The Ultimate Sacrifice

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Transcript:

Well, we call somebody a renaissance man if they have a lot of skills and they’re well-versed in a lot of subjects and can fill a lot of roles. My grandfather was a renaissance man. You know, at various times, he was a first sergeant in the U.

S. Army. He drove a bread truck after the war.

He sold airplane parts. He was a sheriff’s deputy. managed the service department at a large Ford dealership.

He did everything. He knew about guns. He built arts and crafts.

He rebuilt car engines. He baked some of the most diabetes-inducing pecan pies in history. He knew everything.

He filled all these roles and more. He was, in my mind a renaissance man. And that term, I think, is related to Leonardo da Vinci.

You know, he knew about painting, he knew about architecture, anatomy, engineering, music, aviation, you name it, he knew all about it. And in some of his works, he was at the same time the artist and the subject on the canvas. And when it comes to our salvation under the new covenant, Jesus is a renaissance man.

There’s no part of our salvation that he’s not involved in. And we see throughout the book of Hebrews, as it describes the roles that he plays in the new covenant. And we saw two weeks ago that he’s the high priest who offers the sacrifice for our sins.

This week, we’re going to see that he’s also the sacrifice that was offered. He was both. He’s involved in every aspect of our salvation.

So turn with me, if you would, to Hebrews chapter 9 this morning. We’re going to look at Hebrews 9, 22 through 28, and we’re going to explore the role, his role as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. And it says, starting in verse 22, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission.

It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are 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 entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others.

For then must he have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Okay, verse 22 says, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. It says that blood purged almost all things in the Old Covenant because there were some ceremonial practices that involved cleansing by fire or by water. But when it came to sin, it had to be blood.

When it came to sin, it had to be blood. It says here that unless blood is shed, there is no remission of sins. So what’s the big deal?

What’s so special about blood? Blood represents life. Leviticus 17.

11 says the life of the flesh is in the blood. if you lose your blood, you’ll die, right? Easy concept to grasp.

That’s what this verse is describing, okay? It’s not just spilling a little bit of blood like when the nurse pricks your finger and squeezes out a few drops. That’s not going to do it.

The Greek word here for shedding blood is describing blood spilling or flowing out, okay? When sin is committed, there’s a penalty, And Romans 6. 23 says the wages of sin is death.

You and I sin and someone had to die to pay for it. We could pay with our lives, but we’d still be sinners. We’d still be separated from God.

We’d be like someone who commits a felony and then spends years in prison. He’d pay for his crime, but the law would still call him a felon. And we could pay with our lives for our sins, but we’d still be sinners.

His payment wouldn’t erase his guilt for that particular act, for that felony. Someone has to die for our sins, but our blood would never be enough to erase the guilt and make us right with God. There’s a payment due, but not just any sacrifice will work.

The writer of Hebrews spent a lot of time discussing how not just any sacrifice will work. The blood of bulls and goats could not bring lasting peace with God, so we needed a better sacrifice. And look at verse 23.

It says, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. The verse starts out with, it was therefore necessary. The it was the shedding of blood.

Sacrifices were necessary. But this verse describes the entire sacrificial system of the old covenant as patterns. They were merely temporary reflections of God’s eternal plans.

And the law, the priesthood, the tabernacle, the temple, they were just old covenant reflections of new covenant reality. They were just pictures to point to what was to come. They were there to prepare the way for Jesus.

And even these patterns, these reflections, had to be purified with sacrifice. Sacrifices were needed. And if a sacrifice was needed in this old covenant system, then an even better sacrifice was needed in the new covenant that it reflected.

God always had something better in mind than these temporary measures. And Jesus, folks, Jesus came as that better sacrifice. We can tell from the amount of time that he spent writing about it, how important it was to the writer of Hebrews that people understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s plans.

That’s what this has all been about that we’ve studied up to this point. And as I discussed briefly last Sunday night, there were false teachers in that day who were already trying to convince the earliest Christians that they needed to keep the old covenant before Jesus could save them. According to them, you needed the bulls and the goats.

You needed the priests. You needed the circumcision. You needed the rituals.

