Better Priests Have Better Covenants - [Hebrews 8:7-13]

If you'll take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 8. We're going verse by verse through this great book that exalts Christ. And the way we can frame it this morning as you're turning to Hebrews chapter 8 is by asking this question, is there any hope for mankind?

Is there an ultimate hope, a hope for heaven? After all, Adam in the garden fails, Eve in the garden fails. Everyone but Noah and his seven family members fail. And then Noah gets out of the boat and he fails.

All the people at the Tower of Babel try to reach God. They all fail. Lot fails. In the wilderness, Israel fails. David on a rooftop fails. The list goes on and on and on. And I can put myself in that same category.

Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And if there's hope to be found for heaven, if there's hope to be found to get into God's presence when we die, and we surely will die, how are we going to get there?

Israel could not succeed in the wilderness just like Adam could not succeed in the garden. Man is a covenant breaker. Man is a lawbreaker. But thankfully, this morning, we'll see in the book of Hebrews that God is a covenant maker and a covenant keeper and a promise keeper.

If there's any hope for you to get to heaven, it has to be by the work of the triune God. And this book of Hebrews just goes on and on and on about how great Jesus is. Robert Muto today was preaching in that class that I was telling you about in my office, and it was one verse after another after another out of Robert's mouth.

And I said, I'm going to, by the authority vested in me as the class teacher, give you a new name, and it's going to be Gatling. Because it was just like a Gatling gun of verses of who Jesus is. And that's exactly the book of Hebrews.

One after another after another, He's better than prophets, He's better than the angels. You're like, how could anybody be better than an angel? And in chapters 1 and 2, He just gives you those guns one after another, shooting away all cancer atoms away from any of your minds.

I felt the poke in my ribs from my wife. What's a cancer atom? I have no idea, but you know what? God is sovereign over that. Even at the very beginning, the question could be asked, how could Jesus be better than angels if He's also human?

I mean, angels, human, and the writer in Hebrews, just with another round in the chamber, says He is greater than angels, even as a human, because He can identify with humans, and He can be their mediator, and He can, even as a human, then become a faithful high priest and a mediator in between God and man.

In this book of Hebrews, you hear things like this, the word better. He's better than angels. There's a better hope, a better covenant, better promises, better sacrifices, better substance, better country.

You hear the word great in this book. Great salvation, great high priest, great tabernacle, great fight of afflictions, great recompense, great cloud of witnesses, and then the pinnacle, the great shepherd of the sheep.

This writer wants to convince you and break down every barrier you have mentally that something else in your life is better, that something else in your life has more worth, that something in your life should be praised more than this God who has saved you from your sins.

One after another, this writer says, Jesus is the one and only one who's the faithful high priest, Hebrews 2 .17, and can make propitiation for the sins of the people. And he gets out the proverbial big guns because the things that the Jews so loved and so kept close to them and close to their heart was the Levitical system, was the priestly system, was all the garb and was all the smells and the bells and everything else, and that's where he sets his target because they were worshiping really that system, and that system was only meant to point to the greater high priest.

David McWilliams says this in his commentary on Hebrews, one of the best that's out there, the writer of the book of Hebrews never wearies of relentlessly presenting the supremacy of Christ. I like that.

I need to be reminded every week about how supreme Jesus is. And I know what you're saying. You're saying, Pastor Mike, I could give an outline to you about the book of Hebrews because we've been in the book of Hebrews so long.

I understand what's in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. I know that Jesus didn't come from the Levitical priesthood, but he came from Melchizedekian line because he's from the tribe of Judah. I know that priests stand between God and man.

I know that if this mediator's not perfect, then he himself would need another mediator who was perfect. I know that God's work on earth is done, salvation is accomplished, but his work in heaven as mediator still goes on.

I know those things, and you know what I say to that? Amen. That's what I'm glad for, that you know those things, and you could teach this, and you could understand that. That's the point. Now, last week we saw verses 1 through 6 in Hebrews 8, and let me just read those, and we'll make some comments about verse 6, since I didn't make many comments about verse 6.

And then this morning, I think we can finish through verse 13. We're at breakneck speed, trying to think of something else about a Gatling gun, but I'm not sure. I did go see Spurgeon's grave in London, and in the same cemetery, they have the British inventor of a different machine gun, Maxim.

