The End of Sacrifices (Hebrews 10:15-18)

Would you please open your copy of God's word to Hebrews chapter 10, and we're gonna be looking specifically at verses 15 through 18.

And when you've found your place, let's pray together before we begin. Our Father, we pray that your word may be our focus this morning and may occupy the attention of our minds and of our hearts, that your

Holy Spirit would be our teacher and that your glory would be our immediate concern. We pray that you would remind us again of how deep and how broad and how thorough is your forgiveness and your work for us on the cross that has purchased our salvation and that has secured us everlastingly for your glory and for our good.

We pray that you'd help us to appreciate these things, that we may live in obedience to you and in loving affection toward our

Lord Jesus Christ who has given himself for us. He is our God and he is our King and he is the one in his name we pray, amen.

Amen. We've said in the last couple of weeks that we are nearing now the end of the theology section of Hebrews.

That's not to say that the rest of Hebrews doesn't have theology in it, it certainly does, but we're nearing the end of the theological thrust, the central theological point of the book of Hebrews as we approach here now the end of chapter 10 or the middle,

I should say, of chapter 10. And this section has been talking about the law and the priesthood and the sacrifices and the

Old Covenant versus the New Covenant and what has been accomplished for us in the death of Christ as opposed to what was accomplished under the

Old Covenant by the animal sacrifices. And we have come to see that examined from every conceivable angle and looked at from every possible direction, that the sacrifice of Christ and his work for us far exceeds anything provided under the

Old Covenant. It is far more glorious, it is far more thorough, it is far more perfect than anything that the

Old Testament could have provided or the Old Covenant could have provided. It exceeds by mortars of magnitude infinitely so the

Old Covenant with all of its provision of sacrifices and animals and offerings and worship.

And in all of that, the glories of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ have become manifest to us if we worked our way through this middle section.

The blessings that accrue to us through Jesus Christ are truly infinite and without measure.

They're infinite blessings, they're not infinite just in the number of blessings, they are infinite in order of the magnitude of those blessings and the provision of what we have been given in salvation in Christ.

I want you to think of it in these terms. If your sin debt was unlimited and eternal and infinite, which it certainly was, which is why an eternity in hell could never pay the debt for your sin, even one sin against an infinitely holy, infinitely righteous and infinitely benevolent

God who is infinite in all of his qualities and his glories and his beauty, if one sin against him deserved infinite punishment and it did, then how much does the nearly infinite number of sins that we have committed against that God, how much punishment does that deserve?

Even one sin is worthy of eternal damnation. And we've sinned not one time and not two times and not 10 times, but an infinite number of times.

I shouldn't say an infinite number because there is a number to our sins, but it's a numberless time.

Here we go, that's a better word. An innumerable number of sins, an innumerable number of times we have sinned against God.

So we have heaped up eternal damnation upon eternal damnation upon eternal damnation an innumerable number of times.

Well, if even my one sin and all of my sin together is worthy of that kind of punishment, then

I ask you how do you describe the benefit and the blessing of having all of that sin debt wiped away entirely?

How glorious is that? How infinite is that blessing? How eternal is that blessing?

That is an infinite blessing just in and of itself. Just to have an infinite sin debt removed forever is an infinite and eternal blessing.

And that blessing goes on forever and ever. That blessing never ends. And just to have the sin debt wiped away is infinite.

It's difficult to even describe that or circumscribe the description of that blessing. But then you add to it all of the compounded other blessings that we have received.

The blessing of our election and our sanctification and the indwelling of the spirit and the blessing of our adoption into the family of God.

The blessing of our fellowship one with another, the ability to approach God and bring to him our needs and to approach his throne of grace freely and fully any time that we want.

Those are blessings. And then add to that that moment by moment in heaven for all of eternity, every moment will be an eternal blessing.

Not because there's no time in heaven, but because every blessing that we receive, every moment that we are there, we know we will receive and enjoy everlastingly forever.

We have had an infinite debt wiped away and we have had it replaced with pleasures and joys and delights and glories at the right hand of God forever and ever, blessings without number, blessings without end.

How glorious of a provision is that? And central to all of that, of course, is the forgiveness of sins.

