Where There Is Forgiveness

Alpha & Omega Ministries iconAlpha & Omega Ministries

3 views

Comments are disabled.

00:00
Well, it won't be any surprise to anyone I would imagine that we will continue our studies in the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 10
00:13
Hebrews Chapter 10 before we look to the
00:21
Word of God this once again ask his blessing upon our time My gracious Heavenly Father we give thanks to you for all you have done for us.
00:31
We come as undeserving sinners saved by your grace and we come
00:38
Expectant desiring to hear from your word to be encouraged in the things of faith We ask that by your spirit you would be with us.
00:45
You protect us from distraction Lord that you would be glorified in what takes place during this hour and that we as your servants would be strengthened
00:53
And made more fit for the callings you've given to us. We pray in Christ's name this morning.
01:01
We took what we might call a Reformed Baptist digression and looking at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 15 and we specifically looked at the testimony of the
01:18
Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit also testifies to us and then the quotation from Jeremiah chapter 31 now one aspect of this
01:31
Testifying of the Holy Spirit that I did not even try to touch upon this morning that I left for this evening
01:38
I think it's very important. We will cover that and then look at the concluding statement
01:43
The the final statement really in the argument by our writer in verse 18 now where there is forgiveness of these things
01:51
There is no longer any offering for sin. What a tremendous Concluding statement.
01:57
We've really been moving toward this all along But you have it there laid out for you where there is forgiveness of these things
02:06
No more temple no more sacrifices no more priesthoods if there really is forgiveness in Christ anything that man does to try to recreate and rebuild
02:21
What was merely a shadow? What was pointing to something greater is in fact a blasphemy
02:28
Against what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ before we get there There is something that I wanted you to notice and that that some of you may have noted even in your own
02:41
Study Bible students have certainly noticed this before And it hopefully will help us to not only bring out some of the argument but also to think a little bit more about the role of the
02:53
Holy Spirit in the writing of Scripture and What it means
03:00
When we say that the Holy Spirit is with us in the preaching of the
03:06
Word of God when we when we gather here What what do we pray? We pray Lord be with us by your spirit
03:13
We can do nothing apart from your spirit unless your spirit lifts up our hearts and our minds Then our words are empty.
03:19
We accomplish nothing We sit here and we do our religious duty and and you know,
03:24
I suppose that's what a lot of people do But that's not why we want to be here If the
03:29
Spirit of God does not bless the preaching and ministry of the Word of God, then we can accomplish nothing
03:36
When we preach we really do believe that when you open the Word of God when you seek to accurately
03:43
Communicate the message that God has in Scripture That that's a that's a supernatural thing.
03:49
Yes, even Reformed Baptists believe in supernatural But do we really have grounds for believing that?
03:58
There are a lot of people today say ah the time of preaching is past I mean, there's can't you see look look around at the churches in the valley here
04:07
What churches are large and growing? They're the ones that are well, they tend to have a lot of entertainment
04:13
And they have a lot of programs and isms and this and that and the other thing and the day of preaching
04:20
I mean look our society who who can listen to anything for more than just five or ten minutes anymore the average attention span of the
04:27
American student Oh shiny thing, you know, just immediately just just completely distracted easily
04:35
The news the news outlets know this They they keep their stories nice and short because the number of people that can actually concentrate for any blank the period of time
04:44
So isn't isn't all this just old laws a why would we continue to do this?
04:50
Well, you may have noticed something in what we have here in our text Let's read verses 15 through 18 and and notice something the
04:58
Holy Spirit also Testifies to us for after saying this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the
05:05
Lord I will put my laws upon their heart and on their mind I will write them he then says and their sins and their lawless deeds.
05:13
I will remember no more Now where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer any offering for sin
05:21
Now If you are a careful student in the Bible you go well, this is not the first time
05:28
That our writer has quoted this text Jeremiah chapter 31 the new covenant wasn't that the primary focus of chapter 8 and So you can sit there and you can do it on your computer.
05:43
You can do it with your paper Bible you can go back and forth and you can go this seems like more like a condensation of What he had in chapter 8 and in fact if you were to compare them you would see some differences in the citation for example
06:03
This is the covenant that I'll make with them Well at least to be the house of Israel That has been
06:10
Shrunk down. It's been condensed summarized After those days says the
06:16
Lord I'll put my laws and then upon their heart and on their mind is a
06:21
Condensation of the longer way of stating it which was found in chapter 8. I will write them
06:28
Then he cuts out the middle section They shall all know me. They shall not say each one do the other know the
06:36
Lord, etc, etc In fact, you may notice the phrase he then says is in italics translations because there's nowhere to be found in the
06:47
Greek That is the reason there is up in verse 15.
