews then. And in verse 3, I'll skip through this because I'm going to get to verse 5. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. Again, as I said, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, verse 5. When Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me, and burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Interestingly enough, that is a quote from Psalms 40, and the writer of the Hebrews, as he has done before, credits Christ as saying that, right? Which is interesting in and of itself. But what we're getting at here is that the temptation is, or there is a temptation for all of us, certainly, to view sacrifice. For sacrifice's sake. But God does not desire legalistic sacrifice. He never did. How often do we confess? How often have we seen in the scriptures, I messed up, I didn't fulfill the law, I didn't obey it. Let me just do this thing. Let me just offer this sacrifice, and then I'm good again. And then we continually do the same thing over and over again. We mess up, we come to church even, we pray. I mean now I'm good, right? This is demonstrated to us with Cain and Abel and the sacrifices that they brought forth. We'll get there when we get to Hebrews 11. But why was Cain's sacrifice not regarded? He did what he was supposed to do. He brought a sacrifice, he put it forth. Hebrews says in 11, it wasn't brought with faith. There was no heart behind it. The problem wasn't the sacrifice, because God didn't desire the sacrifice. He desired the heart, the faith behind it. And that was the problem. This is the problem with the sacrificial system in general, wasn't it? All of those Old Testament Jews did not obey the law, but they thought if they just do this sacrifice, then God will be pleased with me. This is all I have to do. Just do this sacrifice, and then I will be good again. Christ spoke into that when he said, in quoting Isaiah, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Further, he says, These people are whitewashed tombs. Outwardly they have the appearance of godliness, but inside they are dead. Faithless. Going through the motions, looking for something in and of themselves for their justification. And this is where we get to Christ's obedience. This is the good news this morning. Verse 7 from our text. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. As it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, says Christ. I think I'm safe to say this, there is no more doctrine in the church that causes such angst, such division as the doctrine of predestination. The biggest complaint is that it makes us puppets. The fact that our lives could be scripted. Alarms going off. That's going to be really annoying, but I'll try to work through it. The fact that our lives are scripted, the fact that God is sovereign over all things. This makes us puppets. This makes us robots. This is the argument. This is the complaint. But what I think we can see from our text this morning is that Christ was and is, certainly was, the freest person to ever live, wasn't he? Wasn't Christ the freest person to ever live? He was God. He was not born in sin. So not only was he free as Adam was, but he was completely without sin, verily God Himself. So Christ was the freest person ever to walk the earth, free in every way. And yet Christ also had the most scripted life ever. In fact, Christ's entire life was pre-planned before the foundation of the earth. Every day of his life was scripted for him. Every action was given to him to obey. That comes directly from Christ's mouth himself. Was Christ a puppet? Was Christ a robot? Did he somehow, was it somehow wrong for him to only do what the Father willed for him and had planned for him and had ordained for him? Was that somehow not right for him? Philippians 2, 5 to 11, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. That's Philippians 2, 5 to 11. Christ obeyed the Father's will. And by that obedience to the Father's will, we are sanctified. We are saved. This is the whole idea of Christ's active obedience that we've talked about. He earned righteousness, as Scripture said. He fulfilled the obedience to God's will. He surrendered and submitted himself to that script that God had for him perfectly so that he could earn the righteousness, which is what God required from the very beginning. Not a sacrifice, but one who would perfectly obey him, perfectly do what he willed, perfectly earn that righteousness so that he could give it to us. That's what Christ did. Is that a bad thing? I hope not. So why does it bother us then? I'm wrapping up. Why does it bother us? Why does it bother anyone to say that your life is scripted, is planned, is ordained, is sovereignly controlled, that all your good works are given to you, that you may walk in them? Why does that bother us so much? Does it bother an actor when they show up on set to do a movie and they're handed a script and they're told, here's your lines? Say these? Does the actor say to the director, hey, like, like, just let me let me have a little say in this movie. Let me have a little say in the lines. Let me let me kind of just ad lib and do what I want to do here. What would the director reply? No, we have a story that we're telling here. You have to say these lines, you have to stand here and do these, play these parts, play these roles so that the story makes sense at the end, so that we'll get to where we're going at the end. Otherwise, what are we doing? What are we doing? So if Christ is the true form of the shadows, if Christ fills in the shadows because of his obedience to the will of God, because of his surrender and his submission to God, and if because of that he is the only effective cure for us, if Christ is the righteousness that we need, that he has gained and earned for us, then first we should and must receive him and his obedience for us. It is his obedience, it is his perfect submission to the will. That is why we are saved. Because he obeyed. Because he earned righteousness, and because by and in faith he gives us that righteousness that he earned. At the same time, or as a result of, I should say, in our striving now to image forth or to reflect the image of Christ, the one who saved us, we die to self. We surrender to the will of God. We must stop, church, buying the lie that what God really wants for you is for you to have ultimate free will, for you to be like him, to know good and evil like him, for you to have the same free will like him. For you to make all of your own choices. This is a lie. This is the lie from Satan. What he desires is obedience to his will. Modeled in Christ and now imaged by us. I'll give you a few scriptures to support that as we close. Luke 11, 28. But he said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. 2 John 6, and this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 1 John 2, 2-3, or this is just verse 3, and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. So we are then justified and saved by obedience. We are. We're saved and justified by obedience, just not our own obedience. So we don't trust in our obedience, because it is Christ's obedience that saves us, but we also don't downplay that importance of that. Because Christ's obedience, his submission to the will is a part of this big, beautiful picture that Christ has fulfilled, has imaged. It is obedience that has saved you. Christ's obedience. So surrender your life to Him and obey Him. Romans 12, verse 1. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. There is a wonderful poem by Christina Rossetti. It's a winter poem, right? A Christmas poem, I suppose, but uh it's applicable. Here, the last line says this What can I give him? Poor as I am. If I were a shepherd, I would bring him a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part. Yet what I can I give him, give my heart. Hebrews, as we read, Hebrews 5, 10, 5-7, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired. But a body you have prepared for me, in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure, then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written in the scroll of the book. This is what our bodies are for now. This is what our lives are for now, as Romans, Paul says in Romans 12, to be living sacrifices, offered freely, as redeemed image-bearers, who long to please our Savior who obeyed for us. So what do you give God? Right? That's the question. What do you give God in gratitude for his great salvation? What do you do for him? How can you give something back to a God who has everything? And as Acts 7, 17 tells us, we has no need of anything. Right? How do we please God? How do we worship him rightly? We do his will. We submit to him, we surrender to him, as he tells us to in his word. In the name of Jesus who loves you, who offered himself for you to save you from your sins. And by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ Jesus once for all. And because of that sacrifice, we trust in Him and we submit to Him. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the obedience of Christ on our behalf. We thank you that it is by Christ's obedience and by his sacrifice and by his submission to your will, Lord, by his bloodshed for us, that we are saved, Lord. We know that and we confess that this morning, Lord. Lord, please help us this morning. If any of us in this room have come to the realization or the feeling or the inclination that they are saved by their own sacrifices, Lord, or anything else that we are doing, Lord, please have us repent of that. Make those things known to us, Lord. That you do not desire sacrifices and burnt offerings, Lord, but it is by faith alone in the one who did obey you that we are saved. Lord, and by that salvation now may we image the true form of all of those realities, which is Christ, Lord. May we reflect Him. Lord, may we be transformed into His image. May we model what He has done, Lord, which is to obey you, to trust You, to surrender His will to your own. But may it not scare us that you are sovereign over us. May we lovingly follow your script, knowing that you have the story planned. And it is a wonderful story. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.