Central to all of it is the forgiveness of sins because none of those blessings and none of those glories can be enjoyed or experienced apart from having your sin debt taken away.

So that is central to all of it because without the removal of our sin debt, all we deserve is hell and all we have to look forward to is hell and the wrath of God.

But to have all of that taken away is central to having all of the other blessings heaped upon us and just the removal of the sin debt itself is eternal and is infinite.

And it is also the central provision of the new covenant, which is what we've been looking at here in this central section of the book of Hebrews.

The concluding paragraph of this theological treatise in the middle of Hebrews is from verse 11 all the way through the end of verse 18.

And we have noticed a number of the themes that we've been looking at through this middle section of Hebrews, they all kind of come to a head here in this concluding paragraph as he brings together the discussion of the old covenant, the discussion of the new covenant, the idea of being perfected, sanctification, forgiveness, it all comes to a head right here in this last concluding paragraph.

And so we're looking today at verses 15 and 18. We looked last week at what it meant to be perfected and what it means that God in Christ has perfected those who are sanctified, verse 14.

So we pick it up at verse 15. And you'll notice, if you look at your Bible, you'll notice that verses 16 and 17 are probably set apart in some sort of a fashion to indicate that they are a quotation.

They're all capitals or they're italics or they're set apart in a poetical prose. You'll notice that because those passages, verse 16 and verse 17, those are quotations from Jeremiah 31, and they're probably a familiar quotation to you.

Verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make with him 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 we looked at that very same quotation back in Hebrews chapter eight, and I would just ask you to turn back there and to remind you of what we're looking at there.

Hebrews chapter eight, in verse seven, he talks about the first covenant not being faultless and there being a need for a second.

So verse eight says, finding fault with them, he says, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which

I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them, says the

Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts and I will be their

God and they shall be my people. Now you'll notice that that is referenced, that is quoted in chapter 10, verse 15, verse 11 of chapter eight, and they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying, know the

Lord, for all will know me from the least to the greatest of them. Verse 12, for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

Now turn back to chapter 10, to our passage, beginning at verse 15. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, this is the covenant, and you notice that that is a quotation from Jeremiah 31 and verse 17 is also a quotation from Jeremiah 31.

Those quotations are also made back in chapter eight, but you'll notice that the author in chapter 10 does not quote the entire passage.

He's somewhat selective. He quotes the part about having the law written upon our hearts, and then he quotes the part about having our sins and our iniquities remembered no more.

There are other parts of those promises that he leaves out. He's being somewhat selective in his quotation because the author, in drawing all of this to a conclusion, is intending to show that the

New Testament promised these basic provisions that are ours in Christ. Number one, that God has provided for himself a sanctified or a holy people.

Second, that God has provided for himself a forgiven people. And then third, the new covenant has meant the end of sacrifices.

Verse 18, now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. So the author is selectively quoting passages of the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31 in order to bring together these main themes that he has been driving at all the way through this section.

Number one, God has provided for himself, that is us, a sanctified people, a forgiven people, and then

God himself has brought to an end all the Old Testament sacrifices. Where there is forgiveness of these things, there's no more sacrifice for sins.

So those are gonna be our three points as we work our way through here. We will get to all three of those this morning. A sanctified people, a forgiven people, and then the end of sacrifices.

Let's look first of all at a sanctified people. Verse eight, sorry, verse 15, or I should say, sorry, let me try it again.

Verse 16 is a quotation from chapter eight, verse 10, regarding the law being written on our hearts.

Chapter, verse 17 is a quotation from chapter eight, verse 12, and again, this quotation is shorter because the author doesn't need to repeat everything he said back in chapter eight.

He's simply highlighting the parts that really have to do with the things that he has been talking about in the immediate context, which is number one, that we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Number two, that we are forgiven by that sacrifice. And then number three, there is no more need for any further sacrifice.

Previously, he used this quotation from Jeremiah 31 to show us that the old covenant has come to an end and is no more and has been replaced by a new and better covenant.

Here, he's using the quotation from Jeremiah 31 to highlight the provisions of that covenant, namely a sanctified people, a forgiven people, and an end of the

Old Testament sacrifices and the animal sacrifices. Notice that verse 15 begins with the words, and the

Holy Spirit also testifies to us. Now, here's what I find interesting about that.

