Thank you for these precious people that have come today to study your word because they love you. For those that listen to the message that don't yet love you and don't yet know you, but are sensing a reason to be here listening to these words today, may they come to know you in a personal way. By the divine work of your Holy Spirit deep within their souls, may there be that miracle of the rebirth. Cause the blood of Jesus the death of Christ on the behalf of the sins of the human race to become precious to every single one of us that studied this passage today. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. We are in the middle of a study dealing with the New Covenant in Jesus Christ and obviously comparing it in the book of Hebrews to the Old Covenant. As I mentioned to you before, the book of Hebrews is the key to the Old Testament. If you understand Hebrews, you can then go back into the Old Testament anywhere you want, open it up, start studying, and it'll make sense to you. If you don't understand the book of Hebrews, you're going to have a hard time making any sense of the Old Testament. And so there's a great value here because it unlocks for us the riches of the Old Testament scriptures. We're going to talk about the New Covenant again today. This makes it the New Covenant part three. And we're going to deal with the idea of why did the Messiah have to die? I was reading yesterday about the life of William Cooper. At an early age, he was directed by his father to study law. And upon completion of his studies, however, the prospect of appearing for his final examination before the bar so frightened him that it caused a mental breakdown and even attempted suicide. Later he was placed in an insane asylum for a period of 18 months. During this detention he one day read from the scriptures the passage in Romans 3.25 that Jesus Christ is set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Through his reading of the Bible, Cooper soon realized a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a sense of forgiveness of sin. This was in 1764 when he was 33 years old. After his conversion and mental recovery, Cooper made friends with John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace. He himself had been a great sinner, a former captain of the ships that ran the slaves back and forth from Africa to America, a deeply wicked man who had been gloriously converted and drawn by God into the ministry. And those two got together and started writing songs together and hymns. And out of his deep appreciation for the blood of Jesus, speaking of William Cooper, He one day sat down and penned these words that have been an inspiration to my life as long as I've known Jesus for over 22 years. Maybe you're familiar with these words too. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains." Do you know those words? Those are words from the great hymn, There is a Fountain. And I have sung those words, I have thought of them often. They speak so much of the blood of Jesus, how precious it is, the great cleansing power that is there. He was reflecting on Zechariah 13.1 when he wrote the song. It says this, In that day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. And that fountain is Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, His blood shed for us. We're going to talk about the death of Jesus today, the shedding of His blood for man's sin, because, you see, as the writer to the Hebrews is contemplating their need, He understands that one of the greatest problems with the Hebrew people was that they simply could not deal with the idea of a dying Messiah. It was a stumbling block to them. Paul mentions that in 1 Corinthians 1.23. You see, in spite of the predictions that the Messiah would have to die in the Psalms, in Psalm 22, in Isaiah 53, they simply preferred to ignore that truth or to deny it altogether. What the Jewish people had done was they had constructed their own ideas about the Messiah, partly scriptural, partly unscriptural. And so that when they were all done, a dying Messiah simply did not fit into their theology. Now the writer to the Hebrews was very much aware that they had this theological blind spot. And so what he does is he sits down and he begins to draw out for them three great reasons why the Messiah had to die. And we find those reasons before us in our passage today. First of all, the Messiah had to die. Jesus Christ had to die to bring redemption for the Old Testament saints. Secondly, he had to die for the ratification of the new covenant. And third, he had to die for the remission of sin for the human race, because apart from the shedding of blood, there is no remission or forgiveness of sin. That is a universal law designed by God. Let's begin by talking about the redemption for the Old Testament saints in verse 15 of Hebrews chapter 9. And here we find the answer to a very commonly asked question. I have heard this question over and over and over again in my time of being a pastor. And the question answered in verse 15 is this, how was a person actually saved in the Old Testament? Now, perhaps that has become a question in your mind as we've been studying. I mean, we've looked at all the ceremonies, all the symbols, all the types, all the sacrifices, and by now you're beginning to wonder, Okay, we're talking about Christ here now in the book of Hebrews, but what about all of those people back then? How were they actually saved? Did they accrue a certain number of sacrifices and finally God said, okay, now you're saved? I mean, how did it work? How was a person saved in the Old Testament? Well, the answer is here. Look at verse 15. And for this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant, speaking of Christ, by means of death. for the redemption, there it is, of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance." Now when you say, how is an Old Testament person saved? The answer is this, now