Where There Is Forgiveness

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. Hebrews Chapter 10 before we look to the 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. We come as undeserving sinners saved by your grace and we come 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 you protect us from distraction. Or that you would be glorified and what takes place during this hour and that we as your servants would be strengthened.

And made more fit for the callings you've given to us. We pray in Christ's name this morning. We took what we might call a Reformed Baptist digression in looking at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 15 and we specifically looked at the testimony of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit also Testifies to us and then the quotation from Jeremiah chapter 31 now one aspect of this Testifying of the Holy Spirit that I did not even try to touch upon this morning that I left for this evening I think is very important.

The Final Statement in Hebrews 10:18

We will cover that and then look at the concluding statement the the final statement really in the argument by our Writer in verse 18 now where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer any offering for sin.

What a tremendous Concluding statement 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. 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.

What was merely a shadow? What was pointing to something greater is in fact a blasphemy? 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 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 Holy Spirit in the writing of Scripture and What it means when we say that the Holy Spirit is with us in the preaching of The Word of God when we when we gather here.

What do we pray we pray Lord be with us by your spirit. We can do nothing apart from your spirit unless your spirit lifts up our hearts and our minds. Then our words are empty we accomplish nothing. We sit here, and we do our religious duty and and You know I suppose that's what a lot of people do, but it's the same thing.

But that's not why we want to be here. If the Spirit of God does not bless the preaching and ministry of the Word of God that we can accomplish nothing. When we preach we really do believe that when you open the Word of God when you seek to accurately Communicate the message that God has in Scripture.

That that's a that's a supernatural thing yes even Reformed Baptists believe in supernatural things. But do we really have grounds for believing that? There are a lot of people who 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. What churches are large and growing they're the ones that are well they tend to have a lot of entertainment. They have a lot of programs and isms and this and that's and the other thing and the day of preaching 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? American student. Oh shiny thing you know just immediately just just completely distracted easily.

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 of the length of period of Time so isn't isn't all this just old laws a why would we continue to do this?

The Holy Spirit’s Condensed Citation of Jeremiah 31

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 Holy Spirit also Testifies to us for after saying this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the 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. I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer any offering for sin. Now If you are a careful student in the Bible you go well, this is not the first time 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. You can do it with your paper Bible. You can go back and forth and you can go. This seems like more like a 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.

This is a covenant that I'll make with them. Well at least to be the house of Israel That has been Shrunk down. It's been condensed summarized. After those days says the Lord I'll put my laws and then upon their heart and on their mind is the Condensation of the longer way of stating it which was found in chapter 8 I will write them.

Then he cuts out the middle section. They shall all know me. They shall not say each one to the other know the Lord etc etc in fact You may notice the phrase he then says is in italics in most translations.

Because there's nowhere to be found in the Greek. That is the reason it there is up in verse 15. It says for after saying Well after saying what. 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 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 Greek Septuagint of Jeremiah 31 and their sins and their lawless deeds.

I'll remember no more so What's going on here? 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 the same type of view that you conservatives have a script.

You know, it was just simply the message. Well, maybe I suppose but I Think what you have going on here is exactly what you see taking place here pretty much every Lord's Day morning and evening. That is when a person is preaching teaching.

I Do not repeat in full every single text that I have already 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.

The writer doesn't expect anyone to be accusing him of falsehood. When he has already directed them to the source of his citation. He's already given that citation and whole just from our perspective a couple of chapters earlier 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 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.

That's just the way it is and Their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. Isn't the topic of God? Remembering sin an interesting one in Scripture. 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 you will remember them no more. And we all know that it's a finite distance on a globe from north to south. But it's not from east to west you can keep going east.

You just keep going east just go around and around around eventually you can only go so far north. There's no an east and west pole and so. When we say God forgets our sins that means that he just wipes them out of his memory.

Or are we talking about complete forgiveness? 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 evidence or our stone of help.

Putting up a monument. This is something they would do in the Old Testament in the old days. They would when God would do a special thing member. Jacob does this when he has the vision of the ladder in heaven.

He he puts up a stone monument to as they remember. It's a reminder of something that God has done and so when God remembers our sins. But the prophets say God will remember your sins. He's bringing them to judgment.

He's bringing them to light. But here it says I will remember them. No more their sins their lawless deeds, I'll remember no more and what's really interesting is That here instead of a summary statement You have the writer express this in a slightly different verbal way than he did back in chapter 8.

