The Old Testament scriptures
are filled with offerings and sacrifices by many, many priests
over many, many years. And those sons and grandsons
and so forth of Aaron, they faithfully, faithfully went about their duties
for hundreds and hundreds of years. And yet, despite their
bloody efforts, despite the offering of so many animal sacrifices,
all of their labors could not put even one single sin away. And then the appointed one came. Our Lord Jesus Christ arrived
at the appointed time. to die the appointed death that
had been appointed for him from before the foundation of the
world. He did what no one else and nothing
else could ever do. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. You'll notice there in verse
26, at the end of it, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Notice that word sin is singular. It doesn't say to put away sins,
but he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
In other words, all of the sins of all of God's people were made
to meet on Him as though it were just one tremendous mass of filthiness
and iniquities and transgressions and God the Holy Spirit had Paul
right in the singular sins. In Isaiah 53 and verse 6, we
read, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone
to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities
of us all. And like one huge mass of sin
was laid on our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He died
bearing our sin, and He carried our sins away by His death into
a land of forgetfulness. The Son of God, He came to put
away sin. He didn't come to deny the existence
of sin. He didn't come to get us in the
notion that, well, sin isn't really a harmful thing. He didn't
come to water down the horror of sin by saying it's mistakes. There's a preacher out of Houston,
Texas. He's owned quite often, now fabulously
wealthy. He and his congregation bought
the place where the Houston Rockets used to play basketball, and
they fill it up. And he was interviewed, and they
said to him, why don't you ever mention the word sin? He said, it's such an ugly word.
He said, and it's offensive to people. He said, I like to use
the word mistakes. We make mistakes. Well, I'll
tell you what. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't
come to put away mistakes. He came to deal with sin. And
the Word of God never, never speaks of sin or sins as being
a mistake or mistakes. The Bible calls them what they
are. There's sin. It's rebellion against
God. That's what sin is. Don't ever
speak lightly of sin. Well, you know, everybody makes
some mistakes, preacher. Well, everybody's a sinner. And
sin is a filthy thing. It's an odious thing. It stinks
in the nostrils of God. It's offensive to God, and he
must strike out against it. Every sin is going to be punished,
either in the substitute, the sacrifice for sinners, or in
the sinner himself. And if punished in the sinner
himself in hell, he'll never pay the sin debt, never pay for
one sin. Your death, your punishment will
never put one sin away, but the death of Christ Jesus. His death put sin away once and
for all. He obliterated it by His death. He didn't come to water down
our notion of what sin is. He told us exactly what sin is
and tells us throughout the Word of God. And that's why He came to bear
our sin in his own body on the tree. The attentive reader, and I'm
sure all of you are, and those who are watching by way of the
internet, will notice this word appear, or a form of it is mentioned
in the passage that I just read three times. The first time it's
mentioned is back up here in verse 24. Notice this. For Christ is not
entered into the holy place. Place is made with hands. And
that's a reference back to the tabernacle and then to the temple. They're just figures. Those were
types. Those were pictures. Those were
symbols of the true, of the real, of the everlasting. but he is
entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of
God for us. Well, how does he appear? In
what way does he appear for us? He appears for us as our representative. Or you can think of the word
as our advocate. We have somebody who represents
us in heaven before the very majesty of God. and is the son
of God. He is our representative. He
is there representing all of his people of all ages. He is our advocate. That means
he's our lawyer. He's the one who stands before
God and intercedes for us. Well, how does he argue the case
for our salvation and forgiveness before the throne of God? Merely
by his presence and the five wounds that he bears. He is our advocate. He is our
representative. Now secondly, he says down here
in verse 26, he says, for then must he have offered, suffered,
he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now you might be asking,
if you got your thinking cap on, you might be asking, well,
what's the reason that he mentioned what Christ is, how Christ appears
in heaven for us now? Why does he mention that first
and then mention this part second? Well, he mentions Christ as our
advocate, as our representative now, because that's exactly what's
going on right now. But then he tells us the basis,
the reason that this one, the Lord Jesus Christ, is qualified
to be our advocate and our representative. It's because He redeemed us and
He made the atonement for us. You see, by virtue of the fact
that he accomplished the work of redemption and atonement that
God the Father and Spirit had sent him to do, he has been exalted
to be our advocate and to be our representative. No one could
stand before God and advocate for us. and represent us except
one who had faithfully and fully executed the purpose of God in
redemption, in reconciliation, and in atonement. Our Lord Jesus,
He's our advocate and He's our atonement. He's our representative
and He's our redeemer. And then in the last verse, Here's
the word again, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many and to them that look for him shall he appear, this
is the third time it's mentioned, shall he appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. Here's His, if you want another
word with our, here's His return. And if you want another word
that begins with A, here's the attainment of that which we truly
look for. Our full salvation, body and
soul to be present with the Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever.