06:52
It says for after saying Well after saying what
06:59
Well after saying this is the covenant. I'll make with them after those days says the Lord I'll put my laws upon their heart and on their mind.
07:06
I'll write them after he says that then there's a Middle section cut out and now you have the summary statement and again verse 17 is not word -for -word what is found back in chapter 8 let alone in the
07:20
Greek Septuagint of Jeremiah 31 and their sins and lawless deeds. I'll remember no more so What's going on here?
07:30
there have been some who have Have thought well, you know it's just it's just the freedom that you have in inciting these texts and and you know, they didn't really have a
07:42
The same type of view that you conservatives have a scripture, you know, it was just simply the message well, maybe
07:50
I suppose but I Think what you have going on here is exactly what you see taking place here pretty much every
07:57
Lord's Day morning and evening that is When a person is preaching teaching
08:04
I do not repeat in full every single text that I have already
08:09
Cited at the beginning of the sermon I will often paraphrase or summarize statements later on and I think that's exactly what's going on here
08:19
The writer doesn't expect anyone to be accusing him of falsehood When he has already directed them to the source of his citation
08:27
He's already given that citation and a whole just from our perspective a couple of chapters earlier
08:32
What he's doing is he's summarizing and he's communicating to us What the essence of what the argument was from that text of Scripture and there's something very interesting that comes out as a result that Again, this is this is why it's good to preach through books and to do so as carefully as possible because I had never seen
08:50
This before so I get to share it with you And if you've all seen it before you'll just have to put up with my being all excited about it
08:56
That's just the way it is and Their sins and their lawless deeds.
09:02
I will remember no more Isn't the topic of God Remembering sin an interesting one.
09:13
We all know one of the most beautiful lines from the Old Covenant Scriptures It talks about removing our sins as far as the east is from the west.
09:24
You will remember them no more We all know that it's a finite distance on a globe from north to south, but it's not from east to west
09:33
You can keep going east Just keep going east just go around and around around eventually you can only go so far north.
09:39
There's no an east and west pole and so When we say
09:44
God forgets our sins, that means that he just wipes them out of his memory Or are we talking about complete forgiveness?
09:51
Well, obviously it's complete forgiveness To remember something is to bring it up We we often sing songs about Well, for example our our
10:02
Evan H sir our stone of help Putting up a monument
10:07
This is something they would do in the Old Testament in the old days They would when God would do a special thing member
10:13
Jacob does this when he has the vision of the ladder in heaven He he puts up a stone monument to as they remember and it's a reminder of something that God has done
10:23
And so when God remembers our sins What are the prophets say
10:28
God will remember your sins he's bringing them to judgment he's bringing them to light But here it says
10:36
I will remember them No more their sins their lawless deeds. I'll remember no more and what's really interesting is
10:46
That here instead of a summary statement You have the writer express this
10:54
In a slightly different verbal way than he did back in chapter 8
11:01
Which matches up with the Greek septuagint? in fact, he uses a form and It is it's it's a double negative now in English a double negative is just cancels itself out
11:15
When the Greek language you have what's called an error subjunctive a strong denial It's the strongest form of saying this this can never be and and it's interesting.
11:25
This is parallel To a construction that we just had in the Sunday morning services when pastor
11:32
Frey went through Romans chapter 4 And if I recall correctly,
11:38
I've taught my head it leaves Romans 4 8 where quoting from Psalm 32 the
11:47
Blessing upon the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin and it's that strong form of negation
11:57
I Remember About not quite ten years ago when
12:03
I was writing the book that I wrote on justification the God who justifies I I Contacted a
12:09
Greek grammarian friend of mine. Yes. I do know a few Greek grammarians. They're fascinating people and and I asked him
12:18
I said, you know it seems to me as I look at this in the original language and as I as I look at parallel texts and It seems to me that what is being said here in Romans 4 8 is a strong denial of the possibility that any time in the future there would ever be an imputation of sins this individual and which would fit in Romans 4 why because our sins already been imputed to someone else how how could there be an imputation of sin to the child of God when all those
12:57
Writings that were against us have been nailed the cross our sins have been imputed to Christ his righteousness to us
13:03
To impute our sins to us after they've been imputed to Christ and born by him would be double jeopardy would be causing
13:10
Causing the same sins to be punished twice that would be unjust and His response was well, that's certainly one way of taking it that would make a great doctoral dissertation
13:22
Which is basically his way of saying more work needs to be done but this is the same kind of subtle change in the in the citation of the text
13:34
That our author gives here in other words he's summing things up and he sums it up in such a way as to emphasize and Their sins and their lawless deeds.
