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[0:00] Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 23, and we're going to read into chapter 10 and verse 18.

[0:10] ! So Hebrews 9, 23.! It was necessary then for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary, there was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.

[0:39] Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world, but now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

[1:23] The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near to worship.

[1:39] If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

[1:51] But these sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

[2:02] Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.

[2:14] With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, O God.

[2:26] First, he said, sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, although the law required them to be made.

[2:37] Then he said, here I am. I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

[2:55] Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again, he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

[3:06] But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

[3:27] The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First, he says, this is the covenant I will make with them. After that time, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds.

[3:41] Then he adds their sins and lawless acts. I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

[3:54] If you visited the temple in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago, one of the things that would strike you is what a bloody mess it was.

[4:06] All day long, men dressed in white linen are slaughtering lambs, bulls, goats, draining their blood into bowls, dipping their fingers into the blood, and sprinkling it different places, pouring it out in other places, and then burning the animals or parts of them on the altar again and again, day after day, year after year, the blood of slain animals flowed in the temple.

[4:38] Who are these men and what are they doing? Well, they are priests and they're making sacrifices to God. So we come to the second of the three offices of Jesus Christ.

[4:58] Offices that God established in Old Testament Israel. He gave his people prophets like Moses and Elijah and Isaiah, and he gave his people priests like Aaron.

[5:15] And Eleazar and Eli. And all of those offices, we'll see he's also had the office of king that we heard so much about in our worship already.

[5:27] And all of these offices are perfectly fulfilled and completed in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I need to ask you the first catechism question. What offices does Christ have?

[5:40] Christ has the offices of prophet, priest, and king. And it is as Christ executes the offices of prophet, priest, and king that he saves us.

[5:56] He saves us by being a prophet, priest, and king. These are not unimportant roles that he fills. And we've seen already that Jesus is God's great and final prophet.

[6:12] And so I ask you, how is Christ a prophet? He is Christ a word of God. And why do you need a prophet?

[6:23] Because I am the prophet. Now we come to the second office, that the scriptures set forth Christ as a priest.

[6:33] This is no mere idea of theologians. This is something that the Bible itself makes very clear, and especially in the book of Hebrews. That Jesus is not only a priest, but indeed our great high priest.

[6:50] Chapter 2, verse 17. He had to be made like his brothers in every way. That's the incarnation. He had to be made like his brothers in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

[7:11] Chapter 3, verse 1. Therefore, dear holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest, whom we confess.

[7:25] So we're to think much of Jesus and to think of him as our high priest. Did you think of Jesus this week as your high priest?

[7:38] And then chapter 4, verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

[7:50] Every chapter in the book of Hebrews except one, chapter 11, that we studied so long. Every chapter but that chapter sets forth the work of Christ as a priest.

[8:04] So Jesus is a priest. Now I ask you, brothers and sisters, how is Christ a priest? And the answer is, he died for our sins and pleads with God for us.

[8:20] Let's say it together. How is Christ a priest? He died for our sins and pleads with God for us. In that short summary answer, we have the two main aspects of the priest's work.

[8:38] There is sacrifice and intercession. You see it? He died for our sins. That's sacrifice. And pleads with God for us.

[8:50] His intercession. And we're going to focus this morning on his sacrifice and we'll deal with his intercessory work another time. But before we do, I need to ask you one more important question.

[9:05] And that's, why do you need a priest? Why do you need Christ to be your priest? And the answer is, because I am guilty. Would you say it with me?

[9:17] Why do you need Christ as a priest? Because I am guilty. I am guilty. I'm not only ignorant and need to be taught.

[9:27] I am guilty as well. So I need more than a prophet to teach me the will of God. In fact, that's part of my problem, that he has taught me the will of God, and I haven't kept the will of God.

[9:41] I've rebelled against his will. I've gone my own way. I've disobeyed. And therefore, by sinning against the will of God, I've incurred guilt. Christ as a prophet can remove my ignorance by teaching me, but no amount of teaching can ever remove my guilt.

[10:03] So I also need Christ to be my priest, to get rid of my guilt. And our appreciation of Christ as our priest will go no deeper than our sense of guilt.