The author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah, who was quoting what God said to him, and the author of Hebrews says that Jeremiah's words were the words of the

Holy Spirit. Now, this is a proper and biblical view of Old Testament scripture. The author quotes

Jeremiah, who was quoting what God said to him, and the author of Hebrews calls Jeremiah's words, the words that Jeremiah wrote, the words of the

Holy Spirit. Look at verse 15. The Holy Spirit testifies to us, and then he quotes Jeremiah.

The words of Jeremiah are the testimony of the Holy Spirit, just as I might point out are the words of Isaiah and Zechariah and Haggai and Malachi and 1

Kings and 2 Chronicles. All of the Old Testament text is the testimony of the

Holy Spirit. God is said to be the one speaking in Jeremiah. The author of Hebrews says it is the

Holy Spirit speaking in Jeremiah, which means that the Holy Spirit himself is the

God who spoke that to Jeremiah, and that Jeremiah's writing of what God said to him was in fact the words of the

Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is God, and the Old Testament text is the word of God. Now, I ask you, do you have that view of the

Old Testament? Do you have that view of the Old Testament? That the words of Jeremiah are the testimony of the

Holy Spirit, listen, to you, to us, is now what the text says, and the Holy Spirit also testifies to us.

That those words from the Old Testament were spoken just as much to us as they were to us if we lived in Jeremiah's day.

Yes, they were spoken to Jeremiah, but the author of Holy Spirit says that those words written to Jeremiah, by Jeremiah, or given to Jeremiah and written by Jeremiah, those words are the words of the

Holy Spirit spoken to us. Are you familiar enough yourself with the Old Testament text that it would be evident that you view that as the word of God to you?

Or do you make one of the common errors regarding the Old Testament? One of them is to simply say, that half of the book, that first part, that really doesn't have anything to do with me.

I'm a New Testament Christian. I'm gonna unhitch the Old Testament from the New Testament, and I'm just gonna have the

New Testament. I'm a New Testament believer. That Old Testament stuff doesn't really apply to me. It applied to a whole bunch of people a long time ago.

I got news for you. Your New Testament applied to a whole bunch of people a long time ago as well, 2 ,000 years ago. My Old Testament applied to a whole bunch of people a long time ago, and it's really not for me.

Don't ever make that error. The words of Jeremiah are the words of the Holy Spirit to you.

So get back into the Old Testament. Don't disparage that as the word of God. Don't give that the short shrift, and ignore that.

That is the testimony of the Holy Spirit to us, and by the way, that is the healthy and biblical view of the

Old Testament. Now, I want you to notice that the quotation here, as I mentioned earlier, is a shorter quotation.

He puts something in order here, verse 15, the Holy Spirit testifies to us, for after saying, and I'll look at the end of verse 16, he then says, there's an order to what he is putting here.

He's saying, he quotes one first, and then another quotation second, and the purpose of that is simply to highlight two different aspects or two different provisions of the

New Covenant. He's letting us know that he's leaving some stuff out, not because it's unimportant, not because it's not the testimony of the

Holy Spirit, but because the other provisions of the New Covenant are not his focus at this point. His focus on the provisions of the

New Covenant are twofold. Number one, God has provided for himself a sanctified or holy people, and second,

God has provided for himself a forgiven people. We are sanctified, and we are forgiven, and those are the two elements of this concluding paragraph that the author is bringing back around to us again here in his quotation of Jeremiah 31.

We are a sanctified people and a forgiven people. Let's deal first of all with the sanctified. Again, we talked about this in verse 10.

Remember up in verse 10 where he says that, I'll quote a quick quote from memory. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, right?

By God's will, we have been sanctified. What sanctifies us? God set us apart for himself, by himself, unto himself.

Sometime in the past, that is in the offering of Jesus Christ, those for whom he died were set apart as his people by virtue of the fact that Christ died in their stead, in their place, that he paid the price for their sin.

They became his people. So we are a sanctified people. Then in verse 14, by one offering, he has perfected forever those who currently are being made holy or currently are in the process of being sanctified.

