One Triumphant Sacrifice - [Hebrews 10:11-18]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

So I�d like you to take your Bibles today and turn to Hebrews chapter 10, because we are going to talk about Jesus today. I have a job, and here�s my job. I get to announce to you that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

If you want morality, if you want good manners, if you want TED Talks, there are other places to go. But it is a bad day in evangelicalism where you go to churches and they will not extol the risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the writer of Hebrews, his theme is, over and over, Jesus Christ. And he just keeps hammering that nail from every different angle, from high priest to prophet to Lord and Savior, he talks about the Lord Jesus.

I�m concerned about evangelicalism, that most pastors, many evangelicals, and those sitting in the pews, do not want to come and hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn�t fill sanctuaries, he doesn�t fill pews, he doesn�t earn a lot of tithe money.

But dear friends, the subject of every sermon must extol the Lord Jesus Christ, not just to make it outstanding, but to be faithful. Some time ago, David Wells described this frightening scenario. For a moment, think about this problem of Christ not being the focal point in the church in relation to the abduction or kidnapping of a child.

This problem of Christ missing as the focal point in the church today is not like the abduction of a child who is happily playing at home one minute and then is no longer to be found the next. No one has abducted Christ in this sense.

The disappearance is closer to what happens in homes where children are ignored and to all intents and purposes, abandoned. They remain in the home, but they have no place in the family. So it is with Christ in the church.

He remains on the edges of evangelical life, but has been dislodged from its center. We have one life to live, I�ve got one life to live, I�m 59 years old and I think to myself while I do a lot of dumb things and sinful things, what I don�t want to do is stand up for weddings and funerals and preaching and then not talk about the Lord Jesus.

T. Hoekstra said, �A sermon without Christ is no sermon. Robert Rayburn said, �Christ is the only king of your studies. Graham Goldsworthy, �Can I preach a Christian sermon without mentioning Jesus

Eric Alexander, �Superficial views of the work of Christ produce superficial Christian lives. And I don�t know if you�ve thought through this, but did you know Jesus Christ himself was a Christ-centered preacher?

That�s a fascinating thing. Jesus Christ himself had a subject and that subject was himself. He in fact was a Christ-centered preacher. Everything that Jesus talked about was about himself as prophet or priest or king.

Listen to these words, Jesus said them all and they�re all from John, �I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst. I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door, if anyone enters through me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this? I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me. I am the vine and my father is the vinedresser. Dear friends, the Lord Jesus Christ was a Christ-centered preacher and there in John, John chapter 6, John chapter 8, John chapter 10, John chapter 11, John chapter 14, and John chapter 15, he was preaching Christ Jesus.

And Paul followed that example, 2 Corinthians, �We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord. And what I love about the book of Hebrews is he, the writer, whoever it is, could be Paul or someone else, he followed his master�s preaching, that is talking about Jesus.

He followed Paul�s preaching pattern and that was talking about Jesus when he got up to speak. And I say this to you all the time, but just to remind you again today, dear friend, when you serve in the Sunday school, you serve at junior church, you teach your Bible studies on Friday, you have your home fellowship time and your family worship time, I want you to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think, by the way, that is why you are all here, because you want to hear about Jesus every week. Sinclair Ferguson said, and I want you to think about the book of Hebrews as I write this, I mean as I read this, �Is it obvious to me and of engrossing concern that the chief focus, the dominant note in the sermons I preach or hear is Christ and Him crucified?

Or is the dominant emphasis and perhaps the greatest energies of the preacher focused somewhere else, perhaps on how to overcome sin, how to live the Christian life, or the benefits to be received from the gospel

Listen, all are legitimate emphasis in their place, but that place is never center stage. It is the dominant theme, the lasting impression, the most natural word association in relation to the preaching I hear, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, or is it something else?

Without wanting to denigrate the value many experience from listening to sermons on the world wide web, caution is surely in order here. Am I fully aware of the emphasis to which I am allowing myself to be exposed, and is it a Christ full emphasis?

