A Greater Offering
Jesus is Greater: An Exposition of Hebrews November 10, 2024 Hebrews 10:1-18 Notes
Many people struggle with feelings of guilt. They can’t believe that God would forgiven all their sins in Christ Jesus. They struggle with shame over past sins. Others have received forgiveness and the joy that goes with it, but they struggle with perfectionism, thinking that God will love them more if they perform some great work for Him, or follow some list of rules and rituals more perfectly. But perfectionism leads to exhaustion, not rest. It leads to thinking of your relationship to God as one of earning favor, rather than being favored as His very own child.
The people of the old covenant needed a perfect sacrifice that could fully cleanse them, free them from the burden of sin, and restore them permanently to God. Like them, we need assurance that our sin is fully dealt with—that we don’t need to rely on our own strength or efforts to be right with God. We can trust that Christ’s perfect offering is sufficient.
In Hebrews 10:1-18, the author told the Hebrew believers that the offering of Christ is greater than the offerings of the old covenant. We can understand that the offering of Christ is greater than the offerings of the old covenant.
Audio
Good morning, church. We're continuing our series through the book of Hebrews. We've entitled this series, “Jesus is Greater” and that's the truth. Jesus is greater than anything you're facing today - any problem, any shortcoming, anything that you're facing today.
He's greater. That's what the book of Hebrews is about. And when we look at the very first chapter, we see the keys under the doormat, if you will, of the theme of this book. It says in Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.”
That's what we've been talking about these past few weeks, going verse by verse through the book of Hebrews. Jesus is greater. And every week, we consider a new aspect of His greatness, of His superiority. This week, we've entitled our message, “A Greater Offering.” Jesus offers a greater offering.
I wonder, have you ever run up a debt on a credit card? Maybe, when you were younger and you got that first piece of plastic, you're just like, Cool, man. I can just get stuff.
I can go to the restaurant. I can go to the store. I can just buy stuff. And before you knew it, you had $5,000 and, all of a sudden, you owe $5,000.
Then you notice, there's this thing. You only have to pay this minimum payment. That's no big deal. So, you start paying the minimum payment. Have you ever thought about how long it takes to pay off a debt when you only pay the minimum payment?
The credit card companies know what they're doing. 21% interest. Pay the minimum payment on a $5,000 credit card debt and it takes thirty years to pay it back. When you finish, you will pay over $26,000. Yeah, minimum payment.
That's a problem right there. All you're doing is paying the minimum payment. That's probably what the Jews felt like every year when they were going to the temple for Yom Kippur, for the Day of Atonement, to pay for their sins.
It just felt like they were never going to get our sins paid off. They just keep paying the minimum payment through sacrifices. When is God going to do something to actually make these sacrifices good, so that our sin debt is paid for? It must have been what they felt like, continually trying to deal with their sin. And many of us feel like that; many of us,
Even after we hear the message of the gospel, we still struggle with what to do with a feeling of past guilt or shame. Because, you know, guilt and shame, they go hand in hand. Have you ever noticed that, when you feel guilty about something you did and you're ashamed of it, here's what your flesh will do, and here's what the evil one will do. He'll bring it back to your memory and you'll think about it.
Even after you hear the gospel, sometimes you haven't fully understood how to apply the gospel to every area of your heart. And there are those little places, those dark corners of your soul, where you still don't like to think about it. Those previous sin areas. Or maybe there's a sin area that you keep stumbling back into, like an addiction or some other bad habit. And you've asked God to forgive you, and you feel His forgiveness, and then you do it again.
The shame just increases even more. And you start wondering, is God's payment through Jesus sufficient for me? Why do I still feel this guilt and shame? What do I do about this guilt and shame?
There's this ditch that's the shame and the guilt. Then, there's this other ditch, where maybe you're like a firstborn child and you grew up always trying to please your parents and you transferred that way of thinking about God. You're always thinking, ‘I want God to be proud of me.’
So, you're kind of a perfectionist. You're always thinking, ‘I know Jesus died for me. I believe that, but I want to be His star.’
So, you think your relationship with God is about earning instead of receiving. That's the other ditch. That's the other place of misunderstanding in your relationship with the Father. That's what we're talking about today, that Jesus has given us the perfect offering, a greater offering so that we can rest from our labor. God doesn't care about our religiosity.
He cares about our relationship with a person named Jesus. We're going to be looking at the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, the first 18 verses. In these verses, the author told the Hebrew background believers that had come to Jesus that the offering that Jesus had given on the cross was greater than all the offerings of the old covenant. I believe that today we can see how this is so; how the offering of Christ is greater. As we look at the text today, we'll see four reasons why this is so.
So, put your seatbelts on. I didn't say three, right? I said four reasons. So, we're going to go fast. You better hang on.
Here we go. Hebrews 10:1-18 (ESV) 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 those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” 8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “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,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
This is God's word. Amen. So we're digging into these 18 verses today. We're looking for four reasons that the offering of Christ is greater. Here's the first reason:
1. The old offerings could never perfectly cleanse us.
It's because the old offerings could never perfectly cleanse us. The old offerings could never perfectly cleanse us. These 18 verses just kind of break naturally into these four reasons. We're going to look at the first four verses to see our first reason. First, look at verse one.
It starts off by talking about the law. It says, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, of the true form of these realities, it can never”…never what? … “by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” Right out of the gate, he says something to us.
He says that the old covenant, the old law, cannot perfectly cleanse us. It can't make us perfect. It's unable to do that.
Indeed, that's not why God gave it to us. It was always meant to point us to the One who could make perfect. But, at this point, he's teaching those Jewish background believers why the covenant, the old covenant, could not save them and why it's replaced and fulfilled by the second. So it helped them, but it also helped us, as believers, to understand why we have the Old Testament and how to read the Old Testament. We read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament.
We read it through the lens of Jesus, so we're looking here and we're seeing that His sacrifice, His offering is greater. First of all, because theirs was unable to make us perfect, it could not cleanse us. Notice, it says in verse one, that it was just a shadow. It says, “For since the Law has but a shadow…” If I stand here on the stage, you might not be able to see it, but as the spotlight hits me, my shadow goes all the way across the stage.
And as I move my hand, the shadow's hand is moving. As I turn, it bears the resemblance of me, but it's not me. Here's the reality that's the shadow. That's what he says about the Old Testament. That's what he says about the tabernacle, about the sacrifices, about all of those details, that it was a shadow, a reflection of the reality in heaven; that it's a mere shadow of that which was real.
You see it, “For since the Law has but a shadow of the good things to come….” Well, the good things have come. They came when Jesus came. The good things have come.
He says, “the true form of these realities.” Well, the true form has come. It came when Jesus came. It can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered. They're offered every year on what day? On the day of atonement,
Yom Kippur, in the Hebrew, that they would offer the lamb's blood, that the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, and he would offer the blood of the lamb for his own sins and also as a representative of the sins of all the people. Then, when he would come back out, the people would rejoice. They'd say, ‘okay, we've paid the minimum payment again for one year.’ But they still accumulate sin as soon as they walk out of the temple.
