Introduction:
It Was Necessary... (Hebrews 9:15-28):
- For Jesus to Shed His Blood for My Forgiveness . (Heb 9:15-22)
- For Jesus to Die Only Once as My Substitute . (Heb 9:23-28)
2 Corinthians 5:21 - For our sake He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:17
Alright, so you can open up to the book of Hebrews chapter 9 verses 15 through 28 Hebrews 9 verses 15 through 28 Have you ever asked yourself this question or asked someone else this question? Was that necessary? Was that really?
01:18-01:36
Necessary, maybe you're stuck in a long boring meeting at work and you're thinking to yourself Was this really necessary? Couldn't this have just been an email that I wouldn't even read anyway Or maybe you have a sociopathic co-worker who reheats fish in the shared microwave in the break room at work.
01:37-01:38
And you think to yourself, really?
01:40-01:42
Is there really nothing else you could have reheated for lunch?
01:43-01:44
Was that necessary?
01:46-01:51
I know as a father of two, I ask myself this question a lot every single day.
01:52-01:59
I leave the family room to make my kids some lunch and I come back to a mess that seems both impressive and impossible.
02:00-02:04
And I asked Sam and Emmy, did you really have to pull out every single toy?
02:04-02:05
Was that necessary?
02:07-02:17
On the other hand, when I lose my temper with my kids and the dust settles, I think to myself, was that necessary?
02:18-02:21
Surely there was a better way to handle that.
02:22-02:33
You know, this time of year, You'll come across the magazines and the grocery store and the think pieces online that focus on Jesus and the claims of his followers.
02:33-02:41
And eventually the question is asked, would a loving God really put his own son to death?
02:42-02:43
Was that necessary?
02:45-02:47
Let me ask you, how does our culture answer that question?
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Yes or no?
02:49-02:52
They answer with a resounding no.
02:53-02:54
Was it necessary?
02:54-02:55
Of course not.
02:55-02:59
A loving God would never do something like this.
02:59-03:04
A God worth believing in would never put his own son to death.
03:05-03:08
Many look to the cross of Christ and are repulsed.
03:10-03:13
Many look to the cross of Christ and think, I don't need to be saved.
03:14-03:15
I'm doing just fine.
03:15-03:17
I'm a good person.
03:19-03:24
Well, I want us to turn our attention away from how our culture answers this question.
03:25-03:31
And I want us to focus our time and attention upon how the word of God answers this question.
03:32-03:42
Was it necessary for the sinless son of God to suffer a humiliating and horrendous death upon a cross over 2,000 years ago?
03:43-03:51
Spoiler alert for my message later on, the Bible is crystal clear that yes, This was absolutely necessary.
03:51-03:59
In this overwhelming yes from scripture, we should listen to way more than the nose of this world.
04:01-04:13
Our passage for this evening, Hebrews chapter nine, verses 15 to 28, lays out two clear and compelling reasons for the absolute necessity of the cross.
04:14-04:17
Before we dive into our text, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.
04:19-04:29
Father, we thank you so much this time we can come together to focus on your son and what he did for us over 2,000 years ago.
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Lord, I pray that every single distraction would be pushed aside in our minds.
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That Lord, we'd be dialed in to what you wanna teach us this evening, Lord.
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Pray that your Holy Spirit would encourage us, Convict us, challenge us in the ways only he can.
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In the precious name of Jesus Christ, amen.
04:53-05:02
So our outline for this evening is, it was necessary, number one, for Jesus to shed his blood for my forgiveness.
05:03-05:08
It was necessary for Jesus to shed his blood for my forgiveness.
05:09-05:12
Let's start with Hebrews chapter nine, verses 15 through 22.
05:13-05:28
Therefore Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since the death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
05:28-05:33
For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
05:34-05:40
For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it is alive.
05:40-05:45
Therefore, not even the first covenant inaugurated without blood.
