The Sacrifice of Christ — Hebrews 9-10

0:00 Scripture passage this morning comes from the ninth chapter of the book of Hebrews. If you have a Bible with you today, you've been with us the past several weeks. We've been working through the book of Hebrews. My assignment as it was given to me was to preach on Hebrews chapter nine. It's very difficult for me to preach on an entire chapter of scripture.

0:23 There is just too much content in there. This is a book in which every word has meaning because it is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. So today I am just going to muddle around a little bit with a few verses in chapter nine. And maybe someday down the road somebody else can sort of clean up. You know, we use the phrase clean up in in two different ways.

0:49 Either I'm going to put a bunch of runners on base and somebody can clean them up and drive them in. Or more likely what will happen is that I just make a big mess and somebody else can clean it up in another week. We're going to start in Hebrews chapter nine and we're going to start in verse 11. When Christ came as high priest of the good things that already are here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man made, that is to say not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood.

1:32 Having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctify them so they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God. And father, we thank you for your word this morning. We just pray that your holy spirit would come and work in our hearts, apply this scripture to our lives.

2:10 I pray Lord that you would speak through me. If there are any things that I say that are not of you, I pray that they would quickly be forgotten. I pray that this time we have together would draw us closer to our savior whose name we pray. Amen. Now, there are four points to this morning's message.

2:29 So, if you like to take notes, this is easy for you. There are four points. They all start with the letter N. We're going to talk about sacrifice. First, we're going to talk about the necessity of Christ's sacrifice, the necessity.

2:44 That's the first point. And then we are going to look at the nature of the sacrifice. So we have the necessity and then we have the nature of the sacrifice. And then we will talk about unfortunate ways in which people can neglect the sacrifice. Necessity, nature, neglect.

3:05 And finally we will look at, well I take it back, this one does not start with an N. We're going to look at the Advent. There's an N in there. You can capitalize that if you want. The Advent.

3:21 How, what we were supposed to be doing now? Now, that's a good one. Now, in light of Christ's sacrifice. You know, I searched the whole thesaurus looking for a good word that started with N that meant now and that's probably the best word. So, Lindy thought that was funny.

3:37 So, we're going to begin with the necessity of Christ's sacrifice. So, to put this this little passage in some perspective, if you have been in and out traveling as we have the past few months, we're briefly going to revisit what the writer of Hebrews has been talking about in the past several chapters. And primarily what he's talking about is the old covenant. This old covenant that was made by God through Moses, which is described in, well, described in the whole Old Testament, really and under that agreement, right? There were there was the law.

4:11 Now, when you hear the law, what are we talking about? Well, a lot of people think of the 10 commandments. Those are certainly part of the law. There were many, many, many other commandments which the people of god were required to follow but which of course nobody could actually follow. I mean, no human being could obey the entire law, right?

4:30 Do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, etcetera, etcetera. And just in case there were some of us who thought that we were pretty good and we were obeying the law, then we have Jesus coming along and telling us that you can actually break the law without even committing the crime. Right? He who has anger in their heart is a murderer already. He who had lust has already committed adultery.

4:55 Matthew five twenty eight. And so we all broke the law. And of course, what's the punishment for breaking the law? Well, the punishment for breaking the law was separation from god for eternity. And now because everybody broke the old agreement, god provided a way for people to purify themselves and get back into a right relationship with him.

5:17 And this was a whole system of sacrifices and special places of worship and offerings and priests that kept the whole machine running smoothly. There were special dietary laws. There were special feasts and what was the point of the Old Testament sacrificial system? Well, it was not to keep people from going to hell. Nobody ever got saved by slaughtering some cow on an altar, right?