He's coming back for us. He told His disciples that. He
had mentioned to them that he was going away, and this troubled
them greatly. But he said, and if I go away,
since I go away, he said, I will come again for you. I will return,
and then you will attain the fullness of salvation that you
seek. Because we know these bodies
are deteriorating. And we have aches and pains,
we have sicknesses, we have diseases, and those things are going to
happen. And one of these days we must lay aside these bodies
of flesh. And the soul goes back to be
with Christ and inhabit a heavenly body until the last resurrection. When our Lord Jesus comes back
and our bodies are raised from the grave, we will have glorified
bodies like he's got. And then we shall be forever
with the Lord. Here are the three appearings
of Christ. Now, who made this appearance
into the world? Estimate the horror of sin. The awfulness of sin by the greatness and the worthiness
and the majesty of the one who came to put it away. He took the Son of God himself. And you may depend upon this,
if there was any other way that God could put away sin other
than Jesus Christ coming, the Son of God coming from above,
joining His deity with humanity, and then suffering the insults
and the mockery of men, and then being nailed to a cross and treated
horribly, and then bearing the infinite wrath of God in His
own soul. If there was any other way, that
way would have been chosen. Do you remember what the Savior
said on the cross? And here, this is a tremendous,
tremendous statement he made. He said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. If there's any other way that
this can be settled, if there's any other way that justice can
be satisfied, if there's any other way that sin can be put
away, Take this cup away from me." He had to drink the cup
of wrath right down to its last bitter dregs. If there's any
other way, and the heavens were silent, there was no other way. And so he died. He bowed his head, feeling the
very stroke of the father's sword of vengeance. And he felt it
deep in his heart, deep in his soul. He felt untold pain and
agony that no human tongue and no human mind could ever begin
to commence to get started to understand. But I know this. We'll never have to bear anything
like that. Because He bore it in our stead. And He really put sin away. And I say to you, believe the
record that God has given of His Son. Oh, that God the Spirit
would enable you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And let
me tell you this. It is a very, very great difficulty
for sin to be put away. It's a very difficult thing.
I want you to meditate on this for just a little bit, and I'll
go quickly. But all the sacrifices of the
Old Testament, for 4,000 years, men offered animal sacrifices
to God and sometimes very costly offerings. All of them together could not
put one sin away. You know, when Solomon dedicated
the temple, they killed 22,000 bullocks. And 120,000 sheep. Man, that's
a lot of sheep. 120,000 sheep. 22,000 bulls. That kept the priests busy. But
all of them together couldn't put one sin away. Isn't that
something? Now they were important. Not
that they could put away sin because they couldn't do that.
But they were important because it showed what had to be done
in order for sin to be put away. There was going to take a death,
a death of someone far greater than anybody we could ever conceive
of being. If well over 100,000 animals
couldn't put one sin away, then what's he going to take? What's
he going to take? Here's what it's going to take.
God of glory had to come down here. He had to be born in a manger, joining
his deity to humanity. He'll become a little infant.
dependent upon his mother, as dependent upon his mother to
sustain life as your kids were dependent upon you, you moms. And he had to grow up facing
everything that anybody else had to face. And then he had to suffer the
indignities of dying naked on a cross. But that wasn't the worst of
it. The worst of it is what God inflicted
upon him. We know that for an unbeliever
after death, they enter into hell. Somehow, and only God knows how,
all of the hell that all of God's people would have had to suffer
forever was compressed and condensed, and our Lord Jesus Christ bore
that in His own body on the tree. And you who are believers, think
long and hard about this. He did that for you. That's why
you're not gonna suffer. God's not angry with you. God's
not vengeful toward you. God's got no wrath toward you.
He balled it all up in one ball, as it were, and he plunged it
into the heart of the Son of God. His sacrifice did what all them
thousands and thousands of animals died, could never do. In fact,
you turn a page over, at least in my Bible, chapter 10's a page
over. In chapter 10, it says, look
at verse, Verses 1-4, 10-1-4, For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereto perfect. It didn't put
away their sin. For then, if it had put away
their sin, would they not have ceased to be offered? because
that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscious
of sins. But in those sacrifices, there's
a remembrance again made of sins every year. See, every year in
Israel, they had what they called the Day of Atonement. And on
that day, the high priest laid aside his high priestly glorious
garments, and he dressed in the regular garb of a priest, everything
white, dressed in white linen. Because that pictured our Lord
Jesus, who was sinless and pure. And then that high priest represented
Israel. And he offered the sacrifice
that covered the sins of Israel for a year, for a year. It didn't put them away, but
it covered them for a year. Now if it had put him away, then
next year on the Day of Atonement, he wouldn't have had to done
that, right? He wouldn't have had to done
that when he offered it this year, if it put sin away, but
it didn't put sin away. So next year, Aaron looked at
the calendar and said, it's time to do this all over again. And
the next year he said, we got to do it all over again. And
year after year after year went by because as it says in verse
four, it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins. There's no possibility. This
is a very strong statement. It is not possible. That's God
speaking. God says it's not possible that
the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Took the
blood of the Lamb of God. You see, all those sacrifices,
and y'all all read about it, all those sacrifices and offerings,
offered on the brazen altar, roaring fire, and the smoke is
billowing up, and I can almost see it in my mind's eye, and
depending on how the wind was blowing, the smoke come back
down, you know. Depends on how the wind's blowing.