13:46
I will know never Bring them up again.
13:52
I will never remember them It's not a possibility and since it's only up to God to be the one to bring sins into judgment
14:04
It would seem that what we have here is an emphatic Restatement of this truth in light of all the argument that has come
14:14
Between chapter 8 and here chapter 9 and the finished work and the perfection of Christ and intercession and all these things
14:22
He then tells us the real promise of the new covenant is
14:30
Complete total forgiveness Does that not flow obviously from what we've seen?
14:38
I mean, there's no reminder of sin in the new covenant It's only in the old covenant the repetitive sacrifices.
14:45
We have one who now appears in the very presence of God in our place He has perfected
14:51
Those for whom he's made his sacrifice and so it makes perfect sense to look at verse 17 their sins their sins the specific people their lawless deeds
15:03
I Will know never bring them up again.
15:09
I will never bring them into remembrance They will never find themselves standing before the
15:16
Holy Judge To answer for those sins that I have placed upon their substitute
15:24
That's the result of real substitutionary atonement And that's one of the main reasons that I say if you're going to believe in substitutionary atonement, there are only two
15:36
Possible results of that either you have to believe what we believe and that is that there is an elect people of God and that they're the ones united with Christ and that therefore there is a
15:46
Particular and specific atonement or the only other consistent option is universalism.
15:52
Everybody gets saved Because otherwise you got the atonement of its central aspect of power
16:01
Which is the fact that it truly is an atonement. It's a propitiatory sacrifice not an amway theory
16:09
Which is what Arminianism does with the atonement and I know there are many people
16:16
Many people who because of their traditions are very wedded to those things, but they just don't seem to realize
16:22
One thing that reminds me of that all the time is that I have to constantly deal
16:29
With people on the subject of Roman Catholicism and their attachment to the mass And I'm telling you something if you can't see how the mass denies the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ I think you're you're really not understanding the atonement at all
16:46
But those who believe in substitutionary atonement and then make it just well
16:51
Yes, he did die for everybody, but it's up to us to whether it's effective or not Don't seem to realize they're left with no meaningful argument against the mass at all
17:00
They have they have taken out its heart and soul So it's vitally important.
17:06
I think to see this So that issue aside here is a summary statement and the author strengthens the assertion in light of The argumentation that he has already presented and of course remember
17:24
We're talking about the Greek language here. So there it's all a translation of the original language of the
17:30
Hebrew and So he is understanding the promise of Jeremiah 31 their sins and their lawless deeds
17:39
Will never come into remembrance will not be brought and so summary a condensation even a strengthening of the argument and so after making this this incredible statement in verse 14 for by One offering he is perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
18:08
He then says you want evidence of this Here's what the Holy Spirit is testifying to us not just testified
18:17
Lo those hundreds of years ago But the Holy Spirit is testifying to us and that means to every
18:26
Jewish Christian he was saying look You can't just say well, that was
18:32
Jeremiah long ago. God has left me alone. I'm under all this pressure to go back You don't understand what my family is putting me through No, even to you the
18:41
Holy Spirit has testified because folks were just a matter of sentences away from some of the strongest
18:48
Warning words in all of the Bible and What is the foundation of some of the strongest words of warning?
18:59
Some of the strongest words of assurance you see when you have laid out
19:07
The glory of the work of the triune God in salvation you have laid out
19:13
Christ's Singular offering his sacrifice of himself the perfection of that offering the forgiveness of sins the work of intercession the once -for -allness the role of the
19:27
Holy Spirit the consistency of the testimony of the scriptures that come from the Holy Spirit and The fact that the
19:33
Holy Spirit testifies to us directly to us not just in the past but this word continues to speak to us now that you have this strong assertion of the
19:43
Absolute perfection of this work. There's forgiveness. There's nothing to go back to Now having laid all that out
19:52
If someone can in stubbornness Say But that's not enough.