follow me. The answer is they are saved on the basis of Jesus Christ's finished work at the cross. You see, one of the first accomplishments of Jesus' death was to redeem all of those who had believed in God under the Old Covenant. In fact, if you turn in your Bible to Hebrews 11, 13, you get some insight. See, until Christ died, everybody died looking toward the promise of the Messiah, but it was yet unfulfilled. And we find that here in Hebrews 11, 13. Speaking of all the godly people in the Old Testament, It says, and these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. But notice they died in faith without receiving the promises. So as they believed in God, they looked forward to the promise of the Messiah coming to die for the sins of the world. And so here then is how it worked out. Jesus Christ, atoning death, was retroactive to cover back the sins, to go back in time and cover all the sins, to really put away and forgive all the sins of all the Old Testament saints that had lived before He came and died at the cross. His death was retroactive in its effectiveness. You remember last time we were together in Hebrews, we studied the great day of atonement, Yom Kippur. Remember the two goats? The one goat sacrificed, his blood taken into the holiest of holies. The other goat sent out into the wilderness, the scapegoat. Well, when the goat was sacrificed on that day, we saw how the people were then forgiven for their sins for the entire year past, right? In other words, that sacrifice on that day was retroactive in its effectiveness. It covered backwards the sin that people had committed. Well, all of that, of course, then, is a great, gigantic type of the fact that Jesus Christ would come and die, and that the effectiveness of His atoning sacrifice would be retroactive to forgive all the sins of the saints who had lived in days gone by believing in God. So it was a type. You see, the people's sins under the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, even with the Great Day of Atonement, were never totally, totally forgiven. They were never wiped away. They were never put away, as it were. They were only covered temporarily, at best. So that what God did is, He respected the sacrifices they made, made a covering for their sins, so they could go on in relationship to Him. Sinful people, holy God, a covering for their sins. But until the time of Jesus Christ, when He fully dealt with sin, it could not be fully washed away, and thus there was never any full, complete forgiveness. The sin was only covered, and the relationship then with God could go on. We see this further. If you could turn in your Bible to Romans, to chapter 3, to verse 24. This is, in fact, the verses that William Cooper read in the insane asylum. You know, I find it very wonderful that people end up in mental institutions because they've had a mental breakdown, and that many of them... I've read about William Cooper, I read to you today of his conversion in the mental institution as he read the Bible, but I've read about many others and heard about others who ended up in a mental institution with a breakdown, got a hold of a Bible, and began to read it and found out as they read what their real problem was. See, the Word of God is alive, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, it cuts deeper, it cuts cleaner than anything known to man, and it reveals the thoughts and the intents of the heart. You want to know what's wrong with you? Open the Bible and read it. You'll find out what's wrong with you. So, I have read about and heard about many people who could not have their problems solved by an analyst, ending up in a mental institution, opened the Bible, found out what their real problem was, and found out it wasn't a mental breakdown, it was a sin breakdown. And that Jesus Christ has died for the sins of the whole world, and then giving their life to Christ, have found new life in Him, and got up and walked out of the mental hospital with a whole new way of thinking, and gone on to live a very wonderful life, as William Cooper did. Well, he read these verses and they speak of the Old Testament saints and how God passed over their sin. Verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation or a satisfaction by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because in His forbearance God had passed over, there it is, passed over the sins that were previously committed. All of that is saying Jesus had to die for the sake of the integrity of God and His righteousness and justice, because God had passed over the sins of the people in His love for them. But unless He had, in the act of passing over their sins, a plan to really deal with their sins, he would be unjust. Because God in His justice and holiness, having declared the soul that sins will surely die, He cannot arbitrarily just say, you know I love you so much, let's just forget about it all. This sin thing is just kind of holding up our relationship. I'm just going to forgive you and let it go. You see, God can't do that. God is holy. God is just. God has declared the soul that sins must die. He must deal with sin where he finds it. Therefore, in just passing over the sins of the people as they gave their animal sacrifices, which were not sufficient to take sin away, in passing over them, He left himself open to scandal in the universe because he wasn't dealing justly with their sin. But the fact is, it was not scandalous because it was all looking toward the day when Christ would pay the price for all of those sins that had been committed. You see, God in passing over the sins was looking under the sacrifice that Christ would one day bring. And so in His forbearance, God passed over the sins that were previously committed But now Christ has come and paid for those sins. So let's ask the question again. Go back to Hebrews 9. How was an Old Testament individual saved? They were saved, you might say, on