M-A-X-I-M. So there you go. All right. Now, the point in what we are saying is this. This is the pinnacle of what's going on in the first seven chapters. We have, present tense, such a high priest, and he's not any high priest.

He's one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. Priests need to minister, and this minister is ministering in heaven.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest, Jesus, also to have something to offer, and we know that was his life at Calvary. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

In other words, Levitical priests have to do what Exodus says, and Jesus isn't a Levitical priest, so he couldn't minister on earth, so he's ministering in heaven as this Melchizedekian priest. They serve as a copy and shadow of heavenly things.

For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. Verse six, But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

And that will lead us into verses seven through 13, this shortest chapter in all the book of Hebrews. If you look at verse six again, kind of in summary, he has a superior ministry. It's an excellent ministry.

It's not interrupted. It's not partial. It's not one priest after another dies and dies and dies and dies. Jesus dies once for all and is exalted. He's a mediator of a better covenant because this covenant that Jesus mediates is not dependent on your obedience to get to heaven.

It's not dependent on fulfilling Mosaic law. Do this and live and you do it and live, but we know we can't do it, so therefore we die. And so this new covenant that's going to be talked about is a better covenant because it depends not on man's obedience, but on God's promises.

Those are the better promises. Christ's sacrifice is exactly what God desires and our sin requires, and that is how we receive forgiveness. Everywhere you go, you have to see this idea of priesthood. Do you see it again in verse six?

The covenant he mediates is better. That's that middle person. That's that arbiter that stands between you and God. Isaiah 59, we're separated by sin and we need someone to bring us to God. I was just looking at an old track the other day.

I think it was Navigators, and it shows over here on this side of the chasm man and corruption and death and sin and angst and shame. And then it shows over here God, not by picture, but it says He's holy, and there's this huge gulf and it says, Isaiah 59, there's been a gulf between God and man and sin has separated us.

And then this little track, it's perfect to think about, has Jesus on a cross. It's just a cross without Jesus, but Jesus is crossed. And then it's laid down so we might bring, we might be brought to God by the death of Christ.

How are we brought back to the Father? By the death of Christ. He is the mediator. The old covenant was be obedient and do what I say and you'll get in. The new covenant says, sinners look to Christ, the high priest, and you shall be saved.

Mediation. And by the way, I know sometimes we get into grammar and here is a case. He has received this great high priest, but as it is, Christ has obtained. It's something that He has. He's received and it's an abiding thing.

All the other priests, they were born, they served, they died. They born, they served, they died. And now Jesus has received this never to give it up. True mediator, final mediator, more excellent mediator of the new covenant.

Can you see it in chapter nine? He says the same thing in verse 15, does he not? Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

And that's way better than the promised land that Israel would receive. This is eternal inheritance. He talks about the same mediatorial work in chapter 12, verse 22 of the same book. You can either turn there or I'll just read it.

Verse 22 of chapter 12, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and innumerable angels in festal gatherings. This is the one that you've come through.

How do you come through him? Through the mediatorial work of Jesus. That's how you get there through his mediatorial work. Now, let's go to chapter eight, verses seven through 13. And this is what's called the new covenant.

And now, are you ready? You can take a look at your Bibles. Can you not? There's a lot of white spaces in the margins. What does that tell you? It tells you it's a different kind of genre, like we're moving into poetry, or it will tell you that this is an Old Testament quote.

And that's exactly what it is. This is a quote from Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 34. God is going to remedy the problem of how to get to heaven. Now, lots of times when the writer quotes in the Old Testament, he will explain himself.

He'll give like a little mini exposition. There's no explanation here at all. He just quotes it. I find that fascinating at the start. The second thing I find fascinating before we look at the text, these are internal things, not external things, not land things.

These are happening on the inside of a person, spiritual things. And if you look to whom is the covenant given, it says in verse eight, I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

I want to just stop there just for a second. Here's what I don't want you to do when you see that. I don't want you to launch into this whole eschatological end times thought where you're thinking, okay, is this only for Israel and the church doesn't get these benefits?

Or could this be Israel and the church, they both get the benefits? Could there be two new covenants, one for Israel and one for the church? Does the church take the promises from Israel since they disobeyed?

