Christ’s One Sacrifice for Sin

Christ's One Sacrifice for Sin

(No. 2283)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1892.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING JUNE
29, 1890.

"Now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put a way sin by
the Sacrifice of Himself." Hebrews 9:26.

I NEED not read the text again, for I shall not go far away from it,
but again and again shall we come back to these precious words about
our Lord's one great Sacrifice for sin.

What Christ meant to do on the Cross, He actually did. I always take
that for granted. He did not die in vain. He did not leave any part of
His work undone. Whatever was His intent, by the laying down of His
life, He accomplished it, for, if not, dear Friends, He would come here
again! If any of His work were left undone, He would return to the
earth that He might finish it, for He never did leave a work
incomplete, and He never will! Christ effected the redemption of His
people by one stroke–coming here, living, and dying–He put away sin.
He did not merely try to do it, but He actually accomplished the
stupendous work for which He left His Glory-Throne above.

He did not die to make men salvable–He died to save them. He did not
die that their sin might be put away by some effort of their own–He
died to put it away. "Once in the end of the world has He appeared to
put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself." There was one death, one
Sacrifice, one Atonement, and all the work of man's redemption was
forever accomplished, so that we can sing–

"Love's redeeming work is done; Fought the fight, the battle won." If
the mission on which Christ came to this earth had not been fulfilled,
I say again, He would have returned to complete the work that He had
begun.

That would have meant that He should often have been offered since the
foundation of the world, an idea which we cannot hold for a single
moment! For Christ to die twice would be contrary to all analogy. He is
the second Adam. He, therefore, is like unto men. Read the words of
Paul in the verse following our text, "It is appointed unto men once to
die" (not twice), "but after this the judgment: so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." For Him, who is
the true Adam, to die twice, would be contrary to the analogy of
things.

It would also be most repugnant to all holy feeling. For Christ once to
die a shameful death upon the Cross on Calvary has made an indelible
mark upon our heart, as though it had been burned with a hot iron. I
have sometimes half said to myself, "God forbid that His dear Son
should ever have died! "The price seemed too great even for our
redemption. Should He die, the Holy One and the Just, the Glorious and
Blessed Son of God? The answer to that question is that He has died.
Thank God He can never die again! It were horrible to us to think that
it should be possible that He should ever be called upon to bear our
sins a second time!

It would be traitorous to His Person, it would be dishonorable to His
Gospel to suppose that His Sacrifice is still incomplete and that He
might be called upon to die again because His first death had not
satisfied the claims of Divine Justice. The simple suggestion, even for
the sake of argument, is almost blasphemous! Christ either paid the
ransom price for His people, or He did not. If He did, it is paid. If
He did not, will He come again, you think? That can never be! To-plady
knew that Truth of God when he taught the saints to sing to their
Lord–

"Complete Atonement You have made, And to the utmost farthing paid
Whate'er Your people owed.

Nor can His wrath on me take place,

If sheltered in Your righteousness,

And sprinkled with Your blood." The idea that Christ's one Sacrifice
for sin is not sufficient to accomplish His purpose is also opposed to
Revelation. We are told that, "Christ, being raised from the dead, dies
no more, death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He
died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God." The
sinner for whom Christ died is free because of his Substitute's death.
And the Substitute, Himself, is free, for He has discharged every
liability and given to God the full satisfaction that Divine Justice
required–

"He bore on the tree the sentence for me,

And now both the Surety and sinner are free." Take a good look at
Calvary. Get the Cross distinctly photographed upon your eyeballs.
Behold the five wounds and the bloody sweat. The whole Gospel was hung
on the Cross. It was all there–the battle and the victory, the price
and the purchase, the doom and the deliverance–the Cross and the
crown. See again, in the death of Christ on the Cross, a clear idea of
what He meant to do and of what He actually did when He laid down His
life for us. And be glad that once, and only once, this great deed had
to be done! Nothing more is needed–Christ has put away the sin of
those for whom the Covenant was made, according to the Word of God that
we read just now–"Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."
"Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin."