credit. They were saved on spiritual credit. You see, by placing their obedient faith in God, they were credited with that which Jesus Christ would one day do at the cross. They were credited with the work that their promised Messiah would one day do on their behalf. And so knowing all of this ahead of time, God simply looked at their heart of faith and gave them credit and passed over their sins. And then when Jesus died, he paid the bill. He paid the price for sin. Now you might say, well, what about all those Old Testament sacrifices? I mean, where do they come in? I mean, what value then is found in them? Well, the value is found in this. They became a tangible proof, an outward sign of an inward reality. by coming down to the temple or the tabernacle, making your sacrifice, you were saying, God, here's the proof that I really believe in you, and here's the proof that my faith is an obedient faith, and so I'm going along with what you have said. And so the sacrifices then were marks of their faithful obedience. Furthermore, every sacrifice made was a symbol of the fact that the soul that sins shall surely die, where there's sin there must be death, and here's the sacrifice as a substitute, all of which were symbols to point to the death of Christ that would ultimately come to pay for all sin. And so that is the place of the Old Testament sacrifices. They were not able to bring salvation, they were just symbols pointing to the One who would bring the real sacrifice that would bring in salvation. If you understand then how Old Testament saints were saved, they were saved by faith, believing in God, the sacrifices, outward demonstrations of their obedience, symbols of the sacrifice that would come, then you realize they were simply saved by faith, right? So how was an Old Testament saint saved? By faith. We've nailed that one down. From now on, you can go on enjoying the truth of that. But here comes a question. If they were saved by faith, but they died with the promise unfulfilled of the Messiah who would shed His blood on their behalf to give them retroactive full forgiveness for their faith, then where did they go when they died? Because you cannot go into the presence of God without your sin totally paid for and forgiven. So if they died with their sins covered but not yet fully wiped out because Christ had not yet died yet, where did they go when they died? Does anybody know? Turn in your Bible and we'll look at it together. Some of you know, some of you don't. When we're done, you all will know. Luke chapter 16 to verse 19. When they died, they went to a place we find here in Luke 16, beginning with verse 19. They did not go into heaven, into the presence of God. In Luke 16, 19, Jesus gives us an account here that is not a parable. Some have thought it to be a parable, but the terminology is different than his parables. He has a certain terminology, a distinct terminology. In verse 19 he says, there was a certain rich man, this is a real account of a real individual, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was also a, what kind of beggar? A certain beggar, and his name was Lazarus and he was full of sores and he was laid at his gate desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores." And this guy had a terrible existence. Can you imagine? Laying around with the dogs licking you. But God had something greater in store for this guy, because he was a believer. And he had something far worse in store for the rich man, who refused to believe. And so it was, Jesus said in verse 22, that the beggar died. And he was carried by the angels to where? Abraham's bosom the rich man also died and he was buried but notice he was not taken to Abraham's bosom he was taken to another place so that we hop over to where he is and it says in verse 23 and being in torments in Hades he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham and Abraham was notice of far off so Abraham's bosom is a long ways off from where this guy went, but he could see them over there. And he also saw that Lazarus was over there with Abraham at the end of verse 23. Then he cried and he said, Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. Notice this, for I am tormented in this flame. So where the rich man was, was a place of torment. Where Abraham was, was a place of blessing. We know that Abraham died as a believer and certainly did not go to a place of torment. And so we read here in verse 25, but Abraham said, son, remember that in your lifetime you received good things and likewise Lazarus evil things. You had a good life. He had a bad life, but now he is comforted and you are tormented. Notice it's all reversed. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us." So here's the picture. It's a place called Abraham's bosom where the Old Testament saints went. It is a wonderful place. We know that because Jesus said to the thief on the cross, this day you will be with me in paradise. So Abraham's bosom was a place of paradise. There was a great gulf between that and another place that people went to where there were flames. Paradise on the one hand, flames on the other. If you were good, you went where Abraham was. Bad, you went where the rich man went. Let's get clearer. If you were righteous, you went to where Abraham was. If you were unrighteous, you went to where the rich man went, where the flames were. Let's get even more distinct. If you were a believer, you went to where Abraham went. If you were not a believer, you went to where the rich man went. And so it was that when the Old Testament saints who believed in God as He had revealed Himself through His Word and the Mosaic Covenant and all, When they died, they went to Abraham's bosom, a place of paradise, and those non-believing people that were wicked and rebellious to God went to a tormenting place. And then after Jesus' death and resurrection, these Old Testament saints received their retroactive