You needed all the trappings of the old covenant so that Jesus could save you. But the Bible, including the book of Hebrews, just flatly rejects that view. and it’s pretty clear here just flatly rejects that view because all of those elements of the old covenant were just there to point to jesus who was the better way and who who accomplished what all those other things couldn’t and even today folks even today there are false teachers who are going to tell you that you have to follow their religious system or their list of rules in order for jesus to save you don’t you believe them okay it doesn’t matter whether they bring their message to your doorstep or they come in through your television set.

It’s untrue and it’s an insult to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus made a better sacrifice and he made a lasting sacrifice. Everything about his sacrifice was better than the old covenant sacrifices. Look with me at verse 24.

It says, for Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. He offered something better than the bulls and goats. He offered himself.

But even the way he made his offering was better. Even the way he made peace with God for us was better. He didn’t go into a man-made temple that merely represents the presence of God to make his offering and wait for God to show up.

No, Hebrews says that he went right into the presence of God for us. See, he’s not just an ordinary man. I hope you get that by now.

He’s not just an ordinary man. He’s the Son of God. He’s the second person of the Trinity, sort of ensconced in human flesh.

And so he was able to do what no one else could do. He made his offering. He offered himself, and then he went into the very presence of the Father to intercede for us.

And I talked to you about this intercession two weeks ago when I spoke to you about Jesus being our ultimate priest. Folks, he is right now in the presence of the Father interceding for us. Now that means he’s advocating for us. That means he’s pleading for the Father’s favor for us.

And I think those last two words of verse 24 are very important. For us. Everything Jesus did, he did for us.

Some of you in here may be close to giving up on your faith. You may be close to giving up on your relationship with God. because you’ve tried to follow all the rules.

You’ve tried to do everything you know how to do, and yet it still feels like God is distant. He’s not listening. He’s never listening.

But let me encourage you this morning not to give up because Jesus is for you. He’s for you. He died for you.

He made peace with the Father for you. He can establish that relationship with the Father for you. He’s ready to intercede with the Father for you.

God the Son is for you. And Romans 8. 31 says, If God be for us, who can be against us?

He’s not only your ultimate offering this morning, but he’s your ultimate advocate. He’s your ultimate advocate. If you’ll simply trust him and receive by faith the gift of salvation that he offers to you.

Now look at verse 25. It says, Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others. Here the writer of Hebrews pointed to another way that Jesus’ sacrifice was better.

He only had to offer himself once. His offering was sufficient, and it did the trick for all time. Some of you have heard me talk about my liquid weed eater.

I hate weed eating. I’d rather have dental work done than go edge my driveway or my chain link fence or you know my house and spend all that time trying to fix the line and unwind and rewind because it always fuses together no matter how expensive of line I buy. So my answer my answer then is to just spray everything with Roundup.

My liquid weed eater. It works. It kills everything and so I can just zip around on my riding lawn more and then I’m done.

Probably shouldn’t tell you this. I’ve even started spraying the grass under the kid’s swing set, so I don’t have to pick it up and move it anymore. I love my liquid weed eater, but there’s a problem with it.

Nothing stays edged. I have to spray it every couple of weeks just to keep everything nice and under control, and now I see stuff online that farmers use on their fence ropes, and whatever that stuff is, it kills it all season long. It just stays dead.

It stays clear. You don’t have to spray every couple weeks. Once is enough.

And by the way, if you know what that stuff is and you can hook me up with some later, come see me at the door. It just stays dead all season. Okay, once is enough.

And it’s the same principle that applies to Jesus’ sacrifice. The blood of bulls and goats that the high priest would carry into the temple was okay for a little while, but the sacrifices would have to be redone many times over. Then Jesus came along and offered the sacrifice of his own blood.

and it was all sufficient because it was the blood of the Son of God. And the sacrifice was so good and worked so well that it only needed to be done once. Once.

Some churches are going to tell you that he has to be offered over and over in order to keep us in God’s good graces. I don’t tell you this to attack anybody. I tell you this to point out the difference.