5:49 I was thinking about this a lot over the past few weeks. How did people get saved in the Old Testament? I was thinking about it because I was I was sinning the other day. It's a true story. I was driving down the Ohio Turnpike and I see this car in front of me and it's it's kind of weaving back and forth across the lanes and I thought good grief, another loony out here at Christmas time driving around and so I go to pass this person and sure enough as I'm passing I look and I see the driver, one hand on the wheel, the other hand on the cell phone, texting and weaving back and forth.

6:28 And I must confess, I had an evil thought about this person, which I later had to repent of. And I thought I'm glad that I have the blood of Christ that covers my sins. What I did not do, however, I did not go home and say, Megan, I had an evil thought about a driver on the turnpike. We better go out back and sacrifice old Bessie. You know, she's been a good milk cow all these years but the time has come for some shedding of blood.

6:57 Oh, that's crazy, right? Doesn't make any sense and and likewise, the sacrificial system in the Old Testament was not the way that people got saved from their sins. Salvation from sin is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament and it is today and that is through god's grace through faith in him. We could do a whole study on that. If you want a few verses just for your own homework, you could look at Genesis chapter 15.

7:30 You could look at Romans chapter four. You could look at first Peter chapter one, all of which talk about the fact that in some sense, the sacrificial system demonstrated your belief in god and your faithfulness but it was not the means of salvation. Salvation was and always will be through god's grace by belief in Christ. But there was another purpose of the sacrificial system, the old covenant and that was as this passage says, and as Hebrews ten one says, the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming. In the Old Testament, the law and the sacrificial system was like a reflection of a heavenly reality.

8:30 And then there is another world, the world of heavenly reality, which I am unable to taste or smell, but which as Christians, we have the ability to interact with. And the Old Testament system was given as a reflection of the heavenly reality. You know, there's people out there who say that Christians do not live in the real world. No, we don't live in the real world. We have all these beliefs.

8:59 Well, fact of the matter is is that this world around us with all the crime and all the suffering and the cars that don't seem to run right when you want them to and all of this stuff, this is actually not as real as the heavenly realm. And there's coming a day in which we will live under the kingship of Christ in the actual real world. So, the Old Testament system points toward Jesus. The whole Old Testament points toward the need for a savior. It took me a long time to figure this out.

9:33 I must confess. I used to read the Old Testament and think, these are some interesting stories. There are large sections of it which are exceedingly boring to me. I did not understand what was the point of all this, right? You get like one exciting story and then 100 pages of prophecy that I didn't understand and then another exciting story, right?

9:52 And then all of a sudden, I I kind of figured this out as I got less dumb as I've gotten older. That the whole Old Testament is pointing toward one thing and that is Jesus Christ and once I understood that, then the Old Testament became exciting to read because you can see in every passage how God is pointing us to the need for a savior. The Old Testament is like a shadow of God's holiness. But verse 11, Hebrews chapter nine verse 11 tells us that now Christ has appeared as high priest of the good things that are to come. That is the heavenly world and he has entered into the holiest place.

10:31 Some of your Bibles might use the word tent at that point but it's talking about the presence of god. This is not like the high priest in the Old Testament entering the Holy of Holies. He's talking about Christ entering the presence of God once to give a perfect and eternal sacrifice. Because of this sacrifice, the heavenly world, what I would call the real world, now mingles with this world in which we live in a somewhat mysterious way. And we as believers have access to heavenly things.

11:06 So the main point of this is, it's very difficult thing to overcome sin. All the Jewish sacrifices could not overcome sin. Feeling bad about my sins is not going to overcome sin. No form of suffering in this world is going to overcome sin. You know, maybe if I just beat myself up enough, that's going to overcome my sin.

11:29 That's not going to work. No form of self denial is going to overcome sin. If I just deny myself the pleasures of life and somehow that's going to make me less of a sinner. That's that's that's not going to work. No holy living can overcome sin.

11:45 You can go to the Christian bookstore after this service and you could buy all the Christian books there and you can read them all. I pity you if you do that but you could read them all and that's not gonna save you from sin. I hope that didn't offend anybody. I'm sorry. There's good books at the Christian bookstore too.