forgiveness, and Jesus Christ led them right into the presence of God, and there they have ever been since that time. And when the rapture of the church comes, those saints are going to be gathered with Jesus. And when we go in the twinkling of an eye, remember how fast that is? We studied that not long ago. When we go in the twinkling of an eye to be caught up in the air to meet Christ, we will find all those Old Testament saints waiting and waving as we join the crowd of all of the saints of all time up to that point. And so where did the Old Testament saints go when they died? They did not go to heaven. They went to Abraham's bosom. And after Christ died, they were then taken into heaven, having been given full forgiveness because of his atoning sacrifice. First thing we have seen here is the answer to the question, why did Jesus have to die? And that is the redemption of the Old Testament saints. Let's move on now and talk about the second thing here in this passage. And that is, Jesus had to die for the ratification of the new covenant or the New Testament, verses 15 through 17. What we have here is really a presentation of the New Covenant as Christ's will and testament, you might say. It is certainly God the Father's inheritance that He put into His New Covenant or His will brought to us by Christ. God was in Christ, so we could call it Christ's will or Christ's New Covenant. The New Covenant is used here to describe God's will and testament to us. In fact, what God did in His goodness and His love for man, is He drew up this wonderful eternal inheritance that would be given to any man or woman who would come and believe upon Him. And then He sent Christ to bring it to us, and to explain it to us. And then He had Christ be the mediator of the whole thing. But in order for us to have God's will, become ratified and effective for us, there had to be a death. You see, just as in our lifetime, in these days, as you're getting older, or maybe if you're flying a lot on planes, or maybe if you're driving a lot on the freeway, you begin to realize, you know, I could die one of these days. And when you become more sensible, you realize, I will die one of these days. So you draw up a will. And those of you that are immensely wealthy, you put all of your riches into the will and you You bequeath them to some individual, but that individual does not get to have the riches of your inheritance until you die. And so it is with a will. And what the writer to the Hebrews is wanting to say to the Hebrew people who are having trouble with why did Jesus have to die, he's saying, look, look at the new covenant as a will. and Testament, Jesus is the testator of the will and you cannot receive the riches of the inheritance in the will until the testator dies. That is why Jesus Christ had to die so you could have the riches that God had for you. It becomes a very simple picture. So having said all of that, we'll read through the verses and we'll understand this point. In verse 15, For this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." So Jesus died so that all that believe could have the eternal inheritance. And then we read in verse 16, for where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after or ratified after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. So why did Jesus Christ have to die? for the redemption of the old covenant saints and for the ratification of the new covenant. Let's go to the third main thought in this section. Why did Jesus Christ have to die also for the remission of sin by blood? See, it is a universal law in the world that God has created that the soul that sins will surely die and that the only way to atone for sin is by the shedding of blood. That's God's law. Now you may say, I don't like that law. Sorry. God is God. God can do whatever He wants. He can make any law that He wants. And the fact is, He made this law. The soul that sins will surely die, and He made the other law. There is no remission of sin except by the shedding of blood. You see, all of God's covenants were brought in by the shedding of blood. All of them. So that you find in verse 18 and 19, concerning Moses and the old covenant that it was brought in by the shedding of blood. Look at verse 18. Therefore, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. That's just a double negative to say the first covenant was dedicated with blood. Verse 19. 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 and wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people. And so the covenant was instituted or brought in with the shedding of blood, and God commanded that that blood should be shed. Verse 20, saying, This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you. Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law, almost all things are purged with blood. The reason it says almost all things is because there were some things that were cleansed just by washing. Certain garments, certain things, certain purifications just came by a series of washings. But for the most part, everything was purged by blood. And let me add here, I'm moving along trying to keep it as simple as I possibly can. Because you remember when we were moving along in Hebrews and the writer said, I have many things to tell you, but I can't tell you them because you're carnal. And then he gave them all these really shocking statements to wake them up, arrest their attention, get them right with God. and really in a mode to learn and be close to Jesus, then He began to unfold all these truths. Well, now we know why He said they were hard to understand, because we've been studying them, and they are hard to understand. And what I'm trying to do is keep it as simple as I possibly can. Now, going through here, there's many things I could say about these issues, but next time we're going to study the blood of Christ and the death of Christ even more, so I don't want to deal with it all now. I just want to give you some basic understandings of what is going on here. So these covenants, the old covenant was brought in by blood. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. So we see verse 21. Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, all the vessels of the ministry, and according to the law, almost all things purged with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Now here's an interesting thing. You might ask yourself, but why at the beginning of a covenant? Would there need to be the shedding of blood? Well, to tell you the truth, I never understood this until this week. Now I know. I'm excited to know. Because what happens is, when God made a covenant with man, and He did it with Abraham, He had it with Moses on Sinai, He would have the shedding of blood because He knew that in making a covenant with man, He was dealing with sinners, regardless of the covenant. He knew in advance that man would fail in the covenant. So right up front, there's the shedding of blood to anticipate the failure that will come. Because the only way to deal with man's failure, which is sin, is by the shedding of blood. So if God is ever to have any covenants with man, they have to begin with the shedding of blood in anticipation of the fact that man is going to fail within the covenant that God has given. And that is why you have the covenants brought in with blood. Going further, down to verse 23 and on down, the new covenant was brought in by the shedding of blood also. And that's what the writer's trying to say. He's saying, now look, you believe in the covenant of Moses. You have no problem with that. You Jewish people understand it was brought in with the shedding of blood. Well, the new covenant is no different. Why should you have a problem with it? So verse 23, therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heaven should be purified with these. but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands or an earthly tabernacle. which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Not that he should offer himself often, speaking of the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another, doing it year in and year out because it was insufficient, because Christ then would have to have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once, notice that, now once, At the end of the ages he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and that is to say by the shedding of his blood. John Phillips is a commentator I really enjoy reading, and he had some good words to say here about all of this blood, because this is pretty bloody, isn't it? I mean, just think of it. We studied the Great Day of Atonement last time in Hebrews. It was blood everywhere. And you begin to ask the idea, well, ask God, well, what is this blood? I mean, blood everywhere! How could there be blood everywhere? God, this is radical! The answer is that's right. John Phillips put it very well. He said, today, many look with revulsion on the shedding of blood that forms such an essential feature of the Old Testament religion. They consider with equal horror the New Testament teaching concerning Christ's blood. They shudder with abhorrence. at many of the gospel hymns that emphasize the efficacy of the blood of Christ. Then he says this, listen very closely. Those who thus scorn the shed blood have their eyes blinded both to God's blazing holiness and to the dreadful, radical nature of sin. Sin is a radical and terrible reality that calls for a radical and terrible cure. Those are good words. See, that's why all of this. We tend to look at sin, we tend to minimize it, we minimize it in our own lives, we minimize it even as Christians when we've committed it, we've done heinous things, we tend to have this flippant attitude, hey, I confessed it to God, okay, leave me alone about it. We tend to deal lightly with sin. That's because we fail to see the holiness of God, and then we fail to see the sinfulness of our sin. Listen, the angels understand the holiness of God in a way that we do not. Remember in Isaiah chapter 6, When God appeared before Isaiah, the angels were there flying in the temple, and the glory of God was revealed, and the angels were crying out, Holy, Holy, Holy, and the place was shaking with the glory of God. Well, the angels there, if you read closely, you find out they have six wings, and with two they cover their face, the other two they're covering themselves, and only with the other two do they fly. Speaking of the fact that they understand the holiness of God, and they cover themselves from looking upon His glory, His holy glory. Well, we're so flippant about God. We know so little about Him that we tend to bring Him down and bring ourselves up, and in the process we minimize sin. In the sight of God, sin is radical. Sin is dreadful. Sin, then, can only be dealt with by radical measures. You begin to see the high cost of forgiveness? If there is to be forgiveness, mark it, someone must die. And so Christ had to die. It is a radical thing that God has done. And so rather than being repulsed and saying, Oh, how could there be all this blood? Oh, I don't like the story of the cross. It's a bloody thing, you know. I don't like to hear about it. You better hear about it. If you don't have forgiveness yet for your sins, and you're bothered with the fact that Jesus bled on the cross, and that bothers you, and you're repulsed by it, then know this. It was a radical thing, because your sin is radical. And in doing the radical thing, God made atonement for your radical sin. And you need to see your sin for as radical as it is, and repent of it, and embrace the one and only Christ who can save you from it. And then you'll no longer be repulsed when you see the blood of the cross. but rather you'll stand in awe and in wonder that a God of love, a God of such holiness would stoop so low as to become one of us to redeem us all. The blood will become