"Appointed to Die" - Hebrews 9:15-28

If you've got a Bible, Hebrews chapter 9, just a reminder, if you do want to

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

drop off kiddos in the back, 5 and under, Kareth is back there to do crowd control.

Muscle is also back there.

Told you.

Okay. Clue's about to put him through the paces back there. Let me tell you something.

Have you bought a saddle yet? I would love to see Lily just ride him around every now and again.

Nice. Probably shouldn't say that out loud. All right. Well,

I'm going to give away kind of the kind of church I grew up in this morning.

But I remember when I was young, especially when I first started going to what

I would call big church back then, I was probably six or seven, somewhere in there.

And I actually enjoyed going to, again, quote unquote, big church.

It was actually really enjoyable for me. I like singing and I like being around

my parents and watching them try and sing and all those wonderful things.

But I can remember walking in at times and we had like a two tiered,

you know, you had the bottom tier where people would kind of stand and sing

and in the top tier where the pastor would preach and the choir up there.

So it was a little system, but you could walk in and every now and again,

you would see about six microphones on that front tier and they would all have

a different color on them.

Everybody who's laughing and smiling knows exactly where this is going But I

knew when I walked in those days I was like,

oh baby We're getting the men's quartet this morning And who knows Now my favorite

men's quartet song Bar none was Step Into The Water By The Cathedrals.

That's why Bowen knows it. Okay, so this was a great song with a great bass.

But my second favorite song was Power in the Blood.

Anybody remember that one? Bowen doesn't know that one, right?

There's power, power, wonderful work and power in the blood of Jesus.

And I love those songs. But I'm telling you, when I walked in and I saw those

colored mics, I would get super hyped.

Now, every once again, they do a song where you're like, eh, whatever.

But I had to really train myself to not be so Americanized, like,

boo, play power of the blood, you know, get these guys out of here.

But it was always interesting to me, even as a kid, how much we sang about blood,

right? There's power in the blood.

We sing nothing but the blood. If you read the chapter this morning that we're

going to be in, Hebrews chapter 9, it says blood 14 times.

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

If you read a book like Leviticus, which I know all of you have read multiple times,

okay but if you read a book like leviticus you've got

blood in there over 70 times it talks about blood

and sacrifice in one way shape or form right we we sing things and we say things

that are all about jesus's blood covering our sins if you didn't know any better

christianity would be a very bloody religion right and in fact people have accused

christianity of that mainly when And they read their Bibles and they go,

man, the Old Testament is just a bloody mess.

Not only is there all the sacrifices and just think about the number of bulls

and goats. And if you were too poor to afford those, they would even let you bring pigeons.

Think about the hundreds of thousands of bulls and goats that are sacrificed in the Old Testament.

Again, this is a bit of a gruesome thing, but just the hundreds of thousands

of gallons of blood that was spilled because God says, these are the things that need to be done.

Not to mention all of the time that God rightly and justly tells his people

to go and take out whole generations of people,

different Assyrians and Babylonians, and not to mention the times that the Assyrians

and Babylonians are used by God to judge his own people.

Right there's no denying that there is a lot of blood

in this book we shouldn't be afraid of

that I don't think that should be something we shy away from because

I think one of the main reasons you see the amount of blood and sacrifice in

the Old Testament one of the main reasons you see that God wants them to see

it clearly is said by Paul in Romans 6 23 a verse you probably all know for

the wages of sin is what? Death.

Death. And the message that every single person in the old covenant would have

seen clearly in all of the sacrifices and all the blood that is spilt is that sin brings death.

Every time they see it, every time they see a sacrifice, every time they see

a bull or a goat be sacrificed, they know in their head, man, this is what sin does.

Sin brings death. Sin brings death. Sin brings death. Every day in front of

them, a reminder, this is what sin does.

This is even clear from the very beginning when Adam and Eve sin in the garden

and they try and cover their own selves up.

God comes to them. You remember God comes to them and he says,

where are you? As if he doesn't know.

And they tell him where they are and they says, well, what have you done?

And, you know, Adam goes, well, Eve. and Eve goes, well, Adam,

there's this sin that takes place. And what does God do?

