Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
In verse 5 God directed the writer to refer back to the Old Testament in continuing to make His case for the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Psalm 40 is a Psalm of David. We could assume from reading Psalm 40 that God was directing David to write about things taking place then in relation to his life. However, as is often the case, God uses other passages to help us to understand what is actually taking place. Psalm 40 is more than just God directing David to write about things in his time. God directed David to write the words as prophetic words referring to the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we have noted already, God never intended the Levitical system to be the satisfactory system of God’s provision for man to be forgiven and able to have fellowship with Him. The Levitical system was necessary for the time. It was a temporary system that God used until the time that He would send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross, shedding His blood for lost humanity.
You will notice there is a phrase found in Hebrews 10:5, that is not found in Psalm 40:6. The last phrase: “but a body hast thou prepared me”. God added that phrase in Hebrews to help us to understand the importance of the incarnation. God prepared a body for the Lord Jesus Christ in order for Him to be able to be that final and complete sacrifice that God required. It would not have been possible for the soldiers to nail a Spirit to the cross. It would not have been possible for a Spirit to interact with the people as Jesus did. He needed to come with a body in order to fulfil His Father’s demand as written first in Genesis 3:15.
God set up the Old Testament sacrificial system. He was pleased with those who brought the required sacrifices to Him by faith. However, He was not satisfied with those sacrifices because He knew they did not meet His righteous demand for the salvation of sinners. He was not late in sending Jesus Christ. We have noted many times already that salvation is by faith in God. It has never been by works. Those, who like David, brought their sacrifices before God, needed to trust God to provide the means of forgiveness that He promised them. They did not need to live in fear if they trusted in God.
In verse 7, God points out that there were many prophecies regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have just finished looking at Isaiah 53 in our Sunday morning services. Sadly many Jews reject that passage to this day because they have no place in their proud and sinful hearts for a suffering Saviour. They want a conquering king. They fail to understand that Jesus demonstrated His power on the cross. He demonstrated the fact that the devil is a defeated foe. He has no power to keep people bound in sin. Jesus Christ provided the means for man to be forgiven and saved. Jesus Christ did not come as a renegade. He came to do the will of His Father. He showed us the importance of submitting to the will of the Father. This is still important for born again Christians to learn today. We do not call the shots. We do not go according to popular opinion. We submit to God’s will and honour Him.
That is the nature of a true child of God. We get that nature at salvation.
Verses 8&9 summarize what God has said in verses 5-7. In verse 9 God says, “He taketh away the first.” The Levitical system is no longer needed. It has been done away with by the second testament which is the final testament. There is nothing more to be added. There will never be another Saviour. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of mankind. In Matthew 5:17:
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Jesus did not just sweep the old system away. He fulfilled it and in doing so He replaced it. As we have noted before, all the sacrifices and the vessels of the Temple were a typology of the Lord Jesus Christ. They all pointed forward to His coming. Now that He had come in humility in His incarnation and gone to the cross and shed His blood, the old system was done. That is why as we have noted before, the veil in the Temple was torn from the top to the bottom. God opened the way for sinners to come directly to Him through Jesus Christ – the Great High Priest. God’s promised salvation was now fully revealed. It was still necessary for man to accept His work by faith. The Old Testament saints looked forward to His coming. New Testament saints look back at the fact that He has come. The hope of man is in God. It is never in man. It is never in the systems that man develops. That is why God says:
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
As we have mentioned before we need to pray for our governments. The Bible commands us to do so. We also need to pray for this trucker protest. We cannot put our hope in that as the answer to the problems Canada is facing. Something will have to give to resolve the current situation. Presently the governments are using the police to try to force the situation to a close. We need to pray for the police as well. Their duty should be to uphold the law. They are not doing that now. We also need to pray for the judicial system which is also extremely corrupt. We have an example of how to deal with oppression in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus. The nation of Israel was a large nation. Pharaoh was afraid of them and decided to put them in bondage to control them. Some of the people at least cried out to God for help. God sent them Moses to go stand before Pharaoh and demand the release of His people. Pharaoh was just like our politicians. He did not know the Lord and he had no interest in knowing the Lord. Eventually God removed that Pharaoh and He also removed His people from that land.
The next grand event for the saved is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds. Those who think there will be a great revival coming out of all this current turmoil are sadly mistaken. The Bible does not speak of that. The current actions do not even suggest that. Christians for centuries have looked forward to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as our hope. As we do that, we understand the majority of people around us are lost. That is why Jesus Christ established local churches to be the places for His saints to gather to be strengthened for the work of reaching the lost. It is also the place for lost people to come to hear the Gospel. Most lost people will not come to a true local church on their own. They need to be invited and encouraged to come. That is where the importance of witnessing to the lost comes in. Our governments have tried to interfere with that by causing most people to believe that masks are an essential piece of apparel we need to wear. It is difficult to communicate through a mask. They know that and they love that. Those who are saved need to pray for opportunities to communicate with neighbours and strangers in a meaningful way to help them to see the importance of God’s truth.
For those of us who are saved, let us be much in prayer for open doors and for the salvation of the lost. God alone can bring true freedom. Any government designed freedom is temporary.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Pastor Bartel
