Knowing The "Nots"

The Old Testament reading is found in Isaiah 53, beginning in verse 4. Surely he has bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

We all like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way. And the

Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that was led to the slaughter, and like sheep that before its shearers is silent.

So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and for his generation, who considered, that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him, he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the

Lord will prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered among the transgressors.

Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. The New Testament reading today is in Romans 8, 18 -25.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willing, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the

Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in the hope we were saved, now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with patience. You may be seated. Will the ushers please come forward?

Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9, begin reading in verse 23, reading through chapter 10, verse 18.

Hebrews 9, verse 23, Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own.

For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For is it impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins?

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will,

O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above,

You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings in burnt offerings and sin offerings.

These are offered according to the law. Then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the

Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the

Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Father, now we sit here with the text of Scripture open.

We are here waiting for a word from you to hear you speak to us.

I pray you would do that. Pray we would see the glory of Jesus and his sacrifice.

Help us now to rise up in joy and worship to you because of what

Jesus has done. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

How could you communicate to people exactly what you believe? Well, one way to do that is to publish a document with affirmations and denials.

That is, in order to communicate exactly what you believe, the document contains affirmations of what you believe is true and denials of what you believe is false.

Now I'll give you an example. Here's one produced by David Powlison in an article called The Proposed Definition of Biblical Counseling.

And so in this, he has a whole series of affirmations and denials. So he begins this way.

We affirm that the Bible is God's self -revelation in relation to his creatures and as such, truly explains people and situations.

We deny that any other source of knowledge is authoritative for explaining people and situations.

We affirm that the Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ's redemptive activity and tends to specifically guide and inform counseling ministry.

We deny that any other source of knowledge is authoritative to equip us for the task of counseling people.

So there, you see, he says, I'm going to define this for you, so I'm going to tell you what I affirm and I'm going to tell you what

I deny. Well, our writing pastor does just that in the text that's before us this morning.

When it comes to Jesus' sacrifice, he affirms certain truths and he denies their opposites.

When it comes to Jesus' death, he tells you what it is and what it is not.

And so you must know the is's and you must know the not's, is essentially what's happening in this passage.

So I'm going to read this passage, our text for this morning is verses 23 through 28. And I want you to pay careful attention to his affirmations and his denials.

All right. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood, not his own.

For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world, but as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Now since the beginning of chapter nine, verse one and all the way to chapter 10, verse 18, he's making one sustained argument, and that is that Jesus offers a better sacrifice under the new covenant.

Now from this point, from verse 23 to chapter 10, verse 18, he's zeros in on the superiority of Jesus' sacrifice to the old covenant sacrifices.

Now he begins with his own affirmations and denials. Here's what he says,

I affirm that Jesus' sacrifice had a heavenly reference. I deny that Jesus' sacrifice was intended for mere copies.

I affirm that Jesus' sacrifice was final. I deny that Jesus' sacrifice is repeatable.

I affirm that Jesus' sacrifice was an offering that results in glory.

I deny that Jesus' death results in judgment. And so that's what he does in this passage.

He wants us to understand something about this superiority of Jesus' sacrifice, so he tells us what it is and what it's not.

So let's look at that together. Let's examine our writer's affirmations and denials.

Here's the first. Recognize Jesus' sacrifice as affecting the heavenlies, not the copies.

Now the copies that he talks about here are the tabernacle with its courtyard, its holy place, and the holy of holies, along with all the instruments and furniture necessary for approaching

God. Now, when he talks about copies here, he does not mean by that that God's dwelling place, the original, is divided up into compartments like a courtyard and a holy place and a holy of holies.

He's not trying to communicate that when he uses the word copies. The tabernacle and all involved in its worship communicates necessary truths.

It communicated that you are sinful and impure, so you cannot approach

God. It communicated that you could not enter God's presence in your impure state, but that death and the resulting purification and forgiveness was necessary if you would approach

God. It communicated that you needed a representative to achieve all that in order to approach

God. And so it's a copy in the sense that it communicated all those things that are necessary to really approach

God in his heavenly dwelling place. And so God required that the tabernacle and everything associated with it was to be purified.

It was necessary, he says, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified.

Now, all those things had been contaminated because they had been built by human defiled hands.

And so they must be purified by the blood of a sacrificial victim.

But he says Jesus' sacrifice was never intended for the copies.

It was only intended for the heavenly realities. Why?

Because Jesus never entered the replica of those heavenly realities, the dwelling place of God, the earthly tabernacle.

He has entered the true dwelling place of God, where God really does dwell.

And if that is the case, if he's entered that sanctuary, then it requires superior sacrifices.

Now, our pastor here is not asserting that first somehow the dwelling place of God has been contaminated and needs purification.