So there is a past element to sanctification, a present element to sanctification. Of course, we talked last week about a future element to sanctification, but this sanctifying process applies to these people for whom

Christ has died. So those who are included in the New Testament, this is, by the way, all one people group that's being described here, really through all of Hebrews, but beginning in verse 10, if you could just notice that there is the same group of people that are sanctified by his offering or also have their sins taken away, verse 11.

They are perfected by that one offering, verse 14. They are sanctified by that offering, verse 14.

They are in new covenant with him. That's the whole point of the quotation in verse 16. They have the law written on their hearts, verse 16, and they are completely forgiven, verse 17.

It's all one group of people. We don't have one group of people for whom Christ died who end up not ever being forgiven.

It's one group of people that he dies for, that he gives his life for, that he sanctifies, that he makes holy, he makes his bride, he perfects them forever, he secures them, he sanctifies them everlastingly.

At no point between him dying for these people and him glorifying these people are a bunch of people lost in the process.

It is all one group of people that enjoy the blessings secured for them in the death of Christ. So we are a sanctified people, the same group of people all the way through having their sins forgiven and being sanctified by his death, being perfected by his death.

All of it is his work, and it is all something provided for under the new covenant. Verse 16 says, this is the covenant

I make with him. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws upon their heart and on their mind I will write them.

That is the promise of sanctification. This group of people who are included in the new covenant, for whom

Christ has died and by whose death he has sanctified them and perfected them, that same group of people has the law of God written on their hearts.

So there is no such thing as an individual included in the new covenant, for whom

Christ died, who does not eventually have the law of God written on their hearts. Because all of those for whom he has died, all of those included in that covenant end up enjoying this blessing where the word of God is inscribed on our hearts.

No longer written on tablets of stone as under the old covenant, but instead written upon our hearts.

And this is a central provision of the new covenant, that the law of God would be written on our hearts and thus we would have not only an ability and a knowledge, but a provision by which we might obey the law of God.

Under the old covenant, when the law was written on tablets of stone, that covenant made no provision for the obedience of its people.

In other words, that covenant, all you heard under the old covenant was thou shalt not, it was the righteous requirements of the law and the standard of God that was thundered from Sinai.

But there was no provision in the old covenant by which those who were given that covenant would be able to obey it.

And so all that old covenant did was condemn us and show us the need for a new covenant. But in the new covenant, with the law of God written upon our hearts, suddenly there is a new affection, there is a new desire, there is new ability to obey that law.

Because we don't look externally now to a law of God written on tablets of stone. Now, by the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit, the moral requirements of the law are written upon the hearts of all those who are in the new covenant.

And so we then become a sanctified and obedient people, growing in holiness, because at the moment of salvation, the

Lord himself in the person of the Holy Spirit inscribes his moral character on our hearts. And we have not only now an internal knowledge of the

Holy Spirit and of God's moral law in us by virtue of his dwelling in us, but now we also have an inward renewal and an ability to obey that moral law.

We have new affections. So that now we love the things we once hated and hate the things that we once loved. That's the mark of a new believer.

That is the mark of a new creature. We are new creatures in Christ. And now by virtue of the new covenant, we have not only the desire to obey, but now we have been given the ability to obey.

And that by the indwelling of the Spirit. And so perfection, or this perfection we talked about in verse 14, we have been perfected, a past tense, a past event that has current ramifications for us or describes also a current situation.

You and I have been perfected, verse 14. That does not become an opportunity or an excuse for sin.

So that a new covenant believer does not say, well, I've already been made perfect, so therefore I can continue sinning. No, that's an impossibility.

Now the person who has been perfected suddenly says, I don't want to sin. Now I want to do righteousness because the moral law of God is written upon my heart.

And now I have a relationship with God and I have an ability to obey and I have a desire to obey because I hunger and thirst for righteousness, which itself is

God's provision for us. So a believer does not say, I've been forgiven, then

I can go on sinning. He doesn't say that. And he doesn't say that because that's not the character of a believer.

A believer is one who says, now I know what is right and I have a desire to obey it and I want to obey it. And God has provided for me the ability to obey it in the power of the

Holy Spirit. And therefore, I will strive to obey that command. So God has provided for himself a sanctified and holy people because of what

Christ has done on the cross. He has secured this for his people on his own behalf. Second, a forgiven people, verse 17.

Look at it, in their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. Now this is the distinctive feature of the new covenant.