And so one of the reasons why I love to preach at this church is you want sermons about the Lord Jesus. When you listen online, what kind of sermons are you listening to? John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, was a few years older than I am when he said this to another pastor, �The older I grow, the more I'm drawn to preach much concerning the person, the atonement, the glory of the Savior, and influences of the Holy Spirit.

There are other truths important in their places, but unless beheld through the medium of the cross, they have faint effect. I love the book of Hebrews because he gives you that constant barrage of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Old Covenant Shadow and the Once-for-All Offering

Now we're up in chapter 10, and last week we looked at chapter 10, verses 1 through 10 essentially, and we're going to look at verses 11 through 18 this morning. Now I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but I'll just tell you anyway, this is just a hope of mine.

It's not a law of the Medes and Persians. I have worked out the rest of the book of Hebrews, and I think we can finish by May. If you're listening, you don't see what I'm doing. But you know what? Here's the thing.

Once we get done with Hebrews, we're going to go to another book, and I'm going to tell you about Jesus Christ from that book. And it's going to be the hope for all of us, like Zinzendorf once said, �Preach Christ, die and be forgotten.

Is that worth our lives? Whether you're a mom talking to your children about the Lord Jesus, or a dad, or friend, Hebrews chapter 10 today, verses 11 through 18, I'm going to give you three words, three words describing the work of the high priest Jesus Christ.

They all start with S, and they're designed for you to walk by faith, to remember the object of the faith here, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a sermon about Jesus. It's a sermon about what he did. We are the glad recipients of these great benefits, but it's about him.

He is the one who is the absolute supreme one. This whole book, chapters 1 -1 through 10 -18, is essentially a theological barrage, an onslaught of why Jesus is superior, using Old Testament and more.

And in this section here, here's what the writer's doing. I almost said Paul. It could be Paul. There's the old system that was not adequate. There was the old system that had repetition for slaying the animals.

There's the old system that's old, and Jesus has come, and he compares the two. Animal sacrifices don't work. I wonder if Jesus' sacrifice did. Let me just pick it up in chapter 10, verse 1, good review as we approach the text.

Hebrews 10 -1, 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 or mature or holy 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's a reminder of sins every year, for it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ the Messiah 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've taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I've come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book, Psalm 40. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings and every other kind of offering, they're offered according to the law.

Then he added, and we looked at this a little bit last week, but I want to expand it some before we get into our passage. Behold, I've come to do your will. He, Jesus, does away with the first, the Mosaic covenant, with all that bloodshed and sacrifice in order to establish the second, this new covenant.

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ Jesus once for all. By the way, I like it in verse nine there, behold, he's trying to get your attention. He's trying to get you to zoom in and to be reminded that there's something important happening here.

And what's happening here is the old covenant system. Jesus Christ abolishes. He takes it away. He murders it. He assassinates it. Those are all ways to translate that, that language there. He gets rid of it.

And I tried to make a quick mention last week, any type of, let's take Moses and new covenant and put them together with all kinds of celebration of Passover now and feast of booths and Messianic Judaism and keeping the nomenclature and the sacrifices and the feasts of the old covenant can't be brought together because the new covenant has made this one obsolete.

It's made it, it's abolished it. You can't put new wine and old wineskins. Jesus is the fulfillment of that. He's not the addition to, you don't add that on to Judaism. Judaism is done and it's done by the will of God, verse 10 and through the offering of the body once for all.

And of course, everywhere you look in the book of Hebrews, you'll see something implicit, if not explicit chapter 10, verse 10, we have been sanctified. You will regularly see Jesus is the initiator. God, the father does the work.

The spirit of God is, is the, the activator. He's the applier. Everything about Christianity is God does the work. We're the recipients. We don't say, God, I'll let you save me by doing this. God is the savior and he has us respond to what he does.

But the cause of salvation is God. The effect of salvation is we respond. Remember this idea of Jesus is the gentleman. He's knocking on your door and he won't come into your house and let you let him in.

Remember we're dead in trespasses and sins. That's a bad illustration. Jesus has to knock the door down and make you alive again and give you faith and give you regeneration and give you everything. Can you imagine that the death of Christ makes us, what's the text say? Sanctified.