He's not trying to say that. Nor that by using the plural sacrifices, superior sacrifices, he's not implying that Jesus has to make a bunch of other sacrifices in order for us to enter into the, or in order for him to enter the heavenlies, the presence of God, because he makes it clear, as we've just read, one sacrifice took care of everything.

So what is he communicating? What he means is simply this. If Jesus would appear in the presence of God, then a superior sacrifice than all that gone before, a superior sacrifice was necessary for him to enter the heavenlies, for him to enter the dwelling place of God, or more accurately, for him to represent us in the dwelling place of God.

Now look what this superior sacrifice accomplished. He stands in the very presence of God.

Now do you know what an idiom is? An idiom is when you look at it originally, it doesn't make sense, but you know what it means.

It means something. For example, it's raining cats and dogs out there, right?

When you came to church today, no cats were splattering on your windshield, right? That didn't happen.

What do we mean by that? And I don't know why it means this, but we all know that that idiom means it's really pouring outside.

Or if someone says to you, yeah, I'll change your oil, that's a piece of cake. And you don't sit there and scratch your head and say, there's no cake involved in this.

That doesn't even cross your mind. You know what he's saying. That's easy. Okay? That's an idiom.

Well, our writer uses an idiom here for the presence of God. Originally, this is what he says.

He says, instead of presence of God, the text says, now to appear in the face of God.

That's the literal translation. That's the idiom that he's using. Jesus is in the face of God.

Now of course, our idiom means he's mad, right? But that idiom back then meant he's in the face of God, which means he is in the same place, face to face, close proximity with God.

He's trying to communicate to you that because of Jesus' sacrifice, that superior sacrifice, he is now in the very presence of God, the very dwelling place of God.

That's where Jesus is. And he adds that little phrase, on our behalf, on our behalf.

Jesus is not just the Lord who commands your obedience.

Jesus is the friend serving you in the presence of God.

You know what? We just sang that truth, didn't we? You know, we get to sing and we don't pay attention to the words.

But this is what the writer is saying. Before the throne of God above,

I have a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart. I know that while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart.

No tongue can bid me thence depart. As long as he is there serving you,

God will never, ever condemn you.

That's what he's saying here. Jesus is there serving you, pleading your case by his wounds, as the other verses go on.

You know, when you're tempted to despair of your own sinfulness, your weakness, and you just are tired of the sin, and you begin to despair and to think,

God's done with me. That is when you need to see that Jesus is in the presence of God on behalf of you.

Jesus' sacrifice affects the heavenlies, not the copies. And that is good for us.

Now he goes on. He says recognize Jesus' sacrifice as decisive, not repeatable, in verses 25 and 26.

Now can you see the contrast here in these verses? The nots in these verses?

Let me point some out to you. His sacrifice is, it's not repeatedly, but once for all.

Not like the high priest with blood not his own, but the sacrifice of himself.

Not since the foundation of the world, but at the end of the ages. Not to deal with sin, but to save.

All those are in that compass of those two verses. Now you might think that Jesus should offer his sacrifice repeatedly.

Now, the writers, I mean the readers of this epistle sermon might think that.

They were used to that. A high priest entering the holy of holies with an offering for the sins of the people.

He did so repeatedly. Year after year after year after year on the day of atonement.

He made that offering with the blood of a sacrificial bull. With blood not his own.

So if you say that Jesus has offered himself as that kind of sacrifice.

Then shouldn't he offer himself repeatedly? I mean, if it's the same thing as before, but now it's just a little bit different, shouldn't he be repeatedly offered?

No, our writer says, if that were the case, if it was necessary to have this repeated offering of Jesus.

Then we'd have to go back to the very foundation of the world. We'd have to go back to the beginning of time, and he'd begin his suffering.

And he would have to suffer repeatedly. He would suffer death when Adam and Eve sinned.

He would have to suffer death when Cain killed Abel. He'd have to suffer death when Noah got drunk.

He'd have to suffer death when Abraham lied to Pharaoh. He'd have to suffer death when

Jacob deceived his father. You see, suffer death, if not for every sin, maybe annually.

And we're not even out of the book of Genesis yet, are we? He'd have to die all the time.

He'd have to suffer death over and over and over again. And that would have to be true if Jesus' sacrifice was no more effective than that of the high priest every year.

If it was no more effective than what the high priest offered annually, then Jesus would have to die repeatedly.

But Jesus' sacrifice is not repeatable because it is decisive.

It is decisive. Notice what our writer says. He appeared once for all.

By the way, I don't know if you've noticed that. That once for all keeps showing up, doesn't it? Once for all, his sacrifice is so effective.

It is so effective that it brought about reconciliation with God. It changes people so that they love to obey the commands of God.

It affects forgiveness. It purifies forever. And because of such a powerful atonement, it only needs to be offered one time because of its power.

Unlike that of the past, it only needs to be offered one time. Jesus only needed to die once.

It is final. It is decisive. He appeared, he says, at the end of the ages.