That will stand as a preface. Now I want, with great earnestness–I
fear with much weakness, but still with great earnestness–to set
before you, beloved Friends, a summary of the way in which Christ has
saved His people. It matters not how feebly the Truth of God is put to
you. If you do but lay hold of it and firmly grasp it by faith, your
souls are saved. I shall have to speak to you briefly upon five things.
First, the gigantic evil–"sin." Secondly, the glorious Remover of
it–"HE." Thirdly, the memorable event–"Once in the end of the world
has He appeared." Fourthly, the special Sacrifice–"the Sacrifice of
Himself." Fifthly, and lastly, the grand achievement–"to put away sin
by the Sacrifice of Himself."

I. First, notice, in considering what our text says, that Christ has
put away THE GIGANTIC EVIL. "Once in the end of the world has He
appeared to put away sin." "Sin." It is a very little word, but it
contains an awful abyss of meaning!

"Sin" is transgression against God, rebellion against the King of
Kings, violation of the law of right, commission of all manner of
wrong. Sin is in every one of us–we have all committed it, we have all
been defiled with it. Christ came "to put away sin." You see, the evil
is put in one word, as if wrong-doing was made into one lump, all
heaped together and called, not "sins," but, "sin." Can you catch the
idea? All the sinfulness, all the omissions, all the commissions and
all the tendencies to rebel that ever were in the world are all piled
together, hill upon hill, mountain upon mountain–and then called by
this one name, "sin."

Now, sin is that which makes man obnoxious to God. Man, as a creature,
God loves. Man, as a sinner, God cannot love. Sin is loathsome to God.
He is so pure that He cannot bear impurity, so just that the thought of
injustice is abhorrent to Him. He cannot look upon iniquity without
hating it–it is contrary to His Divine Nature. His anger burns like
coals of juniper against sin. This it is that makes sin so dreadful to
us, because, in consequence of it, we have become obnoxious to God!

And sin, dear Friends, also involves man in punishment. Inasmuch as we
have committed sin, we are exposed to the just and righteous wrath of
God. Wherever there is sin, there must be penalty. Laws made without
the sanction of reward and punishment are inoperative. God will never
suffer His righteous Law to be broken with impunity. His Word still
declares, "The soul that sins, it shall die." Where there is sin, there
must be punishment, and although the doctrine is not preached as often
as it ought to be, yet every man's conscience knows that there is a
dreadful Hell–there is a worm that dies not, there is a fire that
never can be quenched–and all these are reserved for unforgiven
sinners. This makes sin a terrible evil! Unless God vacates the Throne
of the universe, sin must be visited with punishment and banished from
His Presence.

Yet again, dear Friends, sin effectually shuts the door of hope on men.
The guilty cannot dwell with God while they are guilty. They must be
cleansed from sin before they can walk with Him in white. Into Heaven
there enters nothing that defiles and if you and I are not pardoned, we
must be separated from God forever. We can do nothing while sin remains

upon us and nothing can bring us reconciliation with God. Sin must be
put away first. It lies across the road to Heaven and blocks up the
door by which we come to God and, unless it is removed, we are lost,
lost, lost, and lost forever!

Do you all know, in your consciences and hearts, what sin means? I
remember that when I learned that dread lesson, I felt that I was the
most unhappy youth in all Her Majesty's dominions! Sin went to bed with
me and seared me with visions. Sin rose with me and made the most
glorious landscape dark and gloomy. I had a terrible sound of judgment
to come always ringing in my ears. I knew that I was guilty–I did not
need for God to condemn me–I condemned myself! I sat in judgment upon
my own heart and I condemned myself to Hell. Sin! If you really feel
it, no branding irons in the hand of the most cruel inquisitor would
ever pain you as sin does! Speak of diseases and there are some that
cause intense agony, but there is no disease that pains like sin on the
conscience! Sin on the conscience! It is a prison, a rack, a cross
whereon all joy hangs crucified and bleeding to death.

That is the first thing in my text, the gigantic evil. In proportion as
you feel the evil of sin, you will rejoice to hear that Christ came to
put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself! That is my next point.

