Transcript

Good morning, church. Good to see all of you here. This morning we're continuing our series through the Book of Hebrews. The series we've entitled Jesus is Greater and Jesus is greater. He's greater than anything you're facing today.

He's greater than any problem, any challenge, any news that you've heard only recently. Jesus is greater. And that's the theme of our Book of Hebrews is that Jesus is greater. It says in Hebrews Chapter one, verse four. We don't have to get in into the book very far before we see this theme.

This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names. And that's what the book's about. Some have called the Book of Hebrews the Book of Betters. And it is. It's a book filled with all the reasons that Jesus is better.

Jesus is greater than the Old Covenant because it's replaced by the New Covenant. It's fulfilled by the New Covenant. And so we're working that out today. The Book of Hebrews, I believe, was really written to a Hebrew audience, to a Jewish audience that was coming to Christ. And they needed help understanding how the Old Testament and the New Testament fit together.

And that's helpful to us today, I think, as well as we look at the two Testaments, I think the best way to read the Old Testament is through the lens of the New Testament. So we're working that out today. Now, today we're in the latter part of chapter nine, verses 15 through 28, and we've entitled this message A Greater Sacrifice, that Jesus offers a greater, superior sacrifice over the old. Now, perhaps when you hear that word sacrifice, it brings many images to your mind. You might be thinking of your mom or dad and how they sacrificed when you were growing up in order to provide a home, care for you.

You might be thinking of those kind of stories, or you might be thinking of someone who donated a kidney. You might even be a recipient of such a one. They've made that sacrifice. Perhaps you're thinking of a firefighter who rushes into a burning building to rescue a child, or a soldier who jumps on a grenade in order to save his brother in arms. There are many images that come to mind when we think of the word sacrifice.

But what's a greater sacrifice? Well, that's what this is about. Now we're in chapter nine, and we studied last week in the earlier part of chapter nine that Jesus serves in a greater tabernacle. And now in the latter part of chapter nine, we will see how Jesus offers a greater sacrifice. So here we are, we're looking at this passage and I'm thinking of people like, well, I was just reading about this fellow earlier this week.

His name was Charles Thomas Stud. That's a pretty cool name, huh? And they called him CT for short. CT Stud. He lived in the late 1800s, graduated to heaven in 1931.

He was a British missionary who served in China. He served in India, he served in Africa, spent his whole adult life as a missionary. He was the founder of the Worldwide Evangelist Evangelization Crusade. And he was a well known fellow. He was from a very prominent British family, very wealthy and was a famous athlete.

He was one who played on the cricket team in Britain. And so everyone knew this guy's name. But in college as he was graduating, he made the decision to give his life to Jesus and spend his whole adult life as a missionary. Here's a well known quote from CT Stud. He says, if Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.

That's what he thought of Christ sacrifice as he responded to Christ's great sacrifice. How do you respond when you think of what Christ did on the cross? What's your response? Many people are troubled by all the blood and the crucifixion in the image. I remember some years ago I was talking to a young woman about the Lord and she said to me, she said, I just don't get all this talk about the blood and the cross and the sacrifice I'm looking for.

She said, a more positive spirituality. Maybe that's you today. You're troubled by all those images. When you think about the blood of Jesus being shed for you, you might be like this young woman who said, I didn't ask Jesus to do that for me. I'm troubled by all this.

And so you're troubled in your mind. But if you're not part of that group, perhaps you're part of another group who says, it troubles me, but it breaks my heart. There's really kind of two ways people respond. They're either going, I'm put off by it, or I'm broken by it. And I want to know him.

I want to know why he would do this for me. And you then would be among those who understand what Jesus said when he said this. Greater love hath no man than this. That a man lay down his life for his friends. Because that's what Jesus did.

He offered the greatest sacrifice of all. He offered himself in this book of Hebrews chapter nine. The author here is talking to these Hebrew background believers, these Jewish believers, and they're trying to work this out. Like, are you saying we don't have to offer sacrifices anymore? Like, we've always been part of this.

This is how we grew up. What do we do with the old covenant? And he says to them, you don't have to anymore because Jesus has offered a superior sacrifice that fulfills all of those sacrifices from the Old Testament. Can you imagine how that was a challenge to them? And now today, I believe that we too, can understand what he was teaching them.