Now, in the New Testament, when you read the end of the ages, okay? Let's get this in our mind.

When it says end of the ages or the last days, he's not talking about, oh, this little bit of time when, you know, when

Russia is going to invade Israel and it's at the very end of time when Jesus is going to come. No. When the

Bible uses the term last days or end of the ages, it means from the time of Jesus' ascension to the time of Jesus' return.

Those are the last days, meaning that is the final installment of human history.

We are in the last epoch of human history. At the end of this epoch of history, it's all over.

You follow? His sacrifice was given in the final installment of human history.

This is it. There's no more to come. It's final. It's decisive.

Notice, it says, he sacrificed himself. Now, what you need to get in your mind is

Jesus is not only the priest, Jesus is also the sacrifice.

He, as a priest, offers himself as the sacrifice.

He is both priest and sacrifice. That alone shows his superiority.

And then he says, here's the key to understanding all of this. His sacrifice, note what it says, put away sin.

You see, those annual sacrifices never decisively, never finally dealt with sin.

That's why they were repeated. They didn't finally decisively deal with sin.

Those sacrifices in the Old Testament never put away sin, but Jesus' sacrifice did.

You know, Jesus did not appear on the stage of human history as a tragic figure who, as people like to say today, spoke truth to power and was unjustly executed.

Poor Jesus, no, he finally decisively dealt with sin.

The very thing that has corrupted all of our relationships, the very thing that has alienated us from God, the very thing that has alienated us from our environment, the very thing that has brought nothing but misery into the history of mankind,

Jesus has dealt with that. And the very thing that alienates you from God, Jesus has put it away.

So that now there is nothing, I want you to hear this, there is nothing that stands between you and God ever.

You say, but pastor, I sin. That's right. I know you do. I'm your pastor, and I do, because I'm me.

The point is, your sin, even now, cannot alienate you from God because Jesus has put it away, it's not part of the equation.

You are accepted by God, you are free to come to God. It is all forgiven, the record is cleared forever.

There is nothing that you can do to be brought into relationship with God.

It has been dealt with, that relationship is always there. He is now your father because of what this priest has done.

He has put away sin. Now be careful of those who deny this truth.

Now in a culture that we live in today, it is nearly impossible to say what

I'm going to say. You say, what are you gonna say? Simply this, you have

Catholic friends and I have Catholic friends, but the Catholic Church is dead wrong on this point.

The Catholic Church teaches, tells us that Jesus is offered every time at the mass.

He is offered every time at the mass. Now they will go on to say, and as I was looking this over,

I looked it up in the Catholic catechism, all right? They're going to say, they even use the terms,

Jesus' death is once for all. They use that terminology, but they say, but that sacrifice is still here.

And so the priest has to offer that sacrifice. It's not a bloody sacrifice, mind you, but it's a sacrifice nonetheless.

And it's a sacrifice offered by the priest to God. And because you offer the sacrifice of Jesus, and they make no bones about it, it's not,

Lord, we're looking to that sacrifice and we offer that. No, it's Jesus is offered, again, sacrificially, time after time, day after day to God.

The priest offers him to God for us. Not Jesus offering himself once for all, but priests offering him time and again.

But you see, Jesus' sacrifice is decisive, not repeatable.

It cannot be repeated. It's once for all. Now, the last thing he tells us, his last affirmation in denial, says that Jesus' sacrifice brings glory, not judgment.

Now, I don't know if you've ever wondered, but it seems kind of strange talking about this, that all of a sudden he says, and just as it's appointed for a man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, why does he introduce that?

Why does he say that? He's saying, understand that Jesus cannot die repeatedly, because Jesus is a man and he can only die once.

Jesus cannot die over and over and over and over again. Why? He's a man.

It's appointed for a man to die once. Jesus is no different.

He died once. But again, the death of Jesus is not the same as the death of you and me, of men and women.

Everyone dies only once, and then they must face the judgment of the last day.

So the schedule is death, waiting in heaven or hell, as we typically would say, and then judgment, judgment.

Everyone dies only once, and then the schedule says judgment comes. But notice again the not of Jesus' death, how his death is different.

Just as everyone is destined to die once, so Jesus only dies once.

However, what's interesting is that our writer, our pastor here, does not say, just as it's appointed for man to die once, and then the judgment, so Jesus dies only once.

What does it say? Doesn't use the word death or die. Jesus offered himself once.

It's difference. It's not like anybody else's death, because his death, his death is an offering to God.

No one else's death is, but his is. Jesus dies once, like everyone else, but his death, unlike all the other deaths, he says, bears the sins of many.

Here he's referring to what Lee read to us this morning. Here is a clear reference to Isaiah 53, where it talks about the suffering servant, bearing the sins or the iniquities of many.

He says, this is the one who bears away our sins. He bears the penalty of sin for his people.