Well, he kills some animals to make animal skins for them.

Now, is the reason God does that? Because he's like, you know,

the things that you've picked to cover yourself with these leaves and branches,

they're just not stylish enough for me, right? I've got a certain look I want you to have.

I don't think that's it at all. I don't think he cares about that.

What I think he's trying to get them to understand is you have sin.

And the only way that your sins are going to get covered is if something dies.

So again, the first thing I want you to hear this morning is when you think

about and you read in your Bible all about this blood and these sacrifices,

there is something that God is trying to get us to see, which is sin brings death.

Sin brings death. Sin brings death. Don't forget it.

Don't ever forget it. Don't miss it. I don't ever want you to miss it,

right? God doesn't ever want them to forget your sin brings death.

That's what it causes over and over and over again.

Have that in your mind as we get into the passage this morning.

We're going to begin in verse 15.

As always, he starts here. He says, therefore, right, because of all the things

that we talked about last week, where Christ has appeared as a high priest to

the good things, he's gone into the temple.

He's accomplished what we couldn't accomplish.

He says, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience,

not just cover our exterior sins, but cleanse us from the inside out.

He says, therefore, because of all that, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant.

So those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

Since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed

from under the first covenant.

So he uses this word we've talked about a lot, this mediator.

We again see Christ as the person that is the in-between, the go-between,

between this sinful humanity that's you and me and this holy God.

Christ stands as a mediator and Christ's death becomes the means of bridging this massive divide.

We'll go into this a little deeper in just a second, but one of the main things

that the author of Hebrews again wants his readers to understand is that God

doesn't look at your sin because of the new covenant and go,

it's just not a big deal anymore.

Again, he doesn't get to the New Testament and shift gears and go,

well, you know, I was angry for a while, but now I'm just cool. It's all good now.

I've wiped off enough civilizations from the planet.

You know, I had the flood to get some of my anger out. Sodom and Gomorrah,

you know, I threw down some fire brimstone.

I was a little upset and now I feel better. That's not what the Bible says is going on.

He simply says that all of that death and all of that anger and all of that

wrath rightly do you and me has been laid on his son.

Christ isn't a mediator that comes between us and God and negotiates our terms to God.

He's a mediator in the sense that he is the way to God.

He is the only way to God.

He specifically here wants them to know that, hey, Christ's sacrifice is better

than the high priestly sacrifice.

Again, we covered some of this last week, but he goes on to say in verse 16,

he says, for where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.

For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the

one who made it is alive. He says.

So we have these two words here in verses 15, 16, and 17. Now it's the same Greek word.

So in your Bibles, if it's like mine, you may have an NASB, it would be a little different.

Or NIV would be a little different. But you have this verse 15 that says covenant,

and then it switches in 16 to the word will.

Now again, in the Greek, exact same word, exact same word.

And I would just say, this is a really hard word to translate.

Like your Bible, like I said, if you have an NASB or maybe even in New King

James, I can't remember which ones are which, but they may translate that word

covenant every single time.

I like the translation of will. And here's why I think in the first sense in

verse 15, this is a religious sense that there is a covenant that takes place here.

There's a covenant offering. A new covenant is in place.

And yet when you get to 16, now he's making a legal argument.

So he says therefore he is the mediator of

a new covenant but when he gets to verse 16

he says for where a will is

involved these terms and the context seem to be making two separate points so

I don't mind that distinction now you may prefer covenant and all of it I'm

okay with that too I think what again really matters here is he's trying to

draw this distinction for these Hebrews Bruce.

What did Christ accomplish for you?

What did Christ's blood really accomplish? And a couple of questions I think

are really answered here for us.

Number one, how are Old Testament believers saved?

I think we've talked about this before, but I think this is a good question.

I was talking to somebody at my office this week, Friday, right before we left.

And he listens to Joe Rogan and the like a lot. And there was a guy on Rogan

named Wes Huff. And so he thought that was a Bible guy.

And if you don't know who any of those people are, good, right?

Keep living your life. You don't need to know who any of those people are.

But he had some questions. And one of the things he said was,

it's just so different now than it was then.