precious to you. It will never repulse you again when you see it in that way. God's salvation was brought in by the shedding of Christ's blood. And because of Christ's blood, sin has been put away. Look at verse 26. He then would have had to suffer. We read that part. I want to draw your attention to the end. It says, end of verse 26, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. What this is saying is that there isn't going to be any more sacrifices. There isn't needed any more sacrifices. that Christ's act of atonement for our sin was a once and for all act. It will never be repeated and it never has to be repeated. And that is a great thing because with that one act He has put away my sin. Think of it. Do you understand what that means? I woke up this morning rejoicing in this truth because I woke up this morning as a sinner. How about you? You say, oh no, I haven't committed any sin in a long time. Oh, come on. We all woke up this morning as sinners. I woke up this morning as a sinner and I woke up rejoicing the fact that God has put away my sin. What that means is, the moment I came to Christ and said, rescue me from my sinfulness, He reached out and did just that. The moment I said, forgive me for all the sins I've ever committed, He did just that. And not only did He forgive me for all the ones I've committed, He looked ahead and saw all the ones I was going to commit and forgave all of those too. And in doing that, enabled me to have a place in heaven. In doing that, He gave me a position right now, before God, where my sins have been put away. It says right here, He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And not only sins, but sin. So, if you're a Christian today, when God looks at you, He sees you with your sin put away. How do you like that? What He sees is the righteousness of Christ. Listen, all of us struggle. All of us that love Christ, We bemoan the fact that we fail, that we sin, and that we're drawn out of intimate fellowship with God on a practical basis. But on a positional basis, when God looks at you, you're standing before Him, is this, He has put away your sin. It is a done deal. It is a done issue. It's never going to come up as an issue again before God. All that remains now is just the practical outworking of fellowship with God here. But in terms of eternity, your sin has been put away. Past sin, present sin, future sin. It all had to be obliterated for you to be given salvation. It's a permanent standing. It's a wonderful thing. Christ has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself once He has done it and once only. This is important because there is prevalent around us a false teaching of the perpetual offering of Christ. I don't know how familiar you are with this. I told you earlier in our study in Hebrews that as we moved along we would learn things. In Hebrews, as we see the ceremonies, the symbols, and all of the Old Testament religion slowly dismantled, taken down, and pushed away, as we see all of this done, in Hebrews we see only Christ left to be loved, to be adored, to be enough, to be sufficient, to be the only mediator between God and man. And I've told you that though you may not have come from a background of Judaism, that rather you may come from a background of religion that does have ceremonies, does have symbols, does have the traditions of men. And then as we move through Hebrews, what it's going to do is it's going to slowly dismantle all of those systems, and what you're going to have left when we get done is just Christ. There He is. He alone, worthy to be adored. There He is. He alone, the one mediator between God and man. There He is, He alone, the One who has made the once and for all sacrifice, never to be made again. It is a past event, it has put away sin, and there He is for us to believe upon and have our sin put away permanently as well. So, regardless of your religion, maybe it was Greek Orthodox, maybe it was Catholicism, maybe it was some other system like that, Armenian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox. Those systems all have ceremonies, traditions, and symbols, and all of these things. But every one of them, if brought to the book of Hebrews, collapses. Every one of them. If they read the book of Hebrews aloud to their people from cover to cover, it shut down the operation. Because all that's left is Christ, you see. I say all of that to say this, Without wanting to bash Catholics, I love Catholics. Some of the greatest people I know are Catholics. That's not the issue. But wanting to bring truth alongside the system. The Catholics have a teaching of the perpetual offering of Christ. It maintains that inasmuch as the priesthood of Christ is perpetual and sacrifice is an essential part of priesthood, therefore the sacrificial offering of Christ must also be perpetual. That's the reasoning. One of their theologians by the name of Ludwig Ott has written on the issue and he has given these thoughts. Ludwig Ott is a Roman Catholic theologian and he explains this perpetual sacrifice doctrine, which by the way was made official by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent, way back in the middle of the 16th century and has been held up to this day, has to do with the Holy Mass. You understand what we're talking about now? Mass. The Holy Mass. And he writes this. This is a Catholic theologian. He says, the Holy Mass is a true and proper sacrifice. It is physical and it is propitiatory or satisfying to God, the Holy Mass, removing sins, and conferring the grace of repentance, propitiated or satisfied by the offering of this sacrifice, God, by granting the grace of the gift and the gift of penance, remits trespasses and sins, however grievous they may be." What he is saying is that God's satisfaction with sin depends upon the weekly Mass. Now, friends, if you read Hebrews 9.26, you will find those words in direct opposition to the statement of