Have you ever made a sacrifice for someone who doesn't even know you? place in the queue. You might help somebody unexpectedly. You know, you're driving along as we were recently, and there were two elderly ladies trying to get a car unstuck in the snow. And, you know, I pulled over, Benson and I got out and took some of our time and sacrifices so that we could You know, it might be anonymously helping somebody. Back when Katie and I were poor college students and newly married, it was a blessing at the church that we were at in Georgia as we traveled there on the weekends. Sometimes people would come up and they would shake your hand and in their hand, They had cash, a nice handshake to get, and sacrificing a wee bit to be a blessing to us. There is a reason that we sacrifice. Your sacrifice might be that that person doesn't have to struggle at the back of the queue. They can come up. So you sacrifice so that they are blessed by that. You sacrifice if somebody's struggling to help them not to have that burden that is too difficult for them. Or it might be so that somebody can get what they need. You know, they need something, you've got it, you're able to supply it, and so you sacrifice to meet that need. But the point is, when you sacrifice, there's a reason why you sacrifice. What I want us to look at tonight in Hebrews chapter 9, we're at verse 14 down through verse 28. is that Jesus had reasons why he sacrificed himself for you. He had reasons. And the question for us tonight is, do we understand why Jesus Christ did the sacrifice that he did when he went to the cross and he died in our place? Do we understand why he did that? I met a lady this past week as I was putting out some gospel flyers and She's very nice and I enjoyed a conversation with her, but she made this statement. She said, I think Jesus died in vain. And she went on to say the world is so wicked. It was pointless that he died. And I looked at her and I said, you know, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. I'm going to heaven when I die. Is that in vain? You know, And if Jesus only saved me, isn't that a purpose for him dying on the cross? I said, the vain thing is this, and I said to her, if you die without Christ, if you die and go to hell, and by the way, she was bothered by this world. She thinks it's out of control. She isolates herself from it. She doesn't like it. But I would say this, hell is a lot more like this world than heaven, right? I mean, that place that she doesn't like here because of the ungodliness that is here, it's far worse there, but how vain if Christ in dying for her, if she didn't get saved, but Jesus had a reason for his death. It wasn't in vain. I want to pray as we get started here tonight and ask God's blessing as we come to the Word of God. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that his sacrifice was with a reason. And I pray tonight for those that maybe haven't accepted the reason in their life, Lord, that they haven't benefited from the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that for them it is vain that Christ died. We ask that tonight would be the night that it became so purposeful and so wonderful why Christ died, that they'd accept Christ tonight. For us as believers, we just ask that the Spirit of God would remind us of the precious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Father, would you give us ears to hear tonight? I pray that you take away distractions. I pray that you give us a focused attention upon the Word of God. Father, I ask for liberty as I speak and preach the Word of God tonight, that I could do so in a loving way, in a gracious way. Father, with the authority of the Word of God and with the power of the Spirit of God, and that you'd be glorified in this time. Thank you for the help that you're giving today. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, so I think I've got five reasons tonight from our text, reasons why Christ died for us. And so reason number one, he chose death so that you could choose life. He chose death so that you could choose life. If I asked the question tonight, who is responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus, we could come up with a, you know, kind of a long list of ideas. One, you know, just going from the story, Pilate, you remember Pilate, the judge, he washed his hands of that judgment. He said, this is an innocent man, but he washed his hands of it and he delivered him to be crucified. You have the Roman soldiers that beat and crucified, and crucified him. You know, they ask things like, who hit you? And prophesy and tell us of who hit you. You have the Jews who gave their voice against Jesus. They're the ones that were crying out and saying, crucify him, crucify him. And then you have Judas, of course, the betrayer, the one that came up and kissed the Lord Jesus Christ, signifying that Jesus was, who Jesus was, so that the soldiers would take him. Then you have the disciples They forsook him and fled, the Bible says. They didn't stand, they didn't fight for the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can look at all these aspects of the story and ask the question, who is responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus? And the answer from that group is none. Jesus Christ himself is responsible for his death. Even as we've looked at in the context of Hebrews, the priest that offers the sacrifice to stand between the wrath of God against God's people and to get the sin forgiven and the sin taken away, Jesus Christ did that through his death. 