I’ll give you an example that the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in section 1367, I’m going to read this quote to you, in the mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner. And so what that’s saying is by that teaching, Jesus then is being offered daily as a sacrifice. But verse 26 says that idea doesn’t work.

And frankly, I don’t care. I want to make this clear. I don’t care if it’s a Catholic or a Southern Baptist. I don’t care if it’s somebody in this pulpit telling you that there’s something else that needs to be done for you beyond that once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that’s not true and that doesn’t work.

If I ever start telling you that, get rid of me, because the Bible says he only needed to be offered once. Verse 26 says, for then must he have often been suffered, must he have often suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. As we tie that back to verse 25, which says he didn’t need to make multiple offerings, this means that even if a second offering was needed, if once wasn’t enough and you needed even a second offering, then you would actually need an infinite number of offerings.

If one offering hadn’t been enough to cover all those who believed, both before Jesus’ time and after his time, then Jesus would have needed to start suffering for our sins from the earliest days of humanity just to cover everybody. See, there’s no in-between. It’s either once or infinite number of offerings.

There’s no two, there’s no three. It’s one or the other. It’s once for all or an infinite number of sufferings needed.

But the writer of Hebrews thought that this was a ridiculous idea, and he insisted that Jesus only needed to offer himself once. That’s the point that he’s trying to make in this text. And this verse covers all of human history.

Okay, all the people who’ve ever lived and every sin that has ever been committed from the foundation of the world to the end of the world. You can see the bookends of history in that sentence, in that verse. The foundation of the world to the end of the world.

Jesus’ one sacrifice on the cross was enough to cover all of it. He covered all of your sin and all of my sin in that one offering. He sacrificed himself, and through that sacrifice he put away all of our sins.

A few weeks ago, too, in this series, I talked to you about the scapegoat in the old covenant sacrificial system. The high priest would take two goats into the temple or to the tabernacle, and he would offer them for the sins of the people. One of these he would sacrifice, and he would sprinkle its blood on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies as sort of a symbolic covering for the people’s sin to shield them from the wrath of God.

The other goat would be the scapegoat. The priest would lay his hands over the goat and he would confess the sins of the people and by doing this he would symbolically ceremonially place the sins of the people, the guilt of the sins of the people on that scapegoat which was then released out into the wilderness so that it would carry the guilt of their sins far far away from them. And by doing this, by offering himself for us, Jesus took on the guilt for our sin, and he was punished for it, and so we’re cleansed by his blood just like with the first goat, but he’s also taken away our guilt like the scapegoat.

That’s what the Bible means when it says that he has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Folks, our sin and our guilt are gone because of what Jesus did. And then verse 27 tells us, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

I want to be very clear, the Bible doesn’t recognize any kind the reincarnation. It says we all do this once. We die once, and then we’re judged.

And I hear some Christians talk about karma. Maybe I’ve even used the phrase before, so I’m not trying to jump all over anybody. I just want to see if we can correct our language a little bit.

I hear Christians talk about karma. They’ll see somebody do something mean, and they’ll say something like, watch out, karma will get you. You hear that phrase?

Karma’s going to get you. You must not spend enough time on Facebook. But I hear people use this phrase, or I read where they say it.

And that word, I think, I think the problem is that word doesn’t mean what people think it means. Okay, I think, well, first of all, folks, first of all, karma is the idea that your account of deeds, whether they’re good or bad, it sort of follows you through these cycles of death and rebirth, incarnation. That your good follows you through these cycles until you do enough good to overcome the bad, and then you can be absorbed into God.

It’s an Eastern philosophy. Christianity doesn’t teach karma. Here’s what I think people mean.

Not a good day for grammar, is it? Here’s what I think people mean. That you reap what you sow.

That’s biblical. Galatians 6-7 says, be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. That’s biblical. God’s word though doesn’t teach that we have dozens and dozens of lives to make this work and work off our sins.

We have one life and because we use that life to sow sin, we die once and we reap the consequences of sin according to God’s judgment. It’s not karma, it’s judgment that we should be worried about. Ultimately, we’ll all die and we’ll face God’s judgment.