[10:16] You know, the world doesn't realize that they are guilty before God. And little sense of guilt is what makes Christ the great irrelevance to many. He doesn't matter to people.

[10:28] They don't need him because they don't see that they are guilty. Man sees so little in sin. God sees so much in sin. For all sin is against him.

[10:46] And that's what makes every sin a big deal. It's against a big God. It's treating him with contempt as if he were of little importance.

[11:02] And you see, it is our sin that makes us guilty before God. Some 38 times in the book of Leviticus alone, you can read about our guilt or guilty.

[11:14] Sin is what makes us guilty. James chapter 2 and verse 10, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in just one part is guilty of breaking it all.

[11:29] Indeed, we've all sinned. We are all guilty. And when we speak of being guilty, we need to remember that guilt and guilt feelings are two different things.

[11:43] It's one thing to be guilty. It's another thing to feel guilty. If you are guilty, you ought to feel guilty. But you might be guilty and not even feel guilty.

[11:57] What does it mean to be guilty? To be guilty is to deserve God's punishment. That's what it means to be guilty. I've sinned against God, therefore I'm guilty. I deserve to be punished.

[12:10] Guilt feelings, to feel guilty, is to know that I deserve God's punishment. You see the difference? So you stole some money from your mother's purse.

[12:23] You are guilty and you deserve to be punished by your mother and by God. because he says in the Eighth Commandment, thou shalt not steal.

[12:34] You're guilty. Now you may feel guilty. You may have such a stomach ache because your conscience is bothering you and you know you did what was wrong and took what wasn't yours and you can't even enjoy the afternoon because you're wondering, is she going to find out?

[12:51] Am I going to get caught? You can feel very guilty about your sin. But you know you can also not feel guilty. You may be out playing with your friends and totally forget about your sin and guilt.

[13:06] And so you don't have guilty feelings. But that does nothing to lessen your guilt. Guilt is what you are. Guilty is what you are.

[13:18] You are deserving of punishment. So we need to keep those two distinct. So why do you need a priest?

[13:30] Because you are guilty. Whatever you may feel. And God's Word says in Exodus 34, 7 that the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.

[13:42] And what is the punishment for guilty sinners? The wages of sin is death. Not just physical death that intrudes our life and cuts it short.

[13:55] But the second death. What the Bible calls the second death. The eternal punishment of hell. The lake of fire. For this is the second death.

[14:09] Now some of you say, I don't believe that's literal. I don't believe there's a literal lake of fire. Well, okay, if you want to believe that, that's fine. You need to know something about metaphors.

[14:19] You think it's a metaphor and it's just symbolic? Well, you need to know this about the Bible. That when the Bible uses metaphors and symbols, the reality is never less than the metaphor.

[14:32] And if it is not a real lake of fire, it is something worse in reality. Not something less. And some of you are a breath away from that reality.

[14:46] And if you died this moment, you would seal your everlasting doom. That's why you need a priest. Because you're guilty. And Jesus has come in answer to our guilt.

[15:00] God has sent his son to be a priest to make a sacrifice that takes away guilt. Now, just as the prophet, so the priest is a mediator.

[15:12] All these offices are mediatorial offices. There are ways that Jesus is a go-between and stands between God and man. So, as a prophet, he's a mediator.

[15:24] And he stands between God and men. So, as a prophet, he receives the word of God. And he faces men. And he proclaims the word of God to them, representing God.

[15:36] This is what the Lord says. And he stands between and brings God's word to men as a prophet. And as a priest, he also stands between God and men.

[15:47] But now this time, he is facing God. He is representing man. And he brings sacrifices on man's behalf and prayers on man's behalf.

[15:57] And he addresses it to God. Both offices are mediatorial offices. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 1 says, Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them.

[16:16] You see, the priest is representing men to God. To represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

[16:27] So the priest, representing guilty sinners, brought sacrifices for sins to God on their behalf.

[16:38] Because that's what God required to be made in order for their sins to be forgiven. So a priest offered sacrifices for sins.