05:46-06:10
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 in itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant "that God has commanded you." In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and the vessels used in worship.
06:11-06:22
Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
06:23-06:28
You may have noticed that the words blood and death are in this passage a lot.
06:29-06:36
We've learned over the past several months in Hebrews that animal sacrifices were a huge deal in the Old Testament.
06:36-06:39
They were a huge deal in first century Israel.
06:39-06:47
The Lord commanded his people to make continual sacrifices to cover their continual acts of sin.
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God is too holy, he is too righteous, he is too pure to just let sin go unpunished.
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There has to be a consequence.
06:58-07:06
But Pastor Jeff and I have repeatedly stated that these Old Testament sacrifices did not pay the penalty for sin.
07:06-07:18
The blood of animals allowed God to pass over the sins of his people until the day when Jesus would pay the penalty in full upon the cross.
07:19-07:23
You know, Pastor Jeff used an illustration a month or so ago to explain this.
07:23-07:25
And I'm gonna steal his illustration for tonight.
07:26-07:27
Don't worry, I asked for his permission.
07:28-07:34
The animal sacrifice in the Old Testament are like a credit card charge, like swiping a credit card.
07:35-07:44
You have to understand that when you swipe this card at the pump, when you swipe it at the grocery store, you're not actually paying in that moment, right?
07:44-07:46
You as an individual are not paying.
07:46-07:53
The credit card, the bank is paying in that moment, and you are promising to pay them back at a future date.
07:54-08:01
With each swipe of the card, you are building up a debt that will need to be paid in the future.
08:01-08:04
Someone will have to pay it.
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This is what was happening with the Old Testament sacrificial system.
08:09-08:20
God's people were swiping that card with every single sacrifice and pushing off that debt day after day, month after month, year after year.
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And then Jesus came and laid out the full payment upon the cross and erased the debt that was owed by those under the old covenant.
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And he also purchased salvation for those who had placed their faith and trust in him from then on.
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This is what the author of Hebrews is talking about, verse 15, "Therefore, Jesus 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, "that purchases them from a transgressions committed under the first covenant.
09:01-09:09
Without realizing it, Old Testament believers were looking forward to the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.
09:10-09:16
While as new covenant believers, we look back to the cross of Christ and his sacrifice.
09:17-09:23
They looked forward to what he would do, while we look backward to what he has already done.
09:24-09:29
Old Testament saints and Christian believers We are saved in the same exact way.
09:29-09:32
We are saved by grace through faith.
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We are saved by Jesus Christ.
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Our Old Testament brothers and sisters had a very blurry and incomplete picture of the coming Messiah.
09:43-09:52
While we today have a 4K quality view of our Savior and his accomplished mission of salvation.
09:54-10:00
Again, going back to our original question, did Jesus really have to die?
10:01-10:03
Was that really necessary?
10:03-10:08
Surely there was another way for God to deal with our sin problem.
10:10-10:17
You know, a few months ago, my wife Kate and I finally opened up life insurance policies after years and years of procrastination and putting it off.
10:18-10:21
We were just suddenly hit with a massive wave of responsibility.
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We didn't want to put the other person or our kids in a bad spot if the worst was to happen.
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But my kids do not get access to these funds from this policy apart from the death of Kate and myself.
10:36-10:44
You know, when they're teenagers, Sam and Emmy just can't walk into the life insurance office and say, "Money, please, money right now, I need it.
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"This is my personal ATM." That's not how it works.
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They do not receive the full benefits of this policy unless Kate and I both die.
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And it's the same with the cross of Christ.
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The benefits and blessings of salvation and grace cannot be withdrawn apart from the death of Jesus.
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And the author of Hebrews clearly says this in verses 16 through 17.
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"For where a will," he's talking about a person's last will and testament, "For where a will is involved, "The death of the person who made it must be established, "for a will takes effect only at death, "since it is not enforced, "as long as the one who made it is alive." Like a gracious father blessing his kids with a generous inheritance of money and heirlooms, God has overwhelmed us with an awesome inheritance of love, grace, mercy, and hope that will never spoil or grow old.