And there's all that smoke, and when the smoke cleared, and when
the carcass of that animal had been consumed with the flames,
guess what? Sin was right where it was to
begin with. It wasn't taken away. Thousands of years of bloodshed
and couldn't take sin away. Tell you something else, and
I just touch on these. Your repentance, that can't put sin away either. Your repentance is not strong
enough to do that. Just saying, I'm sorry, Lord,
that I've sinned, and I am, and you are too, aren't you? I'm
sorry. but that doesn't cut it. It doesn't
remove one sin. It doesn't purge us of sin. Tell you what, King David, if being
heartbroken over sin and being sorry for sin, if that could
put sin away, his would have been put away. But he said, purge
me, purge me with hyssop and then I'll be clean. Wash me. and I shall be whiter than snow. Faith can't put sin away. I call
on you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but don't you entertain
this thought for one second, that when you believe, suddenly
your sins are put away. Faith can't do that. Faith receives
the one who has put sin away by sacrifice. Good works won't
put sin away. I say be kind, be generous, be
charitable, be thoughtful, be nice, but can't put sin away. Augustus' top lady said, not
the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Can my zeal
no longer? No. Could my tears forever, forever
flow? All for sin, you know what the
next line is? Could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. Baptism can't put sin away. Baptism's confession of your
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it doesn't wash sins away. And the Catholic Church believes
in purgatory. Purgatory can't purge you of
any sin. The purging of sin took place
at the cross of Calvary. Nothing that involves you can
purge you of your sin. And even death can't put away
a sin. Death puts away a lot of things. But death never has killed a
single sin. Sin is immortal. until someone who is immortal
dies. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He died 2,000 years ago. Sin stands like the everlasting
hills, and it cannot be removed unless
the Son of God lays down His life. And when He laid down His
life for His people, The mountain of our sin that rose up right
into the presence of God was immediately taken away. And I'll tell you something else,
hell can't remove sin either. No amount of suffering in this
old world can put sin away, and no amount of suffering in the
world to come can put sin away. The rich man our Lord talked
about has been in hell for about 2,000 years. He hadn't put one
cent away. Ever how God has been punishing
him, and make no mistake about it, he didn't go to hell because
he was rich. He went to hell because he didn't have a savior. He didn't have a redeemer. And
Lazarus, he didn't go to heaven because he was poor. Don't you
believe this foolishness that the rich go to hell and the poor
go to heaven? That's not true. Abraham was
rich. A good many other people in the
Bible were rich. But their riches, their money
was not their God. They worshiped the God of glory
through the sacrifice of Christ. Lazarus went to heaven because
his child of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, saved by
the grace of God. The rich man went to hell because
he had no interest whatsoever in a redeemer in God's salvation. And sufferings even in this world,
they're not gonna put sin away. The martyrs, a lot of the martyrs
suffer. You ever read that book, Fox's
Book of Martyrs? Quite an interesting read if
you haven't read it. I'll tell you this, all of their
sufferings, a lot of them burned at the stake. A lot of people in the Bible burned,
devoured by wild beasts. Isaiah was sawn in two with a
saw. Paul the apostle beheaded. All
of the apostles died martyrs' deaths except one, John. But all of their sufferings,
hey, didn't put one sin away now. And no kind of self-denial either. I got to throw that in there. You can live your life away from
society, deny yourself the pleasures of life, the conveniences of
life. You may read your Bible and pray
and fast every day and go around not speak to anybody. All that's going to do is fill
you full of self-righteousness. God's not impressed with all
that stuff. So I'm going to live in a monastery.
Go ahead. You think God's going to be impressed
with that? I'm not going to talk to anybody.
I'll just live a poor life and I'll just deprive myself of all
the comforts of life. God's only impressed with His
Son. He's not impressed with your
sacrifices. All that does is going to puff
you up with pride. Nothing you can do can put away
sin. He put away sin. You got that? Surely that's coming across to
you. Sin cannot be put away until
the penalty is borne to its end. And when the penalty has been
borne fully by the Lord Jesus Christ, sin is put away. That's what happened to Christ.
He bore the penalty fully. Your sin can't be put away until
the debt is totally removed. And through the death of Christ,
our indebtedness has been paid in full. Justice is satisfied. Christ died. and indicate the successfulness
of his work, he rose again. Sin put away. Who put it away? He did. He did. And he really
did. And I'll tell you, if you who
are the people of God, if you can enter into that, oh, how
peaceful you'll be in your heart. See, God's forgotten about us.
God says your sins and iniquities, I'll remember them no more. How
can that be? That's the power of the blood
of Christ. That's what I'm talking about.
That's what we talk about all the time. Enter into the joy
of this, the bliss of this. Enjoy this great salvation in
this glorious Savior who came into this world and put away
our sins. Let's sing a final song. Let's
sing Redeemed, 475.