[16:50] And when Jesus Christ came to earth as the high priest of his people, the same was true of him. Over in Hebrews chapter 8, in the first three verses, he says, The point of what we're saying is this.

[17:06] We do have such a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. You can't see him. And this was the thing that these early Hebrew Christians were being condemned for and being made fun of.

[17:20] Where's your priest? We've got a high priest. See him? Here he is. You could touch his robes. We don't have a high priest that you see. And the point of what we're saying is that we do have a high priest, but he's not here.

[17:34] He is at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. And he serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not the one in Jerusalem set up by man. And then verse 3 of Hebrews 8.

[17:46] Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. And so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer.

[17:58] For what good is a high priest without a sacrifice? And if Jesus is a high priest, then what sacrifice does he have to offer?

[18:09] That's the question that begs an answer. Every high priest has a sacrifice to offer. What is Jesus' sacrifice? And here's the shocking thing.

[18:19] One of the many shocking things about our great high priest, that he did what no other priest had ever done or even thought of doing. The other priest, having prepared the altar, would offer sheep and bulls and goats as a sacrifice to God.

[18:41] But our high priest crawled up on the altar of the cross at Calvary and was himself sacrificed.

[18:52] That marked him out as different from any previous priest. You see, he's both the priest officiating and the sacrifice made by the priest.

[19:08] He's both the offerer and the offering. And Hebrews makes much of this fact. Look at chapter 7 and verse 27.

[19:20] He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. Do you see that? He, the priest, offered as a sacrifice himself.

[19:36] Chapter 9, verse 14. Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God. Chapter 9, verse 26b. But now he's appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

[19:56] And that fact is to affect the way that we think about Calvary. And as we come together next Sunday night, something of the priesthood of Christ is to be remembered as we think about Calvary and the cross.

[20:14] We're used to thinking about Jesus as being the sacrifice on the cross. And rightly so. He is the Lamb of God, slain and sacrificed for our sins.

[20:26] But the book of Hebrews is telling us that we must also think of him as the officiating high priest at Calvary. At the altar of Calvary's cross, he is there representing his people.

[20:42] He is there standing between them and God and is making an all-sufficient sin offering, a sacrifice to God on their behalf.

[20:55] And lo and behold, he sacrifices himself. Himself. Voluntarily laying down his life for them.

[21:08] So think of the cross as God's appointed high priest doing his priestly work of making a sacrifice for sin. And oh, what a sacrifice it was.

[21:24] He sacrificed himself. The priest became the sacrifice. Now what priest can make such a sacrifice that actually does take away sin?

[21:36] None but Jesus. And where will this Jesus find such a sacrifice? Only within himself.

[21:47] There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. And he did it by the sacrifice of himself.

[22:00] Now I want us in the time remaining to look more closely at this sacrifice made by our great high priest. First of all, it was a substitutionary sacrifice.

[22:14] A substitutionary sacrifice. A big word with a meaning we're all familiar with. We're very familiar with substituting one person for another. So kids, if your regular teacher is sick, you have a substitute teacher.

[22:31] One who takes her place in the classroom and teaches you. Unless you're homeschooled and then you just have a sick teacher. But it's a substitute.

[22:41] One who's in the place of the other. If the star basketball player is injured, he comes out and another player goes in in his place.

[22:54] He's a substitute to take his place. That's the idea of substitutionary sacrifice. And it explains what happened at the cross. Jesus is there on the altar of Calvary in our place.

[23:10] He's the substitute in the place of his people. Who are they? They're the ones that the Father gave to the Son before time began. They're the same ones who in time repent of their sins and trust only in Jesus Christ.

[23:26] Yes, Jesus was their substitute. He's in for them. We sing, in my place.

[23:38] In my place. Condemned he stood. Sealed my pardon with his blood. In my place. Christ died for sins.

[23:48] The righteous for the unrighteous. You see, that's substitution. The righteous one is in for the unrighteous ones. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

[24:04] He's in that place where we sinners should have been. Now, that is so true of the work of Christ at Calvary, but we need to know this, that substitutionary sacrifice did not begin with Jesus Christ.

[24:21] It was true of the Old Testament sacrifices as well. God's word had gone out. The soul that sins, it shall die. I will by no means clear the guilty.