12:01 I have not found them yet, but they're there. Even even your own death cannot overcome sin. The fact is everybody sins and there's nothing that we can do about it. Nobody was capable of meeting the demands of the law. So this is why I say that there was a necessity of sacrifice.

12:24 The Old Testament points toward the need for one supreme eternal sacrifice on behalf of us sinners. And Jesus Christ came to put away the sins of the people once and for all. So that was point one. It's not too bad. That was only eight minutes.

12:57 Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant. So that those who are called, that's us, may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. So, how did god deal with sin eternally? The old sacrificial system was insufficient as we have seen.

13:26 There's nothing that you or I can do that can put away our sins eternally. So, what is it that god could do? Verse 15 tells us, the lord put away sin by a sacrifice and this sacrifice was himself. Now, here's an important thought. Sin was not destroyed because Jesus was born in a manger and sin was not destroyed because Jesus lived a good life And sin was not destroyed because Jesus prayed or because he wept, but because he sacrificed himself freely to the death and punishment that our sins deserved.

14:02 There isn't any real deep secret to this. The way in which God has defeated sin is pretty clear in the scripture. This is no deep dark mystery. It is not inexplicable. It is by grace that we are saved through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.

14:22 But not everybody wants to accept that, I have found. I have run into a lot of people who really love Jesus, but they stop short at realizing the necessity of sacrifice and the fact of the resurrection. They see him as a good teacher or a good role model. I'll give you an example of this. So for the past couple of years, Megan and I have been at Michigan State University for graduate school.

14:49 And there is a place on that campus where several of the main buildings are kind of concentrated together. And in an outside area, thousands of students pass through this area every day going to and from class. And this makes it a very popular place for anybody with a message to sort of get their word out to to thousands of young people. I mean, all kinds of people will will be preaching there. I mean, we have the communist one day and we had the druids one day.

15:20 Yes, telling me about the the the false gods that I ought to be worshiping. But more often than not, and I guess you could take some comfort in this. More often than not, it is somebody preaching the gospel of Christ to these young people. And a lot of these preachers get heckled by the students. And I was coming out of the Math Building one day and there's this young man.

15:42 He's younger than me and he is there by himself with his Bible and he is preaching the need for repentance. I thought, this guy is really wonderful and a student comes by on a bicycle and shouts at this at this young man, Jesus said to love your neighbor, you idiot. Except he didn't say idiot. I cleaned it up because my mother is here and she does not appreciate foul language. That's what he said.

16:10 Jesus said to love your neighbor, you and I thought, Is that how we love our neighbor? But this is typical of many of my own students at at Michigan State who if I would talk to them about Jesus would say, oh yeah, Jesus, great, great guy. Love what he had to say. Love your neighbor, golden rule, all that. I'm fine with that but they do not understand the necessity of sacrifice and the need for Christ as their savior.

17:03 Revelation thirteen eight and the sacrifice of Christ is just as powerful now, just as relevant now, just as necessary now as it was two thousand years ago. As Spurgeon said, the nails are not rusted nor blunted by the passage of the years. They are still sharp enough to impale our sinful natures to the cross. There's a lot of smart people out there in the world. And there are a great many more people who think they are very smart.

17:39 But there is no wisdom and there's no learning. There's no wealth. There's no power on earth that can keep anybody from death except for the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. And anybody who neglects that salvation is not going to be saved. There is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved.

17:59 But for the believer, we are able to stand and say in the words of Job, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand on the earth. Substitution is at the very heart of the gospel. If we think about the nature of the sacrifice, who was it that died on the cross? Jesus Christ was God, the maker and sustainer of the universe.

18:29 And he was appointed and delegated by God for that exact purpose. He came in his father's name bearing his father's authority, right? Remember what Jesus said. I came not to do my own will but what? The will of him who sent me, right?

