Hebrews for 500 (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Today is really, what day in the real world? Today is the Ides of March, Mars, March, and I don�t know how long ago that was, but a couple thousand years ago, something bad happened today.

I guess bad things happen every day, don�t they? Well, we today on No Compromise Radio want to talk a little bit about forgiveness of sins. I like that topic. It is great to be forgiven that God would remember our sins no more.

By the way, if you want to have your sermons critiqued, you can go to the website, sermoncritique .com, and I will be glad to do that. Just follow the instructions there. What else is happening? YouTube videos, I think we�re going to shoot some new ones on Tuesday night.

Sorry to hear about the shooting in New Zealand, that�s what happened today, or I guess it happened yesterday there. NoCompromiseRadio .com, for the old shows, type in the subject matter in the search engine and off you go.

Forgiveness in the New Covenant

If you listen to bbcchurch .org, we�re in the book of Hebrews, and I�m preaching in Hebrews chapter 8, and sometimes I practice on you, not in sermon mode, but just thinking through the issues, and then I can hear myself talk, and then I can say, �Oh, I think I should do that differently.

This has been a busy week, counseling, some counseling issues, some meetings, some preaching class on Sunday, sermon on Sunday, wedding on Sunday, NoCoRadio today, some writing, some conference things that will have to happen in the future, and it just seems to be busy.

Well, Hebrews 8 says, �They�ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven with a slate of their sins forever wiped clean. Oh, that would be the message, sorry. The regular Bible says something differently.

The good news is, Christian, you don�t have to repeat sacrifices over and over and over. You don�t live under the Mosaic Covenant, and these rituals serve purposes, these sacrifices serve purposes, shadowy-like, type-like, all pointing to the ultimate sacrifice, the Lord Jesus, and how he forgives sin.

The end of the chapter, in chapter 8, it says, �And speaking of the new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete, and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. No matter what system you�re under, a God-ordained system in the old covenant, it�s no longer applicable, it�s obsolete, or any other system, you can�t have the benefits of a high priest if you won�t trust in who Jesus is.

When I look at that passage, and it reminds me of forgiveness, I thought I would give you some words today on the show that would remind you of forgiveness and how wonderful forgiveness is. Isn�t forgiveness wonderful?

You�ve experienced it on a human level, have you not? You�ve done something, and you�ve sinned against your spouse, and you�ve gone to them and you say, �Please forgive me and they do, and then they treat you like it�s not happened.

They don�t hold it against you. They remember it no more, as it were. Isn�t that a great feeling? It�s a great thing, yes, and it feels great too. The opposite is true. Someone sins against you, and you can say, �I freely forgive you.

I won�t hold it against you. Even the sweet fellowship that takes place after that is great as well. We live in a fallen world, and so we have to recognize that we�ve sinned against God, we�ve sinned against others, and therefore forgiveness is a great concept.

Remember, there are religions out there where there�s no forgiveness or there�s no promise of forgiveness. �I hope this God forgives me� is their only hope, but we know it�s found in Christ Jesus the High Priest, and that�s one of the benefits of the New Covenant.

I will remember their sins no more. So let me give you today on the show some words that should remind you of forgiveness and how great forgiveness is. The first word, and these are derived from the Bible, but specifically derived here from Hebrews, the concepts of Hebrews.

Sovereign Forgiveness and Divine Initiative

The first word is �sovereign. When you think about forgiveness, forgiveness highlights. I want you to think about sovereignty. God forgives through sovereign mercy. When you look at this New Covenant I will, I will, I will, I will, I will it�s initiated by God.

We can�t forgive ourselves. We couldn�t come up with a system to forgive ourselves. God is the one active in redeeming us and forgiving us, and we are the ones that are passive. If we are going to get to God and to get to Him via reconciliation, He�s the one that has to initiate it.

He�s sovereign over that, because we can�t forgive ourselves. We can�t come up with a system that we can remove our transgressions and our iniquities. Spurgeon said, �God�s pardon of sin is so complete that He Himself describes it as not remembering our iniquity and transgression.

He wishes us to know that His pardon is so true and deep that it amounts to absolute oblivion, a total forgetting of all the wrongdoing of the pardoned ones. See, that has to be God doing it. He�s the one.

The judge has no judicial memory of it. He remembers it no more. He remembers it no more. I was looking at another word as I read that. Oh, man! I was listening to R. Scott Clarke the other day on Abound in Grace Radio with Chris Corden, and he quoted Roseanne Barr.

Get out! No, no, get real. Get out was the movie. By the way, the people who did the movie Get Out, I�m not recommending it. They�ve done a new show, and it�s filmed in Santa Cruz. Us? It looks bad. I mean, I would never go see it, but I love Santa Cruz.

They�re ruining Santa Cruz. Welcome to Santa Cruz. Hebrew word for �remember one commentator said, �was more than mental effort. It carried with it the thought of doing something to the advantage or disadvantage of the person.