We can understand how Jesus offers a greater sacrifice. Let's look at the text. Today we'll be looking for three reasons why Jesus offers a greater sacrifice. We're in verse 15 of chapter nine and following. Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law has been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own.

For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. This is God's Word. Amen.

We're looking for three reasons why the sacrifice of Christ is greater. Here's the first. Because it offers. Because it promises an eternal inheritance. It promises an eternal inheritance.

First, I want to take note of where we get our title for today's message. Look at verse 23. Did you see the better there? Did you see that Hebrews is the book of betters? We see here better sacrifices.

You see it there. And thus we get our title, for he offers a greater sacrifice. I try to point these things out to us as we study together to show that you too can study God's word and get to the bottom of these things. You can become a student of God's Word so that I try to go behind the curtain, as it were, and explain to you how we get where we are. The next thing I would have you look at is the very first verse that we read today, verse 15, to see where we get our first reason.

Would you look at your text here and circle in your text where it says promised eternal inheritance. Did you see that in verse 15? That's the first reason given by the author here, that the sacrifice of Jesus is greater because his sacrifice offers a better inheritance. Now, what was the inheritance that those who were believers in the first covenant, what was their inheritance? The promised land.

It was the promised land. The inheritance of the first covenant was the promised land. But that first covenant was a conditional covenant, whereas the second and the new covenant of the New Testament is an unconditional covenant. It was conditional. The Old Testament was conditional on their obedience.

So if they would obey the covenant, they would receive the inheritance of the promised land. The problem was, and we learned this last week and over the previous weeks, the problem was not a problem with the law. The law was perfect, but it was unable to cause them to obey it. So the problem was with the flesh. The law was perfect, but they couldn't obey it.

What the people need, what believers need, is someone to come and live inside of them, to change their hearts so that the law would be written on their hearts. That's where we've been talking. And so we see here that this mediator, which is Jesus, a mediator, verse 15, is a go between one who went between God and man to build a bridge between us and God because we needed that kind of help. And so this, this sacrifice he offers is greater because it gives a eternal inheritance, not conditioned upon us, but on the perfection of his sacrifice. Do you see this?

This shows why it's superior. I just want to keep working this out verse by verse with you for a moment. Promised eternal inheritance. We've gotten that far. Notice the word therefore.

I don't want to skip over that because we should always ask when we see the word therefore, what? What question should we ask? What's it there for? That's right. And therefore is like an equal sign in the text.

It always points to some principle that was offered previous that now has resulted in this next revelation. And so earlier he had talked about how Jesus had offered redemption through his blood. In chapter nine, he'd been talking about that. Now he's building on the case and he's saying, therefore he's the mediator of a new covenant. A new covenant.

Because the other priests, they didn't offer their own blood. They offered the blood of goats and of calves. But he came and offered his righteous blood. And therefore he's the mediator of a new covenant. When we use the word covenant, we could also say testament, right?

So we have the New Testament and the Old Testament, the New Covenant and the Old covenant. So as we were looking here, we'll see the word covenant in our reading today four times. We also see the word will in here twice. And by the way, in the original, it's the same word. So really, the word covenant or will is in here six times.

So every time you see covenant or will in our reading today, it's the same word in the original Greek. And by the way, covenant could also mean testament or last will in testament. Like that. That's what this author begins to work out with us here. He uses a legal illustration to show us why someone had to die.

He does this by saying, hey, you already knew this, right? That if someone writes a covenant with you, a last will and testament, it doesn't become enforce until the person dies. And so, you know, I have a last will and testament, and I have three children and 10 grandchildren. But they gotta wait for me to die before they get my stuff. I get to still live in my house, drive my car, you know, play my guitar and occasionally jump on my motorcycle because they're still mine.

But when I die, you know, hopefully my kids, you know, aren't waiting for that, right? I know they aren't. They tell me they love me. But when I die, then my last will and testament comes into force. It's now activated.

You all know this, right? That's what he's teaching here. And so we keep reading. He Goes. He goes.