Or are there future blessings in the millennial kingdom plus present blessings now? And you start processing all this. Am I dispensational premill? Am I historical premill? Am I amill? Am I postmill? And, of course, you have to say it just to keep your attention.

Am I panmill? Am I promill? Everybody's promill, aren't you? Aren't you for a millennial kingdom? What I don't want you to do is get bogged down in issues like Galatians 6, Israel of God, and Romans 9, 6, and Romans 11, 25.

Here's what I want you to do. This writer was letting these Christian people know that this covenant and these blessings are for them. They are receiving these very blessings. And if you're a Christian trusting in the risen Savior, you don't have to wait for any of these.

These aren't only millennial kingdom things. These are for you, and I'm going to prove it when we come to the Lord's Supper. So I don't want you to get to this section and get bogged down with all the things about, well, Chafer said this, and Ryrie said that, and O .T. Alice said this, and all the stuff that lots of commentators do.

Here's what I want you to think. Jesus is the mediator of this new covenant. He is giving these blessings to the people then, and I can receive these new covenant blessings by faith today. Sound right?

Okay. In other words, this isn't some kind of eschatology class. This is supposed to be a sermon that encourages the people. You're going through hard times. They're taking your homes. They're going to kill you.

The temple's going to be destroyed. What are we going to do? Well, I think we need to talk about the different views of the eschatology systems. That's fine and dandy in its place. What is certain is this.

Christian, you get these benefits. Christians, you receive these benefits. And whether you think they're directly for you, or you're grafted in, or somehow they just apply to you, that is not my focus today.

Why would you go back to any other system, any other covenant, any other religion, any other Roman Catholic system, Lutheran system, pagan system, hedonism system, when you get these benefits, the benefits listed of this new covenant, people would die for.

And somebody did die for. The new covenant finds its realization in Christ Jesus. And this is a Christian sermon designed to give you encouragement. Present validity. Verse 6, does it not say? Which was established on better promises.

The new covenant has a mediator today. And it was inaugurated at the death of Christ Jesus. I read to you Hebrews 9 .15. He is the mediator of a new covenant. We're not waiting for the millennium to have these blessings.

So let me give you an outline. In verses 7 through 13, I'm going to give you seven praises for the work of Christ Jesus as High Priest and His new covenant. Seven reasons you can just say, Oh, that is a great new covenant.

God, thank you for letting me be part of that new covenant. Thank you that you're the mediator for this new covenant. Seven praises in the form of an outline. Not because I think seven is necessarily the perfect number or anything like that, but just that's what we came up with, seven.

Or as we say in proverbial preaching class, we're going to look at several today. Why do I say that? Well, because if I don't get to all seven, then what are you going to do? I know you're going to say, Pastor, what about that seventh one?

So we're going to try. I think we can do it. You say, well, it would be a lot better if you just told me, you know what, I need some marching orders. Just tell me I should be thankful again. Just tell me to be pure again with my eyes in the computer.

Just tell me I ought to encourage other people again. That is easier, but that comes later in chapter 13. This is the foundation. This is your motivation for that kind of obedience. Praise number one, God's new covenant with Christ Jesus as High Priest and Mediator was planned in eternity past.

That's the first praise. This isn't some new deal. Verse 7, For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. The first covenant, the Mosaic covenant, had problems.

It was supposed to point to Jesus, so it was never supposed to last. And the people to whom it were given, they disobeyed, they sinned. It was built in as a weak, ineffective system, not because anything was wrong with it, but it was never meant to save.

This old system was going to be overshadowed by the new system. The adequacy of Christ would overshadow the inadequacy of the old covenant. And God had promised this all along. Go back to chapter 7, verse 11.

You can see an echo of this. Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than the one after the order of Aaron?

In other words, this law is defective, not because the law is defective, but because it couldn't generate the right results, because nobody could obey the law. Law finds fault. Law doesn't gauge. Law doesn't grant.

It demands. Now, what's happening with Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34? Now, you think of northern Israel and southern Judah, where Jerusalem is. Israel's already taken over by Assyria, and Judah is about to be taken over by the Babylonians.