Remembered. God remembered Noah. Remember when he was on the boat? Remember? Remember? Remember? Babylon the Great was remembered in the sight of God, and what did she have to do? She had to drink the wine cup of the fury of His wrath all the way down, drain it down.

So think about it. If God remembered your sins, He�s going to have to take holy action against them, either on this earth and or later, right? But if He doesn�t remember, because of His own sovereign grace, remitting all punishment that we had deserved, John Calvin said, WGT Shed said, �The punishment due to sin is inflicted upon the transgressor.

Christian, not inflicted on you because of the sovereign work of God. He doesn�t remember your sins, your transgressions. The Belgic Confession, Article 23, Justification of Sinners. We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ.

And that in it, our righteousness before God is contained, as David and Paul teach us, when they declare those people blessed to whom God grants righteousness apart from works. And the same apostle says that we are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and therefore we cling to this foundation, which is firm forever, giving all glory to God, humbling ourselves and recognizing ourselves as we are, not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits and leaning and resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in Him.

That is so good. Belgic Confession goes on to say,. That is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident, freeing the conscience from fear, dread, and terror of God�s approach, without doing what our first parents did, Adam and Eve, who trembled as they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves.

In fact, if we had to appear before God, relying no matter how little on ourselves or some other creature, then alas, we would be swallowed up. You are a Christian, my friend. You are forgiven, my friend, by sovereign act of God.

The Exclusivity of Christ in Forgiveness

Well, there's another highlight that comes from this, and it is the word exclusive, exclusive. When you think of forgiveness, you ought to think of sovereign. Secondly, you ought to think of exclusive.

This forgiveness is not found in anyone else. The mediator of the new covenant, the sacrifice for the new covenant, the arbiter of the new covenant, Christ has obtained a ministry. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, not through anyone else, not through Moses, not through Muhammad, not through Joseph Smith, not through yourself, not through the Virgin Mary, not through systems, not through anyone else.

This great forgiveness is exclusively found in Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. If you turn over to Ephesians 1, it says in verse 7, �In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.

It's in Christ Jesus, in no one else. The exclusivity of Jesus, I have to look up now, since I have this message Bible here. I want to look that up and just see what it says. The message Bible, �Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, His blood poured out on the altar of the cross.

Hmm. We're a free people, free of penalties and punishments, chalked up by all our misdeeds, and not just barely free either, abundantly free. �He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans He took.

Such delight in making, He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in Him, everything in the deepest heaven and everything on the planet earth, just like nothing on earth.

Hmm. That's interesting. Very interesting. Oh, while I'm here, I have two options, either A, yawn or B. How's Byron Yawn doing, by the way? Is he still doing Theocast? I don't hear him on Theocast anymore.

How blessed is God and what a blessing He is. He's the father of our master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him. I want to know if Eugene Peterson is going to teach unconditional election like Paul does in Ephesians 1, 4.

�Long before He laid down earth's foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago, He decided to adopt us into His family.

What pleasure He took in planning this. He wanted us to enter the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son. Well, I don't want to admit it, but I will admit it, that it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Why am I so tired today? That's the question. I didn't need much sleep in the old days. I need quite a bit of sleep now. It's kind of been 55 degrees out. It'd be a nice day to ride the bike, but I have too many things to do, sadly.

This is exclusively found in Christ Jesus. In Him, we have redemption. No one else. All the blessings are found in Jesus. The Father chose, and the Son dies for. You can't relieve yourself, that's true, when it comes to self-forgiveness.

Self-forgiveness. There's no relief. There's no relief from self for self-forgiveness. In the age of pluralism, in the age of religious pluralism, in the age of open theology, in the age of wider mercy, in the age of, well, what's going on with these innocent people that have never heard?

Of course, there are no innocent people. If there were, they wouldn't need a Savior. We realize that it is Christ plus nothing and no one for salvation. The provision for redemption is through the Son.

Therefore, when it comes to the mediator, you ought to be thinking, the exclusivity of Jesus, the mediator, means there's no other way of salvation. That's a derivative here for this very thought. As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, John 1, 12.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father through me, John 14, 6. 1 John 5, 10 -12, the one who believes in the Son has the witness in himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son.

The witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this eternal life, or this life rather, is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

Therefore, the mediator is only Jesus in this new covenant. That is offensive today. That is very offensive today. And of course, it probably was offensive to the people that received this sermon letter.

The word of the cross, of course, is foolishness to those who are perishing, right? Or as this translation says, the word of the cross is to those who are perishing, foolishness. There's no other way for you to be forgiven.

I don't care who says it, I don't care how loudly they say it, I don't care on what station they say it, salvation is from the Lord alone. You can't give yourself a new heart and no one else can either.

And of course, in our day, people don't like this, realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. It says in verse two, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

And those kind of people don't like it when you say there's only one way to be forgiven. And it's the person of, the working person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great high priest. Another word you can think of is factual.

Factual Forgiveness and Complete Redemption

This is a real forgiveness. This is a real not remembering, does that make sense? In him, Ephesians 1, 7 says, we have redemption. No matter what you think, feel, this is a real forgiveness. And when God says, if you trust in the Lord, you'll be forgiven, you just have to accept that by faith.