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. But in 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 in and it's interesting. This is parallel To a construction that we just had in the Sunday morning services when pastor Frye went through Romans chapter 4 and if I recall correctly, I've taught my head it believes Romans 4 8 where quoting from Psalm 32 The blessing upon the man To whom the Lord will not impute sin and it's that strong form of negation and I remember About not quite ten years ago when I was writing the book that I wrote on justification the God who justifies I I Contacted a Greek grammarian friend of mine.

Yes. I do know a few Greek grammarians. They're fascinating people and and I asked him 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 Writings that were against us have been nailed the cross our sins have been imputed to Christ his righteousness to us.

To impute our sins to us after they've been imputed to Christ and born by him would be double jeopardy would be causing 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.

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 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 I will know never Bring them up again.

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 It would seem that what we have here is an emphatic Restatement of this truth in light of all the argument that has come Between chapter 8 and here chapter 9 and the finished work and the perfection of Christ and intercession and all these things.

He then tells us the real promise of the new covenant is complete total Forgiveness. Does that not flow obviously from what we've seen. I mean There's no reminder of sin in the new covenant. It's only in the old covenant the repetitive sacrifices.

We have one who now appears in the very presence of God in our place. He has Perfected 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.

I Will know never Bring them up again. I will never bring them into remembrance. They will never find themselves standing before the Holy Judge. To answer for those sins that I have placed upon their substitute.

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 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 Particular and specific atonement or the only other consistent option is universalism.

Everybody gets saved. Because otherwise you gut the atonement of its central aspect of power. Which is the fact that it truly is an atonement. It's a propitiatory sacrifice not an amway theory. Which is what Arminianism does with the atonement and I know there are many people.

Many people who because of their traditions are very wedded to those things, but they just don't seem to realize. One things that reminds me of that all the time is that I have to constantly deal 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. But those who believe in substitutionary atonement and then make it just well, 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. They have they have taken out its heart and soul. So it's vitally important.

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. We're talking about the Greek language here.

So there it's all a translation of the original language of the Hebrew and. So he is understanding the promise of Jeremiah 31 their sins and their lawless deeds Will never come into remembrance. Will not be brought up and so a 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. He then says you want evidence of this. Here's what the Holy Spirit is testifying to us not just testified lo those hundreds of years ago.

But the Holy Spirit is testifying to us and that means to every Jewish Christian he was saying look. You can't just say well, that was 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 Holy Spirit has testified because folks we're just a matter of sentences away from some of the strongest warning words in all of the Bible and.

What is the foundation of some of the strongest words of warning. Some of the strongest words of assurance you see when you have laid out. The glory of the work of the triune God in salvation you have laid out 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 Holy Spirit the consistency of the testimony of the scriptures that come from the Holy Spirit and The fact that the 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 absolute perfection of this work. There's forgiveness. There's nothing to go back to. Now having laid all that out if someone can in stubbornness Say.

But that's not enough still I'm willing to go back. Now you understand the the need for the strength of those warning words that we're going to encounter 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. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth. He's laid it out. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.

Nothing to go back to. Nothing to go back to the terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries to stand against the clear 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. How much severer? Punishment do you think he will deserve. Who has trampled under foot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean.

The blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace. See now what the background of that is you hear the words? So often these words are quoted without a context and hence completely misapply.

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. How many witnesses is the writer of the Hebrews brought in?

He has brought in witness after witness scripture after scripture the priesthood Melchizedek the supremacy of Christ creator of all things one sacrifice no repetition of sacrifices. 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. 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 come to a knowledge of truth? Here's all this thing all this stuff is Not enough. Not enough for me. I'm going back. What'd he do? Trample underfoot the Son of God.

You see folks I've said it so many times. We cannot edit Jesus. We cannot add the gospel. We cannot edit Jesus to make him more like we want him to be. There is only one Jesus who can say you'll either bow the knee to him.

Or you will not have eternal life. We cannot decide which Jesus we like and Edit him down. That is the the woeful sadness of modern liberal theology. 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. Now verse 18 where there is forgiveness of these things. There is no longer any offering for sin. You either accept that or You trample them underfoot. There will be no place of neutrality.