We're positionally holy now. Only the Lord could do that. And by the way, can you think of any other religion in all the world where a single solitary act, the death of Jesus in our case for Christianity determines the rest of that religion that gives salvation to all those who would follow Jesus is the one who makes holy.

And one last comment before we get to our, our main passage today, do you notice what Jesus has called in verse 10 of chapter 10 through the offering of the body of, it doesn't say Christ. There's no emphasis that way, but of the body of Jesus, the human body, Jesus had to be offered because he had to have a body to be our true representative.

Sacrificed, Sat, and Sanctified

So let's get to the first word today in our outline, looking at verses 11 through 18, three words describing and summarizing Jesus, the high priest. Number one, the word is sacrificed versus 11 and 12 sacrifice.

This is another sermon about Jesus because this sermon, the book of Hebrews is about Jesus. And so is this chapter chapter 10 verse 11 sacrificed all the other sacrifices past tense sacrifice and every priest stands daily.

I mean, he keeps saying the same thing, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. That's a conclusion of what he just told us. But when Christ had offered for a single time or for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

And you could just probably list how many contrasts you see in verses one through 10 and verses 11 through 18, thousands of priests, one priest standing, sitting over and over and over one time here, it says in verse 11, every priest stands daily.

And what does he do as he stands daily? This is fascinating to me daily at his service. That word service there is the liturgy, liturgy. The way we use it now is what's the BBC liturgy, BBC liturgy is they, they have a right hand of fellowship.

They have a call to worship new Testament reading. They sing two songs. They do scripture reading. They have someone get up and lead music if they're on schedule for that day to do that. Is that how that works?

We have a liturgy. He had a liturgy too. And his liturgy was basically slaying the animals. That's what he did. You don't have to worry about it. If you change the liturgy and add new Testament reading, the congregation might wonder what's going on.

That's new. His liturgy was the same, kill animals. And how do you kill animals? By kind of lounging on the little sofa there in the tabernacle. Remember in the tabernacle and in the temple, no seats.

Why? Answer? Because the work was never done. You sin, bring in another animal. Next day you sin, you bring in another animal. Next week you sin, another animal. Your family sins next year, another Passover animal.

You sin as a nation. Next year, David Toman, sin, sin, sin, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, standing, standing, standing. They stand all the time. That's just what they do. Stand offer, repeat, no sins taken away.

Stand offer, repeat, no sins taken away. Reminds me of the Chicago sanitation worker. Remember this popular slogan, Chicago sanitation worker. I go to work to dig the ditch, to make the money, to buy the food, to gain the strength, to go back to work and dig the ditch.

What are you doing today at church, pastor? Killing animals again. That's what they would be thinking back in those days. By the way, this is a kind of a language where you can see it's kind of happening.

Every priest stands daily. It sounds like it's happening because friends, it is right down the street. The temple has not been destroyed. This book was written pre 70 AD, 70 AD. The Romans come in and sack Jerusalem.

They smash down the temple, but right now it hasn't happened. And these Christians are huddling as it were in a basement in a cave. They're getting persecuted. And this writer is saying, remember how great Jesus is.

He sits down. He doesn't stand and people are standing at the temple while he's probably writing this while he's preaching this. Why go back to that? And when you go back, those people stand until they're not able to stand anymore.

Then those priests get sick. Then the next priest comes along. That priesthood was defined by change, perpetual change, change, change, change. It was built in to have obsolescence. It wasn't wrong to have the change.

God ordained it, but it wasn't final. It was inadequate. It was pointing to something. Year after year versus once and done. Same sacrifices versus the one sacrifice. Standing, standing, standing. Verse 12 though, here's one of those buts.

Martin Lloyd-Jones says, you know, thank God for the buts of the Bible. We have Ephesians chapter 2, but God, we read earlier here. But when Christ the Messiah had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, you can see how definitive this is.

You can see the contrast to the priest. He sat down at the right hand of the Father. He makes the sacrifice for sins. We have that little slogan, what a difference a day makes. What a difference the real high priest makes.