There have been many times where I've sat with folks after the death of a loved one, and they ask, why did she have to die?

Now, what is that question saying? The question's saying, what was the purpose? What was the purpose of my daughter's death?

What's the purpose in that, right? And for many of us, the death of someone else seems like a mystery.

What's the purpose in it? But not so with the death of Jesus. Jesus' death had a glorious purpose.

It was to be a substitute for us, so that we would not have to pay the penalty.

You see, he had a purpose in his death, to pay the penalty that we owe.

And so our writer says, it is appointed for a man to die once, including Jesus, and after that, salvation.

That's the biggest difference between our death and Jesus' death, right?

It's appointed for a man to die once, and then the judgment. Here he says, it is appointed for a man to die once, including

Jesus, and then salvation. He's saying to us,

Jesus appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and he will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Everyone else dies, and then comes judgment. But Jesus dies, and after that, comes salvation.

Now, someone says to me, but I thought believers are already saved. We've just read that Jesus came to put away sin and to bear the sins of many.

So how is it that he comes to save people when he appears? What is that all about?

Simply this. You have to understand that the redemption of Jesus covers not just whether I'm gonna go to heaven or not.

It deals with the sin and all of its curse. Sin and all of what's in messed up.

It deals with everything. I'll never forget my philosophy professor. I went to a Christian school.

My philosophy professor was a Christian. And I'll never forget the day he ended his lecture in philosophy and he said, tomorrow, we're gonna talk about how

God died for the cows. What is that all about?

What he was trying to say, in a very overstated way, was that when

Jesus died, he didn't just deal with this alienation between us and God.

He dealt with all the curse of sin as far as it goes. That includes the earth, that includes everything.

He's already given us a glimpse of this in Hebrews chapter two. Let's look at it. Hebrews chapter two, he's mentioned it.

Hebrews chapter two, beginning in verse five. Now, it was not to angels that God subjected the world, what?

Subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. So he's hinting here. It's not angels who are going to be ruling in the world to come.

Who's gonna rule in the world to come? We are. He goes on.

It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?

You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.

Now, if you don't remember the sermon from this passage, let me remind you.

This is a psalm, Psalm 8, that's talking about man's dominion over the earth.

It's talking about the fact that we have dominion over creation.

Now, he goes on to say, now in putting everything in subjection to him, putting everything in subjection to man, he left nothing outside his control.

He said when God gave man dominion over creation, all of creation was under his control.

But at present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.

Why? Cuz in the curse, it's fighting back. It's not in subjection.

We have to wrestle our livelihood, our lives from the earth. It's fighting back.

So he says, God put everything in subjection, the whole thing under our subjection, but it doesn't look like it now.

Well, then he goes on. But we see him, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely

Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

He says, but there is a man who has been crowned with glory and honor like man was crowned with glory and honor.

He is, and we see that everything is in subjection to him. We see that he now rules.

He's the perfect man now ruling. So what's the point?

The point is, the point is simply that sin destroyed our dominion.

We have to really fight for dominion over creation. Frankly, because of our sin, we're doing a pretty lousy job of that.

He's saying, Jesus is gonna bring salvation. You know what that means? We'll have perfect fellowship with God.

Nothing. Again, wrap your mind around it. When Jesus appears, from that point on, we will have perfect fellowship with God.

No sin will ever intrude to sour that.

We'll have perfect fellowship with one another. I want you to imagine a life of eternity where there's not going to be another argument.

There's not going to be one whiff of suspicion between us. There will be nothing that will hinder our love for one another.

And there will be perfect harmony between us and the earth.

We will rule the earth just like God intended us to rule it.

Perfectly, forever. We will interact with nature in a way where there is perfect harmony between us and the created realm.

We will be and do what God always intended humanity to be and to do.

That is the glory, the salvation that he brings. Jesus will bring complete, final, full salvation.

So you see, Jesus' death brings glory, not judgment. You know where the nots should lead you?

A writer intend for the nots to lead you to the hope that is in Jesus.

A hope that's founded in the fact that we have a representative that stands before God all the time.

The hope, the hope that our sins have been borne away.

Right? That once for all, he's dealt with it. It's done.

We don't have to work our way into God's good graces because sin has been put away.

It's to lead us to the hope of a perfect, absolutely glorious, harmonious, peaceful eternity.

That's where the nots should take you. Father, thank you for your word. How good it is to find all that Jesus has done by dying.

He died but once and we're so thankful for that because it speaks to the greatness and the effectiveness of his atonement.

Father, use this, I pray, to give us hope. Hope every day when we want to despair.

Hope when it looks like the world is falling apart. Hope that you indeed are our

God and we are your people. Hope born out of the fact that what

Jesus has done has brought forgiveness and purification to your people.

Help us now, Lord, to live in hope. And we will thank you in Jesus' name.