II. In the second place, having spoken of the gigantic evil that needed
to be removed, let me now speak of THE GLORIOUS REMOVER OF IT. Who was
it that undertook to remove this mountain of guilt? "Once in the end of
the world has HE appeared." Who is this who has appeared to put away
sin?

I will not delay for a moment, but tell you at once that He that
appeared was very God of very God! He against whom sin had been
committed! He who will judge the quick and the dead! He it was who
appeared to put away sin! Is there not great comfort in this fact? It
is the Son of God who has undertaken this more than Herculean labor! He
appeared, Sinner, to save YOU! God appeared to put away sin! Lost One,
to find you, the great Shepherd has appeared! Your case is not
hopeless, for He has appeared! Had anybody other than God undertaken
the task of putting away sin, it could never have been accomplished!
But it can be accomplished, now, for HE who appeared is One with whom
nothing is impossible! Listen to that and be comforted.

Who is it that appeared? It is HE, the commissioned of the Father.
Christ did not come as an amateur Savior, trying an experiment on His
own account. He came as the chosen Mediator, ordained of God for this
tremendous task. The Savior that I preach to you is no invention of my
own brain. He is no great One who, of His own accord, stepped into the
gap without orders from Heaven. No! He appeared whom the Father chose
for the work and sent, commissioned to perform it. His very name,
Christ, tells of His anointing for this service–

"Thus says God of His Anointed–

He shall let My people go.

'Tis the work for Him appointed,

'Tis the work that He shall do–

And My city

He shall found, and build it, too."

"He appeared," He who was pledged in Covenant to do it, for, of old,
before the world was, He became the Surety of the Covenant on behalf of
His people! He undertook to redeem them. His Father gave Him a people
to be His own and He declared that He would do the Father's will and
perfect those whom the Father had given Him. "He appeared." Ah, dear
Friends, if the brightest angel had appeared to save us, we might have
trembled lest he should be unequal to the task! But when He comes whom
God has sent, whom God has qualified, and who is, Himself, God, He came
upon an errand which He is able to accomplish! Think of that and be
comforted.

III. But now, in the third place, we come to THE MEMORABLE EVENT
mentioned in our text. We are told that in order that He might save us,
Christ appeared–"Once in the end of the world has He appeared." He
could not sit in Heaven and do this great work. With all reverence to
the blessed Son of God, we can truly say that He could not have saved
us if He had kept His Throne and not left the courts of Glory. But He
appeared! I have not to tell you, at this time, that He will appear,
although that, also, is true, for, "unto them that look for Him shall
He appear the second time without sin unto salvation," but He has
appeared.

He appeared, first, as a Babe at Bethlehem, swaddled like any other
child. This Babe is "The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace" and He has "appeared" on earth in human form. Made in fashion
as a Man, He has taken upon Himself our Nature, the Infinite is linked
with the Infant, the Eternal with the Child. He, on whom all worlds are
hanging, hangs upon a woman's breast! He must do that, or He cannot put
away sin.

Thirty years rolled on and He had toiled, in obscurity, as a carpenter
at Nazareth. The Baptist comes and proclaims the Advent of the Redeemer
and He is there to the moment! Into the waters of Jordan He descends,
and John with Him, the servant baptizes His Lord and, as He rises from
the water, the heavens are opened, the Dove descends–it rests upon Him
and God proclaims Him to be His Son, in whom He is well pleased! Thus
Christ, anointed at Jordan, appeared to inaugurate His public ministry
and, by His Baptism, to begin working a robe of righteousness which is
forever to adorn us, poor naked sinners. "In the end of the world He
appeared." His manifestation commenced at Bethlehem and was continued
at Jordan.