[24:34] But in his mercy, God was pleased to have an innocent sacrifice, an innocent substitute, die in the sinner's place. So throughout the Old Testament, when men and women sinned, they were not all killed.

[24:48] Rather, they brought a lamb or some animal to the priest. And the sinner would lay his hands upon the head of the lamb and confess their sins over it.

[25:04] Symbolically transferring the sins, their own sins, onto the head of that lamb. I say symbolically transferring the sins onto that lamb.

[25:17] And from that point on, the lamb was treated as the guilty sinner deserved. And the guilty sinner is treated like the innocent lamb deserved.

[25:31] The sinner goes free. But his substitutionary lamb, now laden down with the sins of the sinner, bearing those sins, has its throat slit, his blood shed, his life taken as a sacrifice to God.

[25:49] It was substitutionary sacrifice. Innocent lamb in the place of the guilty sinner. And that's the kind of sacrifice made by our great high priest, Jesus Christ.

[26:01] It was the innocent lamb of God slain for sinners, the righteous for the unrighteous. Now that idea of substitution is emphasized by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53.

[26:18] You're familiar with these verses where he says, we all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned each one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[26:34] The Lord has transferred our iniquities, our sins, upon him. sin. Not symbolically, not metaphorically, but really this time.

[26:53] Really. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. He himself bore our sin in his body on the tree.

[27:05] And from that point on, the Lord Jesus was treated as we sinners deserved. And we sinners are treated as Jesus deserved.

[27:19] So he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him.

[27:30] And by his stripes, we are healed. This is the penalty for sin. And he's bearing it in our place. He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people.

[27:45] He was stricken. For it pleased the Lord to crush him and to cause him to suffer and to make his life a guilt offering.

[27:57] It was the substitute being treated as the sinner for, and this is how the chapter ends, for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

[28:14] The great work of a priest, sacrifice and intercession. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

[28:24] So redeem, children of God. These words of Isaiah 53, they were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We read in Ephesians 5, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

[28:44] He himself was the sacrifice. And when Jesus, God's son, took our place, what was our place? It was not at the front of a school room.

[28:57] It was not on a basketball court. Our place was the place where sin is punished. Our place was the place where God's wrath is poured out.

[29:12] Our place was where God's curse is experienced, where the torments of outer darkness darkness of hell is felt, where being abandoned by God is known.

[29:26] The total absence of all his goodness and mercy. That was our place. Jesus, and he went in for us to be damned instead of us.

[29:42] How little we know of what he suffered when he went in for us into that place that should have been ours forever.

[29:53] Yes, it was a substitutionary sacrifice. Jesus instead of us. But secondly, it was an effective sacrifice, praise God.

[30:06] An effective sacrifice. I mean, it actually got things done. You know what something, if it's effective, is? This was an effective sacrifice.

[30:17] It really took away sin. That's what's being said throughout the book of Hebrews, that he really did away with sin. He took sin away by his sacrifice.

[30:27] And on this point as well, Christ's sacrifice stands in contrast to all the sacrifices that went before him or that follow after him. All the priests for hundreds of years, the millions and millions of sacrifices could not take away sins.

[30:46] They were just signs, shadows, symbols, copies, types, illustrations, but not the realities themselves.

[31:00] And as such, they pointed forward. As signs, they point forward to the coming great high priest and the one sacrifice that he would make to actually take away sin.

[31:13] Now, you know how a sign or a symbol works. You're driving through a tough neighborhood in Chicago and you suddenly find yourself in a war zone and you take one to the shoulder.

[31:25] And now you're bleeding terribly and you step on the accelerator and you get out of there and as you're going you suddenly see a sign. It's a blue sign with a big H on it. It symbolizes hospital.

[31:39] So what do you do? You don't slam on the brakes and pull over and run out beside the road and cry out for help by that sign. No.

[31:50] It's not the reality. It's only a sign. There are no doctors and nurses here. There's no blood transfusions here. There's no medicine here.

[32:03] It's just a sign pointing you ahead to the reality. That's the brick and mortar hospital where there's real doctors, real nurses, real blood transfusions that you need and that's where you go.