The old covenant did not provide forgiveness. The old covenant pictured forgiveness. The old covenant described the need for forgiveness.

The old covenant showed what forgiveness would eventually look like when it was secured. It would come through the shedding of the blood of an innocent victim.

That's what the sacrifice is pictured and portrayed. So the old covenant looked forward to the provision of forgiveness, but the old covenant and all of the animal sacrifices and the priesthood and the offerings, none of that actually affected forgiveness.

None of it actually provided forgiveness. It only showed that when forgiveness would come, it would come through the death of an innocent victim and the shedding of blood.

So as Hebrews 9, 22 says, one may almost say by the law, according to the law, that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

What the old covenant taught us was that forgiveness would be purchased, but it would be purchased by the blood of another. A blood of another victim who would give his life as a sacrifice for many, and by that blood and by that atonement and by that purchase, he would purchase his people and forgive them.

So the means of forgiveness then becomes the death of Christ and not just God willy -nilly ignoring the sins of people.

See, forgiveness is available, but it is not because God simply says, well, all that you owe me, I'm just gonna forgive that.

I have no basis for forgiving that. I have no just reason for forgiving that.

I'm just gonna take all of that sin and I'm just gonna bury it down here and pretend as if it is no more. That's not how

God forgives sin. He doesn't forgive sin by forgetting it or ignoring it or perverting justice.

He forgives sin by fulfilling the demands of justice. So the justice that was deserved by that sin has now been fulfilled or met in the person of Christ.

So God forgives sin not simply by ignoring it, not by passing it over, and not by pretending as if it never happened.

God forgives sin by meeting the demands of justice for that sin himself in the person of his son so that the righteous requirements of the law, that sin be punished, are fulfilled and met on the cross so that God can be just, he can be righteous and just, and he does not have to pervert justice in order to declare righteous the believing sinner even while we were still in a sinning state.

God can be just and he can justify the ungodly because of what Christ has done. So you say, how is it possible for God to just forgive sin, to ignore sin, to treat it as if it has never happened?

He doesn't treat it as if it has never happened. He treats it as if we had sinned that sin, but then he meets the demand of justice for that sin by sending his son to die on a cross, he himself taking a bodily form, coming and living a perfect life, dying a perfect death on the cross, and in that death on the cross, he fulfills the demands of his own justice so that justice is satisfied.

So that God can then say that sin is forgiven, not because he has ignored it, but because he has paid for it. And when the sin is paid for, then he can be just in forgiving sin and excusing that debt.

And that is how God forgives sin. And I love how it is described here in the passage, verse 17, and their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more. Those who currently enjoy the blessings of the new covenant have this confidence, and I want you to think about how infinitely glorious this is.

Those who enjoy the new covenant have this promise. God will never again bring your sin up.

Ever. Have you ever sinned against somebody, maybe even grievously, and then you're in the presence of that person and you're reconciled, it's there, you know they remember it, you know you remember it, of course you know you remember it, if you'd forgotten it, you wouldn't know you remembered it, but you remember it, and you know that they remembered it, and then you always kind of wonder, is this gonna come up over dinner?

Is this gonna come up while we're driving to the store? Is he gonna bring this up? Is she gonna bring this up? Is it awkward for me not to bring this up?

You know one of the most glorious blessings of the new covenant is that God will remember your sin no more. He will never ever bring up any single sin you have ever committed.

He treats it as if it never happened, not because he's denying justice, but because he's satisfied justice, and there is no need for him to ever bring it up.

That is beautiful language that is used to describe the forgiveness of sins. He remembers your sins and your lawless deeds no more.

Never again to be brought up. This is how the Old Testament, this is the language the Old Testament often uses to describe the forgiveness of sins.

I'll give you a few references, Psalm 25, verse seven. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your love and kindness, remember me for your goodness sake,

O Lord. Don't remember my transgressions, just remember me. And don't forget me. Forget my transgressions, but don't, forget my transgressions, but don't forget me.

Remember me, just don't remember anything I've ever done. That was the prayer of Psalm 25, verse two. Sorry, verse seven.

Psalm 79, verse eight. Do not remember the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your compassion come quickly to meet us, for we are brought very low.