20:01
I still am willing to go back Now you understand the the need for the strength of those warning words that we're going to encounter and In fact when you think about what those words are, let's just remind ourselves we all know they're coming but let me read them for you
20:23
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, he's laid it out
20:31
There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin nothing to go back to nothing to go back to but terrifying
20:38
Expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries to stand against the clear
20:44
Proclamation of God's truth and say that's not enough Makes you an adversary of God Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses
20:56
How much severer punishment? Do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the
21:04
Son of God? And this regard is unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace
21:11
You see now what the background of that is you hear the words?
21:17
So often these words are quoted without a context and hence completely misapplied.
21:22
Who are we talking about here? We're talking about the person if if one person Set aside the law of Moses died without mercy in the testimony of two or three witnesses
21:33
How many witnesses is the writer of the Hebrews brought in? He has brought in witness after witness scripture after scripture the priesthood
21:41
Melchizedek the supremacy of Christ creator of all things one sacrifice no repetition of sacrifices
21:48
Testimonies of prophecies. He's brought all this stuff forward. And so if someone died without mercy setting aside merely the law of Moses Which pointed ahead to all this fulfillment
22:02
How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who is he the one who's setting who's heard all these things who has
22:09
Come to a knowledge of truth. Here's all this thing all this stuff is not enough
22:15
Not enough for me. I'm going back. What'd he do?
22:23
Trample underfoot the Son of God You see folks. I've said it so many times
22:29
We cannot edit Jesus we cannot add the gospel We cannot edit
22:35
Jesus to make him more like we want him to be there is only one Jesus who can say you will either
22:40
Bow the knee to him Or you will not have eternal life we cannot decide which
22:46
Jesus we like and Edit him down. That is the the woeful sadness of modern liberal theology
22:56
And what is being said here is look this is what the Son of God has done The Son of God has provided perfect salvation
23:04
Now verse 18 where there is forgiveness of these things. There is no longer any offering for sin
23:11
You either accept that or you trample them underfoot. There will be no place of neutrality
23:20
There is no place of neutrality. The word does not allow it and these believers
23:28
Yes put under great pressure Here The preacher stands before the people and says look at what
23:36
God has done there is nothing to go back to the Old Testament scriptures have proven this and The Holy Spirit has testified to you not to people hundreds of years ago has testified to you
23:52
Now what will you do if the Spirit has testified you that there is?
23:58
Well, there's forgiveness these things there is no sacrifice for sin you can go back to that huge ornate building and You can bring the animal and you can join in the festivities and you can see the priests and their garments and it's all very pretty
24:16
But it's all been fulfilled It was pointing ahead to something sort of much more glorious And now you know
24:28
Now you've heard. What are you gonna do? You only have two choices
24:34
They either persevere in their faith Or if they go back they trample underfoot the blood the
24:43
Son of God and They treat that blood of the Covenant by which he and I will argue
24:50
Christ was sanctified That's something merely common coin a
24:56
Just like the blood of animals you treat Jesus's sacrifice as if he was nothing but an animal there is no middle ground.
25:07
Oh, there are many people Trying to find a middle ground today But there is none
25:14
You either have a Savior who actually brings about salvation Who actually has the capacity to save in and of himself?
25:27
Or you find some other way Now I know I know Thankfully, I know many a man and many a woman
25:38
Who believes firmly in their heart that Jesus Christ is a perfect Savior at the same time
25:45
They believe other things that are grossly inconsistent with that. Thankfully perfection of consistency is not the standard of salvation or we'd all be in trouble because we've all got those areas where We might not be as consistent as we should be and I am
26:05
NOT saying that every single person It doesn't understand every every dotted I and cross
26:11
T It's going straight into the pits of hell But I am going to tell you one thing
26:17
I am firmly convinced that A person who is truly indwelt by the
26:24
Holy Spirit of God when faced with the teaching of the
26:29
Word of God in completeness and in clarity will listen to that word and Will not simply go.
26:38
Oh, I Know people there are people sitting in this room The first time they heard about the perfection of the work of Christ the first time they they heard something more than well
26:47
Jesus just wants to save you and you can sort of help him to be a good Savior if you'll just help him out a little bit You recoiled
26:54
That's different than what I've heard But I have seen person after person after person
27:02
Once they were challenged once they saw what the Word of God said once they began looking at the
27:08
Word of God They couldn't just put aside it not at them
27:15
There's something about honoring God and his truth that comes with regeneration and I can tell you one thing any believer in Christ will want to be consistent with his truth
27:32
This idea of well, you know We just all this theology stuff,
27:38
I just don't know Makes me really worried about a person think of these words my friends verse 18
27:50
Now where there is forgiveness of these things. What does that mean? How hard it is at times for us to truly enter into this because how poorly?