All the churches now and everything looks different now. I don't even know why

you could read your Bible and think that those are even remotely the same thing.

And And the conversation kind of shifted to this conversation,

which is, well, everything's just so different now.

There's just no way for us to know what it was like back then.

You know, they were saved by doing this, that, and the other,

and we're saved by doing this, that, and the other.

They were saved by sacrificing bulls and goats and going to the temple and following the law.

And apparently, these are his words, apparently we're just saved by going to

church and being good people and walking down the aisle.

And I said it as kindly as I could. I promise. And even though my sarcasm can't

help, but come through at times, it was just a, man, that couldn't be more wrong.

That couldn't be more wrong.

Again, how were they saved? They were saved in the same way you and I are by

trusting in God's hand for salvation, by trusting in God's hand for salvation.

He says in 15, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

So the Hebrews from the Old Testament, the Gentiles from the New Testament,

anybody who was called by God receives their inheritance from Christ because of his sacrifice.

Old Testament believers do not receive any extra grace, any extra amount of

heaven than we do because they did sacrifices. Just like we don't receive anything

extra because of something we've done.

We're all saved by grace through faith.

That's how salvation works. That's how it works from day one,

and it's how it will work until Christ returns.

But the question becomes, how do you receive an inheritance?

You don't receive an inheritance from people that are alive.

You don't get the terms of the will if people are alive.

Again, every murder mystery I've ever watched, which I will admit are not that

many, I don't do that. Okay.

Kareth is the murder mystery person in our lives. Her and my dad actually really

talk about this a lot. It's a weird thing.

Now I love like Columbo, watch a lot of Columbo. I think that's great,

but I don't know how many of those episodes I've watched where it all comes

down to, well, what was the motive?

Well, the motive was they stand to make a lot of money if that person dies, right?

The will says that they're going to get X amount of dollars or the will says

that the company comes theirs, but unless they're dead, none of that takes place.

Well, this is the same thing that the writer of Hebrews says here.

You receive an inheritance. You are going to receive something from God because of Christ's sacrifice,

because of grace through faith, you receive that, but you don't receive it until

Christ dies because you don't receive an inheritance until the person that's giving it to you dies.

2 Corinthians 8, 9 says it this way, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,

so that you through his poverty might become rich.

You could say it this way, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he died,

so that through his death you might become rich.

You might receive your inheritance. Jesus' death releases to believers the greatest

inheritance that they could ever imagine.

But Jesus' resurrection and current life means he works as a mediator between

us and God. Both things have to be true.

You need Christ to die on your behalf so you can receive your inheritance from God.

You need Christ to live and sit at the right hand of God so that he can mediate for you.

You can't go to god on your own. You need a mediator Christ jesus is that mediator.

So what's the old covenant connection?

Right again, this whole thing is This is what's going on.

This is what's happened Hey, this is these are the things that that are going

on now and he's trying to write to these hebrews and say Let me connect these

things for you Let me connect these things for you. Let me say hey,

here's the new covenant.

Here's the old covenant Let me put these together.

So let me read this for you. Again, chapter 9, starting verse 18.

He says, therefore, so again, because of this death and this inheritance and

this will, therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

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 with both the book itself and all the people.

Gruesome. Gruesome. Verse 20, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that

God commanded for you, and in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both

the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood,

and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

So again, the writer wants to connect these two ideas. He's got all these Hebrews

that know everything about the Old Testament, the Old Covenant,

the law, the prophets, the tabernacle, the temple. They would have understood all of these things.

He's trying to get them to understand not that everything is completely different.

He's trying to get them to understand that Jesus has accomplished everything

that those existed to accomplish.

That the reason that those things existed no longer exist. The reason is gone.

Christ has done those things.

He does this by drawings and parallels by saying, listen, you know,

right? He's talking to Hebrews. You know that everything requires a sacrifice.

He quotes to them from Exodus 24. The Ten Commandments had already been delivered.

The book of the covenant was read. And this is exactly what happens in Exodus 24, verses 5 through 8.

Exodus 24:5–8

He says, then he sent some young Israelite men.

They offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord.

Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls. The other half he sprinkled

on the altar and he took the book of the covenant or the law and he raised,

he read it to the people and they responded, we will do everything the Lord has said. We will obey.

Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said,

this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all his words.

They would have had those words in their head as the writer of Hebrews is saying

these things. They knew this story really well.

Now, I said gruesome earlier because this picture of Moses sprinkling blood

on altars and on the book is one thing.

But when it says that Moses sprinkles the blood on the people,

I would just assume if I started doing that on Sundays, we wouldn't last long.

I was joking with Scott and I about them sitting in the front row.

If you knew the front row was like, hey, you might get some blood on you.

Every time a visitor walked in, it's like, hey, are you cool with getting blood

on your shirt? Okay, you're going to want to sit in the back because our pastor

likes to sprinkle blood during the sermon.

It would be a pretty weird thing to see. But for these people,

they understood what was going on. This is imagery that they would know.

What is the imagery? The imagery is your sin causes death.

Again, your sin causes death. That's what sin does.

And when the blood is sprinkled on them, they understand that we've got blood

on our hands if we refuse to do what we just said we would do.

They say it out loud. We will do everything the Lord has said.

We will obey as the blood is sprinkled on them.

They say these words and yet we know they didn't do that.

So what happens to them? Well, they don't under the promised land.

And when they finally do it in the promised land, they don't do what God tells them to do.

Go read Judges, go read the Old Testament.

They never end up being exactly who God calls them to be. And they ultimately

end up in Assyria and Babylon.

In the New Testament, these Hebrews ultimately end up under Roman occupation.

They never come to the place that God truly says he has for them. Why?

Because they don't do everything the Lord has said. They don't obey what he

says, and their sin causes death.

That's what sin does. And again, this is just a picture of that.

It's a picture. The blood is a picture of those things. I think it's hard for

us to think this way at times. No, it's hard for me to think this way.

Again, I told you the kind of church I grew up in. I had colorful microphones

and men's quartets and things like that. We did not have an altar.

I've never seen a goat or a bull sacrificed. I've never seen blood sprinkled

on anything in the church. It's not my experience.

And I think in some ways, the current historical moment we're in makes it hard

for churches to talk about these kinds of things because the second people hear,

well, if everyone's a sinner,

that includes me, and sin brings death, then what you're saying is, I deserve death.

And that's a lot harder message to sell than come as you are.

Jesus loves you. We don't care.

It's a lot harder message to sell. Now, I would say both are generally true.

I don't care what you look like. I don't care what's going on.

You're always welcome to come to church here.

But the second part is also true.

Every single person is a sinner. Every single person deserves death.

Every single person has been separated from God. And I think because we don't

have some of the things that the Old Covenant has, it's easy for us to forget sin causes death.

Whereas they would have seen this almost every day. They would have seen the

visual representation of this constantly, right? We just don't.

I don't think a lot about it. I'll be honest with you.

But to deny the Lord is to bring death upon oneself.

Because a blood sacrifice is required.

It is required. That part hasn't changed.

It's either Christ's blood on your behalf to forgive your sins,

or it's your blood to pay for your own sins for eternity.

But blood and death is still required.

It's just a matter of whose So he

gets to kind of the climax of this section in verse 22 and he says Without the

shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins The first message is sin brings

death The second message is the forgiveness of sin is costly,

It's costly Right?

We look at salvation and we look at those things and again they seem so simple

to us They seem so trivial.

Come to church, walk an aisle, pray a prayer, sign a thing, right?

They just seem so easy and so simple, but we forget that the Son of God had

to die for you to receive that forgiveness.

The Son of God was ridiculed and betrayed and beaten and hung on a cross.

And more than that, the Son of God gave himself over to the wrath of God that

was due to you and me so that you could walk the aisle, so that you could pray

the prayer, so that you could believe.

But if all we ever talk about is our end of the bargain, what we're supposed

to do, we forget so quickly what God did to save us.

We would do well to take some time to ponder that and consider it.

That your salvation, your forgiveness was not simply given to you, it was bought for you.

That there was a lamb sacrificed for your sins, and it was the lamb of God who

comes to take away the sin of the world. But there was a death.