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The death of Christ was the only way for this heavenly last will and testament to be accredited to our accounts.
11:57-12:06
The death of Jesus was the only way for those under the old covenant to be saved and to kick off a new covenant in his blood.
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Without his payment upon the cross, we are still just racking up that sinful debt day after day that we can never hope to pay off on our own.
12:19-12:30
The author of Hebrews spends a decent chunk of time in verses 18 through 22, talking about the blood of the covenant that God made with Moses and the people of Israel.
12:30-12:39
In Exodus 24, Moses commanded that sacrifices be made to the Lord, and he collected the blood from these sacrifices into basins.
12:40-12:47
And he took half of that blood, and he threw it against the altar, and then he sprinkled the people of Israel with blood as well.
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And he also sprinkled the commandments of God that he wrote down in a book.
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And later on, we're told that the tabernacle, the tent was sprinkled and everything in it.
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Everybody, don't worry, that's not gonna happen this Good Friday.
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Don't worry, this is an Old Testament Sea World, and the first few rows are not the splash zone.
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Don't worry, you're all safe.
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But why does this passage talk about blood so much?
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Why do we sing songs about the blood of Jesus?
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Why do we preach sermons about the blood of Christ?
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What's so special about blood?
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Well, blood is always symbolized, both life and death.
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To be alive, you have to have blood flowing through your body.
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And if you lose enough blood, you lose your life.
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As you've already learned, We are all sinners by nature and by choice, and our sin has to be punished.
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We have all committed cosmic treason against the God of the universe by rebelling against his authority and going our own way.
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God can't just ignore this.
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He can't sweep it under the rug.
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He can't just give us a stern warning.
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There has to be a penalty.
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And the Bible is so clear that the penalty for sin is what?
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Death.
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And there are only two acceptable ways for this penalty to be paid.
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God the Father will either accept your eternal death in hell forever, or he will accept the death of his son in your place and on your behalf.
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Jesus' blood, his very life, flowed out upon the cross so that you could be forgiven and washed clean.
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This brutal death was necessary.
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'Cause as we're told in verse 22, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
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So was the shedding of Jesus' blood upon the cross necessary?
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If you wanna be forgiven, it was.
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The Bible is so clear on this.
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There is no other way.
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But I know that there are people in this room trying to make their own way.
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Right now you're trying to earn God's love for you, you're trying to buy his forgiveness by being a good person and doing good things, checking off all the boxes on the nice list.
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You may be coming to church every single week, you may be in a small group, you may even be serving on Sunday morning.
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But internally you're trusting in yourself and you're not trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
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You may be fooling me, you may be fooling Pastor Jeff, you may be fooling your family and friends, but guess what?
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You're not fooling God.
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He knows and sees everything.
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He knows and he sees where your faith is.
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He knows and sees if you're placing your full confidence in the blood of Jesus or in the sweat of your own efforts.
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If that's you tonight, I am pleading with you Stop wasting any more of your time.
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Don't waste another second trying to crawl and scratch your way to God when a way has been made for you already.
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Tonight, lay all of your striving, lay all of your sinful burdens down at the cross of Christ and receive all the blessings that he purchased with his blood.
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As we're told in the hymn, Rock of Ages, Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.
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So let me ask you this evening, are you clinging to the cross?
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Are you clinging to your Savior?
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Or are you clinging to yourself?
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Honestly, think about that question.
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It was necessary, number two, for Jesus to die only once as my substitute.
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For Jesus to die only once as my substitute.
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Let's continue on with verses 23 through 24.
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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, for Christ has entered not into holy places "hands, which are copies of the true things, "but into heaven itself, now to appear "in the presence of God on our behalf." Over the past several weeks, Pastor Jeff has been talking a lot about the tabernacle, and later, the temple.