1 Timothy 2, 5, and 6 says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Jesus Christ gave himself, he offered himself. And again, we've looked at it. The crucifixion is all about Christ sacrificing himself for a reason. And so he chose death so that you could choose life. He chose death to buy back your sin debt. It says for this cause, he's the mediator of the New Testament, verse 15. that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions, to redeem is to buy back, to buy back the transgressions that were under the first testament. It's similar to the other verse I just referred to, who gave himself a ransom for assault. That's again the idea of buying back. We have debt collection agencies and I'm thankful I don't have any knocking on my door and hope I I don't but what they do they'll buy back bad debts, you know, maybe a car sales company or a bank and Somebody's defaulted on their debt and the bank to get out from under that debt sells it off to a debt collection agency they buy it at an undervalued amount and then they seek to collect in full from the person that is Jesus Christ paid for the debt of our sin. He didn't pay a devalued price, Jesus Christ paid the price in full and this is the amazing part about what Christ did, he then offers complete debt forgiveness. So his death was to pay for my sin so that he could freely forgive me of my sin. And that's important. His death gave me access to the promise of life. He gave me the access to the promise of life. It says again in our verse here, that by means of death, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Okay, Christ died so that I could live. He died to pay my sin debt. What's the punishment or what is the debt of sin? What do I owe God? because of my sin, the punishment is death. God told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. It says in Romans 5 verse 12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Every single one of us has a sin debt that demands that when we get to that great accountability point of the judgment, that it be paid in full. Ezekiel 18 verse 4, the soul that sinneth it shall die. Revelation 20 verse 14, death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. That second death in hell is the punishment for our sin. Jesus Christ paid it so that you and I don't have to. You know tonight as we think about that, why would somebody choose death when Jesus offers them life. Why would they neglect to take something that was so freely given? Well, it might be tonight, they refuse to let go of that which indebted them to God, right? Their sin is the debt, but they love their sin, they love their alcohol, they love their sensuality, they love their covetousness, they love these things, and instead of accepting God's forgiveness, They continue to pay into that which has indebted them to God. It might be that they're just too proud to accept God's help. They feel like, you know, I'm a good person and why should God treat me like this? I don't really believe that I'm in debt. I don't really believe that Jesus Christ paid my debt. Could be unbelief or pride or any one of these things. But the thing is tonight, Jesus Christ died so that they could live. He chose death so that they could choose life. I wonder tonight, have you chosen life? Has your decision been, God, I don't want this sin stuff that's going to take me to hell. I want Christ, please forgive me of my sins, save me because Jesus paid my debt in full. And so he chose death so that you can choose life. Okay, second reason. He impoverished himself so that you could be made rich. He impoverished himself so that you could be made rich. You know, Jesus was God, is God, okay? But he became a man, so he's God in heaven. He set aside his deity, took upon himself humanity, impoverished himself, and came and dwelt amongst men. The greatest of all poverty was when, again, he went into our sin debt. He entered into our sin debt and he gave us the wealth of his righteousness. Jesus chose poverty. Why? So that we could become heirs of God. So that we could enter into the riches that are in Christ Jesus. As we think about him impoverishing himself so that we can be rich, the text points this out, but you can't have a person's things until that person is dead. there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. Okay, the person that initiated the will, they have to die before that will is affected. So he can't have a person's things until that person's dead. Now you might come up to me and say, pastor, this is great. I just found out that I'm in this person's will and they are wealthy and I am going to be wealthy. Well, I hate to disappoint you or discourage you if you're excited about that. You know what, you don't get anything until that person is dead. I just saw on the news this past week, there's one woman that's here in Britain. She's 111 years old and they were interviewing her and she's still very much with it and asking her, what do you think the secret is to long life? And one of the things I remember is eat lots of chocolate. She ate apparently a lot of chocolate and she enjoys sitting by the seaside, watching the people walk by and watching the kids play. She seems to have really enjoyed every one of her 111 years. If the person that has willed you something has longevity like her, it's just unlikely that you're ever going to inherit. And so what Jesus wanted to give to us first had to be forfeited by him. Before he could give to us what he desired to give to us, first he had to remove himself as it were from it. Because a will is of no power until that person dies. That will is powerless until the death of that person. is of force after men are dead. Otherwise, it's of no strength at all while the testator live it. As long as that person's living, that will is powerless. I mean, nobody could go and say, hey, there's a will. It says I'm to inherit and I want to, you know, I want to access this will. And they look at the document. They say it's powerless. It's powerless because that person is still alive. It seems like in the past year, there's been a lot of famous people that