Sense of death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions. We're in verse 15 still. And a transgression is when a law has been transgressed or broken. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. You got to establish the person actually died.

For a will takes effect only at death. That's what we were talking about, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Okay, we've covered that. Therefore, not even the first covenant. Now, what's the first covenant?

That's the old covenant. So now we're talking about the old covenant. Therefore, even the first covenant was inaugurated. It couldn't have been done without blood. Well, what kind of blood?

Since we know that the new covenant was inaugurated by the blood of Jesus, how was the old covenant inaugurated? He's going to tell us. For when every commandment of the law has been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats. Oh, did you know the Hebrew word for covenant is a different word? It's the Hebrew word barit, and it literally means to cut.

Means to cut. In fact, we still. That terminology has passed into modern English. And so when we make a deal, sometimes we might say, we're going to cut a deal with somebody. We're going to cut a deal.

And so that idea that blood has to be shed, there must be a cut needs to take place to make the covenant. Good. And so we see this captured in how the Old Testament was carried out. And so Moses took the blood of calves and goats, he mixed it with water. Okay, I'm in verse 19.

Y'all still with me? Two of you are out there. That's good. Okay, rest of you, catch up. So he mixed it with water so it wouldn't coagulate.

I'm getting really literal here, but I've been talking to you about how we're going to unpack. The word blood is in here like seven times in the text today. And so he mixes it with water, and then he goes on, it says, and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled. Okay, so let's just pause there for a second on what's going on here. Look at Leviticus, chapter 14.

I think I put this in your notes. Verse 6. This is the word to Moses on how to do this. He shall take the live bird with the cedar wood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop and dip them, and the live bird and the blood of the bird that was killed over the freshwater. So this is.

This is the. This is how to do the rite of purification so that. So that things are set apart as being pure and holy. And so he would take a stick of cedar wood as his handle. Just trying to help you visualize this.

He would take hyssop, which was a plant that's still native to the Middle East. It has a flowering head that, when it dries, is very absorbative of a liquid, right? Because they couldn't just buy a sponge or something like that. They couldn't just go to Lowe's and get a paintbrush. They had to make it.

So stick of cedar, head of hyssop, and then a scarlet woolen thread that they would tie around it to attach it. Now, if I were talking to a Hebrew audience, a Jewish background audience, I wouldn't have to explain any of this because they would already know this. But we don't know this. We didn't grow up with tabernacle worship, right? And so here's Moses, right now.

He's sprinkling all the holy things with the blood mixed with water. And where did the blood come from? It came from sacrificial goats and lambs and cows. And this is where he's Right, okay? And so this is where the blood is coming from.

And it goes on, it talks about what he sprinkled. First of all, he sprinkled the book itself. So the Old Testament covenant had to be sprinkled, which was the ten Commandments, on two tablets, right? And so then he keeps going. He says he sprinkled the book itself, and then he sprinkled all the people.

And so the people lined up. And Moses, he speaks over them, and he says, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And they come under the blood, okay? He's got his stick of cedarwood with hyssop at the top, and it's been dipped in this mixture of blood and water. You with me?

All the people. All the people, it said, came under the blood. And in the Same way, verse 21, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent. What did we learn last week? The tent is the tabernacle.

So he's. He's sprinkling everything in the tabernacle with the blood. And then. And then he goes on, it says, and all the vessels. So all the vessels and all the tables and all the furnishings.

That's a lot of blood.

And that. That's what he's doing. And that was for the purification. Now that I'm sure the first Jews that saw this were like, where did you get these ideas? We got it when he went up on Mount Sinai and he saw the heavenly tabernacle and he saw the picture of it.

And God told him to do this. And he told him that the wages of sin is death and that life is in the blood. And this is a picture of coming under the blood. And all of this, we've been talking about this. None of this would have mattered if one didn't come later to fulfill it.

Like one who makes a deposit. So the check is good. These are all checks written on a future deposit. Jesus makes the deposit. He's the one who comes.

And so they all are coming under the blood. And you can see how this is working now. I started thinking because whenever I'm reading anything in the Old Testament, I always try to read it through the lens of Jesus and through the lens of the New Testament. So I'm looking for Jesus on every page. And so if I look at Leviticus and I say, okay, cedarwood, scarlet, woolen thread, hyssop, I start looking at the cross.