Isaiah 43, verse 25. I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Isaiah 64, verse nine. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord, nor remember my iniquity forever.

Ezekiel 18, 22. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him.

That's the language that is used of God forgetting sin. And speaking of unforgiveness, then, it's just the opposite.

For those who are not forgiven of their sins in Jesus Christ, the language in scripture is the opposite. I will remember their sins.

I will remember their iniquities. So, for instance, Hosea 7, verse two.

And they do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. There's a rebellious and iniquitous people who went on sinning, and God's condemnation of them is they continue to sin, not realizing in their hearts that I remember every last thing that they do.

I remember all their iniquity. Hosea 8, 13. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish them for their sins.

Hosea 9, verse nine. They've gone deep in depravity as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity.

He will punish their sins. The defining feature, the defining blessing for those who are in the new covenant is that God remembers our sins no more.

For those who are outside of Jesus Christ and die in unrepentant sin without forgiveness, the defining feature of your, if you're in that condition, that situation, of your relationship with the

Lord is that he will never, ever forget your sin. For those in Christ, he will never bring up any sin you've ever committed.

For those who are outside of Christ, the only thing God will ever bring up is every sin you've ever committed, because that is the basis of your judgment.

He will judge you according to the deeds that you have done, all of which are written down in a book. God doesn't need a book.

He can remember them all, and he will remember them all for all of eternity, so that a million years from now, when you are suffering the torments of eternal damnation, which you rightly deserve and you justly deserve, you might ask, a million years from now, has

God forgotten any crossword I have spoken, any lustful thought that I have had, any work of iniquity that I have ever done?

No, a million years from now, he will not forget a single iniquity. A million years from now,

Christian, you'll be able to say, God never brought up a single sin I've committed.

Because none of our sins define our relationship with God at this point. Now, listen,

God doesn't literally forget sins. Okay, can we understand that, what that means?

It's not, we're not talking about literally forgetting sin. In heaven, I don't even know if this would be possible, but in heaven, if I brought up my own sin, it's not like God would just say, what?

What do you mean? I don't even know what you're talking about. I forgot about that. Okay, it's not that they exit his memory. It's not that he literally forgets them and cannot recall them.

It's that he doesn't recall them. It is that in terms of our relationship to him and how we approach him and he deals with us, it is as if they have completely been erased from his memory bank.

He remembers them no more. He casts them into the depths of the sea. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from his mind.

And so far has he removed our sins from us. So he puts them away, he casts them away, and if he wanted to, if he desired to, he could bring them up and give us a list of every sin that we have committed.

But in terms of our relationship with the Lord and how he approaches us and deals with us in Christ, it is as if we have never sinned or as if he has forgotten every last thing we have ever done because he will never bring it up again.

I've had people come to me and say, look, man, I sinned against you. I said such and such when we were together here a couple months ago and I felt really bad about that and they come up and they say to me, and sometimes you know what my response is?

I don't even remember that conversation. I say that to my wife all the time. I don't remember that conversation. I really don't even remember what you think was a sin against me.

It's completely gone from my mind. That's not that it didn't happen. It's that I totally forgot about it. I either didn't catch it or I caught it and thought no big deal and it just passed from my mind.

I've had situations in my life in ministry where things happened in the early years of our ministry and then something would happen and I think, remember that person?

Remember what they did before they called me all those names and left? Remember, what was that? And I have totally forgotten those things.

Now if I really wanted to sit down and drudge it all up, I probably could, but I'm intent about trying to forget.

Now God doesn't try to forget, right? God doesn't try to do anything. God does. What does he do? He just forgets, but not literally.

He just puts them out of his mind and never brings them up again. How can he do that? Because justice was satisfied.

And if justice is satisfied and forgiveness is granted, there is nothing to bring up, ever.

That is how God deals with it. Now I ask you this, sinner, if you're impenitent and you do not know

Christ and you are outside of him, I ask you this, do you have your sins forgiven? Do you know that? Do you know that God has forgiven you of your sins because you have recognized your blasphemy, your lying, your fornication, your lustful thoughts, your idolatry, your gossip, your slander, the ill use of your tongue, the fantasies in your head, all of those sins that you've committed,

God knows all of them in thought, word, and deed. Every last imagination, every deed done in darkness, he remembers it all.