What does this mean for you, dear Christian? Jesus sacrificed for you, for all your sins. The wages of sin is death. Someone has to die. It's either you or Jesus. Christian, Jesus died for you. He's forgiven every one of your sins.

I read about this man this week, and he committed so many heinous things in Vietnam before he was a Christian. He's a Christian now, and he's dying of cancer, and he's still having the replay of his mind.

Could God forgive me for all those things that I did in Vietnam? And what's the answer for the Christian? Yes. Yes, Colossians 2 says, and when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven all your transgressions.

You mean that one that I did that no one saw? Yes, forgiven. You mean those self-righteous ones? Yes, forgiven. You mean those unrighteous ones? Yes, forgiven. This is divinely accomplished, divinely applied.

True or false? How blessed is He whose transgression is forgiven? I hope you said true. Remember my style? Whenever I quote something like that, it's usually a Bible verse, you have to say true. Micah 7, who's a God like Thee?

Who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? Who's a God who does this and kills His Son and makes Him the sacrifice once for all versus us? I mean, if you were God and someone offended you and killed your Son, how would you treat them?

This is amazing to me. Forgiven, Christ sacrificed and paid for all your sins. You don't have to pay for one. Not one sin will you ever have to pay for. Now, there might be discipline for sin, but you won't have to have eternal punishment for sin.

That's the point. The second word, sacrifice is the first word. He pays for all your sins, Christian. Number two, it's sat. Sacrificed and sat. And we see that right there in verse 12. After He did this great sacrifice for sins, after He said, it is finished on the cross, after He bore the wrath of God and made propitiation for our sins at Calvary, one time, He sat down at the right hand of God.

The priests stand all the time, work's never done. This priest sits down. Now this summer, I painted our house with a friend, a professional painter. It took us four days to paint the house. It's a trailer.

I thought, you know, I think after that last day, after standing on a ladder for four days straight, I think I'm going to go for a nice bike ride because I haven't been able to ride the bike. I never made it.

The house got painted and guess what I did? After standing on that ladder, standing on that ladder. This is hard work, standing on a ladder. I may look young, I know. I sat down. The work was done. It was almost like I could just sit down and kind of just admire our work.

When Jesus does a sacrifice, there's an efficacy to it. There's a finality to it. You don't have to do it. By the way, for the dear people that you love, who think that the sin bearing of Jesus isn't enough and they have to go through purgatory, this would be a good place to take them.

When Jesus does His work, dear friend, He sits down. You don't have to do anything else. You don't have to say it's Jesus' sacrifice plus me saying, you know, I'm not going to have anything, no fish even for Lent, no chocolate for Lent, no this for Lent.

Friends, He sat down. It's done. It's finished, accomplished, mission accomplished. Hebrews 1, after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. It's final. How do you know it's final?

Because Jesus isn't on the cross and He isn't even on the earth. He's exalted. Where did He go? To heaven, to the majesty on high, to the surpassing glory on high. That's the idea. He's enthroned. The greatness on high.

By the way, this is how every person should be thinking about Jesus right now. The enthroned God, the one who's exalted, the one who's up there. Not some kind of, you know, these days I just think to myself, I have a new definition for evangelicalism, for the new Christianity.

And here's what I call it. I probably didn't come up with it on my own, but I think I did. Sissianity. Some kind of emaciated, weak Jesus that needs our help. He can't do anything unless we allow Him to.

We invite you into the presence and we do this, that, and the other, and I allow you to do this, Jesus, and please. No, no. This is the Jesus who is enthroned in heaven. This is the Jesus where women would love to follow and men would follow.

Here's the enthroned, the majesty on high with preeminence, with power, with greatness. And you say, you know, that's the Son of God who loved me and died for me. I will follow Him. Give me the sissy Jesus, maybe with feathered hair and other things.

I don't want to follow. I want to tell Him to man up. But this Jesus, I say, I'm on my face, bowing in submission, and whatever you say, I'm glad to do it for you. Thank you. He's at the right hand of the Father.