[32:16] You see the difference between sign and reality. reality. And in the same way Hebrews 10 verses 1 to 4 say that the Old Testament priests and all their sacrifices and the law that governed those sacrifices they were only a shadow of the good things that are coming not the realities themselves.

[32:40] They were only the signs and symbols and copies but not the real thing and for this reason it can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near to worship because if it could would they not have stopped being offered for the worshiper would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

[33:02] But the obvious point is as verse 4 says of chapter 10 that those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

[33:18] It is impossible for signs to do what only the reality can do. Now there was a great inequality between the sinner and the substitute sacrifice in the Old Testament wasn't there?

[33:37] A great inequality. It was a human being that sinned. A human being made in the image of God and it was an animal a beast that was substituted for the human being.

[33:55] That's an inequality. They're not equal. A human being deserved to die and an animal that dies in his place that's not a match is it?

[34:10] Imagine the horrific thought that someone murdered your child and is caught in the act and he comes to his day of trial he's found guilty and deserving of the death penalty and yet he comes to the judge and he offers his pet cat to die in his place.

[34:30] You're offended and rightly so. You're not buying it. You would object and so would the judge because it wouldn't satisfy the demands for justice. It was a man who deserved to die and no mere cat or animal of any kind can take his place.

[34:50] And that's why all the animal sacrifices that were put in the place of the sinner in the Old Testament could never take away sins.

[35:01] Never. It's impossible. They were object lessons that pointed forward to the one who could and would take away sins.

[35:13] And that's why the Son of God became a man. When he came he came and he took on our flesh with a body prepared for him as chapter 10 tells us so that as the perfect man he might be a suitable substitute for the guilty man that was that had sinned against God.

[35:34] So here's a sacrifice that satisfies the demands of justice. It is a man for a man and when the justice of God sees that it is satisfied justice smiles and asks no more.

[35:48] It's served because it's a man for a man. And so verses 11 and following of chapter 10 say day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties.

[36:00] Again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but but when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God because by one sacrifice he had made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

[36:21] Do you see the point that the writer to the Hebrews is making? This priest Jesus Christ actually accomplished what all the other priests could only illustrate.

[36:32] great. They were the signs he's the reality. Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altar slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain but Christ the heavenly lamb takes all our sins away.

[36:54] A sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they is the blood of the perfect God man holy blameless and pure such a high priest fits our need.

[37:10] His blood really cleanses from sin. It's effective blood. He actually gets the job done. He removes the sin barrier that stood between God and man so that we are actually by his sacrifice brought to God to live with him forever.

[37:26] His sacrifice turned away God's righteous wrath by him bearing it himself. His sacrifice drained the cup of God's wrath so that there's nothing left for us to drink.

[37:39] His sacrifice paid all the penalty that our sins deserve so there's nothing left for us to pay. His sacrifice obtained eternal redemption for us and actually makes his people holy perfect on the record books of God.

[37:58] It was an effective sacrifice. And lastly because it was an effective sacrifice it doesn't need to be repeated and therefore number three it was a solitary sacrifice.

[38:12] It was a solitary sacrifice standing alone. It was only offered once. Ethopax once for all.

[38:23] Once for all time. for Adam to the last man standing. It was offered once for all time. That whole span of human history.

[38:36] He died once. And do you know how many times the book of Hebrews makes that point? No less than seven that I counted. And on this score he stands again in stark contrast with every other priest before him.

[38:50] 727 unlike the other high priests he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day. First for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

[39:01] No he sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 927 he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood having obtained eternal redemption.

[39:16] 926 but now he's appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 928 Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people.

[39:30] You can go on in verse 10 and verse 12 and verse 14 of chapter 10 by one sacrifice he's made perfect forever those who are being made holy. It was one and done as far as sacrifices were concerned.