As soon as that start living again. They know that they will be back here again next year. They know that they will continually need this. Indeed, as we go on to read this, it seems like if it really worked, in verse two, they would have been able to cease offering, because after once being cleansed, they would no longer have consciousness of sins, like God would clean their conscience. But they kept feeling guilty.
In fact, the sacrificial system had the opposite result. Instead of cleansing their conscience, it became a reminder, verse three, “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.”
So every time they would offer a sacrifice, it would remind them that they were falling short of God's glory. It had the net result of not only being an annual, because they offered sacrifices daily - thanksgiving sacrifices, sacrifices for known sins and for unknown sins. There's a whole category.
Read the book of Leviticus; it's exhausting the amount of sacrifice that took place. It doesn't give them rest. They continually are reminded of their sins. And then he makes this conclusion in verse four
and it had to be startling to hear from Jewish ears, but if they really thought about it; they know it's true. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Why? Because it was only a preparation for Jesus.
Those bulls, those goats, those little lambs, all of those were like checks written on a future deposit. If God doesn't make the deposit of sending His son, Jesus, then all of this was for naught. So they're placing their faith in this, believing that one day God will provide a Lamb, as He told Abraham, as He took Isaac up on the mount called Moriah. God has provided a lamb. The time has come.
This is what we're speaking of here. He was not able, through these offerings, to make them perfect. But One has come that is able. Look at Hebrews, chapter nine; we preached on this just a while ago.
Hebrews 9:9-10 (HCSB) “This is a symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper’s conscience.” So we see the word shadow here, that the Old Testament, the old covenant, is like a shadow here in Hebrews 9. It's a symbol for the reality in heaven. So if it's only a shadow and a symbol,
why did God give us the law? Just touch on that for a second. I want to give some thought to that, because you might be asking, as we've been going through the book of Hebrews, ‘Okay, so why did God give us the Old Testament? Why did he give us the sacrificial system and so forth?’ Let me give you three good purposes for the law.
I have it in your notes there. Here's the first good purpose and we just saw it in verse three: (1) It reminds us of our guilty condition. It tells us that we're sinners.
Our own hearts tell us this, but the law clearly tells us that we've all fallen short. It reminds us. In fact, the book of James, chapter one says that the word of God is like a mirror. When you look in it, it reflects back to you. It reminds you of who you are.
Here's the second reason: (2) It restrains our sinful behavior. The book of Galatians, chapter three talks about how it's like a guard rail. It keeps you from running over the cliff, just because of the fear of the law.
It restrains sin. Then finally, and this is the most important one, (3) It reveals our need for a Savior. It shows you your desperate situation and how you can't keep the law. I'm reminded of Jesus preaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He starts preaching through some of those
Old Testament laws. He says, ‘You've heard it said, thou shall not kill. But I tell you, if you've called your brother an empty head (the Aramaic word was Raca), if you've called your brother Raca, which means empty head, then you've committed murder already.’ People were like, Oh, man, I thought I was keeping that one.
I guess I've done that. ‘You've heard it said, thou shall not commit adultery. But I say if a man looks at a woman with lust in his heart, he's committed adultery in his heart.’ He destroys any sense of anyone being able to keep the law. We're all sinners, and we all need a Savior.
So, that's a good purpose of the law. You see, as I said before, the way to read the scripture is to read and look for Jesus on every page, to look for Jesus on every page, because Christ is predicted in the Old Testament. He's revealed in the gospels. He's preached in the book of Acts, he's explained in the Epistles and He's
announced and anticipated in the book of Revelation. He's on every page. That's the way to read the Bible. Look for Jesus.
That's what he says to the Hebrew background believers - your rituals and your sacrificial system cannot cleanse you of sin. It can't make you perfect before God. So, he sets up the problem. Now we're waiting for the solution, so, let's move to the second reason:
2. He offered His own sinless body once for all.
He offered his own sinless body once for all. We're at verses 5 through 10 now. He offered his own sinless body once for all. This is God's solution for man's predicament, that man couldn't save himself.
Even through religion and ritual, he still couldn't get right with God. Because the blood of bulls and goats do not take away sin, it's impossible for them. Then, we come to verse five. He says, “Consequently, when Christ came into the world…” Well, that's already happened.
Consequently, Christ came.God saw this problem, this predicament, and He came. Now, I was reading this this week. I was studying this. I have never preached verses five through ten at Christmas before. This week I thought, Wait a minute, I've got a new home text.
I don't know if I'll do it this year or not, but I could preach this at Christmas. Y'all mark my words. Now, if the Lord delays His coming, I'm going to preach this at Christmas one of these years, because we have Christ coming. It says, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;”
That's the incarnation. That's the Son of God, born into the body of this little baby on Christmas Day. That's God Who had said He was going to do this long before He did it. Notice the unusual language here in verse 5 - “ he said,” speaking of Christ. Christ said this.
Now, if you look this up, this is the Hebrews author once again, preaching from the Old Testament. And here his text is Psalm 40. He's preaching from Psalm 40 right here, but it says that it was Christ doing the talking. Now, we know that Psalm 40 has an inscription at the top that says “A Psalm of David.” Well, it was a psalm of David, but it was the Spirit of Christ, the Son of David, the Son of God, who said this through him so that the Hebrews would recognize Him when he came.
What did he say of himself? Sacrifices and offerings won't get it done. In fact, they don't really even please the Lord. They're only a shadow, a symbol of that which is to come. Now, what is to come?
Verse 5, “... a body have you prepared for me;” Oh, my goodness. A body you've prepared for me. Then verse six says,”in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.” You take no pleasure in these things.
It doesn't please God. Verse 7 says, Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” This is Jesus talking, “...as it was written of me…” This whole book was written about me.
You were going to prepare a body for me and that I'm going to come and do all Your will. I'm going to obey everything; everything You've ever said, I will fulfill. No man has been able to do what I will do. I will come and fulfill obedience.
Obedience is what pleases God. I'm going to come and do that. Then, we have our preacher here, the preacher of Hebrews. He's going to now preach from his text, from Psalm 40, starting at verse 8, When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” .
(these are offered according to the law) verse 9, Then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” Why did he add that? It's just as he said, ‘What is God's will?
That you obey Him. That you believe in Him. That you do as He says.’ “If you love me,” Jesus said, “you'll keep my commandments.”
That's what He came to do. It says, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” In verse 9, he does away with the first in order to establish the second. What's the first?
The old covenant. He does away with the old covenant. How? By fulfilling it. He brings us the second.
What's the second? It's the New Testament. It's the new covenant. So he does away with the old to bring us the first in order to bring us the second. Then, in verse 10, ”And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
“And by that will,” by the will of God, that we would be obedient. He came and we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Once for all. He offered His body.
His body that was prepared for Him. That little Lamb that was born in that stable came to die. He is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. He came to die once for all. Once.
Not many sacrifices, as the priest had to do continually, but one sacrifice, one perfect sacrifice. His sinless body offered once for all, one time for all time, one time for all people that would believe once for all. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The sinless body of Christ was offered.
The Lamb without spot or blemish was given on that cross. As He hung on the cross, He took my separation from God. He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He took my separation from God and He offers His relationship with God, His sonship, so that I can become a child of God.