28:03
We forgive so often we will
28:10
We will try to interpret God's act of forgiveness in in our Categories and certainly
28:16
Jesus made it very clear if you will not forgive and you will not be forgiven a Person who's been forgiven must be one who forgives but we all know
28:29
No matter how hard we have tried to be forgiving It's part of our fallen nature that We remember
28:41
It's hard for us to put things behind our back as he's far as far as the East is from the
28:46
West we are to Strive for that, but so often we transfer that unto God and we question whether he can really truly bring about forgiveness
28:57
But that's the whole assertion of the text where there is not a potential forgiveness not a partial forgiveness where there is
29:05
Forgiveness their sins and their lawless deeds. I will not remember
29:12
Where there is forgiveness of these things There is no longer any offering for sin one offering one time accomplishes its
29:26
Intention and that is the forgiveness. That's why it must be particular
29:34
If it's not particular then it's hypothetical and the argument collapses upon itself
29:40
But since it is Since we have seen the particularity those who draw near to worship a
29:50
Specific people a specific people represented by their head in his intercessory work since we've seen that then what we have is real forgiveness and the certainty of the
30:04
Forgiveness that the believer has in Jesus Christ is just as certain as the empty tomb for the father accepts that offering
30:15
That's what the empty tomb says and so upon what basis would any one of us ever have to question
30:24
The forgiveness that we have in Christ What basis you see?
30:33
Very often when people come to me and they they they're struggling with assurance and they're struggling with these things.
30:39
I don't have Fancy words, I don't have some secret insight
30:46
For Years, I've done the same thing and that is when someone is struggling like that.
30:55
The wisest counsel I've ever heard is to give this counsel to them and that is look away from yourself and look to the perfection of the
31:06
Savior Go to the cross stand at the foot of Calvary Look at the love that is expressed and look at what the triune
31:20
God accomplished when Jesus said to tell us I it is finished and if you can look upon that scene in your heart and in your mind and Realize your union with Christ in his death his burial in his resurrection and yet Question whether there can be forgiveness
31:51
For you in that how could anyone do so?
31:59
the love of God the perfection of his work all displayed for us there is
32:06
Forgiveness of these things and that is why this day in far -flung lands
32:16
We have fellow believers Who have almost nothing in comparison to what you and I have they don't have the physical blessings.
32:27
They don't have the help They don't have the fellowship They don't have a nice cool place to gather.
32:34
They don't have Bibles They might not even have their freedom.
32:39
They might sit in a prison cell this night and yet they rejoice
32:47
They have gladness and joy of heart Why because all that stuff that we have is not the source of our joy when you boil it all down Why is a
33:04
Christian a joyous person? Because a Christian is a forgiven they know their sin
33:13
They know their need and they know their Savior and they know that their
33:19
Savior is sufficient to save and Nothing in this world no prison cells no level of poverty
33:29
Can take that joy from and we will have greater and abiding joy when we stop being distracted by all those other things and daily and regularly contemplate the truth
33:47
That if the Lord were to take all that other stuff from us, we still possess eternal life
33:55
We're forgiven We will not come into judgment. We've already passed out of death into life.
34:00
The world cannot touch us If that does not cause you to rejoice
34:06
I Don't know what possibly could Let's pray together. Oh our gracious Heavenly Father.
34:18
We do rejoice this night And what you have done for us only you could do it
34:25
It's all to your honor and glory And we just thank you now and we will thank you for eternity for the love that you set upon us before The first star shown in the heavens and the redemption you provided for us because you would you knew our need
34:51
And Lord this evening as we have once again considered these things the fact that you will never bring to remembrance the sins and lawless deeds of your people because Well because your wrath has already been fully satisfied in our substitute we rejoice in the peace we have with you
35:15
That great possession of eternal life forgiveness adoption All blessings that come from your hand and we are undeserving help us to truly understand
35:29
And experience an abiding joy that nothing in this world Can ever take from us encourage the downhearted
35:39
Lord lift up those who this evening suffer from physical illness Grant grace mercy and compassion we pray and may we as we go forth in this place do so as servants