18:47 He came to do the father's will. I think this ought to give us some extreme comfort. I thought about it this way. The one person who made the ultimate sacrifice is the only one who is able to view sin from god's point of view. He's the only one who knew what was actually due to god.

19:14 Evidently, the sacrifice of Christ was intended not just to purify the flesh like the blood of the bulls and calves in the Old Testament and it is also to give rest for our consciences. And I fail to see how any doctrine except for the atonement, full atonement can it be. Right? We just sang that. Hallelujah.

19:37 What a savior. There is no teaching other than Christ's substitutionary death, atonement for sin that can give any relief to our guilty consciences. This is the main difference, right, in this sacrifice. It not only purifies the flesh, it overcomes the power of sin, it cleanses our consciousness of dead works. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.

20:06 Did you know that God is totally satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ? He is completely satisfied with that. Look at verse 24. For Christ has entered not into the 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. Do you ever think about what Jesus is doing right now?

20:36 You know, well, you and I are toiling away down here doing our best or not our best. Breaking god's laws left and right, just trying to get by. What is Jesus doing? He's just sitting on some throne, enjoying the good life, looking down at us, and saying, boy, am I glad that's over with? I mean, it could be, it could be.

21:02 Certainly, he would have a right to do that. The verse 24 says, that he is appearing in the presence of God interceding on our behalf. When God could rightly punish me for the sins that I have committed, Jesus appears in God's presence and speaks on my behalf. And here's the great thing, because of Christ's substitutionary death, God does not even keep a record of my sins. But sometimes, I keep a record of my sins and this leads me to think about how I sometimes neglect, neglect the sacrifice of Christ.

21:44 I'll try to illustrate this with a little story. So, I take you back to Michigan State again. I worked for a woman on a large research project there. And you might be a little bit like this woman, I don't know, some people are like this. She kept every email, every document, every rough draft, middle draft, final draft, every correspondence that ever came across her desk in the decade of this research project.

22:16 I mean, she had emails dating back from the late nineties and I would say to her, Betty, you gotta get rid of some of this stuff. Some of these people are dead. I don't think they're gonna email you back. And she just kept everything until the files got to be so big. I mean, we would have meetings in which we would spend half the meeting just trying to find things because she had a copy of everything.

22:39 And we finally convinced her. He said, you know, Betty, you gotta get rid of some of this old stuff. And she said, okay. Okay. I I agree.

22:46 I agree. But before you delete them, just make sure you make a copy of everything for me. That's a true story. I said, what's the point of deleting all this stuff if I make a copy of it? Right?

23:00 But then I thought, you know, that's exactly how I sometimes want to deal with my own sins. I know that Jesus paid the penalty on the cross, but sometimes I cannot let go of the guilt. It's as if Christ's suffering was not enough, and I have to contribute some of my own anguish by continually dwelling on past sins. I've got a record. I've got a copy of all my sins.

23:27 Right? I'm not talking about sins that are not confessed. Right? Our unconfessed sin, our sinful nature should be there to sort of scare us to the cross. I'm talking about sins which I have confessed and which I know have been forgiven and which I know that God keeps no record of, but sometimes I just keep a record of them in my own heart.

23:54 And sometimes that guilt keeps me from being an effective servant of god. Is a man named Dennis Dehan who has a very nice devotional. He wrote once that a wise forgetfulness, a wise forgetfulness based on Christ's atoning sacrifice can keep guilty feelings from cluttering up your whole life. Or maybe you like this hymn. When Satan tempts me to despair, have you heard that one?

24:34 When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there who put an end to all my sin. Because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For god the just is satisfied. To look on him and pardon me. But I often neglect to look at the cross Sometimes, I think there's still things I need to do or say or feel in order to be truly forgiven.

25:10 I want god to look upon me as innocent and faithful but I don't feel innocent and faithful. I neglect the sacrifice of Christ by adding other things to it. It's pointless to look at our feelings or our works as evidence of salvation, right? We sang that song this morning and and now I am happy all the day, right? Now, I am happy all the day and that that always kind of bothered me.

