A Greater Sacrifice
Jesus is Greater: An Exposition of Hebrews

Transcript

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

He's greater than any problem, any challenge, any news that you've heard recently. Jesus is greater. That's the theme of our book of Hebrews is that Jesus is greater. It says in Hebrews 1:4; we don't have to get into the book very far before we see this theme.

Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.” And that's what the book's about. Some have called the book of Hebrews the book of betters and it is. It's a book filled with all of the reasons that Jesus is better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We can understand how Jesus offers a greater sacrifice. Let's look at the text. Today, we'll be looking for three reasons why Jesus offers a greater sacrifice. We're in verse 15 of chapter nine and following. Hebrews 9:15-28 (ESV) 15 “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. 23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,

26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” This is God's Word. Amen.

We're looking for three reasons why the sacrifice of Christ is greater. Here's the first:

1. It promises an eternal inheritance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

because the other priests didn't offer their own blood. They offered the blood of goats and of calves. But He came and offered His righteous blood. Therefore, He's the mediator of a new covenant. When we use the word, covenant, we could also say testament, right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Since we know that the new covenant was inaugurated by the blood of Jesus, how was the old covenant inaugurated? He's going to tell us. Verse 19, “For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,” Did you know the Hebrew word for covenant is a different word? It's the Hebrew word, ( ) and it literally means to cut.

It means to cut. In fact, that terminology has passed into modern English. And so when we make a deal, sometimes we might say, we're going to “cut a deal” with somebody. We're going to cut a deal.

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

So he mixed it with water so it wouldn't coagulate.

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

I think I put this in your notes. Verse 6. This is the word to Moses on how to do this. Leviticus 14:6 (ESV) “He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.”

This is how to do the rite of purification, so that things are set apart as being pure and holy. He would take a stick of cedar wood as his handle.

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

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

He's sprinkling all the holy things with the blood mixed with water. Where did the blood come from? It came from sacrificial goats,lambs and cows. This is where the blood is coming from.

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

The people lined up and Moses spoke over them. He says, in verse 20, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” They come under the blood. He's got his stick of cedarwood with hyssop at the top, and it's been dipped in this mixture of blood and water.

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

He's sprinkling everything in the tabernacle with the blood and then, all the vessels. So all the vessels and all the tables and all the furnishings.

That's a lot of blood.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Christ, we have an eternal inheritance. It says in 1 Peter 1:3-4 (ESV) 3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” It's an eternal inheritance. It's better than the promised land that was given conditionally.

No, this is a promise of heaven which is unconditionally kept by the sacrifice of Christ. Notice what it says in Romans 8:16-17 (NKJV) 16 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…” Believer, I want you to hear this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

He'd invite me up from time to time to tell me how the education fund was doing that my father had left in his last will and testament. The fund was great; it was really doing great. It looked like there's enough money. It was accruing to where all of us can go to college without worrying about it. Praise the Lord, Uncle Clyde, that's great.

Then, as the mid-70’s came to pass and it was time for me to go to college, the will said the first child (that was me) gets to use up to all of it in order to go to school, but hopefully there's enough for the rest. After I finished school, I couldn't touch any of it. It would go to the next in the birth order. That was the way the will was written.

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus has paid it all. He has taken care of it. We are joint heirs with Him.

<My uncle said, “Well, maybe if we slow down here a little bit on how we're cashing it out.” So, I got student loans because I was feeling bad that I didn't want to be the big brother that took all the money. Then my siblings would think, you got to go to college. So, I took out student loans, and the stock recovered enough to get the rest of them through college. Praise the Lord.

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

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

2. It provides a complete forgiveness of sin.

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

and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. This is a quotation, kind of a paraphrase of the book of Leviticus, chapter 17, where we read, Leviticus 17:11 (ESV) “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
We see the author of Hebrews

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

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

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

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

24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” “For Christ has entered.” He has gone in there. Now, I couldn't go in there if He didn't go in first. But He went in first, “not into holy places made with hands.” Now, that one up there wasn't made by human hands.

This one down here was made by human hands. That one up there, that one was made by the Lord, and He enters into it in this place not made with human hands. “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things,” The ones down here, “which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now, to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” On my behalf, on your behalf. Verse 25, “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,” “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly.” He didn't have to keep going in once a year;

That's what it says here. Verse25, “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,” Every year, at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest is to enter in, and he doesn’t go in carrying his own blood.

He goes in carrying the blood of the lamb, because he has to pay for his own sins, because he's a sinner too, and as a representative of the people. And that's what the Jewish rites were. But Jesus doesn't have to do it that way because it says this. Verse 25 “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.”

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

He kept the law that we couldn't keep and took the death so we wouldn't have. He took the separation from the Father so that we would no longer be separated, took our death, took and gave us His righteousness, His eternal life, and His sonship with the Father. This is what He did; He does this once for all. And then it says, “But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” “At the end of the ages,” which is a strange place to put this, because when did this happen?

It happened 2,000 years ago.

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

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

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

But there's coming a day when the last days will end. Okay, that's not the sermon today, but I just wanted to touch on that. “But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages, because the last days were inaugurated whenever the church was founded by Jesus Christ. What did He come to do?

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

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

It says in
Colossians 2:13-14 (NIV) 13 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”
What does this mean? He has put away sin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

He put it away so that my record is clear. He nailed it to the cross and all of my sins. He took the payment on Himself, so that when God's wrath was poured out upon Jesus, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” because ‘He who knew no sin became sin, that I might become His righteousness.”He canceled it.

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

3. It produces an eager expectation of His return.

It produces an eager expectation of His return. This sacrifice He's made, it makes me want to see Him. That one who died for me, makes me want to meet Him. I want to know Him. I want to see Him.

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

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

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

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

Well, not everybody does because of verse 27. Let's get there first, and then we'll get to verse 28. Verse 27, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” Do you keep a calendar? Do you have a Google calendar?

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

You're still using an ink pen.You cross it out when the day's gone. You have one of those calendars that you put a line through every day. I don't know.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now look, if you stand before the Father and He says, ‘Gary, why should I let you into my heaven?’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He appeared the first time. We saw that back in verse 11 of last week, “Christ appeared the first time.” Now, He's going to come again. When He comes again, it's not to deal with sin.

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

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

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

It says in Philippians 3:20-21 (NIV) 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” In Romans we read, Romans 8:1-2 (NLT) 1 “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” You don't have to be afraid.

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

He's the greatest sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Do you know Him today? Are you ready for those two appointments? Let’s pray.

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

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

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

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

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

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