I start going, well, what's the cross? It's made out of wood. What was the staff that they lifted up? Maybe it was cedarwood. What was on the end of the staff that they dipped it in sour wine and lifted up to Jesus mouth?

It was hyssop tied off on the wood that they. They lifted up to him. What kind of robe did they put around him when they brought him out and said, oh, look, King of the Jews, they put a scarlet robe around him. All this imagery, why is it here? Why is it in the Old Testament?

It's so that the Jewish background believers, when they saw Jesus, they would recognize him. They would recognize him. And some did, but most didn't. But he gave them the Old Testament to prepare them for the Messiah. King Jesus.

In Christ we have an eternal inheritance. It says in First Peter, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven. For you, it's an eternal inheritance. It's better than the promised land that was given conditionally.

No, this is a promise of heaven which is unconditionally kept by the sacrifice of Christ. Notice what it says in Romans, chapter 8. The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then Heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Believer, I want you to hear this.

You are a joint heir with Christ. Whatever Christ has inherited because of his obedience, the obedience that we couldn't do. He was obedient to the whole law. He was obedient and he was righteous. And he took my death so that I could have his life.

And so his payment now is accounted unto me. He's. And if you're a believer today, not only am I forgiven, but I've received an eternal inheritance. I am joint heirs, co heirs with Jesus. Whatever belongs to Jesus now belongs to me.

Do you get that? His sacrifice has been greater because it produces a greater inheritance. My father died when I was 8 years old. I know I bring this up a lot. It's one of the most profound events that shaped who I am today.

When he passed away, he left a last will and testament. It wasn't a lot, but what he had, he set apart. And he wanted us. He wanted his children. I'm the oldest of four.

He wanted us to go to college. That was one of the things that he always talked to me about when I was a little boy. I want you to. I want you to be educated, right? And so he set aside some money.

Now, he'd been working for Sears and Roebuck, I think I've told you that before. And he was part of what they called a profit sharing plan where he could buy stock and the company would help. And so he put pretty much everything he had was in Sears stock. And I didn't know much about this when he passed, but as I became a teenager, my uncle, which was his twin brother, he was the president, as I've told you before, of the bank of Damascus. He was the executor of the estate.

And so he'd invite me up from time to time to tell me how the education fund was doing that my father had left in his last will and testament. It was doing great. It was really doing great. So, you know, it looks like there's enough money here, it's accruing to where all of you can go to college without worrying about it. And I was like, well, praise the Lord, Uncle Clyde, that's great.

And then as the mid-70s came to pass and it was time for me to go to college, the will had said the first child, that was me gets to use up to all of it in order to go to school. But hopefully there's enough for the rest. But after I would finish school, I couldn't touch any of it. It would go to the next in the birth order. That was the way the will was written.

So the year before I went to college, we looked into it. Man, Sear stock was doing great. And I'm like, well, I'm gonna have to sell a little bit of that Sears stock, and then I'll go to college my first year for free. And I did that first year. I didn't get a student loan or anything.

I went my freshman year. Didn't cost me a dime. But then along about that time, this is the mid-70s, the Shah of Iran was overthrown. The American embassy was captured, and its residents there, the ambassadors, people there in the American embassy, were held hostage for almost three years. At the same time, all the gas stations in America had to go out and tape a number one on the front of their sale sign because they had never charged anything over two digits.

In fact, when I first bought my car at 16, I still remember pulling up my 72 Dodge Charger and paying 27 cents a gallon. All of a sudden, I had to sell my Dodge Charger. I went and checked with my uncle, and he said, gary, Sears stock has plummeted. It's. It's.

I don't know if there's going to be enough for you to get through school now. Because inflation went through the ceiling, the economy was in trouble. People were parked. They were parking their cars in the road, trying to get in line to the gas station. It was a tough season, the mid-70s.

Tough season. You see, here's what I found out about that Earthly wills and testament. They can claim a good thing, but they're invested in worldly options. But in heaven, in heaven, our inheritance is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. Kept in heaven for you, we have an eternal inheritance that's been paid for by a greater sacrifice.