He took my sin upon Him so that the Father turned His back from His Son and He that knew no sin became sin so that I might become His righteousness. He took the death that I deserved. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
He offered His eternal life. Oh, what a great exchange. He gave His body. I was thinking, what would be a good way to illustrate this point to my church. I was studying it this week, and then I thought, Wait a minute.
We give them an illustration every Sunday at the four tables down front. This was the illustration that Jesus gave to His disciples. The Passover meal before His crucifixion. He said as he broke the bread, and he prayed the Jewish prayer that they were used to hearing, I'm sure, “Baruch atah adonai el hanumalako elam amatsi lechem min haaretz amin.”
He prays this, “Blessed art Thou, O God, King of the universe, who bringeth forth bread from the earth” and He says, “Do you see this bread? This is my body, which is broken for you. whenever you eat it. Do it in remembrance of me. Do you see this cup?
It's the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, you proclaim my death until I return.” He gave us the illustration to constantly remind us that it's not something that we could do. No sacrifice could do it. It's impossible for any other one or any other way to approach God.
He has done what we needed to solve this problem that we had and He's brought us to the Father. He's finished it. He is the one. He offered his body and so there's no need to add to His work.
We're invited to trust in His perfect offering. We have a third reason:
3. His single offering perfects us completely.
Look at verse 14 and then we'll back up and get 11 through 13. Look at verse 14, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Now that is a deep verse right there, boy.
That verse is jam packed with interesting things to understand. First, he makes this huge point once again. He's been making this point, “by a single offering.”
Not repeated offerings, not continual offerings, but by one offering, His offering on the cross. He's done it. He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That word perfected is of interest. It's the Greek word τελειόω, teleioō.
We get the word telescope from that Greek word teleios. It means to see a thing from afar. If you're using a telescope, it means something that was far off has been brought near. That's how they use the word in telescope. But the idea really is to go to the finish of a thing, to perfect a thing to complete or bring something to maturity, to bring, to make something whole.
It says that, with this one sacrifice, He has perfected those who are being sanctified. He has done it. Now, may I say just a little bit more about this Greek word, because it's so, so jammed with information that it's important.
We don't have a word like this in the English language. It's in the Greek perfect tense. We don't have that in our language. I still remember in seminary, my Greek professor saying, “The Greek perfect has peculiar action with continuous result.” Now that makes sense, right?
Punctilious your action with continuous results. That's what the perfect means. Okay, help me out, people. Help me out. Who took math class
and remember this thing called a ray? It's a dot with a line and an arrow on the end. Do you remember that? You didn’t want to remember that, right? Some of you didn't appreciate math.
Some of you loved math. A ray has a dot, a line, and an arrow on the end, right? That's what a Greek perfect is; it's a ray.
It means that something happened in the past that was a complete action. It needed no further action. That's the dot and then the arrow. The line with the arrow says it has continuous results.
He has already, on that one offering on the cross, done all that was necessary. It was a complete action. No other action needed to take place. It has continuous results for eternity in the Bible. Amazing.
Isn't it wonderful? You dig in here and he says, in verse 14, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” For a single offering, He has perfected back there at the cross all the way, for all time, for all eternity, those who are being sanctified. So now, he says something very unique here. He says, now this thing that He's done, this dying for us on the cross, offering His body, the perfect sinless sacrifice that has ongoing results. Then, he has this present tense participle going on, “those who are being sanctified.”
He's already done all that's necessary, but it's still working itself out in the present. So this is the tension, okay? Some of y'all are going to get this. Between the already and the not yet of our reality as we stand before the Father. The book of Colossians, chapter three says to set our minds and our hearts on heaven, at the right hand of the Father, where Christ is, that we are already there.
Now, I feel like I'm standing right here. Y'all look at me. Does it look like I'm standing right here? But, the scripture says I'm already there. So that's a positional truth.
Positionally, I'm in Christ and He's in me. It's a spiritual truth. We believe it by faith. It's been revealed to us. Our eyes don't see it, but we don't walk by sight.
We walk by faith, right? And so, positionally, I'm already there. But experientially, I am being sanctified. I'm already perfected. It's done before the Father.
Everything's right between me and God because of Jesus, but it's being worked out in my daily life. He is sanctifying me, which means He's making me holy, which means He's making me like Jesus. What's God's will for you? Well, that's what I've been wondering.
Here's His will for you. That you would become like Jesus. That's what it means to be perfected. That you would become like His Son in every way. And that's what Jesus has done for us and is doing for us that believe in Him.
It says in Romans 6:10-11 (ESV) 10 “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And so we count his death as our death and his life as our life.
So, we are being sanctified. It says in 1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” What were the last words of Jesus on the cross? There were seven last sayings.
If you study all four Gospels, there are seven last sayings. I preached a series some years ago called, “The Last Seven Sayings of Jesus.” What is the very last one? What was saying number seven? Do you know?
“It is finished.” It is finished. I heard different ones because they're all the last words, but the very last words recorded in John were, “It is finished.” The Greek word is tetelestai. It's connected to that “tele” word again.
He says, “It is finished.” He came and obeyed the will of the Father. He said, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” He did it all. “It is finished.” Paid in full.
These are the last words of Jesus. If you will remember, He refused the wine mixed with gall, which had kind of an analgesic effect. He refused it on the first offering. But here He accepted it right at the end because He wanted to declare one last thing. He accepted a little bit to moisten His lips.
I believe He pulled up on those nails. It was the only way He could breathe. He pulled up and says, “It is finished.” He came and it was mission accomplished; paid in full. He gave His body, and His offering is perfect. It perfectly pays for our sin.
This leads to our fourth reason. We've said that the rituals of offerings do not take away sin. We've said that He offered His body as a perfect sacrifice. And we've said that His sacrifice was so perfect that it made us perfect that believe in Him. And then, finally, we see this:
4. His offering bears the Spirit’s assurance of forgiveness.
We're in our final verses now - verses 15 through the end. Verse 15, “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness…” What do you mean “also?” He's referring to how Jesus was talking earlier.
Remember how Jesus preached to us from Psalm 40, right. He preached from Psalm 40. Now he says, ‘let's hear some encouragement and a testimony from the Holy Spirit from Jeremiah 31. Well, I thought Jeremiah wrote chapter 31.
Well, he did, but he did it inspired by the Holy Spirit. And here the Holy Spirit is speaking afresh through our preacher, our author of the book of Hebrews. He says, “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant…” speaking of the new covenant.
He's already speaking of the new covenant. See, the Old Testament's already talking about the New Testament. 16 “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,” There's coming a day where it won't be on stone tablets anymore.
He says that there's one who's coming and when He comes and pays the perfect sacrifice, then the Holy Spirit will come and dwell in us. He will write his law and his word on our hearts and on our minds so that it's internalized. This was something that the old covenant was unable to do. But, in Christ, we have this new way of living and we have the Holy Spirit.
He's assuring us that Christ is in us. He speaks to us and he reveals His word. Then, in verse 17, he's still quoting from Jeremiah 31, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” No more
reminders, no more minimum payments, no more sin debt. I'm going to set you free. In fact, verse 18 says, “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Of what? Of those sins and lawless deeds.
There's no longer any offering for sin. You don't need any. You don't need to make any more offerings. He's paid it in full. It's all done.