Scripture which says, He has appeared to put away sin once by the sacrifice of Himself. Have you ever wandered through a Catholic church and wondered why at every turn you find Jesus on the cross? I grew up in many different churches, churches from A to Z. And I remember wandering in a Catholic church and looking around. I'd been in a Baptist church, Presbyterian, all these other churches, and I came to the Catholic church and I'd seen crosses on walls many, many times, but never had I seen a cross on a wall with Jesus still on it. And I remember wandering through the Catholic church as a little boy, wondering to myself, well, why is he still on that cross? I've been taught from the Bible he came off that cross, with my limited knowledge. Well, if you understand that the Mass has everything to do in the Holy Communion with a perpetual offering of Christ, that the sacrifice is actually being made again during that Mass, during that Holy Communion, that that is what they believe and that is what they teach, then you understand why everywhere you turn Christ is still on the cross. because he's still perpetually offering himself for sin. But you see, if I read my Bible right, I read that Jesus Christ died on the cross. By the end of the day, He was taken off of the cross. Within three days, He came out of the tomb and walked alive, and then ascended back into heaven where He ever lives to make intercession for us. The Christ of the Bible is not on the cross. He's come off the cross and He's alive. May we embrace that and believe it and reject the teaching of men and stand firm upon the teaching of Scripture. And in the process, you know what happens? Jesus Christ said, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. It is a wonderful thing to be set free by the truth of Scripture. Jesus Christ has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Now someone might say, but what about the fact we take communion here in this church? Yes, we do. You see, Jesus said to do it. And he said to do it in remembrance of the sacrifice that was made once and for all. He said to do it in remembrance of that sacrifice of his death, not to try to redo the sacrifice, but to have communion in remembrance of the once and for all sacrifice. And there is a major difference. He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself once. Now, here is the great thing. If we could move on to verses 27 and 28. Because of Christ's blood, men then can escape judgment. We read in verse 27, and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time, apart from sin for salvation, or apart from the sin issue, dying on the cross, and all of that, but will return to bring in His kingdom, His great salvation. Notice here in verse 27, at the end it says that it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, the judgment. God has ordained that every individual would die once. If you die, With your sin unforgiven, you will be judged for your sin. One sin is enough to condemn a human being to an eternal hell. One sin, don't ever forget, literally cursed the entire universe. One sin in the Garden of Eden. One sin is enough to condemn you to an eternal hell, and having been there for an eternity, you would not have yet even paid for that one sin. When you compare the holiness of God to the sin of man, man's sin is a radical thing, and it demands a radical payment. The only payment to be found for man's sin is in Jesus Christ. If you die without that payment on your behalf, you will be judged, not for one sin, which would be enough to condemn you to an eternal hell, but you will die for all the sins you have committed, and the biggest sin will be rejecting Christ, and that will be the one that would ultimately condemn you. To die without Christ is to die condemned to an eternal judgment. I remember, before I was a Christian, people witnessing to me, telling me all about the love of Christ, and, oh, He loves you so much, He wants to fill the emptiness in your life, and He wants to be your best friend, and He'll give you power, and all of this. And I was dialoguing back and forth with them all the time. In the meantime, I was studying Eastern religions. And I had all my answers for everything. Jesus loves you, they would say. I would say, Brahman loves you. I don't even know who Brahman is. I didn't then, I don't now. But I would say, Brahman loves you. Just trying to be clever, you know. And all these arguments, and they would say, Jesus is the only way to God. You'll never get to God without him. Religion is man's attempt to reach God. Jesus Christ is God's attempt to reach man, and He is God's only attempt to reach man, and yet an absolutely successful attempt. And if you will come to God through Jesus Christ, you'll find Him immediately. And I remember saying, oh, I'm not so concerned with immediately, I'm more concerned with working this all out my own way. So that, you know, you're born once, you die, you're born again, you die, you're born, you die. Hey, reincarnation! And I would say, you know, maybe I won't get it together in this life. Suppose I don't find Brahma in this life. I'll come back again. I'll try it another way. You know, there was one thing they used to tell me that literally messed my whole thing up. I would say, I'll come back again, I'll come back again, I'll come back again. They'd say, you won't, you won't, you won't. The Bible says it's appointed a man once to die, then judgment. I just didn't want to hear it. It just stuck like right in my throat. And I would say, no, I'll come back again. No, you won't. It's appointed to man once to die, then to judgment. I think, judgment? God, oh, my sin. And I remember thinking to myself, what if it's true? What if it's really true? And here I am talking about Brahman and Krishna, a little thing with an elephant squirting on his head, you know, these stupid things. What if it's true? And I die, and I stand before God, and I'm