Do you know for a fact that they are forgiven in Jesus Christ because of what he has done? Have you come to him and repented of your sin and can you say today that because of what

Christ has done, you have turned from your sin and you have believed solely and only upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and that all your sins are taken away, that justice has been satisfied because Christ died in your place and you have responded to that in the way that God demands, you respond to that by repentance and faith.

Can you say that? Do you know that your sins are forgiven? If you do not, I promise you, if you die today outside of Jesus Christ in an unforgiven state,

God will never forget any of your iniquities. And if you are in Jesus Christ, I promise you, if you die today in him,

God will never bring up any of your iniquities because he has promised your sins and your lawless deeds, he will remember no more, why?

Because you were perfected forever in the death of Jesus Christ, that's why. Not because you haven't done anything that deserves punishment.

And not because God has forgotten what you have done and it just skipped his mind, but because he remembers all your iniquities and he has laid them all upon the person of Christ so that in your place he died and justice has been satisfied and then he can declare you righteous.

Not because of anything you've done, but because of what somebody else did in your place. So God has provided for himself a sanctified people, a forgiven people in verse 18, the end of sacrifices, verse 18.

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. This flows naturally from the idea of forgiveness and sanctification that we have looked at here in this passage.

There's a logical argument that the author is making here and he's made the argument two different ways and he's actually argued both directions the same point.

I wanna point out how he has done this. First, the author has made the logical argument that if forgiveness has been granted and if it has been purchased and provided for in the death of Christ, then there is no need for any offering to take place after the death of Christ.

In fact, that one offering is evidence of its effectiveness. He has made this point. Because Christ has died one time, that one offering and God is not required of him to make multiple offerings or to come back and offer a sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice, the one offering is evidence of its effectiveness and its sufficiency.

And so that one offering shows that it is sufficient and if it is sufficient, then that means forgiveness has been granted and if forgiveness has been granted and forgiveness has been paid for, then there is no further need for any offering for sin to go on.

Now he has argued the same thing but from the reverse, from a different angle. Because earlier he pointed to the animal sacrifices and he said that the repetition of the animal sacrifices was evidence of their ineffectiveness and their ineffectiveness is due to the fact that the animal sacrifices could never take away sins.

In fact, he made that point at the beginning of chapter 10 for the law, verse one, since it is only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of the things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year after year make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have had consciousness of sin but in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin year after year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, close quote.

So what does the author said? With the animal sacrifices, there's multiple and repeated animal sacrifices, that's evidence that they aren't doing the trick because if they were accomplishing any kind of salvation or atonement, then there would come a point where the animal sacrifices would no longer be offered but the animal sacrifices continued to be offered which was evidence that they were not forgiving sin.

The sacrifice of Christ, on the other hand, was offered one time. The fact that it was offered only once was evidence of its effectiveness and if it was effective, then it has purchased forgiveness and if forgiveness has been granted, if forgiveness has been made available in that one sacrifice and by that one sacrifice, because it was effective and because it was sufficient, no further sacrifice is necessary.

That is the end of animal sacrifices. That is the end of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

It is the end of all necessity for any kind of sacrifice if indeed forgiveness has been granted.

Christ by his one sacrifice has done what all the Old Testament sacrifices could never do. Now, if the sacrifice is repeated, then it can only be because one is not enough, right?

You follow me on this? If the sacrifice is repeated, it can only be because that one time was not enough. It didn't do the trick, didn't purchase salvation, didn't accomplish redemption, didn't perfect anyone.

This is the argument of the author all the way through chapter 10. The multiple sacrifices are evidence that it did not perfect anyone but if in the death of Jesus, you have been perfected, then

I ask you this, what further need is there of any other sacrifice? Any animal sacrifices?

If everything you need has been provided finally and fully in the person of Christ and by his work, then what are you gonna do?

Another animal sacrifice? Do you need to do anything else to atone for your sins, to make payment for your sins?

There's nothing else you can do. If the sacrifice of Christ is sufficient, you need no further sacrifice.

That's verse 18. Where there is forgiveness, that's the release of a debt. Where there is forgiveness of these things, that's the sins and the lawless deeds mentioned in verse 17.