have passed away. One of those was a man that had a show called Larry King Live. Interestingly about Larry King, I didn't know this until he passed away, he was married 8 times. to seven different women, all right? It kind of reminds me of the opposite of the Bible story. Whose husband would this be in the resurrection if he was a saved man? He had all these different women as his wife, and apparently had some marriage difficulties, sadly. And apparently, even with his last wife, there was marriage difficulties this past year, and they had been close to divorce, but had patched things up. But apparently, he disinherited her from his will. And so it's being contested right now at this point. She's contesting it, trying to get a say over the estate because nothing was left to her. Now, she couldn't contest it when he was alive because that document had no authority until he died. You know, I say to us tonight, Jesus has died. And I praise God that nobody has to contest His will. Nobody on planet Earth has to say, I want access to this, and I don't have access, and I wanna try to write my own name into that. Nobody has to do that because God has done this. God has left it as a blank for those that have repented their sin, except Jesus Christ as their Savior, their name will be entered into that powerful document that Jesus Christ accessed for us. How did He do that? He impoverished himself. He gave up his life so we could have life. He gave up his inheritance, as it were, to make it possible for us to enter into his inheritance. Have you entered into his inheritance tonight? Have you chosen life? And then thirdly tonight, okay, the third reason why Jesus Christ died, He became guilty so that you could become forgiven. Okay, Christ became guilty so that you could be forgiven. You know, sometimes I have people in it when I'm evangelizing, I'm sharing the gospel, they'll say something like this. If God loves the world or God loves people in the world, why would he send the world or a person to hell? Why would God do that? You know, I can say to that person tonight, sin is a thing that sends somebody to hell. It's the transgressions that Man is committed that sends them to hell. It's the mercy of God and the love of God and the grace of God that took his son, Jesus Christ, and put him on the cross so that we could live. And he died as if he was guilty of our sin. 2 Corinthians 5 21 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He became sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God in him. Colossians 2.14 says, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, the ways that we had broken God's law, that was against us, he took that, it was contrary to us, he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. It's kind of like this, Jesus Christ died as a blasphemer, he died as a Somebody that takes God's name in vain. Somebody that lusts. Somebody that covets. Somebody that's a thief. Somebody that is an adulterer. Jesus Christ died as if he was that person because he took that person's sins, and I could say our sin. And he put it on his cross. He became guilty so that we could be forgiven. And so we see in our text that the dead were judged so that the guilty could live. And Paul's going to go back now, and if you've not been a part of our studies of Hebrews, it's a lot about the old Levitical priesthood and their sacrifice of animals. And Paul is going to go back to that now and speak about that sacrificial system, but notice in the text all the statements about blood sacrifices and the judgment upon that which was innocent so that the guilty could live. Whereupon neither the First Testament was dedicated without blood, the First Testament being the Old Testament law covenant. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying, this is the blood. And I mean there's a lot of statements there about blood. Where did that blood come from? Well, that blood came from the sheep, it came from the goats, it came from the bulls that were sacrificed, and their blood taken from them, their lifeblood, so that the guilty Israelites that had sinned, they could be forgiven by God. Now think about that animal. That animal was innocent. Like Adam and Eve pre-sin. I mean, obviously an animal's not a person, And in that state, there's complete innocence. They have no moral law. An animal doesn't have to get dressed. An animal isn't forbidden. Really, anything morally, they were innocent animals that were sacrificed. It was a picture, again, of the innocent Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, the innocent dying for the guilty. Why? Because the law demands that blood be shed for transgressions. The law demands this. It says in verse 22, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood. Okay, almost all things are purged. You might be wondering, what's it mean, almost all? It's meaning this, in the Levitical priesthood, there were some things that were cleansed in other ways. Maybe an instrument in the tabernacle was cleansed by water, or symbolic water cleansing, or something was purified by fire is another way that it was symbolic cleansing. But generally speaking, if it was a transgression, of sin that was being dealt with, then it was a blood sacrifice that was required. And so Christ's blood was shed in place of our blood. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed in place of our blood because the Bible says this in verse 22, And without shedding of blood is no remission. Now we might not know the term remission, but it means forgiven. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Now some people, especially if they're not from a church context, they may be uncomfortable to sing songs. You know, why does the church sing songs about the blood? Why are they so interested in the blood? It's because this, as a human being that is damned and on my way to hell, I'm very interested in that which is necessary to purchase my forgiveness. And I rejoice in that. I get excited about that. I get excited about the blood because without the blood of Jesus Christ being shed, I could not be forgiven of my sins. You might have seen a few years ago in the news a story about a French gendarme, I think they're called, Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltran. He was 44 years old. He was in a hostage negotiation situation and it was taking place at a grocery store. And as he's negotiating, he did something that a negotiator isn't supposed to do. He offered an exchange. He offered himself in exchange for a hostage that was there. I think it might have been a pregnant mother or something like that. But for this woman, he offered in exchange and the hostage taker accepted that and he traded places. This man was stabbed and he was shot to death in the place of that person whose release he affected. And that's exactly, again, what Jesus Christ did. Jesus Christ went to the cross in our place. We ought to look at the cross and say, that should have been me up there crucified. It should have been me up there mocked and despised. And I should have said, like the thief on the cross that understood his guilt, I am being crucified in justice because of the ungodliness of my sin in the sight of a holy God. But Jesus Christ did that for us. Why? He became guilty so that you could be forgiven. That was the reason. And again, it's in vain tonight if that reason isn't accessed. If somebody continues in sin, continues in unforgiveness, continues in indebtedness to God despite the fact that Jesus Christ paid the complete price for their sin. And so he chose death so that you could choose life. He impoverished himself so that you could be rich. He became guilty so that you could be forgiven. And then our fourth reason tonight is that he did what he alone could do because of what you alone could never do. He alone did what he could do because of what you alone could never do. You know, if we were left to ourselves, we could never atone for our sin. It wouldn't have worked for those animals to be sacrificed again and again and again, and only ever animals. The animals were only accepted because of what they represented. They represented that which God would accept. His was the necessary better sacrifice, okay? His was the necessary better sacrifice, verse 23. It says it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, with blood, animal blood, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. It was only because there was something better coming in the future of which these were only representative, and that was the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. in Scotland football rules, okay? In the United States where I grew up, baseball rules. And so we'd go out and we'd play baseball. And we never had enough kids to play a full game. You gotta have, I think, nine players on each team. And we probably had like three players on each team. And so what we had to do is when somebody hit the ball and they got on base, and they're running around the bases, they could appoint what we called a ghost runner, okay? It's not spooky, it's not real, it's just somebody that is, you know, there's somebody on that base even though you can't see them. Now that person is only valuable because they represent somebody that's real, okay? They're just representative of the person that was on that base but now has to go back and go to bat again because you don't have enough players to play the game. Again, that picture of the blood of Christ in the animals, it was valueless of itself. Its value was found in that it represented that very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, a better sacrifice was coming, as verse 23 says. But then his sacrifice had to pass the test of perfection. It had to pass the test of perfection. It says in verse 24, For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Okay, Jesus Christ had to enter into heaven. Now you can't enter into heaven with anything that is sinful, anything that is wicked. It had to be perfect. And you know the Bible says that Jesus Christ came to earth, he lived a sinless life, And he could have done this, he could have ascended up into heaven. No man could do that because again, the Bible says you have to be perfect to go to heaven. Revelation 21 verse 27 says, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defile it, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Okay, nothing is gonna enter into heaven that is sinful. But I could ask us tonight, was Christ sinless? And the answer is yes. So Jesus Christ could have come down, lived a sinless life as he did. He could have ascended without dying into heaven. He could have entered right back into the presence of God. He could have entered right back into all the things and the glory of everything that he possessed. But if he did that without shedding his blood, which was perfect, then nobody else could go to heaven with him. God accepted the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because the blood of Christ was perfect, and his blood must atone for past, present, and future transgressions. So it wasn't just for the people living at the time of Christ, but it was for those that lived before and those that would live after. Verse 25, it says, Jesus Christ is a man of faith. came to die for every man's sin so that by God's grace, his acceptable sacrifice would do for you and I what we could not do. There's nothing, nobody here tonight that is a sinless person, nobody that has not transgressed, nobody that could enter into heaven of themselves. So Jesus Christ did alone what he could do because of what alone we could never do. And then last reason tonight, 5 He took your sin on him so that he