Three more years rolled by–years of toil and suffering–and now the
great debt was to be paid, the bill was presented. Would He be there to
meet it? The charge was laid. Would He be there to answer to it? Where
would He be but among those olives in Gethsemane, surrendering Himself?
The night is chill, the moon is shining and He is there in prayer. But
what prayer! Never did the earth hear such groans and cries! He is
there wrestling, but what wrestling! He sweats, as it were, great drops
of blood, falling to the ground. The sinner is called for and the
sinner's Substitute has put in an appearance on his behalf in the
lonely garden of Gethsemane, so rightly named, the olive press. In a
garden, man's first sin was committed–in a garden, man's Substitute
was arrested.

But now comes the darkest hour of all. Christ appeared on Calvary,
atoning for sin. The sun is veiled as though unable to look upon such a
scene of sorrow! Hear the dread artillery of Heaven–the Father
thunders forth His wrath against sin! Behold the flames of fire, the
forked lightning of God's anger against all iniquity! Who is to bear
them? In whose breast shall they be quenched? HE comes! On yonder tree
He presents Himself! He hides not His face from shame and spitting and,
at last, upon the Cross, He hides not Himself from Divine desertion.
Hear His piteous cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Then
was fulfilled the prophecy given by the mouth of Zechariah, "Awake, O
sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, says
the Lord of Hosts." That sword is sheathed in Christ's heart–

"Jehovah bade His sword awake, O Christ, it woke against Thee! Your
blood the flaming blade must slake, Your heart its sheath must be! All
for my sake, my peace to make: Now sleeps that sword for me." Yes,
Christ appeared! He was visibly crucified among men and observed by the
gloating eyes of cruel men of hate. He appeared in that dread day of
judgment and of vengeance. So it was, and only so, that He was able to
put away sin.

We have come thus far and the path has been strewn with wonders, but
only he who knows the meaning of the word, "sin," will see any wonder
in it. If sin has made the earth tremble under your feet. If sin has
scorched you like the blast of a furnace. If sin has burned into your
very soul and killed all your joy, you will hear with delight that God
appeared here as Man for this purpose–to put away sin!

IV. Now, we must go a step farther and consider THE SPECIAL SACRIFICE
which Christ offered. He who appeared, put away sin by a Sacrifice, and
that Sacrifice was Himself–"Once in the end of the world has He
appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself."

There was never any way of putting away sin except by sacrifice. The
Bible never tells us of any other way. Human thought or tradition has
never discovered any other way. Find a people with a religion and you
are sure to find a people with a sacrifice. It is very strange but,
wherever our missionaries go, if they find God at all thought of, they
find sacrifices being offered. It must be so, for man has this Law of
God written upon his very conscience.

Christ must bring a Sacrifice–but observe what it was–He offered
Himself! "He appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself," His
whole Self. Christ did not give to us merely a part of Himself–He gave
Himself. Let me say those sweet words again, "He loved me and gave
Himself for me." His blood? Yes. His hands, His feet, His side? Yes.
His body, His soul? Yes–but you need not say all that–"He gave
Himself." "Who His own Self bore our sins in His own Body on the tree."
Whatever Christ was in Himself, He gave that. He offered Himself as a
Sacrifice for sin. What a wonderful Sacrifice! Ten thousand bulls,
myriads of sheep, enough to cover all the pastures of the earth–what
would their blood avail? But God, God Incarnate, Immanuel, God With Us,
offers HIMSELF! What condescension, what love, what Infinite pity that
He should sacrifice Himself for His enemies, for those who had broken
His holy Law!

Christ offered Himself alone. He put away sin by the Sacrifice of
Himself, not by the sacrifice of His Church, not by the sacrifice of
martyrs, not by the offering of wafers and consecrated wine–but by the
Sacrifice of Himself alone! You must not add anything to Christ's
Sacrifice. Christ does not put away sin through your tears, your grief,
your merit, or your alms giving. No, He put away sin by the Sacrifice
of Himself–nothing else. You must take nothing from Christ's
Sacrifice, and you must add nothing to it.