judged. And to tell you the truth, that reality I couldn't shake, and the reality that Jesus did love me enough to die for me, and the fact that He would give me a new life now in eternal heaven afterwards, the reality of it all drove me to Christ. I thank God for the truth. But it's appointed a man once to die and then to judgment. The question is, do you know Christ? Have your sins been forgiven? Or have you rejected Him? If so, you will be judged, eternally so. The Bible says in Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, and that, friends, is eternal death. It is a death that goes on and on and on. It is a death of separation from God. It is a death in a hot place, where Jesus said, the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. It is a death that goes on forever, and yet it is a death you do not have to face, because Romans 6.23 also says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, the blood of Christ is made a way for you to escape judgment. The question is, is His blood yours? Have you come under that blood? Have you given your life to Christ? The wonderful thing is, He's there waiting for you if you'll come to Him today. You see, to die without Christ is a tragedy. One time C.S. Lewis was walking along with Walter Hooper, who was his personal secretary, and they were walking by some graves and Walter Hooper looked over and he saw a grave with an inscription on it and he began to laugh. Because here's what the inscription said on the tombstone. Here lies an atheist, all dressed up, with no place to go. Lewis, however, did not completely share in his laughter. He responded soberly. I'm sure he wishes now that were true. You see, to die without Christ, you'll be placed in your casket. They can do marvelous things today. with people after they die. I've seen people in their casket that look better there than they looked alive. You know, these fancy clothes. They can paint you up, look so rosy. But you see, if you die without Christ, you're going to be all dressed up, but you have some place to go. It is appointed to men once to die and then the judgment. You will go to stand before God and give account for what you did in this life. And He's going to ask you one main question. What did you do with my Son Jesus Christ? What did you do with all the promptings that came to your heart by my Holy Spirit, calling you unto myself? What did you do with all the knocking on the door of your heart? What did you do with that? If you say, well, hey, I just didn't care. then God is going to say, depart from me you worker of iniquity, and be separated from me forever. And to have gazed upon the glory of the infinite God, And to be told that never again will you see that glory. To possibly see your friends off in the distance, now changed, now glorified, enjoying that glory, and to be shut out from that glory, that in itself would be hell enough. But to go to a place that is blazing and hot forever is only going to add to the misery. To be left unchanged with that same sinful nature that plagued you your entire life, that has gnawed at you each day that you have lived, that has gotten you into more trouble than you could have ever imagined, to carry that with you unchanged, without a body, into an eternal existence where the same gnawings and cravings you've had here will go with you forever, with no outlet, that will compound the misery. It is appointed to men once to die and then the judgment. You don't ever have to see that judgment because Christ has appeared once to die to put away the sins for all that will believe upon Him. Do you know Him? Has He forgiven your sin? Can you say for sure, when I leave this place today, if I drop dead on the steps going out the door, I'm going to go right to heaven? Or do you wonder? You see, you can't play Russian roulette with your life, because it isn't a question of, is it true, or if it's true, I'll be in trouble. The thing is, it is true. and you will be eternally separated from God if you don't know Him. Give your life to Jesus Christ today. Don't harden your heart anymore as He calls you. As you feel that burning within, something inside is saying to you, it's right, it's right, it's right, let go. Let go and give your life to Him. Ask Him to cleanse you, to forgive you of your sin, to give you a brand new life, to come and live inside of you and give you the power to do what you never could do, and that is to walk with Him. And He will meet you there, right where you are. He loves you so. He loves you with an eternal love. And you know what? If you will do that when you die, you will be all dressed up, And you'll have a great place to go. And the great thing is, you won't even take that old body all dressed up with you. Because where you're going, you're going to get a new one. And you will be dressed in the glory of God forever and ever and ever. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, for this time in your word. Lord, it is so good just to study the truth. How our hearts need the impact of the truth. Lord, may each one of us respond from where we are to this truth today. For those that don't yet know you, may you draw them with your power into this saving relationship with Christ today and bring them into the blessed freedom of being forgiven for their sins and fill them with the hope of heaven. Lord, for those of us that already know you, we thank you that we can continue to learn about you. Jesus, you are the greatest thing in our life. You are the center of our life. And we pray that you would continue to use the truth of Hebrews to separate out from our life anything that has kept us from You, any traditions of men or false beliefs or false teaching that have robbed us of resting in Your finished work. Lord God, draw us that we might run after You and be brought into the fullness of the abundant life that is ours in Jesus Christ. For we ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.