Will we ever make it out alive? We've disobeyed the Mosaic covenant, and in come the Assyrians, and in coming are the Babylonians. We're never going to make it out. Is there any hope? And in the middle of all that, Assyria's taken over Israel, and Judah is about to be ransacked by Babylonians and taken into captivity, the new covenant by Jeremiah is given.

So can you kind of see what's happening? The Hebrews receiving this letter, Hebrews, they're in dire straits. They need to be encouraged. Is God still working? If I'm walking by my site, I can't see anything good except destruction and death and overpowering armies.

And so the writer in Jeremiah says, I've got some good news for you. Similarly, these people receiving this letter, Hebrews, need some good news. In the middle of everything, God has this all planned out.

He is in fact sovereign over every cancer, Adam. Okay. This is heady, but it's not that difficult when you think, this isn't plan B. You know what? It didn't work out through Israel, so what am I going to do now?

And you lick your finger and put it in the air, and God's like, well, maybe we should do that. God knew all along the Levitical system would point ahead to the Lord Jesus. It's all been planned in eternity past.

Not only that, number two, you ought to praise God for this new covenant with Christ as High Priest and Mediator because He won't let human disobedience stop His plan. Verse 8, For He finds fault with them when He says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them out by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

For they did not continue in My covenant, and I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. If anybody's going to make it, God has to intervene. And that's why when you look at this section in verses 8 and following, don't you see it?

I will establish. Don't you see it in verse 10? I will make. I will put. I will write. I will be their God. It's going to have to take God. Verse 12, I will be merciful. I will remember their sins no more.

Now, can you imagine Israel just for a second? This is one of the most kind of pompous, crazy things in all of the Bible, but I would be right there with them, I'm sure, and so would you. God gives the old covenant to Israel, and Exodus 24 says this.

Here's how the people responded to the Mosaic covenant. So God gives you a covenant. This is what I want you to do. I'm great. I'm the sovereign, and you're my people. I'm the creator. You're the creature.

Here's what I want you to do. And He gives them the law. And here's how they respond. How would you respond if God gives you the Ten Commandments and all the Mosaic law? What would your response be? Here's what Israel said.

All the words which the Lord has said we will do. Okay. How'd that work out? Not very well, so they can't do it. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, said the people, and they broke every one of them, so God has to come along and intervene and says, no, I will do this.

I will do these things. It's not, if you do, I will bless. I will do these things instead. And so that is the divine initiative of this covenant. He is going to make the covenant. He is going to consummate the covenant.

Nothing can stop Him bringing in the covenant. I can make it practical. Let me ask you the question. If you could lose your salvation, would you? Could you? Did you? And look at the language here. I mean, don't you love this kind of merciful fatherly language?

At the end of verse 9, in the center of verse 9 rather, He took them by the hand. What strength, what compassion. He takes them out of slavery in Egypt by the hand, taking hold of them. What a kind God, what a merciful God.

Hosea 11 says, When Israel was a child, I loved him. Out of Egypt, I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to bales and burnt offerings. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk.

I took them up by their arms, and they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of what? Love. And I became to them as one who eases the yoke of their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

I was so kind. I did all that for them. And what did they do? Yes, we'll obey the law. It goes on to say in Exodus 24,. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient.

That didn't last for very long. Number three, why should you be thankful for a new covenant? God puts laws into your hearts, verse 10a. We're moving to the positive aspects of the new covenant. Now, every once in a while when I'm preaching, there's something in the passage where I'm thinking, This is like the high point.

This is the point where I've been waiting for. I can't wait to tell you about this. And at the risk of making you think there's nothing left at the end of the sermon, except we're going downhill from there, that wouldn't be true, number one.

But number two, it's worth it. Here's a high point. Now, in the middle of all this kind of mental stuff, what about Israel? What about Judah? What about Moses? What about this, that, and the other? Here's a high point of the covenant that's for you, Christian, today.

The present validity of this new covenant. What's it say? Verse 10a,. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts.

Now, first thing I want to say is, this isn't physical blessings of the new covenant. When you turn on the TV and there's somebody running their mouths about health and wealth and prosperity and name it and claim it, and as we say in radio, blab it and grab it and send money to Jesus.

Here's my address. Here's all these physical things that come to you. That's not the new covenant promise. This is internal. And the first thing that's internal is, God's writing the law in your hearts.