That Sacrifice, too, if I read the Greek right, was a slain Sacrifice,
a bloody Sacrifice. Christ gave His life. It is written, "Without
shedding of blood is no remission." He shed His blood. "The blood is
the life thereof," is true of Christ's Sacrifice, for without
blood-shedding it would have been of no avail. He poured out His soul
unto death. In instituting that dear memorial feast, which you are bid
to observe in remembrance of Him, He said, "This is My blood of the New
Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." The
putting away of sin was accomplished by Christ dying in the place of
guilty men. Christ says, "I will take the punishment of sin." He takes
it. He bears it on the Cross. Sinful man, hear this! Take that fact to
be true and rest your whole soul on it–and you are saved. Christ died
for Believers. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." If you believe in Christ, that is, if you trust Him;
if you trust Him now, if you trust Him altogether, if you trust only
Him, and say, "There I am resting, believing that Christ died for me,"
you are saved, for Christ has put away your sin! You shall not die. How
can a man die when His sin is put away by Christ's all-sufficient
Sacrifice?–

"If sin is pardoned, I'm secure,

Death has no sting beside.

The law gives sin its damning power,

But Christ, my Ransom, died."

Christ's appearing, then, was that He might, as a High Priest, present
a Sacrifice. He presented Himself to the death on the Cross. He died
and by that dying He has put away sin.

V. That brings me to my closing point, THE GRAND ACHIEVEMENT. Christ
appeared "to put away sin." What can that mean?

It means, first, that Christ has put away sin as to its exclusion of
men from God. Man, by his sin, had made this world so obnoxious to
Jehovah that God could not deal with its inhabitants apart from
Christ's Sacrifice. He is infinitely merciful, but He is also
infinitely just–and the world had become so putrid a thing that He
declared that He regretted that He had made man upon the earth. Now
this whole world of ours would have gone down into eternal ruin had not
Christ come. John the Baptist cried, "Behold the Lamb of God, which
takes away the sin of the world," the whole bulk of it! It was then and
there removed at one stroke, so that God could deal with man, could
send an embassage of peace to this poor guilty world, and could come
upon Gospel terms of Free Grace and pardon to deal with a guilty race.
That was done. You may all thank God for that!

But there is more needed than that. When God comes to deal with men, we
find, next, that Christ has, for every Believer, taken away sin as to
its punishment. I mean what I say. God cannot punish twice for the same
offense! To lay sin upon Christ and then to demand its penalty of those
for whom He stood as Substitute would be to demand compensation twice
and punishment twice for one offense–and this can never be–

"Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine."

That were a gross injustice and the Judge of all the earth must do
right. Behold, then, this fact. If you believe in Christ Jesus, He bore
the punishment of your sin. In that short space upon the tree, the
Infinity of His Nature enabled Him to render to God's justice a
vindication which is better than if all for whom He died had gone to
Hell! Had all been lost, God's justice would not have been vindicated
as well as when His own dear Son–

"Bore, that we might never bear,

His Father's righteous ire."

He has made the Law of God more honorable by His death at its hands
than it could have been if all the race of men had been condemned
eternally. Oh, Soul, if you believe in Jesus, the chastisement of your
peace was upon Him, and with His stripes you are healed! "He was made a
curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a
tree." And was He cursed for me and shall I be cursed, too? That would
not be consistent with Divine equity! The true Believer may

plead the Justice as well as the Mercy of God in the matter of his
absolution. If Christ died, then all who were in Christ died with Him.
And when He rose, they all rose with Him. And when God accepted Him by
raising Him from the dead, He accepted all who were in Him. Glory be to
His holy name!

Further, Christ put away sin as to its condemning power. You have felt
the condemning power of sin. I have supposed you have done so. If so,
listen. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus." You are a sinner, but your sin is not imputed to you,
but to Him who stood as your Sponsor, your Paymaster, your Surety! Your
sins were numbered on the Scapegoat's head of old, even on Christ, the
divinely-ordained Substitute for all His people. As David wrote,
"Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile!" Your sin does not condemn you, for
Christ has been condemned in your place! "Neither do I condemn you,"
says the Lord–"Go in peace."