That judgment is what should concern us. I mean, after all, Hebrews 10. 31 says it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

And I can’t imagine anything more frightening than having to stand before an absolutely holy God and answer for every sin I’ve ever committed. I have plenty. And I have no basis for asking him to forgive my sins or to save me if I come bearing this multitude of sins on my own.

Fortunately, you and I have a choice here. After this one death and the judgment, we can either come bearing our own sins to the final judgment, or Jesus can take them, and he can bear them, and he can pay for them, and he can clothe us in his righteousness. It seems like a much better idea to me.

That’s what verse 28 is talking about. Verse 27 pointed out, we don’t get more than one shot. We die once, and then we stand before God.

And then verse 28 says, so Christ, just as we die once, 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. And we need to take these two verses together, verse 27 and verse 28.

And when we do, they’re telling us that because of our sin, we’re destined to die once and face God’s judgment. But Jesus Christ died once to bear the sins of many so that we could stand righteous and redeemed in him on the day of judgment. His death one time was enough, not just for a few people, but for many, it says.

Now, why does it say many and not all? I believe the Bible does teach that he died for all. He died for everyone.

Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, forgiveness is available to all people. It’s available to all people, but not everybody’s going to be saved. In Matthew 7, 14, Jesus said, straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Jesus died to extend the offer of forgiveness to everyone, but we don’t have that salvation. We don’t have that forgiveness unless we receive it by faith. That means acknowledging that we’re sinners who need salvation.

That means believing that we can only get that salvation from Jesus because of what he did on the cross for us, and by asking him to forgive us and save us as only he can. And one day, it says here in verse 28, that he’ll appear the second time without sin unto salvation to those who trust in him for salvation because of what he did on the cross. One day, we’ll see him in all of his sinless glory and we’ll join him because he’s gone to prepare a place for us.

He told us, he told us in John 14, 3, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Now the point this morning is that Jesus has made salvation available to all of us because he is the ultimate sacrifice. He was the only offering that was acceptable to God.

He was the only offering that could give us lasting peace with the Father. He was the only offering that could cover all of our sins. He was the only offering that could cover man for all time.

The book of Hebrews emphasizes that he’s better than the blood of a bull or a goat ever could be because when he offered himself, he accomplished in that one act what all these other sacrifices never could. He brought us lasting peace with God. Now sometimes people wonder how it’s possible that he could pay for our sins.

How it’s possible that this would even work to give us peace with God. Most religions and philosophies not only don’t believe that Jesus was able to accomplish that, but they believe that one person paying for another person’s sins is impossible from the start. Most religions believe that.

And maybe someone in here this morning is thinking that way. You could be thinking that it doesn’t make sense that somebody else could pay for your sins. That’s not normally the way things work, right?

You could be thinking that surely God wants you to contribute something to the process. A lot of people think, well, surely I’ve got to do something. It can’t really be free.

They’re your sins. So why should somebody else pay while you walk away free? You might even be thinking this morning that you’ve got so much sin that there’s no way Jesus’ one sacrifice could ever bring you forgiveness or peace with God.

As I’ve said already, these are fairly common views. Studying the religions of the world recently and their view of Jesus, I’ve come to realize that most of the religious systems in the world have some respect for Jesus as a teacher, but they ridicule the idea of somebody being able to pay for somebody else’s sins. And one example that I’ve run across was the Hindu writer and teacher, David Frawley, who said there’s no salvation or liberation by proxy.

Neither Jesus nor any other religious figure or any other figure can save you or realize the truth for you. And that’s the belief of most religions. And once again, not trying to attack anybody here, just saying this is what they believe, this is what we believe.

Most religions will tell you, somebody else can’t do this for you. And this issue illustrates really, I think, the greatest gap between Christianity and all other belief systems. Either Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin or he isn’t. He either is or he isn’t.

On this issue, we could make a huge chart behind us. If I had a big piece of paper. We could make a huge chart behind us with two columns.