It's all paid for. You're free. Those who believe in Jesus are free. This is why His offering is greater. We see that word offering in these 18 verses 14 times.
The offering of Jesus is greater and His Holy Spirit bears witness. He lives inside of you, and He tells you that you are His and that He is yours. Oh, he's mine and I am His. The Holy Spirit within reveals this to us. He's that inner voice that makes us sure.
He's that deposit on that future that we have with the Lord. Oh, it's a wonderful thing. Wouldn't it be great?
I look around the room and some of you have gray hair like mine. Maybe, you've paid off your mortgage. Boy, wasn't it a great thing when you got that deed of trust in the mail and it said “paid in full” on it? Or maybe you're
gray like me and you've had so many kids and grandkids and refined the thing so many times, trying to take care of everybody. You're still paying on it and wish somebody would come along and just pay it off. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Well, that's what Jesus did. That's what Jesus did. He paid in full. And there's nothing to be added to it. There's no earning with the Father.
There's receiving and there's rest and there's joy. And then out of this joy, we live for Him. Not in earning, but in love. Because “If you love me,” He says, “You'll keep my commandments” because you want to show that you love Him. It says in the book of Romans.
Romans 8:1-2, 16 (ESV) “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death… The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Oh, He's the one who lives in us that gives us this assurance of salvation.
Do you have that assurance today that you know, that you know, that you know? We learned last week that the Bible says Hebrews 9: (ESV) 27 “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 “so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” There's two appointments given unto man.
There's the day of death appointed unto man and after that, the judgment. We just studied that last week.
Two appointments that God has on the calendar for each of us. Are you aware of that? There's a day you'll stand before God and perhaps He'll ask a question, ‘Why should I let you into My holy heaven?” I hope you don't answer in the first person.
I hope you don't answer with the word, “I.” I tried to be good. I went to church. Maybe somebody like me might say, I planted a church and I preached for over 33 years.
I was faithful to my wife for over 45 years. I'd be like Paul if I started doing that. I'd be foolishly making known my pedigree. But I would say with Paul, ‘I've counted all of that as dung.
I've counted all of that as nothing in order to know Jesus.’ I will not answer when God asks me, “Why should I let you into My holy heaven?” by saying, “I.”I'll start out with “He,” because He died for me.
He said that if I received Him, I could come. You see, there's nothing I can add to that. And perhaps today you say, ‘Well, Gary, it just seems like week after week all you do is talk about how great Jesus is.’ Well, you're right. That's all I do, because that's who He is.
Less of me, more of Him and He's working in my life and He's working in your life too, believer, to make you more like Jesus. As we go through the book of Hebrews, you perhaps have been saying, ‘Man, I get it. He's greater.
How much more are you going to tell me?’ I'm going to keep on telling you how much greater Jesus is until you finally get it. And even then, when you get it, perhaps you'll be like that old hymn where you just love to hear it over and over again. You know that old hymn; it was written back in 1866.
Perhaps you might remember some of these lyrics if I were to recite them to you. “I love to tell the story of unseen things above Of Jesus and his glory Of Jesus and his love I love to tell the story Because I know tis true it satisfies my longings as nothing else can do I love to tell the story More wonderful it seems Than all the golden fancies of all my golden dreams I love to tell the story it did so much for me and that is just the reason I tell it now to thee I love to tell the story Tis pleasant to repeat what seems each time I tell it More wonderfully sweet I love to tell the story for some have never heard the message of salvation From God's holy word I love to tell the story for those who know it best Seem hungering and thirsty to hear it Just like the rest and when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long I love to tell the story Twill be my theme in glory to tell the old, old Jesus and His love.” Oh, I'm not gonna get tired of that story. So, come back next week, same story. He's the greatest. He's the greatest and His offering is greater than all and so we can rest, we can trust, we can believe.
There's nothing to add to it. It's all love and joy from here on. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, thank You. Thank You that You gave Your body and Your blood that we might be made whole once for all. Once for eternity.
You have perfected us and you are sanctifying us even now. I pray for that one that's here this morning; you've never given your life to Jesus. Oh, He's knocking at your heart's door right now. He is.
That uncomfortable feeling you're feeling right now is that He's drawing you. He's touching your heart. That's the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ knocking at your heart's door.
I pray right now that you would say “yes.” That you would open the door and invite Him to come in. You can do it right now by prayer. Pray with me, ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I repent of my sin.
I turn from my sin and I turn to You. I believe You died on the cross for my sin and that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. Come and live in me. Forgive me of my sin. Make me the person You want me to be.
I want to be a child of God. I want to follow You as my Lord and Savior for the rest of my life.’ If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, He'll save you. Others are here. You're a believer.
You're a follower of Jesus, but you've stumbled into one of those two ditches. You're hanging on to some guilt or shame from the past. You haven't fully applied the blood, you haven't fully applied the sacrifice to your conscience, so that your conscience is clear. Even now, say, ‘Lord, cleanse me.
You said in your word, if we confess our sins, that You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Even now, Lord, do it.’ Others are here and you've fallen in the other place and you're still trying to earn His favor. Would you rest? Jesus says, “Come unto me, you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” Would you say “yes” to that right now?Oh Lord, I just want to rest in you. Thank you for dying for me and for being raised from the grave and living in me so that I'm prepared and made perfect for heaven. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. So grateful you're here. So thankful to be preaching today. This is becoming such a more and more of a passion of mine. God's revealing Himself all the more just how much.
How much he loves us. That song, man, I don't know. We've sang it a lot at our church. But I hope it's just a good reminder to you that God truly loves you. I mean, he must.
He really must, for him to do the things he's done for you, the things he's done for our church. And it's just a wonderful thing to be in Hebrews again today. And I know for some of you, you might be feeling like some of the themes are becoming repetitive, but there's some nuance. There's some new stuff today to unpack. And it's like the writer of Hebrews is taking one concept and digging a little deeper and then a little deeper until we get down to really, the nugget, if you will, of the gospel, the gold underneath.
And so I've really appreciated this whole endeavor together today. We're talking about the idea that Christ Jesus is a greater offering. He's a greater offering. We've dealt with the fact that He's a sacrifice. He's a greater covenant.
There's all kinds. We're on 16, by the way. So last year we did, I think, 10. We're on seven or eight this year, something like that. And so today, a greater offering.
And the theme for the whole time has been Hebrews 1:4. This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names. And so the theme of all of Hebrews is that Christ is greater, he's better. Everything in him is more satisfactory, is more perfect, is more holy. And so this has been such a wonderful endeavor.
We're about to hit the pause button and finish the rest of Hebrews next year. And so those of you who are new around here, we don't stay in Hebrews all year, so don't get terrified of that. We come in and out of various series and various books, just so you know a little bit about us. I tend to do an Old Testament study in the. In the spring, when hopefully you're feeling alive, because the Old Testament, it can be a good time.
And so we've been through some books together, like Judges, and that was a doozy, those of you who were with us on that. And so normally in the New Testament and the Fall and then in between, there is all kinds of things that I pray will speak to you like how to be a better father, how to better handle your money, how to understand the gospel. There's so much in there. And so today we're digging a little bit deeper into Hebrews, into this greater offering. And I want you to consider something for a second because the idea of today's text is this idea that a debt needed to be paid.