For anyone you know, they need to know, listen, it will either be you being

sacrificed for eternity, or it will be Christ's sacrifice for you on your behalf.

All right, let's close. Look at these last few verses.

Really, as he gets to the end of chapter nine, what he wants to simply close

with is, hey, all these things I've been talking about, what do they accomplish?

What makes them so much better? It's his final argument.

So he says in verse 23, 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.

What is the first thing it accomplishes? It accomplishes a perfect purity.

These old sacrifices, when they were made, would atone for the sins of the people,

but they wouldn't forgive them from the inside to the outside.

They would simply cover up their sins.

They were a way for God to cover their sins and overlook them.

It even says that at the beginning of this chapter, that God would overlook

those sins of ignorance.

That's what the Day of Atonement did. It didn't forgive anyone. It covered somebody.

Again, think of the Adam and Eve imagery. God didn't forgive them when he killed

that animal to cover them with animal skins, but he did cover them.

He did let them know, hey, I do love you. I'm not going to let you go.

You are going to die now, but I am going to cover you.

1 Peter 1, 18 through 19 says it this way.

You were ransomed, right? You were bought from the futile ways you inherited from your forefathers.

Not like perishable things such as silver or gold. Think about that.

It's like, hey, you were ransomed, but not with some weak stuff like silver or gold.

He's really trying to set a tone here.

But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. What does he say?

Your purity, your perfection, your justification has been ransomed for you.

It has been bought for you by the blood of Christ.

You have a perfect purity.

Verse 24 says this, For Christ has entered not into the holy places made with

hands, Which are copies of the true things But into heaven itself,

Now to appear in the presence of God On our behalf You have a perfect purity

And you have a perfect representative.

For all of these people reading this, they would have known the high priest.

They would have known that he was sinful.

They would have known that he had to atone for his own sins when he went to the Holy of Holies.

They knew the stories of all the corrupt high priests that existed.

The writer of Hebrews says, you don't have that kind of representative anymore.

You have a perfect representative.

In fact, he doesn't just go into a tent made by human hands.

He doesn't go into a temple made by human hands in front of an ark made by human

hands in front of a law. made by human hands.

He goes before the very face of God to represent you.

Romans 8.34 says, Who is he that condemns?

Who is it that can condemn you?

Christ Jesus who died. More than that, who was raised to life?

He is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Man, that's a great question. Who is he that condemns?

You have a representative before God, Christ Jesus, and he is your representative

to intercede on your behalf.

And this is, again, an incredible question. Who is he that condemns?

Is it your family that condemns you?

Is it your friends that condemn you? Is it the world that condemns you?

Is it even your own self that condemns you? Some of you are harder on yourselves

than anyone could ever be on your own sins.

And the worst advocate you have is the one that you see in the mirror.

You will demolish yourself, bring yourself down every bit of the way,

not just being honest about your sins, but crucifying yourself over your sins.

And the Romans 8 applies just as much to you as it does to Satan himself.

Who is it that condemns you?

Because Christ sits at the right hand of God, interceding for you,

being your mediator, claiming that you are his, that you belong to him,

that he has cleansed you by his sacrifice.

He has made you righteous. He has justified you.

Who is it that condemns? You have a perfect representative.

Verses 25 and 26, you have a perfect forgiveness.

He says, nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as

the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own but

then he would had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world but

as it is he has appeared once for all the end of the ages to put away sin by

the sacrifice of himself.

Like this story, it says a rural village there lived a doctor that was noted

for his professionalism and skill.

He would go from person to person and he would provide services for these poor village folk.

And at the end of his life, when he died, his books were examined.

And back then they would keep a book of what he did and what he would have normally charged.

And on some of those charges at the bottom, he would just write forgiven,

right? Forgiven, too poor to pay.

Forgiven, couldn't afford it. Forgiven, just didn't have the money,

insisting that those debts had been settled.

But when he died, his wife found that book and she decided, I need some extra

cash. And it looks like all of these bills are unpaid.

So she goes to the courts and she says, listen, these people never paid my husband,

and I need this money so I can live.