If you're at the right hand of someone, it means honor. It means power. It means rule. It means they're seated at the right hand, resting from their work, having authority to do whatever they want, when they want, how they want.

It means favor. That's one of the things about the right hand in the Old Testament, in Psalm 80 and Jeremiah 22. The right hand was the hand of favor. Listen to Psalm 80. But let your hand be on the man of your right hand.

Don't we say that even today? He's my right-hand man. Do we not? As I live, declares the Lord, Jeremiah 22, though Canaia, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear it off you and give you into the hand of those who seek your life.

That right hand. Jesus does his work that the Father sent him to do. When Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and burnt offerings you haven't desired, but a body you've prepared for me. Behold, I've come to do your will.

He does the will. He does the work. He makes the sacrifice. He sits down, and then now he's there for praise, for worship, for exaltation, for honor. I'm thinking about that song, are you not? Crown him with many crowns.

And isn't it interesting that the people back in those days, after they killed Jesus, did they really recognize what was happening? I don't think they did. They knew Jesus died, but they didn't know about the exaltation, but we get to.

Some people say, you know, there's not a lot of resurrection talk in the book of Hebrews. Now it does say in Hebrews 13, now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep.

But friends, there's resurrection talk everywhere you go. It just doesn't say resurrection, but it's seated at the right hand, seated at the right hand, seated at the right hand, the majesty in heaven.

I don't know if I'm forgiven or not. He did the work. He's seated. He's enthroned. John Bunyan in his biography, sinner, thou thinkest that because of thy sins, I cannot save thy soul, but behold, my son is by me.

The father says, and upon him I look and not on thee. I will deal with thee according as I am pleased with him. In other words, when we sin, how does God see us? How does God see us as children? Well, we're thinking that sin is almost too great.

That sin's too much. How could I sin like that? And Bunyan makes us focus on the fact that we're in Christ Jesus and God sees us union with Christ. And where is Christ? He's exalted. John Calvin, if therefore our faith looks for Christ sitting on the right hand of God and rest quietly in that truth, we shall at the end enjoy all the fruits of his victory along with him who is our head.

Here's the wild thing. I don't know if you know this. I forgot this, was reminded. Angels all hovering around God and holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, but what are they not doing around God?

Answer, sitting. The angel answered him, Luke 1, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. He's got to go to work, but the Lord Jesus' work has been done. Hebrews won't let you forget that. Hebrews 1, 3 sat down at the right hand.

Hebrews 1, 13 sit at my right hand. Hebrews 8, 1 who has taken a seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. Hebrews chapter 12, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, authority, prestige and honor.

Verse 13, you think the world's chaotic. What's going on? Oh, there's going to be an end from this, uh, uh, and by this enthroned Jesus. Verse 13, do you notice it waiting? What's he doing? Jesus is up there.

Maybe he's sleeping. Maybe he's not paying attention. Maybe he's not interceding. Oh, he's doing plenty, right? We've learned that with intercession, but right now he's waiting from that time until his enemies, it's all one 10 be made a footstool for his feet.

His work is done. He's interceding for Christians and he's waiting to come back. What does this do? This makes me say, I'm anticipating Jesus coming back to make the wrongs, right? Jesus is going to come back one day, dear friends, and there's going to be victory over his enemies.

You like that song victory in Jesus. It happened at the cross, certainly, and it's going to happen again. He's coming back and what does he do? He makes his enemies, his footstool. What great language.

He's exalted at the right hand of the father and his enemies are at his feet. He's won the victory. We'll see the complete enemy decimation soon. PS. Christian who sits on a throne, a queen, right? Or a king who's sitting on this throne, the king priest, because Jesus is the high priest and he sits on the throne.

He sacrificed, he sat, and now number three, sanctified, sacrificed, sat and sanctified. I feel Baptistic today with alliteration. Always alliterate? Okay, inside joke. Probably get a note for that. Dear pastor, please don't have so much humor.

This is a P-A-S-T-E-R appreciation card, pastor. He sacrificed, he sat, and now he sanctified. Verse 14, what I'm trying to do is what we call expository preaching and the opposite of expository is to impose, expose or impose.