And nothing we were doing prior to Christ was even touching that problem. I would imagine a lot of you, well, I would probably argue all of you in some way have a debt that you're paying. Most of you have a mortgage. A lot of you probably have credit cards. A lot of you probably have a car payment.
There's a lot of common debts that are common demand now lately. And so on one particular issue, if you run up a credit card, it's no fun to do. It might be fun at first, but if you get to the place where all you can do is pay the minimum payments and you start reading, don't read the fine print in there, it'll just break your heart. But if you run up all the way up on a credit card and you're paying minimums, normally, that payment, just so you know, is only about 2% of the balance. I don't know if you've ever looked into that.
And so what would have taken you maybe a few months to pay if you'd have just been patient and saved your money, will now probably take you 30 years to pay. If you pay minimum payments, it'll take you forever to pay it. A $5,000 balance, just so you know, on a normal credit card nowadays, which is around 20%, terrible, terrible interest rates that will take you 30 plus years to pay off. And what was 5,000 will now cost you 25,000, almost 26. And we do this all the time.
You know this. In fact, some of you, we can't really. It's really hard to avoid this. If you ever look at your mortgage, you're going to end up paying double what you actually offered the sellers because of the banks. And you're happy to be in a home, but just know you're throwing a lot of money out.
But that's not the point of the message today is to give you some kind of financial guidance. You can get that in a lot of places. I'd be happy to talk about that in another time, but I wanted you to bring to mind this idea of a debt and how paying off just our physical debts is such a difficult task. But the problem here, the problem Here with the Old Testament is that they were paying on a debt that they could never finish paying on. They were making minimum payments, if you will, by the sacrificial system which God put in place.
But it was only ever going to be paid by the one who came, the Messiah. And so this offering had to take place. Now the thing that we're feeling in this, no matter Christian and non Christian alike, hopefully it lessens when you come to Christ. But a lot of us struggle with feelings of guilt, with feelings of shame. Maybe for some of you in the room, you've not given your life to the Lord Jesus.
And part of the reason for that is because you can't imagine a God who could truly forgive you of all of your sins. When you consider the brokenness of your life, you might be thinking, I just don't see how one man's death really can fix that. And maybe that's where you're hung up today. Others have received this forgiveness and this joy, but you're in such a struggle for perfection that you're constantly feeling shame and guilt, even in Christ, that you're so ocd, if you will, about the way your life goes that you're exhausted. It leads you to feel a certain way, like you've got to earn God's favor.
Look, this is a Christian problem going back to the first century, is that we can't at times understand what it means to just love God and please him and that he truly loves us and is pleased with us, regardless of the slip ups we have here and here. Not that we're trying to be disobedient, not that at all. But when we make mistakes, when we constantly are thinking, wow, God must be distant because I'm not living perfectly today, then we get exhausted. Maybe we even feel like God's not there. The people of the old covenant must have felt this constantly.
They must have, like, have I done enough? Is this good enough? What have I forgotten? What sins have I committed where I was either unaware or not paying attention? You know, once a year they actually had an offering there where the high priest would go in and make an offering for the unknown sins of the people.
Because they kind of recognized there's going to be some sins that we forget. There's going to be things we do wrong that we didn't even consider happens to you probably weekly. And we can get really bogged down with this. The writer of Hebrews is about to tell us something that I pray is a great comfort to you. As we're in Hebrews 10 today, in the first few verses, the author told the Hebrew believers that the offering of Christ is greater than all the offerings of the old covenant, that he has finally fulfilled something.
And we're going to see four reasons the offering is greater. So trust me, I'm still going to go about 40 minutes. Don't get worried. Those of you who are around normally. I normally do three reasons.
The three points, three ways. He just said four. What in the world? Buckle up. Hebrews 10:1, 18.
It says, 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 be by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near it can never make them perfect. Verse 2. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins. Verse 3. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins.
And every year, for it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Jesus came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me in burnt offerings and sin offerings. You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the Book. When he said the above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings.
These are offered according to the law. Then he said, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
But when Christ has offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by the single offering he has perfected, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts. I will write them on their minds.
Then he adds, and I hear this church, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. God bless the reading of his word. Amen. So thankful for this scripture today, I know there was a lot to unpack there.
Let's do it together. Let's take our time through this text. Why is the offering of Christ greater, first of all? The first few verses tell us this. It's because the old offerings could never perfectly cleanse us.
His is greater because he can do what they could not. I would argue, I would go a step further, although this isn't the context of Hebrews, that Christ Jesus is the only one that can cleanse us in this life, no matter what you put him up against. If your priorities in this life is, I want a great family, I want a good marriage, I want all those are good things to have. But know this, they won't perfectly cleanse you. They won't come close if your goal is, well, I'm just going to be religious.
There's a lot of world religions, a lot of them are doing this and that. None of them give you a way forward that actually makes any sense. Because in Christ Jesus, you come before him going, I'm a mess. And he can take that on. Most of the rest of the world is doing what the Old Covenant has already been doing for thousands of years, and you have to constantly make sacrifice and be made right.
That's the rest of the world religions, if you consider them. It's about, are you good enough? And you're never going to know for sure. Christianity says something far different. It says, you are not good enough, but God is all loving for you and his sacrifice is more than good enough.
That's why I believe Christianity tells us a story that actually makes the most sense to our human existence, is that we know there's something wrong. We know this, we know that we think and we do things that we would rather not do. There's a lot of things we get into. We're like, man, why did I do that again? And when we look around the world, there's catastrophe and there's suffering.
And when we question all that, it makes us hopefully come to the place where we say, all right, I can't be perfected. I'm a mess. I could work really hard on old covenant kind of stuff, but I'm never going to know. I'm never going to know for sure if I'm good. And Scripture says, no, you're not.
But Christ is. And he is perfectly loving towards you. And he has offered a sacrifice that you come to not by works, but by faith. Now, your faith then produces works, because faith does that. Now you're in him, you're walking with him.
And now you begin to bear fruit. But don't get those reversed. The old offerings could never perfectly cleanse. This is where he spends the first few verses. Now, some of you in the room are hearing some of this for the first time.
And I'm praying that the Lord would be moving you towards Himself, that you could for the first time be perfectly cleansed in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. But others of you in the room have been walking with the Lord. And maybe verses 2 and 3 really speak to you, where he says, this old covenant never removes the consciousness of sins and goes on to say, there's constant reminders of your guilt and of your shame and of your sin. Now, for a lot of believers in the room, we have this maybe preconception that we're holier if we will just keep on keeping our brokenness in front of us and be in a constant state of repentance before God. Now, don't hear me say this at all.
There is a time for repentance when you make mistakes, when you go against the justice of God, you ought to repent. And the Holy Spirit, part of his work in you is conviction. But when you keep digging stuff up and keep remembering things and never letting them go and saying, I'm not good enough for Christ, how could he ever love me? I want you to understand something that isn't God at all. That isn't the Spirit's conviction.
When you live in shame, he's not given a shame. He removes the guilt. Understand what repentance actually does for you. God, it says there in verse 17 and 18, he remembers it no more. Now, if you understand God like most of us do, he's not one to forget.
