Based on His Ultimate Sacrifice, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. If a single drop of poison falls into a gallon of water, the whole gallon becomes deadly. Likewise, sin is not just a small part of us.

It has infiltrated and polluted humanity. God opposes that which destroys good, just as doctors will try to eliminate cancerous cells that destroy the body. In the Old Testament, animal blood made atonement for sin so that God could draw near to His people. But this was a temporary covering, a shadow pointing to the One who would come. Hebrews 9 26 says that Christ has appeared to put away sin.

How? By the sacrifice of Himself. Only Jesus could fully and permanently atone for our sin, eradicating the poison, transforming hearts. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thank you, Jesus.

Let's listen in on this sermon from Hebrews 9, titled, Based on His Ultimate Sacrifice. This is part two of a message first preached September 9, 2012. Sin is vile and destructive and poisoning, and if not dealt with absolutely, it will keep reproducing. It will keep reproducing, and therein lies the problem.

You want to know something interesting? Your children are a reproduction of the sin nature. You think, oh, so that's what's wrong with my kids. Your children are a reproduction of the sin nature.

Don't get too excited because you're somebody else's child too, aren't you, right? So you also are a reproduction of the sin nature. Sin does to us what passion for the ring did to Smeagol. Remember in Lord of the Rings? Sin does to us what passion for the ring did to Smeagol and turned him into Gollum.

That's exactly what it does. And so the Lord said, in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. So we need to understand what the definition of death is. What does death mean in the context of what God has said? When Adam and Eve ate that fruit, did they just keel over and die on the ground physically? No, they didn't. They did die, however, because in the day that they ate of it, there something became necessary.

What was that something? It was separation. So understand this. Death and separation are synonymous in terms in the scriptures. Death and separation. Because death is separation. And ultimately, death is separation from God, from the source and sustainer of life.

Look at it this way. Remember the tree and the tree branch? You've got a tree and out from that tree grows a branch. Where does that branch get its sustenance? Where does that branch get its life?

From the tree. If that branch were to sever itself from the tree, it would lie on the ground and to begin with, it might look like it's alive. It might still have some green leaves on it. But is it alive?

It is not. It is dying a very slow death. It cannot produce. It cannot grow. It cannot do what it was designed to do. It cannot function according to design.

Why? Because it is dead. It has severed itself from the very source of life. And that's what death is. And the Lord says to Adam and Eve, in the day that you eat of it, in the day that you walk away from me, in the day that you declare your independence from me, in the day that you tell me that you think you know better, and that you can find your satisfaction in something other than me, in that day, you will surely die. You will be separated from me.

I, your source and sustainer of life. You will be a dead tree branch on the ground, severed from the tree. In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. The scriptures tell us the wages of sin is death. And you may say, man, isn't that pretty severe of God? Well, let's back up there. You know, what does that statement reflect?

What did I say before? What's the warning for us believers? We take grace for granted, and we minimize the holiness of God, and we diminish the vile destructiveness of sin. Out of that thought pattern will come the statement, isn't that kind of mean of God to do that? What are we doing?

We're diminishing the holiness of God and minimizing the vile destructiveness of sin. You see, the severity of the crime is relative and measured by the one against whom it is committed. Let me give you this illustration. This was given to a junior high class.

I think it's pretty good. Kind of illustrates it. Suppose a middle school student punches another student in the class. What happens? The student gets detention. Suppose during the detention, the boy punches the teacher. What happens?

The student gets suspended. Suppose on the way home, the same boy punches a policeman in the nose. What happens? The boy goes to jail. Suppose a little while later he gets out of jail and he's standing in a crowd along the road and the president is going to be walking by, the president of the United States, and the boy lunges out to punch the president in the face. What happens?

Well, before he gets close enough to the president, the Secret Service takes him out. You see, all of the crimes are the same, just punching somebody in the face. But the severity of the crime is measured by the person who is committed against. And the crime is against an infinite holy God. Our crime is against an infinite holy God.

Now, Rich, why are you saying all this? Because this is what the Old Testament teaches us. This is why we have the Old Testament.

Yes, we are in the New Testament. We are under grace. But we, listen, we can never forget. We can never forget that the grace of God is grace because of the absolute holiness of God and the vile destructiveness of our sin. And our crime is against an infinite holy God.

We cannot forget that. And the sacrificial system of the Old Testament reminded the people of exactly that. So we've got two things at odds here. Two things at odds that require a covenant. First of all, what is at odds is the requirement of wrath. When God said, in the day that you eat it, that you shall surely die. Meaning, when you practice sin and then sin becomes a part of your experience and your nature, then you have to stay away from me. That's wrath. Sin requires necessarily the wrath of God.

And you say, Rich, why do you say that? Because let me ask you this. If God is absolutely good, wouldn't it logically follow that if he is absolutely perfectly good that he would want to destroy that which destroys? Yes.

So God necessarily must pour out his wrath on sin and say, keep it away. Stay away. What do you do for your computer to keep viruses out of it? You have all kinds of protection.

You put up firewalls. You say, keep out of my computer. And God does what is necessary to keep sin away from his perfect holiness. Why? Because any time we come anywhere close to him, we would be utterly consumed. So this is what's at odds. The requirement of his wrath. God says, away with it.

Away with it. God says, I must destroy that which destroys what is good. Many of you, some of you have and are battling cancer. What do we do with cancer cells?

We do everything we can to do what? To destroy the cancer cells. Radiation. Chemotherapy.

What do we do? We target those cancer cells to destroy them. Why? Because what are those cancer cells doing? They're destroying the body.

They're destroying every function of the body. So what do we do? We make every effort we can to destroy the cancer. That's the necessary wrath of God because he is a good God. So what's at odds here? First of all is the requirement of God's wrath.

Away with it. But that then, the requirement of God's wrath is at odds with his desire. His very purpose for our creation. What is the purpose of my existence? It is to know God. It is to fellowship with him. That is God's desire. God wants me to know God. That is God's desire. God wants me. God wants you. He wants you to fellowship with him.

He wants you to enjoy him. But do you see what's at odds here? The requirement of his wrath and the desire of his fellowship with you and yours with him.

Those two are at odds. On one sense, in his wrath, God says away with it. And at odds with that, God says his desire is come to me. How does he deal with that? This is why God needs a covenant.

There needs to be an arrangement between the two. And that's what the old covenant was. Because that is true, nothing but death can atone for sin. Nothing but death can atone for sin.

Remember the severity of the crime is measured by the person whom it is committed against. Nothing but death can atone for sin. What it says, without remission of blood, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. The shedding of blood is just a statement that means the forfeiture of life. The forfeiture of physical life.

It has to be given up. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. So the word atone then means to cover. Because the penalty for sin is death. So that's what you have then in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, sacrificial system.

All of that was a pointer to the perfect sacrifice that would come in Jesus Christ. The penalty for sin is death. The required forfeiture of life. The required separation. And in the Old Testament, the atonement would adequately deal with sin to allow temporary forbearance of a holy God so that he can interact with sinful man.

Temporary forbearance. This leads us then to the necessity of the covenant. And you can look once again at Hebrews chapter 9 verses 18 to 22. And it describes how that first covenant was inaugurated, was initiated, was brought about, was launched through the shedding of blood. And Moses did that. And then the blood sacrifices continued.

The forfeiture of life continued. The requirement of a covenant was necessary to come between the requirement of God's wrath and the desire of his fellowship that we would fellowship with him. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.