25:43 Because I am not happy all the day. I thought, wow, maybe I am not a good Christian because I am not happy all the day. But that's what I get when I look to my feelings for if I am saved or not. Your relationship with God does not depend on how you feel or upon your works, but upon only one thing, and that is your relationship with Christ. Of course, part of our struggle is that we are aware of the magnitude of our sins.

26:13 I mean, every day, I wish I was not a sinner. I wish I was able to serve god and love my wife and be a good man and every day, I sin against the very god that I proclaim to love. But I have to remember that God is totally satisfied with Christ's sacrifice. And he does not look upon me as a sinner, but as innocent and faithful. Of course, this doesn't mean we don't sin anymore.

26:43 The way it's supposed to work is that as you mature in Christ, the Christian stops loving the sins that we once found delightful. I begin to be disgusted by those things from which I used to find pleasure. Eventually we begin to love the good, the pure, the noble, all those things that Paul talks about in Philippians chapter four. Blood of Christ not only cleanses our consciousness of sin, it kills the ruling power of sin and the more we can feel the blood of Christ, the more it will kill the power of sin in our lives. So, what do we make of this sacrifice?

27:24 We have seen the necessity of it. It was necessary that one final eternal sacrifice should be made. We have seen the nature of it. How Christ being in the very form god meant that his sacrifice was totally satisfactory. And I've told you how I neglect the sacrifice by trying to add things to it or look to my feelings.

28:29 Your sin is already taken care of. The second coming of Christ is something which we are to look forward to. Here it says, eagerly waiting for Christ to come and save us. Now, we just finished the Advent season, right? And and the Advent season is a memorial.

28:47 It's a time where we can reflect on the incredible way that god took on human form. But now, this first tells me that we are invited to be living in a second advent. And this second advent is the anticipation of Christ's coming again to save those of us who are eagerly waiting for him. Now, I love Christmas. I think it's my favorite holiday.

29:18 I I just love it. Not everybody likes Christmas and and that's fine but if you allowed yourself anytime over the Christmas season to reflect on the first coming of Christ, that had to be a happy moment for you. But now, what do we do? Christmas is over. Christmas is over.

29:39 Yep. All the presents are unwrapped. All the carols are sung. All the fruitcake has been eaten. I don't know.

29:49 I don't know why that was funny. I... Sometimes I think I'm the only person left who appreciates the quality of a good fruitcake. Not... Alright.

30:01 That's good. But even if you're like me and you leave the Christmas tree and the lights up until February, Christmas season itself is over. And for many people in our world, the end of Christmas is the start of depression. You know, after a month of trying to recapture the Christmas spirit and getting everybody the right present and seeing all the relatives in the right order and hearing rocking around the Christmas tree for the hundredth time, it's suddenly gone and it's back to the real world. Now tomorrow, do you know what tomorrow is?

30:47 This is a sobering thought. Tomorrow has become known as Blue Monday. You heard that phrase? In The United States, the Monday after Christmas traditionally sees the highest number of suicides of any day in the year. Why?

31:10 Because people are lost because they get so worked up about Christmas that when it's over, they're left with such a hole in their hearts. They just can't take it anymore. Because they've been told to be merry and happy for six weeks and they're not merry and they're not happy. They don't think they ever will be. And they think that everybody else is having such a good time and their life is just too miserable to even think about sticking it out for another year.

31:40 They're not living the second advent but because of Jesus sacrifice, there is still something to live for. Something to eagerly anticipate. We ought to be like, we have to be like Simeon. Now, who is Simeon? We're going to turn back to Luke chapter two.