Additionally, this is not a potential forgiveness. This is a real forgiveness. Sometimes people think, well, you know, it's a possibility, it's a potential, potential energy, kinetic energy, et cetera, et cetera.

No, this is a real redemption. God redeemed Israel out of Egypt. It was a real redemption. This is a real spiritual redemption, a real emancipation, a real freedom, right? You've got kind of the ratcheting effect of sin.

And here we have real freedom found in Christ Jesus. We have redemption, present tense in Ephesians, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, released, ransom paid.

These tenses remind me of John Murray's book, Redemption, Accomplished and Applied. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And if you'll trust in him, you receive forgiveness.

And there's an apposition in Ephesians 1 .7, and it's a figure of speech that makes, kind of disrupts the flow of the sentence and then really highlights something. Actually, people say it functions, apposition functions as a hyperbaton, hyperbaton, I look that up.

Hyperbaton is a word borrowed from the Greek, hyperbaton, meaning stepping over, which is derived from hyper, over, and bying, to step. The idea is that to understand the phrase, the reader has to step over the words inserted in between, hyperbaton, super.

Maybe we have a new car ride company, not Uber, not Lyft, but hyperbaton. I just thought it was somebody who drank a lot of caffeine and, you know, did some stuff at halftime. Where are those baton people?

I bet you they have guides, guys doing baton stuff now, girls. Does anybody do that baton? I remember there was a lady that did the baton stuff for the Northwestern High football games in 1978. Janice Apps was her name, and she was the baton tourler.

I knew Janice because my name was Abendroth, so A-B and A-P, and we had a set next to each other in homeroom. How does that all work out? Baton, no, hyperbaton, hyperbaton, and this supposition is the forgiveness of our trespasses.

Can you imagine total forgiveness, full forgiveness, not partial, not a few, not only venial, but all the ones, even the ones you forget to confess before you go to bed, even the ones that you lamely, and I lamely, designate as errors, diseases, addictions, syndromes.

Somebody else made me do it. Forgiveness of sins. That is beautiful. Forgiveness of sins. Christian, you're forgiven. Unbeliever, wouldn't you like to be forgiven? Then trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, released from guilt.

One man said, God holds resentment against the unbeliever, the resentment being justly provoked by a violation of his holiness, but when the sinner comes to Christ, guilt is removed and resentment ceases.

A man may forgive a friend who has wronged him, but the forgiveness cannot cancel the guilt. But when God forgives a sinner, he actually remits the sin and removes the guilt. Why? Because the Son, our Savior, bears that.

That is why we can go to Colossians chapter 2, when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, high-handed transgressions of thought and word and deed, past, present, future, actual, original, mortal, venial, I know those don't exist, but I'm just putting those in there, ignorant, high-handed.

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. That's a new covenant reality. If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? And he does mark them. But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared, blotted out, paid for by another.

Colossians 2 .14, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us. That is new covenant forgiveness. Debt to sin is hostile toward us, paid, paid, paid in full.

It is finished. That's what God did. I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. That's new covenant forgiveness. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That is amazing. Jesus bore our sins, Ephesians, sorry, Isaiah 53 .11. He will bear their iniquities. He takes away our sins. I just quoted, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He purged our sins. He made purification of our sins and sat down, Hebrews 1 .3. He put away sin, Hebrews 9 .26. Put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He made an end of sin, Daniel chapter 9. That's the benefit of the new covenant.

Mercy, Praise, and the Pattern of Forgiveness

Fourth word I want to give you, and it's got to be fast, is merciful. And that's found right there in chapter 8, verse 12 of Hebrews, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities. That's amazing. That's amazing.

Merciful, the mercy of God who's rich in mercy, Ephesians chapter 2. I mean, if we're rich in sin, he better be rich in mercy. And that grace that he has, that mercy that he has, it's lavished upon Christians, Ephesians 1 says.

That's what we need. We need the riches of kindness and the riches of Christ Jesus because we've got rich amounts of sin. I mean, it makes us poor, of course, but you get my point. No wonder angels long to look into this kind of forgiveness.

Okay, last one, five, praiseworthy. This makes you praise God. This makes you want to not go back. This makes you want to think, wow, this is divine forgiveness. And if you want me to give you one last word, okay, I'm adding it, model.

This is a model for you to forgive other people. Have you been forgiven, Christian? Then you must forgive other people. Unforgivers should ask themselves the question, how could I be a Christian? That's Matthew chapter 6 with the Lord's teaching us how to pray.

Forgiven people forgive, don't they? If you've received new covenant forgiveness, how can you hold sin against someone else? Shouldn't you be the quickest forgiver? Shouldn't you have no unforgiving spirit?

Shouldn't you say, you know what, forgive us our debts as we've forgiven our debtors? Shouldn't you be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you? And I think you know the answer.

It's all related to this great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ and his covenant for every believer. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.