Yet once more, sin is put away now as to its reigning power, for, if
sin is pardoned through the atoning blood, we come to love Christ and,
loving Christ, away goes every sin! The man for whom Christ died, who
knows it, who knows that Christ put away sin, must love Christ–and
loving Christ, he must hate sin–for to love sin and to love Christ at
the same time would be impossible. If He bore my guilt, then I am not
my own, for I am bought with a price, even with His most precious
blood! He that suffered in my place shall now be my Master. I lie at
His dear feet and bless His name–

"Oh, how sweet to view the flowing Of His sin-atoning blood, With
Divine assurance knowing He has made my peace with God!"

When you get as far as that, then you love Christ and serve Him. I have
told you before of the bricklayer who fell off a scaffold and was taken
up so injured that it was seen that he must soon die. A good clergyman,
bending over him, said, "My dear Man, you had better make your peace
with God." The poor fellow opened his eyes, and said, "Make my peace
with God, Sir? Why, that was done for me more than 1,800 years ago by
Him who took my sin and suffered in my place." Thank God for that! I
hope that many of you could say the same–you would not, then, talk
about making your peace with God, or about doing something to reconcile
you to God. The very thought of adding anything to Christ's finished
work is blasphemy! Believe that He has done all that is required and
rest in it–and be happy all your days.

With this remark I finish. Sin is put away as to its very existence.
Where has sin gone to when a man believes in Christ? Micah says, "You
will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea," where they will
never be fished up again. The devil, himself, may fish to all eternity,
but he will never fish them up again! God has cast the sins of
Believers into the depths of the sea! Where have they gone? "As far as
the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us." How far is the east from the west? Will you go and measure it
on the globe? Fly up to the heavens and see how far you can go east,
and how far you can go west. Is there any boundary to space? So far has
God removed our transgressions from us!

A more wonderful expression is this, "You have cast all my sins behind
Your back." Where is that? Where is God's back? Is there any place
behind His back? He is present everywhere and seen everywhere. It is
nowhere at all, then–and our sins are thrown into the nowhere! He that
believes in Christ may know for sure that his iniquities have gone into
the nowhere! Listen once more–"In those days, and in that time, says
the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall
be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." Thus is
sin annihilated for all who trust the Savior! Listen to Daniel's
description of the work of Messiah, the Prince, "to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins." If He has made an end of
them, there is an end of them! O my Heart, sing hallelujah! Let every
beat of my pulse be a hallelujah unto Him who has put away my sin! Poor
Sinner, if you are black as the devil with sin, crimson to the very
core with iniquity, yet wash in the Fountain filled with the blood of
the Lamb, and you shall be whiter than snow, for the Lord Jesus, by the
Sacrifice of Himself, has forever put away the sin of all who trust
Him!

Dear Hearers, have you laid hold of this great Truth of God? I do not
care to what sect you belong and I do not care what your standing in
life is–and I do not care what your opinion in politics may be. Has
Christ put away your sin? If He has, be as happy as the days are long
in summertime! And be as bright as the garden is colorful in June! Sing
like an-gels–you have more to sing about than angels have–for never
did they taste redeeming Grace and dying love! They were never lost
and, therefore, never found! Never enslaved and, therefore, never
redeemed! God in human flesh has died for you. God loved you so that He
would be nailed to a tree for you! You have sinned, but you are, today,
as if you had

never sinned. "He that is washed is clean every whit." "And you are
washed." Oh, I say again, let your heart beat hallelujah! Let your
pulse seem to say, "Bless, bless, bless, bless, bless the Lord!"

"Oh," says one, in a mournful and sorrowful tone, "I am afraid it is
not so with me." Well, then, do not go to sleep, tonight, until it is!
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is so. "Well, I hope that
it is so," says one. Away with your hoping! What is the good of that?
There are many people that go hoping, hoping, hopping, hopping! Get out
of that hoping and hopping–and walk steadily on this sure ground!
Christ died for all who believe in Him, effectually died, not died
according to that theory which teaches that He died no more for Peter
than He did for Judas, and died for those who are already in Hell as
much as He died for those who will be in Heaven! The universal theory
of the Atonement has precious little comfort in it, albeit that
Christ's death was universal in the removal of the hindrance to God's
dealing on terms of mercy with the world, yet He laid down His life for
His sheep. He loved His Church and gave Himself for it. He has redeemed
us from among men, out of men. He has taken us to be His own by the
purchase of His blood! We are redeemed, washed, saved!