could take your sin away from you. away from you. You know about that. Why did you come to Scotland? You know, I could ask the same question tonight about the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Why would Jesus leave heaven? Why why did he come to this earth? And the reason is this he looked at the people of Scotland and the UK and the world carrying a sin burden that he knew that they would have to pay in full for And he knew they could not pay in full for it without spending eternity in a lake of fire. He wanted to take our sin debt again. away. You know, we've talked tonight about the Scottish government's quarantine rules and they're kind of, you know, it's grievous. We understand why they're doing what they're doing, but to arrive and to face as an individual, a 1,700 pound, 10 day stay in a hotel is difficult. And when it first rolled out, one of the personal accounts about it was that a man arrived and he didn't know about it and that he was in tears. And he's weeping because he doesn't know how he's going to pay for it. You might think, well, he shouldn't have traveled. Well, maybe he had to travel for some reason. Now he's got this debt that he has no way to pay. Jesus knows tonight. of the eternal tears that are going to be shed by people that end up in hell for all eternity, that arrive at that judgment seat of God, and are faced with the fact that maybe they never considered in life is that all those transgressions are going to have to be paid in full, and that that's going to be in hell. Praise God again tonight, Jesus came to take our sin on Him, to take our sin away from us. And so two questions as we conclude tonight with this final point. Are you carrying your sin to the grave? Are you carrying your sin to the grave? Verse 27 it says, And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Okay. Every single one of us is going to get up to the, that judgment seat and whatever we've got, we're going to have to, we're going to have to pay for it in full. And it's kind of like this. Imagine a beggar going into a grocery store and they could, they could get whatever they want. And imagine they're just grabbing rubbish. They're grabbing all the, the, the things that defile and the things that are harmful and the things that are hurtful, but they're so excited about that. And they get up to, to pay. and you're there, and you take sympathy upon them, you think the poor foolish person, you know, filling their cart with these, their trolley with these things, I'm gonna pay this in full, but as you pay it in full, you swap out their trolley, and instead of giving them that which defiles, that which destroys, you give them something that is of value. You know, Jesus Christ died for us so that he could take the trolley that's loaded with the things that defile, the things that are gonna destroy, and he could give to us what he purchased that is so valuable. John 10 verse 10 says, I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Okay, so are you carrying your sin to the grave? Are you gonna get there someday and have to pay? But then lastly tonight, will you believe in Christ who carried your sin to Calvary? It says in verse 28, 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. Okay, awesome statement. Christ came to bear the sins of many. At the airport this past time, as we flew to the United States this summer, the international flight was at 10% of capacity. And I'm cheap when I fly. So I didn't want to pay, you know, to check the bags, but it's kind of a pain, isn't it? You know, you're going through the airport, you've got all these things that you're trying to carry and their burdens. And they said to us, listen, for free, anything that you don't want to or have to have with you, we'll check that through for you. Just hand it to us. You know, I mean, that's a blessing, isn't it? To take and to set aside a burden, especially when it doesn't cost you. I saw it tonight, there's a sheep called Barak that's in the news. He was found in the wilderness of Australia. He had a 70 pound fleece on him when they found him. It was killing him. I mean, literally, he would have died from it, but they found him, took him to the rescue center, and they took the burden of that off of him. You know, praise God, tonight, again, Jesus Christ offers to take our sin burden away. Are you willing to be set free of your sins? So there's reasons tonight as we think about it, reasons why Jesus Christ sacrificed himself. He chose death so that we could choose life. He impoverished himself so that we could be rich. He became guilty so that we could be forgiven. He did what he could do because of what we could not do He took our sin on Him so that we could have our sin taken from us. And it might be tonight, you've never stopped and really thought about it, why Christ died and what His sacrifice was for. And realize tonight that all the blessings that come through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. For us as believers, I just like to remind us, why do we sacrifice for Christ? You know, is it so that souls can get saved? Is it so that God's work can continue? What sacrifices are we looking at and say, you know what? For this case, I'll sacrifice so that I could better serve God. Maybe that'd be something to just leave with us tonight as we consider the sacrifices of our Lord. All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank you for the grace that you give. And Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that you take The truth of your word tonight, and thank you for this precious passage that speaks so well of why Christ died. Father, touch the heart of somebody that might not be saved. Father, for us as believers, remind us of all the precious things that we have because of Christ. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.