Are y'all still with me? You understand what we're talking about here? Jesus has paid it all. He has taken care of it. We are joint heirs with him.

So what I did, my uncle says, well, maybe if we slow down here a little bit on how we're cashing it out. And so I got student loans because I was feeling bad that I don't want to be the big brother that took all the money. And, you know, then my siblings would be like, well, you know, you got to go to college. And so I took out student loans, and the stock recovered enough to get the rest of them through college. Praise the Lord.

Isn't that wonderful that my father had that plan? But all of us ended up taking a Few student loans in order to help the next sibling get part of that money. That's what we did. And that's how you often have to do it in this world. But you don't have to do it when it comes to Jesus.

They say you can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. And when you send it on ahead and you trust in Jesus, it's kept for you forever. Now, here's the second reason. Here's the second. The first is it gives you a promise of an eternal inheritance.

The second is it provides a complete forgiveness of sin. It provides a complete forgiveness of sin. We're down to verse 22 now. Look what it says in verse 22. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood.

And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. This is a quotation, kind of a paraphrase of the book of Leviticus, chapter 17, where we read, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. And so we see the author of Hebrews.

He's well versed in the Old Testament. He's given us a paraphrase here, and it's an important paraphrase, because unless someone dies, there's no remission of sin. There's no dealing with it. And so we see that the Old Testament was preparing us for what Jesus would do for us. And so it goes on.

Let's keep working it out verse by verse. Verse 23 says, Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites. Now, what are the copies of the heavenly things? The original tabernacle is in heaven. The real the copy was the tabernacle in the wilderness that Moses built based on what he saw when he was up there for 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai.

He came down and obeyed what God told him to build. And so that's what we're talking about in verse 23. Thus, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites. What, this blood mixed with water purification, that was the right. But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

So calves blood and lamb's blood won't be enough to prepare this place and the heavenly tabernacle for me to get in there. Someone needs to bring a better sacrifice. Someone needs to bring an ultimate sacrifice in order for this sinner to come into glory. And so that's what he said. And so verse 24 begins to explain this.

For Christ has entered. He has gone in there. Now, I couldn't go in there if he didn't go in first. But he went in first, and he went in not into holy places made with hands. Now, that one up there wasn't made by human hands.

This one down here made by human hands, that one up there, that one was made by the Lord, and he enters into it in this place not made with human hands. And so for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, the ones down here are copies of the true, but into heaven itself. Now, to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, on my behalf, on your behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly. He didn't have to keep going in once a year.

It's what it says here. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly. As the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own. Every year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest is to enter in, and he goes in with. He don't go in carrying his own blood.

He goes in carrying the blood of the Lamb, because he got to pay for his own sins, because he's a sinner too, and as a representative of the people. And that's what the Jewish rites were. But Jesus doesn't have to do it that way because it says this. Nor was he to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own. For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all. He only had to do it once because he brought a superior sacrifice. He brought his very own blood, offered his very own life. And he was righteous. He was obedient.

He kept the law that we couldn't keep and took the death so we wouldn't have to took the separation from the Father so that we would no longer be separated, took our death, took and gave us his righteousness, his eternal life, and his sonship with the Father. This is what he did, for then he would. He would not have. So he does this once for all. And then it says, at the end of the ages, which is a strange place to put this, because when did this happen?

2,000 years ago.

Now, wait a minute. I've been hearing preachers say we living in the last days. Ever since I was a Little kid hearing preachers saying, I think we're living in the last days.

You know what? According to what I'm reading in Hebrews right here, we've been living in the last days ever since Jesus first appeared. Are you getting what I'm getting right here? The last 2000 years have been the last days. We're in the last episode.

It's a long one. You know, the Bible says that a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day to the Lord because he stands outside of time. But. But since Jesus came, he's done all that was necessary for us to come into the Father's presence and to be part of his family. And so over the last 2000 years, by his mercy and his kindness, he's been leaving the door open.

But there's coming a day when the last days will end. Okay, that's not the sermon today, but I just wanted to touch on that. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages, because the last days were inaugurated whenever the church was founded by Jesus Christ. Okay, and then it says, why did he do that that first time? What did he come to do?