He's perfect. He's perfectly holy among omniscient. His brain works full capacity. Ours got some dents, got some flaws, got some brain fog. And the older you get, and some of you can speak more into this, but I've forgotten some stuff.
Stuff doesn't come, like, quickly. Like I remember it concerns me at times, like maybe I need more pomegranate in my life. I don't know whatever the solution is. But God doesn't have these problems. He doesn't have these faults.
So for him to remember it no more means God has made a choice to put it away. That's what last week told us. He put it away. God has made a decision. I love you.
And when I look at you, I see Christ Jesus. Therefore, when I see you, I see righteousness. I don't see sin. Oh yeah, My spirit's going to convict and it's going to urge you towards Christ likeness, that you would be holy. But that's not.
That's not how I view view you. I don't view you as a sinful person. I view you as righteous. And then it goes on in verse four to tell us clearly. What it's been telling us for weeks now is that the old ways could not.
They were impossible. In fact, the word there is adunitos in the Greek, which means without power, impotent, impossible to take away sins. This is what the author's been saying. Look back at chapter nine, verse nine. It says, this is a symbol for the present time during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper's conscience.
If you come in here today, this is a simple point. You have a guilty conscience. Friend, you're not alone. You've come in here with a guilty conscience. You're worried you've got some shame in your life.
There's some stuff you've done, some stuff you said maybe recently, believers alike, you've come in here feeling a certain way. Christ Jesus has removed this spiritually and can remove it physically from your life, that this is the work of the Spirit of God in your life. So when you continue to remember things that you've done that you've confessed, understand that God has made the choice to put it as far as the east is from the west and you're not being obedient to his purposes when you just keep digging up in doubt. The law, sure, the law does that. It reminds.
It reminds. It reminds Christ Jesus. When we look at the cross, I want you to see this church. When you look at the cross of Christ, it shouldn't remind you of your sin. It should remind you of Christ's love for you.
Yeah, at first, I think unbelievers in the room and those of you who have recently come to Christ, or if you can kind of think back to this, when you first come to the cross, it reminds you. It brings to light your sin. And that's right, that the first look there makes you go, boy, I'm a big mess. But believers, when you look back, wow, I can't believe God loved me that much. That's what the cross now says to me.
It says hope. It says love. The good purposes, when we keep kind of picking on the law because the writer of Hebrews really has blasted it for the last several chapters. But I want to remind you of what its intent always was. Is it the good purposes of the Law.
Here's a quick chart here for you to kind of help you with this. It does three Rs, if you will. It reminds us of our guilty condition. It hopefully restrains our sinful behavior, and it reveals, and this one's important, our need for a savior. And so the law isn't bad.
It's just flawed in the sense that. That we can't do it and in the fact that it wasn't meant to fully fix our situation. It was only meant to reveal that someone would come and solve it. So that's the first reason. The old ways and the earth's ways, the worldly ways, they're not a good offering for what we know is true.
We need a perfect and sinless Savior who will then make us perfect. Here's the second reason. It's because Jesus offered his own sinless body once for all. This is the argument that's being made here. This is such a careful thing about Christianity is that Christ Jesus has paid a debt that you deserved, that you couldn't pay.
And he has done fully the thing necessary for God's wrath. It is done. And so when we come by faith in him now, we are free. Now here's what the writer of Hebrews does that I really love. And it's the way I really try to preach.
I hope that this is what you've experienced with our church, is that I don't preach, Jonathan. I preach the Bible. I try my very best to preach the word of God and put my opinions to the side. Sometimes that's uncomfortable. This is what the writer of Hebrews is doing.
Several times right here, he is using scripture to argue the point. So here in your Bibles, if you had them. I don't know if it was obvious on the screen, but in your Bibles you'll notice that this is in prose, that it looks poetic. Right here in the middle, verse 5 through 10. That's because it's a direct quote from Psalm 51.
Psalm 51 says, for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it, you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are broken and spiritual. A broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise. That actually was argumentation. That's not the one he was quoting.
So I got myself a little out of order here. He's actually quoting Psalm 40. Okay, bear with me. Psalm 40 is what he's actually quoting. Psalm 51 repeats that theme.
So Psalm 40, it says these very words that you see here in Hebrews, chapter 10. Now, notice that he actually pulls this from what another translation of the Bible called the Greek Septuagint. Y'all can say that with me. Septuagint. You like that word?
You can name your kids that. It means like seven numbers or something like that. It's seven something. I haven't studied that recently, but the translation is great. Did you know that there have been multiple translations of God's word, but the Septuagint is actually the Greeks took the Old Testament and put it into Greek and they did this hundreds of years before Christ.
And so now here we have this rendering of Psalm 40 where it says that a body will be prepared. The original Hebrew says something that an ear will be available to listen, but the Septuagint rightly makes it that the ear is representation of the body being prepared. And so now looking at Psalm 40, it's hard for us, not when we look back, for us to not say, wow, this looks like Jesus. He's saying sacrifices and offerings. God didn't want those.
What he wanted was a body prepared, a holy, righteous one. Boy, that's kind of obvious for us looking at it. But apparently here, for these early Jewish Christians, they're learning all this. They're trying to understand not only the scriptures that are being written in their day, but also those that they grew up studying. And now he's putting into effect.
Hey, guess what? You've already been reading this. This was about Jesus and the offerings of old. We should have known coming into the first century that that stuff wasn't going to save us. It was just IOU after IOU after iou.
So now the writer tells us this was all written about Christ. And what's happened here, verse nine tells us, is that the old stuff is now done away with. He's established something new, something that sanctifies once and for all. This is the great news, friends. Those perfectionists in the room, those guilty consciences, those feeling ashamed.
Do you understand? The scripture teaches, timeless, just over and over again, that what Christ Jesus did was once and once for all. Now you may walk out of this place today and go, wow, those Christians there at that church, they just, you know, they come to Christ one time, then they live like aliens for the rest of their lives. That could be how you would interpret all this and you'd be mistaken as to what the point of Hebrews is. The point of Hebrews is not for those people who just want to live all willy nilly and make mistakes.
It's for these people that Think they've got to earn their way to God. And that's some of you. You may not even really think of yourself that way. But the way in which you feel about God is actually a story of earning. If I do enough right, he'll bless me.
If I make the right choices, God will be with me. If I say and do the right things, God won't be. He won't be angry with me. You know what will happen to you in a time like that, and it might have even happened to you before, is when something hard comes, some pain, some suffering, you'll do one of two things. You'll say, well, either God's not listening, he doesn't care about me, or God's not.
He's not good. You might make the decision that God is not good because he let me. And I've been living right. I've been doing everything. God, you owe me.
Have you gotten into that position? I've lived good enough for God to owe me. God owes you nothing. He owes you absolutely nothing. Do you know why?
Because you owe him everything. You don't breathe apart from God. He decided one day, hey, you get to exist. I don't know why he made that decision, but he did. And not only that, he said, I'm going to do everything necessary to make you right.
We didn't do that. He did. You know what he says he owes us. He owes us this idea that he wants to make us more and more like his son. Son.