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The tabernacle and later the temple were meant to serve as earthly copies or pictures of heavenly realities.
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Look at the tabernacle or the temple as a miniature model of an actual building.
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The model is not the building itself, but it tells you what the building is like.
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The temple and the tabernacle were meant to be sketches, pictures of heaven.
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And the Holy of Holies in the temple was meant to picture God's royal throne room in heaven where his glory dwells.
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And according to the author of Hebrews, this ritual sprinkling of blood in the tabernacle pointed forward to the much better and greater sacrifices of Jesus Christ.
18:34-18:46
Jesus didn't physically enter into the earthly Holy of Holies in the temple as the high priest would once a year to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, but he did something even greater.
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He did something even more definitive.
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After his death, Jesus entered into the heavenly holy of holies, into the throne room of God, and presented himself as the final victorious sacrifice, as the great high priest, as the savior of his people.
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And because of this, he brings you with him into his presence as well.
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He brings you into the presence of a loving God, both now and forever.
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If you have trust in Christ for salvation, You have been brought into a glorious, beautiful, and never-ending relationship with the God of the universe.
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God didn't just save us from an eternity in hell.
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He saved us to an everlasting audience in the presence of God.
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Let that sink in for a minute.
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Really think about that.
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We get to do life with God.
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His very life flows through us, and we have the awesome privilege of serving Him, of living for Him.
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The greatest gift of salvation is God Himself.
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Do you really believe that?
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The greatest gift of salvation is a relationship with God that can never ever be broken, no matter who you are, no matter what you do.
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It doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will.
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Let's continue on verses 25 through 28.
20:24-20:35
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.
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But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away by the sacrifice of himself.
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Sorry, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
20:46-21:02
And just as it 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.
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The writer of this book wants to make it crystal clear that the sacrifice of Jesus is nothing like the sacrifices that came before.
21:13-21:18
Unlike the sacrifices laid out in the law, Jesus' sacrifice was not continual.
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It was once for all.
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Once and only once.
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Not a sacrifice to be repeated.
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Jesus does not need to come back to suffer and die and rise again and then rinse, wash, and repeat the whole process all over again.
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Once was more than enough.
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His sacrifice has already been accepted by the Father.
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What can you possibly add to what has already been perfectly completed.
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And in verse 28, we're given an extremely important detail.
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We're told that Jesus bore our sins on the cross.
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This is so important because it makes the whole crucifixion so much more personal, so much more hard-hitting.
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Jesus didn't just die for you on the cross.
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He didn't just die for your sins upon the cross.
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He became your sin on the cross.
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He became your lustful thoughts.
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He became your lying.
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He became your pride.
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He became your deception.
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He became your gossiping, your slander.
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He became all the sins that you struggle with.
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Paul speaks this in 2 Corinthians 5.21.
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For our sake, he, God the Father, made him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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Jesus was treated as if he made every single bad decision that you've ever made.
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He was treated as if he committed every single sin that you've ever given yourself over to.
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In the most one-sided deal in human history, Jesus was given your sinful and shameful garbage and you were gifted with his limitless treasure.
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Jesus bore all of your sin upon the cross so that you could forever bear his perfect righteousness forever.
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The reality that Jesus bore all of our sin on the cross should cause us to take our sin extremely seriously.
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A sinful thought, a sinful word, a sinful action It isn't just a small, "Oops, whoops," mistake.
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It is something that your Savior had to suffer and die to pay for.
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When you have a true and full idea of the scope of the cross, you begin to hate your sin with a fiery passion, and you want to do anything to fight against temptation.
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To be clear, this isn't a legalistic battle where you try to earn God's love and acceptance by putting away sin and choosing righteousness.
24:09-24:21
Instead, this is a grace-fueled battle where you put away sin and choose righteousness because you treasure Christ too much to dishonor Him and His sacrifice.