To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now we finally got to it. We finally got to what I wanted to say about this. Why is this sacrifice so much superior? Because it completely forgives sin.

It puts it away. It annuls sin. It cancels it. It puts it completely away. Well, let's see if we can get our minds around this.

It says in Colossians chapter two, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. What does this mean? He has put away sin.

We just read, and Colossus says he has taken it away, Canceling the record, nailing it to the cross. Let me ask you a question. I don't know if you're up to these kinds of things in politics. Have you heard of the North Carolina statute SB562? You heard of this?

Well, I understand why you may not have. It was only passed in 2020. SB562, also known as the Second Chance act, others call it the Clean Slate Bill. It provides an opportunity to individuals, especially young people, that often happens to who have a criminal record, not due to a violent crime, but due to a Non violent crime and they begin to try to enter the workplace or to get an education, or they're trying to rent an apartment and someone does a criminal background check on them, and then they can't get the apartment, then they can't get the job. And so this law was passed for that, especially for that young person who was accused and convicted of a nonviolent crime, where they can go before a judge and after a certain period of time has happened and they haven't gotten any more trouble, they can go before a judge and ask him to enact SB562 on their behalf, which would expunge.

That's a legal term for you, right? Their record. Now, this Greek word for put away, this Greek word for taken away, it's the same word in Colossians and in Hebrews. It has the idea of to expunge, to annul, to remove, so that there's no record of it having ever existed. So then that young person, if the judge so, so decides that record is completely cleared, so that if a criminal background check were done, there'd be no way to find it because it's gone.

It's not like somebody stamp paid in full or forgiveness over it and like it's still underneath there. If you could pull off the stamp. No, it's gone. So this forgiveness is more than just forgiveness. It's a cancellation, it's a put away.

I don't know if you're getting this. Do you know the word justification? It's that we've been justified so that he has taken our penalty of sin. The word justification is a big old theological word. But let me help you.

Maybe you've heard this before. Here's what it means. Just as if I never sinned. Justification. Just as if I never sinned.

He put it away so that my record is clear. He nailed it to the cross and all of my sins. He took the payment on himself so that when God's wrath was poured out upon Jesus, he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because he who knew no sin became sin, that I might become his righteousness. He canceled it.

He put it away. This is why a sacrifice is greater, because the forgiveness it provides is greater. It's complete. And then here's the third reason why sacrifice is greater. We're in the final couple of verses here now, aren't we?

It produces an eager expectation of his return. This sacrifice he's made, it makes me want to see him. That one would die for me, makes me want to Meet Him. I want to know Him. I want to see Him.

I'm not afraid of death. I'm not afraid of his return. I eagerly expect it. Do you? Oh, I want to see the One who died for me.

I want to know him better than I know him now. I know him now in my spirit. I know him through his word. I know him in the way he speaks to me, in my head and in my heart. But I want to see Him.

And this is what his sacrifice has produced in me. Oh, he died for me. I want to know Him. I want to see Him. And so we see our author here in verse 28, his final words.

He says to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. This is the third. Reason that his sacrifice is greater is because it makes us want to see Him. It makes us look forward to seeing Him. Not everybody does.

Well, not everybody does because of verse 27. Let's get there first, and then we'll get to verse 28. Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the Judgment. Do you keep a calendar? Got a Google Calendar?

Use Google. Use your MacBook Pro. You got an Apple calendar? I'm looking at some of you graybeards. You might have a calendar hanging on the wall.

You're still using an ink pen. What you doing? You cross it out when the day's gone. You got one of them calendars you put a line through every day? I don't know.

Keep a calendar. God's got a calendar. He's got two appointments marked in there. The first appointment he has marked is the day he's calling you out of here. I just read that.

Did you read that? Did you know that that was on the calendar? Aren't you glad you came to church today? Get this on your calendar. It's appointed for man once to die, and then the judgment.

Two dates. God knows them. I don't know them. I don't want to know them. I don't know.

But Moses said over in the Psalms, when one of the Psalms he wrote, he said that wisdom is this. That a man would number his days. That you would. That you would know that there's two appointments coming. That you will not live forever in this form, in this life, with this body.