It's not a debt to be paid so much, but it is his purpose. So, friends, when you walk in this position of God owes me and I've earned his favor, then you get into a dangerous place where you can't receive any sort of pruning. The Bible says that you're attached to the branch, you're a vine attached. And that the vinedresser, the good gardener will go through and trim some of the little sucker plants. You know, any of you who garden at all, you know there's things that come into your garden that will steal life from the fruit.
Weeds will grow up. This is the human life. Your life right now is filled with some useless activities. They may not even be sinful, they're just useless. God might trim those or he might trust you with some things that are very hard or why?
Because he is into making you look like Jesus. That's what he's into. He's not into, I better make sure that boy who's been living so good gets blessed.
That's not even a blessing. If God gave you everything you wanted, trust me, you wouldn't be blessed. You'd be a hot mess. You'd think you were God yourself. After a while you'd think, man, I'm somebody.
And then if anything hard comes into your life, you're unprepared for it.
We needed this one to come who was sinless and perfect, a body prepared who could take on this difficulty that we could not even come close to touching. So the Bible teaches quite the opposite of, oh yeah, the single sacrifice, once for all. Now I can go on and do whatever I want. Read the book of Romans sometimes, if that's how you feel. Paul says, literally, should we keep on sinning since grace is abounding, absolutely not.
He says, trust me. When you come to genuine faith in Christ Jesus, guess what you want to do. You want to be pleasing to the Lord. You've come to an awareness that his purpose for you is best. And so we have this wonderful Jesus.
Now, the illustration that Christ gives us on this is the Lord's Supper. This is why this is so important to his church. This is why he says, as often as you meet, do this in remembrance of me. It's because he wants us to not forget that his body was prepared and sacrificed for us. This is this idea of the Lord's Supper which we celebrate again and again here at this church.
And it goes back to this idea of what's happened in Second Corinthians 5, that for our sake he made him Jesus to be sin who had never known sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. A transaction has taken place, my friends. When you dig this back up in doubt, when you can't seem to get over the sins which God has put as far as the east is from the west, he remembers them no more. When you dig them back up. You are saying, I'm not new, I'm not the righteousness of God.
But the transaction has already taken place. He has done this for you and you can rest in this. So for you hard working perfectionists, guilty conscience, people today know this. He loves you and has already, with one offering, paid the price. Here's the third reason.
Because his single offering perfects us completely. There's a mic drop in the middle of this text that you might have missed. All right, this is too good. I almost missed it. I'm going to read verse 11 through 13 one more time for you.
It says, every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. So the earthly priests are standing all day long making sacrifice repeated, repeated, repeated. And it's not solving the problem.
These are IOUs for the Savior to fix one day and. And Christ Jesus comes, pays one life, one price, one death. Son of God. And what does he do? He sits down.
It's like a wonderful, like, mic drop. You guys are standing all day doing something that doesn't do anything. I did one thing and then I went down and sat down and put my feet up. You see it? His enemies become his footstool.
There's a little something beautiful right there, I think. And all day long we work, we work, we work, we serve, we serve, we serve. But if we do this apart from the singular sacrifice of God, that. And we are working aimlessly, are working so aimlessly. So the priests, they're doing their job.
But now the author is making this argument, this sacrificial system. At the end of the day, here's the purpose of so much of this chapter and so much of this letter. You guys need to stop doing this. That's what the author's saying. This old system of sacrifice is over.
Stop it. They didn't, I think, do a good job of stopping it. This book is written somewhere around 65 A.D. 70 A.D. something wild happens.
The Roman Empire sieges Jerusalem. Millions of people die. They were basically starved to death, and the temple is destroyed. There's a lot of arguments that can be made as to why that happened. I think it's purely spiritual.
God said, okay, you don't want to be obedient to the one who's been sent. You don't want to be obedient to the singular sacrifice for all. I'll go ahead and remove the temple. I don't think it will be rebuilt. There's constant conflict in that area.
If you know anything about it, I don't think God purposes that that should be reinstated now. There's a lot of going down in the Book of Revelation for you, and I know you'd have a great time. Let's go there now. We're not doing that today, but there's certainly some things that are going to happen at the end of days around the Temple Mount, around that area. But Christ has removed this for a reason.
Because he wants people to turn to him. He is the sacrifice. And no longer do we have to daily stand and try to offer these things that have no value because he has done once for all this thing that has perfected us, believers, I pray you understand that today, that you don't keep walking away feeling guilty and shame and ashamed. Christ's works, it's finished. It's perfected.
Romans 6 says this. For the death, he died. He died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Jesus, believer in the room. This is done for you. You ought to be alive in Christ Jesus. I harp on this quite a bit at our church, but it disappoints me when I see believers with a life that's just a constant frown. I'm not saying we walk around like some kind of fakes and phonies like everything's going great, but you ought to have a hope that's unlike your fellow man.
We have a hope. When we look at death, when we look at what's beyond, we have a hope that there's more. And not only that, we have a hope for our current, that God, that there is a God, that he really loves us and that the things he's putting us through, he has a purpose for otherwise. What's the other option? This world is broken, in a mess and we're getting hurt for no reason.
I don't see how that's a better solution. Now, some will look at this and go, well, if there is a God and he is good, why does he allow us to suffer? Well, that's putting a position ahead that is almost illogical. Because if he doesn't exist, then all of that stuff is still true and it's happening for no reason.
I'll take my chances. I'll take my chances that there is a God, that he has sent his son, Jesus, and that this suffering is not because God is evil. He's actually good, but has allowed it for his purposes. That what? That more and more of us might see him and trust Him.
For those of you who are believers in the room, that you might learn to actually trust God, I would ask you, just in your heart right now, consider this. Right now. What are some of the hardest things I've been through in this life? And what are some of the best moments? Things were going great.
Everything was perfect. Did you learn a whole lot when everything was perfect about the character and nature of God? You might have learned some. You might have felt his presence. Oh, but you know, church, you know, you learn so much more when things were Rough about God's comfort, his peace, his care.
But Jonathan, does he have to do it that way? I don't know. I don't know. I'm convinced at least for me that I am such a hard headed goof off that he has to do hard things in my life for me to learn. It's just who I am.
And I bet you're not far from me. I just bet that that God almost has to every once in a while hit me over the side of the head with a two by four, otherwise I cannot hear him. Oh, maybe if we could be a little more open hearted and be a little more locked in, maybe so there's just lessons to be learned and he's perfecting us completely. Are you alive to God in Christ Jesus? Do you have a hope in both the wonder of life where God is doing and blessing you, or the valley of life where God is with you in those moments and teaching you how to trust and he comforts you and give you peace.
Are you alive in God such that people, when they see you in those valley moments would go, you are a freak. Like I don't know how can you have joy in this situation? You've lost your job, you've lost loved ones, you just got kicked out of your house, you just had this horrible thing happen to you. How could you possibly be smiling about that?
Because God has given my life purpose. And I know, I know he's up to something. I know it. And I may not understand it right now, but someday I'm going to look back on this and go, if he hadn't done that, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. I wouldn't have taken this chance or I wouldn't have learned this lesson, or I wouldn't have seen and met this person.