And in the first column, we could list all of the religions that say that there’s still work for you to do to get where you need to be. And it would be a long list. it would be a really long list Islam says your good deeds have to outweigh your bad deeds and even then you still just have to hope that Allah tips the scales in your favor because he’s merciful Judaism says you have to follow the Old Testament law in order to be saved Hinduism says you have to live the right kind of life to store up good karma against your bad karma to bring the cycle of reincarnation to an end Buddhism says you have to discipline yourself and let go of your inner desires and achieve enlightenment. Mormonism says that Jesus died to pay for Adam’s sin and that you have to deal with your own sins.

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus died to show how you could be obedient enough to be welcomed into the kingdom. The New Age Movement says that everyone’s on an individual path and it’s up to you to find your own way. There’s a lot of entries under the heading of these religions that say you’ve got to do something.

All the world’s faiths say it’s up to you to save yourself except one. In the second column, in the second column, Christianity stands alone under the heading, Jesus paid it all. And I’ve heard it explained this way, that all the other religions of the world say do, and Christianity says done.

That he did it all. It’s all done. And just as these other faiths think it’s ridiculous to believe that someone else could take care of your sins for you, the Bible sees it as ridiculous to think that you could take care of your sins on your own.

we’re both looking at the other side saying that doesn’t work it’s an area where we’re just never going to agree we can still love people but we’re never going to agree on this uh unless somebody changes their minds there’s there’s no in between and so for me it comes down to one very simple question who do you trust more I don’t mean who do you trust more me or the the the the hindu priest or the jewish rabbi I don’t I don’t mean what I’m telling you versus what they’re telling you I mean who do you trust more to deal with your sins? I mean, we’re talking about whether you, we’re talking about where you end up in eternity, whether it’s heaven or hell. We’re talking about whether you end up having peace with God or remaining alienated from him.

We’re talking about finding the narrow road that leads to eternal life or the broad path that Jesus described that leads to destruction. These are crucial issues. And if the Bible is correct, as I believe it is, when it says, as we’ve looked at today, it’s appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the judgment.

If that’s correct, then we only have one shot to get it right. We only have one chance to get it right. So again, I put the question to you, who do you trust more, yourself or Jesus?

Not a matter of which religion do you trust more, it’s a matter of who do you trust more to deal with your sins, yourself or Jesus? Who’s better equipped to deal with your sins and bring you peace with God? You know Jesus.

Folks, I’ll submit to you that if you doubt the ability of the Son of God to make a once-for-all offering that would pay for your sin, you could hardly do better yourself. I can’t imagine being able to do anything better than Jesus could. First of all, because he is the sinless Son of God.

And I look at what’s inside me, and folks, I am a wretched sinner. There’s no way. If he couldn’t bring peace with God for me, there’s no way I could do better.

So if we believe that he couldn’t we could hardly do a better job. But the Bible teaches that he did make that once for all offering to pay for your sin. He had no sin of his own.

So the suffering that he endured on the cross was all for you. He was nailed to the cross where he shed his blood and he died to pay for your sins in full. And mine.

I don’t mean to leave me out of this equation. But he died to pay for us. He only needed to offer himself as the perfect blood sacrifice one time.

And he covered all of our sin. He covered it all past, present, and future, all of it. And he rose from the dead three days later to prove that his claims were true and that his sacrifice was sufficient.

And he ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven where he intercedes for you, for us, until the day that he welcomes us into his presence in that place that he’s going to prepare for us. And so if you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your one and only Savior. I’ll ask you today again, who do you trust more to deal with your sins and to bring you peace with God?

Do you trust yourself more or do you trust Jesus more? If the question is whether you do it or he did it, who do you trust more? He made the perfect offering, the ultimate sacrifice for your sins, and he’s ready to forgive your sin.

He’s ready to give you peace with God and bring you into God’s family and give you eternal life. If you’ll stop trusting in your own efforts and your own abilities and instead trust in him as your savior this morning, if you believe that he’s the only one who can save you from your sins, and if you believe in your heart that he died on the cross and he died on the cross for your sins and God raised him from the dead, you can be saved. So if you look at this equation and you say, you know what, I trust him more than me, then I’d invite you today to talk to God.

Talk to God this morning. Admit that you’ve sinned and need a Savior. Tell God you believe that only Jesus Christ could pay for your sins.

And ask Him to forgive you and save you in Jesus’ name.