If this is your case, go home and be glad! Let nobody beat you in holy
merriment. There is a passage at the end of the parable of the prodigal
that I like very much–"and they began to be merry." The parable does
not tell us when they left off being merry and, I suppose, they are
still merry! I know that ever since my Father put the ring on my
finger, and shoes on my feet, and gave me the kiss of love, and I knew
that I was forgiven, I have been merry–and I mean to still be merry,
till my merriment is lost in the merriment above–where they keep
perpetual holiday and sing to the praise of the Redeemer, "You were
slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation." To Him be honor, and glory, and
blessing, forever and ever! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON HEBREWS 9:24-28 AND 10:1-18.

Hebrews 9:24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with
hands. Christ has not entered into any earthly temple or tabernacle.

24-26. Which are the figures of the true; but into Heaven itself, now
to appear in the Presence of God for us: nor yet that He should offer
Himself often, as the High Priest enters into the Holy Place every year
with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the
foundation of the world: but now once.–And only once.

26. In the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the
Sacrifice of Himself. The Levitical priests continually repeated their
sacrifice, for it was not effectual when offered only once. But our
great High Priest has, once and for all, presented a Sacrifice which
has made a full atonement for all His people's sins and there is,
therefore, no need for it to be repeated.

27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die. Notice how the Apostle
continues to introduce that important little key word, "once."

27, 28. But after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered.– Only
once.

28. To bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He
appear the second time without sin unto salvation. May we be among the
privileged company that look for Him!

Hebrews 10:1. 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 thereunto
perfect. A man could go to the Levitical sacrifices 20 years running
and yet be no forwarder. He must go again and again as long as he
lived. They were only figures and shadows and types–the real Sacrifice
is Christ.

2. For then.–If they had been effectual.

2. Would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the
worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Once forgiven, the sin would not have come back again. If the sacrifice
had really cleansed the conscience of the offerer, he would not have
had cause to present it again.

3-5. But in these sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins
every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins. Therefore when He comes–He who is the Essence
of it all–"When He comes."

5-7. Into the world, He says, Sacrifice and offering You would not, but
a Body have You prepared Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You have had no pleasure. Said I, Lo, I come, (in the volume of the
Book it is written of Me), to do Your will, God. Types were no longer
needed when the great Antitype had come! Christ was no longer
prefigured, for He was there in Person. He put away the old shadows of
the blood of bulls and goats when He brought His own real Sacrifice,
the true Atonement for sin.

8, 9. Above when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings
and offering for sin You would not, neither had pleasure therein; which
are offered by the Law; then said He, Lo, I come to do Your will, God.
He takes away the first, that He may establish the second. The old Law
of God is gone, the first sacrifice is no longer presented, for the
second is come, the real offering of Christ, the Lamb of God.

10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Once, and only once. How Paul
loves to recall this fact!

11, 12. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but
this Man. Note these glorious words, "This Man."

12,13. After He had offered one Sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at
the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be
made His footstool. He would not have sat down if His work had not been
done! He would not have ceased from His priestly service of presenting
sacrifice if His one Offering had not been sufficient! This Man's
offering once, once, once, has done all that God demanded and all that
man required!

14. For by one Offering He has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. This glorious message is for you, Beloved, if you believe
in Christ. By His one Sacrifice He has done all that you need–He has
perfected you forever!

15-17. 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, says the Lord, I will put My Laws into their hearts,
and in their minds will 1 write them; and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Treasure up these golden words–"Their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more."

18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
The offering for sin is in order that sin may be put away. And if it is
put away, so that God, Himself, will remember it no more, what more is
needed? What more could be desired? Therefore, let us rest in the one
great finished work of Christ and be perfectly happy! Sin is gone,
wrath is over, for those for whom Christ died–they are perfected
forever through His one great Sacrifice.