And of course, the judge asked her, is this your husband's handwriting in red

at the bottom here? And she said, well, yeah.

He says, not a court in the land can touch those whom's debt is forgiven by the person it is owed.

That's what a perfect forgiveness looks like.

Romans 8.33, and I'm going to go ahead and read 34 again, to put this all together,

it says, who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen, right?

Who will bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

It is God who justifies.

Why do you have a perfect forgiveness? Because the only person that judges the living and the dead,

the only person that matters, the only judge in a high court over everything

has said to you, you are forgiven.

You are set free. You're justified. You are made right with God.

Now, are you still being sanctified on this side of heaven? Absolutely.

That's why you need a mediator. That's why you need Christ at the right hand of God.

Again ask that question, who will bring any charge against those whom God has

chosen, against God's elect, against those whom God has called? Who's going to do it?

If Satan himself stood before the Lord and he had watched every single thing

you had ever done, he knew every single thing you had ever looked at,

every single stray word you have ever said,

every single thought you had ever thought that was evil, every single thing

that may have ever crossed your mind to do that was wrong.

From the very smallest sin that you don't remember to the greatest sin you've

ever committed that you have a hard time forgiving yourself for,

if Satan himself stood before the Lord and said, listen, look at all of these

awful things that he could do,

Christ's response is, who are you to bring a charge against my people? Who are you?

Who do you think you are? What do you think you're able to do?

I have forgiven them. I've paid their debt.

Everything they owed to me has been paid for.

And it has been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And Satan will look at him and go, but God, you said yourself that sin brings death.

Satan will look at God and say, yes, but I read your law. I know what your law says.

I was there. I saw that blood get poured on your people. You made it so abundantly

clear that when they sinned, they would die.

And God will look right at him in the eye and says, you were 100% correct.

And someone did die. Someone was sacrificed.

And his sacrifice on their behalf reminds us that, again, yes,

sin brings death, but forgiveness is costly, but it is free for all those who

would believe. He closes here.

Have a perfect purity, a perfect representative, a perfect forgiveness,

and the last thing that you have, a perfect hope, verses 27 through 28. Let's close here.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,

will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

So again, they have the blood to remind us, or sorry, they had the blood to

remind them of the seriousness of sin.

When they saw the sacrifices, when they saw the blood, when they saw the blood

sprinkled on them and other things, they knew, okay, this is a serious thing.

What do we have that reminds us that sin reigns, that death reigns from sin?

Well, we have death. We have death.

Every single time you read an obituary, every single time death flashes across your face,

every single time you hear of a death or you experience one near you,

and eventually when you experience your own, it is a reminder that sin begets death.

That's what it does. And that's why the writer of Hebrews says,

it is a point unto man wants to die.

It is an appointment that you will keep.

You will keep it. It is undefeated. Minus one man, it is undefeated.

Right? Death is the great equalizer, a constant reminder that sin brings death.

But we have this hope if we believe that Christ will appear a second time,

not to deal with sin. He's already

done that, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

This is a great quote by Spurgeon. It says, the joy of pardon has a voice louder than the voice of sin.

God's voice speaking peace is the sweetest music that his children can ever hear.

So Jesus is going to come back.

It says that he's coming back not to deal with sin.

He's already done that, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Now, that's an interesting phrase because I've read Revelation and it seems

like he's dealing with sin.

No matter which view you take on Revelation, there's no view that says he's pretty light at the end.

He makes the Old Testament look like child's play.

So what does he mean? It sure looks like he's going to come back to deal with

sin. Well, what the writer of Hebrews means is this.

He's already come to make a way to deal with sin.

The punishment that sin deserves will be dealt out, that's no issue.

It's not going to be hard for God to do.

What Christians look forward to in the second coming is not so much what will happen to sinners.

It's what will happen to us.

He wants them to know, listen, he's coming back to save those who are eagerly

waiting for him. He will do it.

So just a few questions again as we close. Number one simple question,

are you trusting in Christ's blood or your own.

You are trusting in a sacrifice for your salvation, I promise you.

The Buddhist, the Muslim, the Hindu, the atheist, every single person is trusting

in some sacrifice for their salvation.