He's the present tense mediator for Christians today, writing the law into your heart. Now, why is this so exciting to me? Now, let's just step back for a second and think. Old covenant Moses, where did they keep the law?

Follow me. Where did they keep the law? Inside the holy place. Inside the holy of holies. In a box, ark of the covenant. There's a rod there. Aaron's rod. There's some manna there. And inside that box, the ark, there's the law.

In the old covenant, where was the law? Way over there. Hard to get to. You can't get to. Nobody can get to. Only one guy. This is a location. Where's the law in the old covenant? Well, it's somewhere back all that kind of smoke and everything else.

Where's the law in the new covenant? He regenerates you. He gives you his spirit, and you have the law what? Where? In your heart. In your minds. That is amazing. The repository for the ten commandments and the law of God isn't someplace.

It's in you. Engraved on your minds and your hearts. Not external tablets of stone, but your own heart. Remember, God with his own finger writes the ten commandments. It's stone. But what do the people do?

They disobeyed it. And you can see Moses with those tablets, breaking the tablets, signifying how the people broke the law. This covenant, though, he's going to make sure you obey. Because he gives you the spirit, and he writes on your heart.

The very finger of God, as it were. One writer said, the old unregenerate heart of the nation was too black upon which to write, too stony to take the imprint of God's law. But now the law is written on the heart, and the greater work of the Holy Spirit impresses the soul with a love for God's word and way.

People are like, well, you know, if you believe in grace alone, in faith alone, in Christ alone, you're an antinomian. You're just going to go run off the deep end. If you're free and you can't lose your salvation, you just do whatever.

Oh, no. In the new covenant, God writes his laws on your heart. I love Ezekiel chapter 36, that the Lord refers to our Lord Jesus in John 3. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.

I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules.

That's the new covenant. What do sinful people need? New hearts, new dispositions, new minds. They need to be new creatures in Christ Jesus. Spirit of God dynamically helps us. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will.

Divine monergism, God alone working, he will do it in every Christian heart and has. Can't you say deep down, when the law used to convict you of your sin before you were Christian, and you'd say, I cannot obey the law.

I stand guilty before God. Now that law has been fulfilled by Jesus in his perfect life. He was born under law, born of a woman that he might redeem us. And now God has saved us. Jesus bears our law breaking, and then he keeps the law, and both are credited to our account.

And then now he hands back that law to us, and how do we respond to God's law now? I love your law. God, I love your law. Because I'm not keeping it in order to be right with you, because I am right with you.

I'd like to keep it. This is regeneration. This is internalization. Fourthly, not only is there a law written on your minds and hearts through regeneration of the Spirit's work, there's a very personal relationship you can have with the Lord.

Verse 10, Be, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Why should you praise God for the new covenant with Christ Jesus as high mediator? It's always been planned. It's not new. Obedience from the human will not stop his plan.

God puts his law into your hearts, and now number four, you get a personal relationship with the Lord, a very intimate, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. You've heard me say many times, unbelievers have a very personal relationship with Jesus.

Do they not? As enemy, mortal enemy. God takes it very personally. But now there's no sin in between us and the Father, and so now we have this close communion. And we can cry out, Abba, Father, can we not?

We know what it feels like through the Spirit of God to be God's child. We know what it's like to be bound to him in family affection. This is all Romans 8 language. God decides to save a people, and he says, I will be your God, and you will be my people.

That is realized in the new covenant. He wanted to make Israel his special people, his treasured possession, and in fact they were, but not in this way, because they did not continue to obey in the covenant stipulations.

Number five, does he get better? He gives you a true knowledge of himself. Why should you be thankful for this new covenant? He gives you true knowledge of himself. Verse 11, And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

I now understand with deeper knowledge the saving relationship I have with the Lord. Now let's think about this for a second. Is he saying, you shouldn't have teachers anymore? Is he saying, Mike, fly to Los Angeles for the conference and never come back.

Stop teaching the people. Well, number one, he's teaching the people right now. It's a Christian sermon. You know what I think, what's happening here? Yes, there's a Spirit of God who's in us, who's the anointing first, John, who helps us understand.

But I think there's more than an objective stand here, and that is, the Lord Jesus came in the flesh. How can you truly know who God is unless he comes from heaven to tell us? Yes, I think there's something subjective here.