[39:47] And Peter adds his great amen in 1st Peter chapter 3 and verse 18 Christ died for sins once for all he says the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

[40:01] So if his sacrifice effectively takes away sin and brings people to God well then there's no more need for any other sacrifices is there? And that's why it is death he cried it is finished and the veil in the temple was torn in two the sacrificial system was over there are no more mediating priests in the church coming between God and man there are no more altars there are no more bloody sacrifices why because Christ is the only priest his one sacrifice on the altar of Calvary has succeeded in taking away sin and guilt and bringing us forgiven to God he's left nothing undone that needs to be done by some human priest now can you see how precious is the work of

[41:02] Christ as a priest for you dear brothers and sisters and can you see how that Christ priestly work answers three serious errors of the church of Rome the Roman church teaches that we need popes and priests to mediate between God and man it's one of the sacraments the priesthood the Bible says in Hebrews the Lord Jesus is the only priest in his church just as he's the only prophet other priests that went before him needed to be replaced why because they died then you need somebody to take their place but this priest is alive and well yes he died but he rose again he ascended into heaven and he ever lives to intercede for me to carry out his priestly work for me and so there are no other priests to replace him we come to

[42:05] God directly through our high priest Jesus who is both God himself and the one and only mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus no need for priests in the church anymore to mediate secondly Rome speaks of the sacrifice of the mass that the body of Christ and the blood of Christ is sacrificed each time the mass is conducted by the priest but our great high priest has offered once for all times a sacrifice that has made an end of all such sacrifices because it actually took away sins forever and because of this sacrifice God says there's sins and lawless acts I will remember no more and where these have been forgiven there's no longer any sacrifice for sins because of our high priest there is no sacrifice of the mass and third Rome's teaching on purgatory that before entering heaven believers must suffer a while in purgatory in order to be purified from sin and made fit for heaven but because of our great high priest chapter 10 and verse 10 says we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of

[43:26] Jesus Christ once for all it's finished he makes us fit for God we're ready to go right in believer if you die this moment you're ready to go there's no need to be purged from sin in a purgatory oh bless God for the work of Jesus Christ as your high priest there's no earthly priest to mediate no repeated sacrifice of his body and blood in the mass and there's no purgatory because there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus so believers think of Jesus Christ as your high priest and especially as you think of Calvary think of him making a sacrifice there as a priest the only sacrifice that could take away your sin and guilt and then rejoice and rest in what your high priest has done has has the justice of God been satisfied on

[44:33] Jesus account does he look at him and pardon you then let your conscience be at rest and rejoice in what he has done as he's cleansed you from your sin and something else this teaching should do it should make you hate your sins if God what must sin be to require such a sacrifice to remove its guilt just just one of your sins would have required this payment how horrendous sin must be to God and then love your savior for having made this ultimate sacrifice he was cursed that you might be forever blessed love him who loved you on the cross and live upon him coming to him often for mercy and grace lost friend there's only two places where sin is adequately punished punished in hell forever by the sinner himself or in the one and only substitute for sinners

[45:47] Jesus Christ on the cross that's the only two places sin is adequately punished where will your sins be punished you're guilty where will those sins that brought you guilt be punished who will suffer for them you are the only sacrifice the only substitute of sinners is he your priest you know he can be he's made a sacrifice that is sufficient for all sin you need to come and beg mercy from this priest you need to come and trust in what he's done for sinners we've had both bad news and good news what's the bad news you're guilty before a holy God who will by no means clear the guilty but will punish them in hell forever but the good news that

[46:49] God in grace and love has sent his own son to be a high priest to make a sacrifice that will take away your sin and guilt forever so that he will remember it no more come to this savior today and live let's pray together we do sing for joy at your great salvation our father and do wonder that you would crush your son and put him through the abandonment that he suffered for us as he stood in our place and we ask that we might know more and more of the reality of it that we would hate our sin more and love our savior more we thank you that that great work of salvation is offered this day to every sinner here and wherever they be under the sound of the gospel that they are welcome to come to this savior and whoever comes to him he will in no wise cast out draw many this day show the power of your grace to overcome every obstacle in the way glorify the son holy spirit show what a great high priest he is that he's able to take away sin forever we worship you lord jesus for what you've done for us pray you'd send us on our way rejoicing!

[48:19]  in that great work that you continue to do interceding for us at God's right hand we pray through you our savior jesus amen