Where there's forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. That statement in verse 18 is the concluding sentence of this entire theological section in the book of Hebrews.

That's the last sentence. Where there's forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

It's all over. All the sacrifices have over, why? Because of what Christ has done.

He paid for the sins of all his people. Now let me give you three, quickly, three implications of this.

Number one, this would say to the Hebrew Christians who were reading this that there was no need for them to return to any of the

Old Testament sacrifices. We can tell by reading the book of Hebrews that the author is writing or speaking to a group of Christians, Hebrew Christians, who had embraced

Christ, many of them genuinely, some of them superficially, and were not really believers.

They had embraced Christ in some sense, but with one foot over here in the church and in Christianity, they were looking back to the

Old Testament, the smells and the bells and the whistles and all of the features of the old covenant that they had grown up with, and they were looking at that saying, but we only have one sacrifice, and they're offering hundreds of animals a day over there.

We only have one high priest. They have a whole priesthood over there. We only have Jesus and him alone. They've got all the blood and the sacrifices and the tabernacle and the temple and all the vessels of it over there.

I'd really like to kind of leave. If I could just keep a hold of this and go back and sort of grab what I grew up with and sort of bring them together, or you had

Christians who were saying, or people who were saying, since I've come to Christ, it has cost me a lot. My whole family's left me.

I don't have a job. People are persecuting me. They hate me because of my profession of faith in Christ. If I could just go back and be part of that system which

I was part of years ago, I would be loved again by that whole community. And so there were people, even in the first century, who were longingly looking back to that.

And the author of Hebrews is intending to say this. If you have Christ, there is no need for any further sacrifice.

Don't look back. Nevertheless, even more so, don't go back to that.

There's nothing in that that is provided that provides you anything that Jesus Christ has not provided in his death and in his sacrifice.

The second implication of this is that you, Christian, today, can rest in his accomplishment. Everything you need for life and godliness is provided for you in the death of Christ and in scripture, everything you need.

You can rest in the fact that all of your sins are forgiven from now and forever because of what

Christ has done. All of it was laid on him. He has provided in that perfecting death your salvation, your sanctification, and your eternal security everlastingly.

Why? Because he died in your stead. And he will not lose you. He will not forsake you. He will not abandon you.

He will not forget you. He'll forget your sins, but he'll never forget you. And there's a third implication, and it is this, that any further offering for sin, listen to me carefully, is an affront to the work of Christ.

Any further offering for sin is an affront to the work of Christ. And I say,

Jim, you sounded really serious when you said that, as if there was some danger that any of us were gonna go home and offer a sacrifice this afternoon for our sin.

There's no danger in that happening. I don't know all of you really well, but I'm pretty certain that there would be no animals offered for sin this afternoon after you left here, pretty certain of that.

So why did I say listen carefully to this fact that any further offering for sin is an affront to the work of Christ?

Because as Christians, we can do two things. One of them is something that probably a lot of people here might be prone to do, and that is to think that we need to do something to pay for our sin, to make up for our sin, or something additional, just to make ourselves feel good about the sin that we've done, some cost we have to bear, something to make us right before God.

And I'm here to tell you that nothing else needs to be done other than what Christ has done. But second, this fact that any further offering for sin is an affront to the sacrifice and the work of Christ, that is something we need to keep in mind as we talk about the

Roman Catholic view of the Mass. Because their view of the Mass is that the

Mass, or the Eucharist, when they participate in communion, they view that as an unbloody sacrifice offered again and again, week after week, every time it is done.

Next week, I'm going to show you what the Roman Catholic Church believes about the offering of the

Mass, the sacrifice of the Mass, and I'm gonna show you that from the book of Hebrews, there is no way at all that you can square what the

Roman Catholic Church teaches about the sacrifice of Christ with that which the author of Hebrews teaches about the sacrifice of Christ.

We'll save that for next week. Let's bow our heads. Father, we are grateful again for the blessing that we have of salvation in Christ.

Everything we need, you have provided, so thoroughly, so fully, so abundantly, more than we could ask or even think, more than we could have ever imagined when we first came to faith in Christ, you have given to us, all for your glory, all for your namesake, and it has been to our good and to our benefit and blessing, and so we thank you in the name of Christ who has done all of this for us.