I'm trying to expose you to what the text says so you can see it for yourself versus to impose and jam my own meaning into the text. The text is the text. This is not what does it mean to me? This is what does it mean?

What would this verse mean before I existed? What will this verse mean when I'm gone? Here's what it means. Verse 14, a simple reading. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

So by one offering, Jesus has us positionally sanctified or made holy or perfected. In God's eyes, that's how he sees us legally, judicially, positionally. And then in time, he's also making us more and more like the people we are positionally.

It's just called progressive sanctification who are being present tense. You see at the end of verse 14 sanctified. He's perfected the work. He did it once legally, and now he's helping us to grow into our position.

Christ on the cross perfected every believer. That is, you're standing before God is perfect. Everything's been fulfilled. Since you're standing before God, now as part of the family, part of the process of regeneration, the effects of regeneration is you become more and more like Christ.

Sometimes that word sanctified is interesting to me. What does sanctification mean? Kind of reminds me of the story of a teenage boy that I read about whose mother was away on a visit. He had a lot of time to kill.

His mom was a Christian, and he knew there'd be a sermon in this book that he was supposed to read. And so he began to read the story, the sermon in the book. While reading the book, the account says, he came across the phrase, the finished work of Christ.

What's this, the finished work of Christ? Why does the author use this expression? Why not say the atoning or the propitiatory work of Christ? Then the words, it is finished, flashed into his mind and he realized afresh that the work of salvation was accomplished.

And here's what that young boy said. If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do? He did not know the answer, so he fell to his knees to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and for forgiveness of sins.

And his name was, the man who founded China Inland Mission, Jay Hudson Taylor. It's finished, done. And there's a reiteration of this found in verses 15 through 18. Do you see it? The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us and he's going to reiterate what the Bible says about the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 that we've already learned in Hebrews chapter 8.

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.

Do you notice what a high view of scripture this writer has? That ought to be your view of scripture, by the way, even the Old Testament. And he says, I will put my law on their hearts and write them on their minds.

And of course, we are the recipients of this new covenant. We have our sins forgiven. We celebrate the new covenant with Lord's Supper. We'll do that next week. We have Jesus now the mediator for the new covenant.

We have him. It's for us. This is the new covenant in my blood. This is what Jesus said during the Lord's Supper. Verse 17. We've already looked at this in chapter 8. I've talked about it often, but it's good to be reminded.

I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. You want to have an exclamation point on the new covenant and what Jesus did. Here's an exclamation point. I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

Not going to remember them. No possible way. There's an emphatic in the language. Cicero said of Caesar. Caesar forgets nothing but the wrongs which daily are done to him by his people. Interesting. I could say how much more.

How did Jesus's sacrifice work? Did it work? Well, your sins are forgiven. What's the text say? This would be frightening. Verse 17. I will remember most of their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

I'll remember a few of their lawless deeds. Just a couple. No, but the text says not a little, but all. I'll remember none of their sins, I could translate it, and their lawless deeds no more. This is all God's work.

This is all God's plan. God is the actor. That's why when people say, you know, salvation is kind of like a guy, he's drowning. Remember years ago, I saw these two guys drowning over here in Mossy Pond in Clinton, and I was walking, and I'm thinking, do I go out there to save him or don't I?

And what do I do with my cell phone and all this kind of, you know, just weird things are going through my mind. And before you know it, a guy came over in a boat and jumped out. So I just watched it.

I called 9 -1 -1, the hero that I am. It all happened pretty fast. And you think, you know, sometimes salvation is, the person's drowning, they need to get saved, and they reach their hand out, and then God reaches his hand down.

That's a bad illustration, because we're at the bottom of the lake, we're at the bottom of Mossy Pond, getting pretty mossy, the fish have eaten us, the bones are just kind of there. And God makes a life, he does all the work.

This is not, you know, here's the antidote for your poison, all you have to do is reach out and drink that antidote, and your poison's taken care of. Just stop sinning so you can come to Christ. Break yourself free from all your addictions and come to Christ.