They are either trusting in their own sacrifice or one of their own choosing,

or they are trusting in Christ's sacrifice.

And again, And I think for many that we live around here, we don't have a lot

of people that may be openly atheistic or openly Muslim. Certainly there are some.

I think for most people around here, when I say they're trusting in their own,

they come to church and they sing the songs and they know the verses.

They just don't really believe that they're forgiven. They believe that it's

still a amount of their work, that they still have something to do,

that there's something they need to accomplish so that God will love them,

that he will forgive them.

We tend to drag up old sins and we tend to live under this vague sense of guilt.

Bridget says it this way, that we are not nearly as excited about God's forgiveness

as God is in extending it.

Because of that, instead of living in the sunshine of God's forgiveness through

Christ, we tend to live under an overcast sky of guilt most of the time.

Are you a Christian? Is that where you find yourself? Are you just kind of like

on the days that you read your Bible and the days that you listen to KV&E or

K-Love or whatever it is, right?

The days you do all the things right, You kind of walk away going,

man, I feel pretty good about me and Jesus today.

That's not a good way to live. What you need to do is when you've just had the

worst day, when you've sinned the most,

when you've done things you shouldn't have done, said things you shouldn't have

said, and you get to the end of the day and you go, man, I have absolutely blown it.

I haven't prioritized Christ in any way today.

I haven't treated people the way he's asked me to treat them.

I haven't done the things he's asked me to do.

Right when you bow your head in that moment you'll know very

quickly whether or not you're depending on yourself or you're

depending on christ because the words out of your mouth will not be god

i will be better tomorrow i'll do

better just don't get mad at god don't

don't send me away when you fully understand that

christ's blood and his sacrifice is what forgives you the kinds of prayers you

pray at the end of those days sound like this god thank you thank Thank you

that my salvation and my standing before you does not depend on me and my work

and my blood and sacrifice, but it depends on the work of your son.

Certainly, we want to live the lives that God calls us to live,

but no matter how good of a day or bad of a day you've had, if you're trusting

in Christ's blood for your salvation, who is there to condemn you?

Christ Jesus is the one who justifies you.

Question. Have you just forgotten what it costs to redeem you,

to buy you, to ransom you?

I find often that the people that will come to me and say things like,

you know, I'm just kind of failing here recently.

I've just kind of fallen off. I'm not where I'm supposed to be.

I want to be better. I want to do better.

They're often looking at me to give them some sort of eight-step program.

And for a long time in ministry, I would. I had all the books that I thought

I could give them. Here, read this book, read that book, or go home and try

this program and do these things.

And I'm not necessarily against any of those things.

I think something I've realized is that it doesn't really matter what program

you give someone or what process you want them to take.

If they've lost sight of the glory and the weight and the cost of the salvation

that God has so freely given them, it doesn't matter what you do.

It doesn't matter what book you read. It doesn't matter what process or program

you're in, and how good the Sunday school is, how good the Bible study is, how good the worship is.

None of that matters if you've forgotten what it costs.

Last question, where's your hope? Where's your hope?

He says here that we're appointed to die, and that is true.

David knew that fact. Every single person that ever lived knows that fact.

The Christian looks forward to that fact because we have a hope that when Jesus

comes to deal finally with sin, that he will save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

You'd say it this way. He would save those who were hoping for him.

Can't wait for him to get here. Can't wait for him to be here.

Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you again for this

church. God, thank you again for what you've done.

Thank you for supernatural abilities for people to focus.

And God, for your word to go out. I pray that it has its intended purpose.

God, that as we leave here, we'd be reminded that it is your sacrifice that

matters, your blood spilled that matters.

That you not only have redeemed us from our sin, you only have saved us,

but you live to intercede for us before the Father.

Pray that we would be honest about our situation, to be reminded that we will

die one day, we will stand before the judge, but that we will hope in you.

We will remind ourselves even now that if we believe in you,

God, if you have called us and we have been saved by you, that there is not

one person or being or false God in the universe that can stand up to God and

say, there's a problem with this one.

There is no one who can bring a charge against us. You have justified us. May I pray. Amen.