This body will die. And after that, the judgment. That's the second appointment. And I don't know how much thought you've given to those two appointments.

I don't know. If you look on Sunday evening to see what your appointments are for this week. I don't know If I don't know what kind of calendaring you're doing, but I hope you're keeping up with these two appointments. Are you ready to stand before a holy God?

Jesus already stood there. He already went in there ahead of us and paid the price for our entry into that holy place with the Father. What did he bring? He brought his own blood. Once for all.

A greater sacrifice. So those of us that believe in Jesus, we don't have to be afraid of those two appointments. We don't have to. He already took number one and number two on our behalf. He took those two appointments.

He went in there and said, I'm standing here for Gary. I'm standing in here. I'm standing here for Percy. I'm in here for Percy. He.

He knows us all by name. He went in there for me and for you. Right? He stood in there for you, brother John. He went in there for you.

Now look, if you stand before the Father and he says, gary, why should I let you into my heaven?

I hope you're not tempted to say, well, I tried to be good. I tried to live a good life, you know, I didn't kill anybody. Like that's some standard. And then Jesus tells us, if you called your brother Raca, you've committed murder in your heart. Uh oh.

You call your brother empty head. You call your brother stupid. You've committed murder in your heart. Well, there went that one. I was hanging on to that one.

Now it's all gone. If you go before the Father, he's only looking for you to answer one question. What'd you do with Jesus? He's the sacrifice I sent. I gave you the whole book.

I gave it all to you so you'd know to look for him. That he died for you and he's coming again. What'd you do with Jesus?

Because if you believed in a sacrifice for your sin, you said, I'm humbled by it. I don't deserve it. But Jesus died for me. He says, enter in well done. Thy good and faithful servant enter into eternal rest.

Why? Because he paid for it with the greatest sacrifice. The price I couldn't pay. He paid. Have you received this great gift?

You have two appointments. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many, so he put them away. And then he bore them on the cross. And he bore him away. He's coming again a second time.

So he appeared the first time. We saw that back in verse 11 last week. Christ appeared the first time. And now he's going to come again. And when he comes again, it's not to deal with sin.

Why? Because he already did that. He's already dealt with. He already put it away. He already bore it away.

He already canceled, already took it on the cross. He's already dealt with that. He's coming back to complete the salvation because he's already done justification. He's been working on sanctification. And then glorification comes.

He's going to. He's going to finish it so that we get those new bodies and we enter into heaven, right? He's going to come again. And that's the third reason that we know it's a greater sacrifice, because we can't wait. We are eagerly awaiting that day, the redemption of our bodies and seeing the Lord Jesus, the one who died for us.

It says in Philippians, our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there. The Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. In Romans we read, so now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus Christ. And because you belong to him, the power of the life giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. You don't have to be afraid.

You don't have to be afraid of death. You don't have to be afraid of the future. You don't have to fear the judgment Seat of God. Jesus already took all that on your behalf. He's the greatest, greatest savior.

He's the greatest sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Do you know him Today? Are you ready for those two appointments? Pray.

Lord Jesus, we lift up your name today. And we especially pray for that one who's never surrendered their life to you. Is that you, my dear friend? Right here, right? While we're listening, you can talk to the Lord Jesus.

You can express your faith to him. Prayer is just that. It's just speaking to him in faith. Would you pray with me? Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner.

I believe you died on the cross for me, that you shed your blood as a payment for my sin. And I believe that you were raised from the grave on the third day and that you live today. Come and live in me by your spirit. Adopt me into your family as a child of God. I want to follow you all the days of my life as my Lord and my Savior.

I give you my life in return for giving your life for me. I want to be a Christ follower. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing he'll save you. And all the things that we've described today are yours. Others are here today and you know Jesus.

You're a follower of Jesus, but you've become distant. You've been distracted. There have been other things taking priority. Would you just again look upon Lord Jesus, the one who died for us? Would you say, lord, I can't wait to see you.

I can't wait to be with you. Help me to live for you now as if today were the last day. So help me to number my days so that I live in constant, eager anticipation of your soon return. Lord, we love you now. In Jesus name, amen.