The Ultimate Sacrifice

Hebrews 13:12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 

This is Memorial Day Weekend. We are thankful for those who died so that we can worship like we are this morning, live free and pursue whatever we believe God wants us to do.

It is sad fewer are taking advantage of this freedom and we are in danger of losing much of it.

We talk about those who die defending our country as paying the ultimate sacrifice. All through National Cemeteries this weekend the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts have gone in and placed American Flags on the graves of those who served their country and have died.

Out of love for America and family and our freedoms they left their homeland to keep us safe and defend freedom or to assist others in their battle to be free.

Some of my friends and family have a burden to fight against human trafficking in these days. I was told by Laura, Pastor George's wife a week ago yesterday that There are tens of millions of people trapped in various forms of slavery throughout the world today. Researchers estimate that 21 to 36 million are enslaved worldwide, generating $150 billion each year in illicit profits for traffickers. 

In this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave today we have freedom due to the selfless acts of those who laid down their lives for us.

We have freedom Christ because He gave Himself up for us.

1. The Old Covenant was not effective due to Unbelief.

Hebrews 3:18-19 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. 

Hebrews 3:12-14 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 

It is a battle until the end.

Some have turned away from God.

Sin is deceitful. Very deceitful.

Hebrews 7:11 If the priesthood of Levi and Aaron, which provided the framework for the giving of the law, could really make people perfect, there wouldn’t have been need for a new priesthood like that of Melchizedek. But since it didn’t get the job done, there was a change of priesthood, which brought with it a radical new kind of law. There is no way of understanding this in terms of the old Levitical priesthood, which is why there is nothing in Jesus’ family tree connecting Him with that priestly line. 

The Old Covenant did not do what it was intended not because there was anything wrong with it, but because of the human failure in obeying it.

2. The New Covenant is in place and addresses sin head on.

Hebrews 4:12 God means what he says. What He says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what. 

It came to a head when Jesus died such a horrible unspeakably painful death for us.

3. Bulls, Goats and Lambs provided temporary relief.

Hebrews 10:4-7 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offeringsyou were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’” 

Hebrews 7:15 But the Melchizedek story provides a perfect analogy: Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent but by the sheer force of resurrection life—he lives!—“priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.” The former way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside; the law brought nothing to maturity. Another way—Jesus!—a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place. 

The law showed us our need of Christ.

Galatians 3:23-25 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 

4. Christ Jesus Made the Ultimate Sacrifice.

Galatians 4:4-7 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. 

Hebrews 7:27 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. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered himself. 

He gave Himself up for the church.

Think of what He left.

Think of where He came.

Think of when He came.

The fulness of time.

In History.

What if here and now. Tele Communications

He sacrificed Himself.

The life He led.

The death He experienced. 

Place of a Skull/ Place of death Blood shed but sacrificial place was much blood. This ended all that.

5. It was for Our Freedom Christ Died.

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 

freeborn

in a civil sense, one who is not a slave

of one who ceases to be a slave, freed, manumitted

free, exempt, unrestrained, not bound by an obligation

in an ethical sense: free from the yoke of the Mosaic Law

Freest person in the world: "The freest person in the world is one with an open heart, a broken spirit and a new direction in which to travel. 

Gordon MacDonald.

*Sins forgiven Debt paid in full, guilt gone, home in heaven, light traveler

*Ready for anything the LORD has

*Following Him

*Traveling light, Pilgrim's Progress- burden laid down.

Young Lady with Teen Challenge at ShopRite last evening:

I had a heroin addiction. God delivered me through the program. I got my family back, my self respect back... The LORD has made me new again. "I'm free!"

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.