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In a similar way, the substitution of Jesus should cause all of us to take this life and our eternal destinies extremely seriously.
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Listen again to verses 26 through 28.
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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.
24:45-25:01
And just as it 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.
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Please listen to this.
25:06-25:15
With every breath that you take, with every day that you live, you are getting closer and closer and closer to death.
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Death is something we all don't like to think about, right?
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We wanna push it off.
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But in this passage, we are forced to come to grips with it.
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Unless our Lord returns in our lifetimes, which he very well could, All of us in this room will die.
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This passage says, "Then we will face judgment." Go to one of two places, heaven or hell.
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And the Bible describes heaven as life everlasting and eternal suffering in a lake of fire as the second death.
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Christ laid down his life once and only once.
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You can die only once, as he did, and then live with him forever, or you can die twice and spend eternity away from him.
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The choice is yours this evening.
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According to this passage, those of us who humble ourselves before the cross of Christ should also eagerly look forward to his return.
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As I said earlier, we may not see it in our lifetimes, but we should hope with everything within us that our Lord will return soon.
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Do you actually have that desire?
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Or do you think, eh, I have some things I wanna see and do in the meantime.
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What could possibly be better than seeing your Savior face to face?
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If you're a believer in Christ, you shouldn't fear death.
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You shouldn't fear the future that God has in store because it should be your innermost desire to spend forever with Him.
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It should fill you with joy to know that the one who definitively saved you from the power and penalty of sin will one day fully free you from the presence of sin in your life.
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Just think about that.
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One day you will no longer have to deal with temptation.
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You will no longer have to deal with that frustrating battle between your old self and your new self in Christ.
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Your only desire, your only goal, your only ambition will be to forever honor and glorify the Lamb who was slain in your place and on your behalf.
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So as we close, I wanna re-ask you the question that we've been contemplating all evening.
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Was it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross?
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What's the answer, church?
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Absolutely and without a doubt, the Bible is 100% clear on this, and you will never ever be able to convince me otherwise.
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You have a better chance of convincing me that a mouthful of dirt from outside tastes like a chocolate Easter bunny, or the clouds are made of marshmallow peeps, than convincing me that the cross is unnecessary, than convincing me that it's a made-up lie made up by men with ulterior motives.
28:24-28:31
This is the plan of a sovereign God who does things in a way that defies our limited minds and our wrong expectations.
28:34-28:51
As the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the word of the cross is folly "to those who are perishing, "but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." What man or woman could possibly come up to something like this on their own.
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It is too awesome, it is too glorious to be anything but the work of God.
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So the author of Hebrews is obviously sold on the necessity of the cross.
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The other New Testament writers are sold on the necessity of the cross.
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I hope that it's clear as the preacher of this message, I'm sold on the necessity of the cross.
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But what about you?
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Are you sold or are you unsure?
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Are you convinced or are you still riding the fence?
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Have you truly bowed the knee to Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?
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The one who had his arms stretched out upon that cross has those same arms open wide to you.
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He is calling you to run to him so he can embrace you if you simply repent of your sin.
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trust in him alone for salvation, and believe in his loving sacrifice.
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The worship team come forward as we pray.
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Father, the gospel is so awesome, it is so glorious.
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The cross of Christ is amazing.
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And Lord, it's so easy to hear this kind of message all the time and read your word about the cross to have it become boring, Lord.
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May this never be.
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May every single time we hear it be like the first time we heard it, Lord.
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This is the greatest news imaginable.
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And I pray that we would always view it in that way.
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If there's someone in this room who doesn't know and love you, God, I pray that you'd open up their heart to the truth and you'd give them the faith to believe.
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And for those of us who do believe in you, may be once again be blown away by your glory and by the sacrifice of your son.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 9:15-28
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why was it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross? Couldn’t have God the Father saved/forgiven us in any other way?
How should the message of the cross change how I view my own sanctification process and battle with sin?
Breakout
Pray for one another.