32:41 And he came to the temple and when the parents brought in the child, Jesus, so if there's any doubt about who that Messiah is, that is cleared up. And when the parents brought in the child, Jesus, he took him up in his arms and blessed god. Now, skip down to verse 30. Simeon says, my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people, Israel. Now, when it says that Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel, that word consolation is the Greek word paraclete.

33:19 This is the same word from which we get the paraclete, the comforter, the holy spirit but this word consolation has has many levels to it. It means a longing for comfort. It means an expectation that god will come and rescue his people. It means an awareness and a hope that God will fulfill all he promised regarding the coming savior. And that's the kind of hope that we ought to be living with.

33:48 Instead of living a life in which I am constantly battling sin and guilt, I have got to get myself to the point where I recognize that God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ, that my sin is dealt with, and I should be able to live in some kind of joyful expectation of Christ's coming. So what are we supposed to do during the second advent? Well, remember verse 14 of Hebrews nine, I read this earlier, but I did not mention this phrase. Verse 14 of Hebrews nine tells us that Christ's sacrifice purifies our consciences. Why?

34:31 To serve the living god The reason that Christ was sacrificed was not so that we can be happy, happy, happy. In fact, our happiness has nothing to do with it. The purpose of Christ's sacrifice is not so that I can have a good role model by which to pattern my life. Says in verse 14 that the purpose of the sacrifice is so I can serve the living god. So, if you're here this morning and you're a believer in Jesus, then you have been set apart as a servant of god.

35:07 But this doesn't mean you gotta quit your job, become a preacher. Doesn't mean you're supposed to work less hard at your jobs that you can spend more time in church. It could mean that but it doesn't necessarily mean that. It means that you're supposed to serve god at all times. Whether that's in the church or whether it's when you're cleaning the warehouse or when you're fixing the car or whatever it is you do, we're supposed to be doing it for the glory of god.

35:32 That's what it means to be living in the second advent. Remember, you are bought with a price. You are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold but with what? The precious blood of Jesus. That's right.

35:47 And this blood of the eternal covenant also guarantees god's provision for us. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up to death, even death on the cross, how shall he not also freely give us all things? Wow. The sacrifice of Christ means that now we are to live for God. I want to close by looking at just a couple more words of Simeon.

37:01 Now, what is Simeon talking about here? The sign that is opposed, that is surely a prophecy of the crucifixion. That Christ would be opposed by many in Israel. What about the sword that will pierce Mary's soul? Simeon is telling her that her baby boy is eventually going to be executed for crimes he did not commit and that while this will bring salvation to the world, it will pierce the mother's soul.

37:32 You see, the new covenant, the sacrifice comes at a cost. Remember how the old sacrificial system could not totally save people from sin? The sacrifice of Christ can. But it comes at quite the price. It took the brutal execution of the innocent son of god.

37:56 You think that Mary was the only one whose soul was pierced by that? You wonder how the father felt as the son was executed? My mind, every time I hear this, I think of Alistair Begg who said, my mind staggers at the extent to which god goes to save sinners like ourselves. So, Christmas Eve, Megan and I sat in the living room and we read the Christmas story out loud And we read it out loud partially because we have this little as yet unborn child of our own. And and I think if I'm not mistaken that he can hear the sound of my voice.

38:43 It's almost thirty weeks. And you know, I've read Luke chapter two probably 150 times but I was really struggling to get through to get through it. Because all I could think about was this is a story of a baby boy who grows up to be nailed on a cross and is dead before he's 35. And I didn't want to read a story like that on Christmas. But we need the cross Without the death of Jesus, there is no forgiveness of sin and I'm going to tell my own son how much he needs his savior because we all do.

40:29 It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. And father, we are thankful for that sacrifice. Lord, we cannot even comprehend the nature of the cross and the extent of your grace.

40:59 All we know, Lord, is that we must cling to our savior. I pray as we go forth from this place that your Holy Spirit would apply these words to our hearts. Lord, that we would begin to live to serve you and that we would eagerly anticipate your coming again. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our savior. Amen.