You know the Lord deep down, but how do you really know him? Through the coming of Christ Jesus and his incarnation. To know, in the language of the Bible, is intimate. And you know God, and he knows you.

You don't need priests anymore. That's the point. You used to have to have priests as mediator. No longer. Dwelling every Christian. 1 John 2, 7. You have an anointing with the Holy One, and you know all.

And the anointing that you have received abides in you, and you need not have any man teach you. Well, we have one more, do we not? No, I guess we have two more. Hey, we have several more. Now, see, sometimes I do that because I know, all right, if I come to Hebrews and say, I get to preach whatever passage I want, I probably won't preach Hebrews 8.

Why? It's just hard. It's kind of this abstract thing. But guess what? It's in the Bible, so therefore, I'm going to teach it. And by the way, I'm happy for the New Covenant, because left to the Old Covenant, I would fail.

But the New Covenant, that's what I'm going to teach. There's a special relationship that the Father has with us based on the work of the Son. Verse 12 gives us the sixth praise. With this covenant, God mercifully grants you forgiveness.

Could there be sweeter words written in all the Bible? And I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. Oh, Christian, pardoned in Christ Jesus. How could you run back to anything else?

I can remember sitting there, enslaved in a Lutheran system, trying to make sure I confessed all my sins late at night before I went to sleep, thinking, if I go to sleep with one unconfessed sin, off to hell I go.

Have you been there? Do you know what that's like? Why would you go back to some system like that when you have merciful pardon now? How many sins were forgiven when an Old Testament sacrifice was made?

Answer? Zero. How many sins were given when you took all the Passover lambs every year and combined them in the history of the nation of Israel? How many sins were truly forgiven? Answer? Zero. Not one sin ultimately forgiven by an Old Testament sacrifice.

So I ask the question to those who like old hymns, what can wash away my sin? With verve, you say that, right? Sins are really dealt with, not just covered like in the Old Testament, not just pointing to anything in the Old Testament.

Wrath of God assuaged. God is angry with the wicked. He's angry with every unbeliever. But that anger doesn't rest on believers anymore because Jesus interposed Himself and He took that punishment. And you are forgiven.

And here's a cool thing about the Greek. What does it say here? I will remember their sins no more. There's a double negative. Absolutely no, never, ever, God will never remember one of your sins. You know those sins that you've committed?

Those sins that are in your closet? Those sins that you don't want to remember? God doesn't necessarily have data taken out of His mind. He can't unknow something. He's omniscient. So what does not remember mean?

He's not going to hold it against you. He's not going to rub your nose in it. He no longer considers them. He doesn't dwell on them. All because God's merciful. Not because you did anything. Not because you continue to do anything.

Not because you go to Mass every day. Not because you genuflect. Not because you do anything. Not because you confess sins at night. It's just sovereign mercy. No longer remembered. If you sinned in the Old Testament, how many times did you think you'd have to remember your sin until you brought the animal the next day?

That's when you would remember the sin. Blotting out. Not remembering. Here's what forgiveness means. While God still knows the sin, He says, I won't hold it against you. And by the way, if somebody's ever sinned against you and says, please forgive me.

If you say, I forgive you. Ephesians 4 says, you forgive like God does. You can't unremember it. But you can say, I'll treat you like it never happened. Our relationship is restored. The annual reminder of sins is gone.

And friends, mark this clearly. If you're in a system that wants to celebrate Lent and Ash Wednesday and giving things up and giving things up and all that stuff, why? Why? God doesn't remember your sins anymore.

Jesus' atonement was enough. His resurrection confirmed that. Constantly offering sacrifices in the Old Testament. Bulls and lambs and pigeons and goats. And now we have some kind of insane and asinine idea that now we're going to give up Facebook and chocolate.

You've got to be kidding me. I don't know how I came up with those two, but some of you probably do Facebooking eating chocolate. You ought to give that up. But not for spiritual reasons. The climax of the quotation is, I won't remember your sins anymore.

Friends, I remember my sins, and I long for that day in some way. I'm not trying to speed up my death. But on that last day when you breathe your last breath and you think, you know what? In heaven, I have no more of those skeletons bothering me.