There is no place of neutrality. The word does not allow it and these believers Yes put under great pressure. Here the preacher stands before the people and says look at what 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. Now what will you do if the Spirit has testified you that there is.

Well, there's forgiveness these things there is no sacrifice. 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.

But it's all been fulfilled. It was pointing ahead to something sort of much more glorious and now, you know. Now you've heard what are you going to do? You only have two choices. They either persevere in their faith.

Or if they go back they trample underfoot the blood the Son of God and They treat that blood of the covenant by which he and I will argue Christ was sanctified. That's something merely common coin a Just like the blood of animals you treat Jesus's sacrifices if he was nothing.

There is no middle ground. Oh, there are many people Trying to find a middle ground today. But there is none. You either have a Savior who actually brings about Salvation who actually has the capacity to save in and of himself or you find some other way.

Now, I know I know Thankfully, I know many a man and many a woman Who believes Firmly in their heart that Jesus Christ is a perfect Savior at the same time. 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 NOT saying that every single person.

It doesn't understand every every dotted I and cross T. It's going straight into the pits of hell, but I am going to tell you one thing. I am firmly convinced that A person who is truly indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God when faced with the teaching of the Word of God in completeness and in clarity will listen to that word and Will not simply go.

Oh, I I know 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 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 you recoiled.

That's different than what I've heard. But I have seen person after person after person. Once they were challenged once they saw what the Word of God said once they began looking at the Word of God. They couldn't just put aside it not at them.

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 this idea of well, you know.

All this theology stuff. I just don't know makes me really worried about a person think of these words my friends verse 18. 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 we forgive so often we will We will try to interpret God's act of forgiveness in in our categories and certainly Jesus made it very clear if you will not forgive then you will not be forgiven.

A Person who's been forgiven must be one who forgives. But we all know. No matter how hard we have tried to be forgiving. It's part of our fallen nature that We remember. It's hard for us to put things behind our back as he's far as far as the East is from the 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. But that's the whole assertion of the text where there is not a potential forgiveness not a partial forgiveness.

Where there is forgiveness their sins and their lawless deeds. I will not remember. Where there is forgiveness of these things? There is no longer any offering for sin. One offering one time Accomplishes its intention and that is the forgiveness.

That's why it must be particular. If it's not particular, then it's hypothetical and the argument collapses upon itself. But since it is since we have seen the particularity those who draw near to worship a 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 Forgiveness that the believer has in Jesus Christ is just as certain as the empty tomb for the father accepts that offering. That's what the empty tomb says and so upon what basis would any one of us ever have to question.

The forgiveness that we have in Christ.

What basis you see?

Very often when people come to me and they they they're struggling with assurance and they're struggling with these things. I don't have Fancy words, I Don't have some secret insight. For years I've done the same thing and that is when someone is struggling like that 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 Savior.

Go to the cross stand at the foot of Calvary. Look at the love that is expressed and look at what the triune God accomplished when Jesus said Palestine it is. 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 For you in that how could anyone do so?

The love of God the perfection of his work all displayed for us there is Forgiveness of these things and that is why this day in far-flung lands We have fellow believers Who have almost nothing in comparison to what you and I have they don't have the physical blessings.

They don't have the help. They don't have the fellowship. They don't have a nice cool place to gather they don't have Bibles. They might not even have their freedom. They might sit in a prison cell this night and yet they rejoice.

They have gladness and joy of heart. Because all that stuff that we have is not the source of our joy when you boil it all down. Why is a Christian a joyous person? Because a Christian is a forgiven they know their sin.

They know their need and they know their Savior and they know that their Savior is Sufficient to say and nothing in this world. No prison cells no level of poverty can take that joy from them 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 That if the Lord were to take all that other stuff from us, we still possess eternal life.

We're forgiven. We will not come into judgment. We've already passed out of death into life the world Cannot if that does not cause you to rejoice. I Don't know what possibly could.

Forgiveness, Assurance, and the Joy of the Forgiven

Let's pray together. Oh our gracious Heavenly Father.

We do rejoice this night and what you have done for us only you could do it. 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.

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 that great possession of eternal life forgiveness adoption. All blessings that come from your hand and we are undeserving help us to truly understand. Experience an abiding joy that nothing in this world Can ever take from us.

Encourage the downhearted? 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. Focused upon your truth and the glory of your gospel.

We pray in Christ's name.