Oh, he's got his reasons and they're good. He loves you. Christ bore our sins in his body on the cross. First Peter tells us he Himself bore this in his body on the tree that we might what? Die to sin and live to righteousness?
By his wounds we've been healed. This has happened. Do you believe it? Do you? Do you believe it?
Some of you have come in here today and you've not believed this. And you can live as the world lives. But I want you to know something. The purpose that God has made you for, you will not understand until you walk with Christ Jesus. The pain of this life will make very little sense to you.
The good times of this life will make very little sense. Why? Because he made you for himself. Here's the fourth and final reason. His offering bears the Spirit's assurance of forgiveness.
Now, it wouldn't come full circle unless we would finally get to this place where we feel sure that we have a sense of peace with God. It's interesting that verse 15 says the holy Spirit also bears witness. What does he mean also? He's the second witness in this story. Well, he's already read from Psalm 40.
What he's saying is Christ Jesus has already borne witness that he is the one whose body was prepared and has come to do the will of God. And all of this was written about him. And so the second witness then is the Holy Spirit of God who does what? He comes into you believers. He comes into your life at the point of salvation with when you put your faith in Christ Jesus.
Now you have the promised Holy Spirit. And it's that voice in your head that's putting the word of God in your hearts and into your minds. The law. This is that voice that when you spend time with the Lord every once in a while, you'll hear, maybe more often than not, as you walk with Christ. It's that voice that says, you ought not do that.
It's that voice that says, hey, I'm close. Come see me. That desire that you have to be in the presence of God, I want you to understand that is not your flesh, and that is definitely not the evil one. I really want to. I don't know why.
I just feel like I need to spend more time in prayer with God. Don't you think that might be of the devil? Like what? If you ever think something crazy like that, just know you need some rest, you need something. But no, those urges are of the spirit.
Those urges hate. That urge you get sometimes of man, such and such. Really. They said something that really hurt me. They've done this thing that really hurt me.
But something in me is telling me I've got to reconcile. Something's telling me that I've got to get right with that person. Do you think that's your flesh? Do you think that's the evil one? Oh, the great reconciler, Satan himself.
Come on. No, that stuff's the spirit of God. That's a conviction in your life where he's saying you've been mad at your father for a long time. You've been holding some terrible things against him and he did them. Your feelings are justified.
However, that feeling that comes to your mind, that thought, I just got to make this right for myself. That's the spirit of God. He's Doing stuff like that constantly in my life. And when I hear him, I need to respond. But that's an assurance.
That's an assurance to me that God is moving in my life. The conviction. This is weird, right? Church, come on board with me for just a second. When you feel convicted about something, I would argue to you that is an assurance of your salvation.
When you feel conviction about your brokenness, about your sin, when you feel a sense that you need to reconcile to another, that should be assurance to you that God is with you. I know it's hard. I know those moments are tough. But it should give you confidence that God is at work in your life, putting the laws in your hearts and in your minds. And the great news is, he has said again and again, here he quotes more scripture.
Jeremiah, chapter 31, in fact, is now being quoted where he says, I put my laws in your hearts and minds. I'll make a new covenant and I will remember your sins, your lawless deeds no more. This is a promise he made of old and now has fulfilled in Christ. And now the Holy Spirit of God is in your hearts and minds saying, this is done. Quit harping on this.
Quit digging this back up. Christ has paid this debt. Do you believe it? You keep digging it up. It's like you're saying, I don't believe that Christ's death was enough.
But it was. But it was. Romans, chapter 8. There is now no condemnation. How much condemnation church is left?
None for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. You ever had the opportunity to pay off a debt? Who's done that?
Good. Praise God. Some of you are like, I'm hoping, hoping one day I've gotten myself back into some debts. I did this just a couple of years ago. I was teaching financial peace.
Some of you have been through that with me. And I was doing the right stuff. The envelopes and everything. Man, it's going well. I'm the nerd in my family.
My wife's more of the free spirit. She keeps life exciting. She keeps me on my toes. I don't want to do anything, really. Those of you who know me well know that my favorite place is to be in my recliner doing absolutely nothing.
It makes me super happy. And that's. That's okay to some extent. But we got ourselves right back into some holes over the last few years. And that moment a few years ago where we looked at all of our Stuff and we started getting letters back from credit cards or whatever we had that said something like paid in full.
There's a feeling that you get there that's hard to explain. When you finally pay off a car, first of all, warning, it's going to break tomorrow. As soon as you do that, that's just a warning from me to you. I love you enough to tell you that. But as soon as you get that paid off, it's going to have a catastrophic failure.
But it's such a wonderful thing when you get that letter in the mail, when you finally get the deed, if you will. Some of us, anybody paid off their house, do you get something in the mail that's like this house is now. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if I'll get to know anytime soon. You get this wonderful paid in full.
You get this assurance like I finally, I have this.
And it's such a freeing feeling. There's nothing better than coming to a clear understanding that your life has been paid in full, that your destination, your purpose is secure. That's why it feels so good to pay a debt, because you can finally remove a. It's a fear, honestly. It's a fear that something could go wrong and I could bankrupt myself because I have paid on future funds.
I've made the mistake of borrowing from myself for the next ten years plus. There's a fear. But no fear is greater, my friend. Consider this. No fear is greater than the complete unknown of what's coming next.
The complete unknown of am I okay? Am I going to be alright? Am I going to survive this next thing? What's next? Most of us, especially the young people in the room, I know what you do with this.
I know what you do. I'll think about that later. When I go to that place, it's dark and gloomy and I'm scared. So I'm just going to put that off. Some of you have gotten to the point where you're like, I don't know if I can put that off anymore.
I would argue to you, you don't have to, that the news of Christ Jesus is for you today. That unknown. Oh, there's still a little bit there. That's scary because, I mean, we don't even with scripture, know every detail. And Christ was purposeful in that.
He didn't tell us every little detail, probably because some of it is intense. But he's given us enough that we might know in this life. I have purpose. God has me up, down. I Know God is with me.
Beyond this. I know I am with God and he has an eternal place and purpose for me. So, friends, you have a paid in full on the most scary thing in your life that's paid for. Do you understand this? Today I pray that you do, that you understand your debt is paid.
Not just that your future debt is paid. Isn't that incredible? Some of you need to receive that for the first time today. I would ask you not to go another day saying, I'm going to put that off. I'll deal with that later.
None of us knows next, none of us knows what's coming after. And no reason to put off something that's actually the ultimate best for you that you could finally hear from God. This is what I want you to do in this world. This is who I want you to be. You don't have to fight your ultimate purpose anymore.
If that's you today, come in prayer with me. We're going to pray together now. Heavenly Father, we ask that first of all you would encourage believers in the room, that I know some of these people's stories, stories of good, stories of suffering, stories of blessings, stories of hardship. And it can be very difficult to understand your purpose for us. God, we admit that we come before you saying, hey, we don't see clearly what you're up to all the time, but I'm praying for your church, the believers in this room, that you would remind them that you don't remember their sins anymore.
Not because you've had some kind of amnesia. No, you've made the decision to put it out, and that's far better. So, God, I'm praying for your church, for your people, that they would do what you've already done, and that is to put this stuff aside, that guilt that causes them to say, well, I'm never going to be whole in Christ. I'm never going to be okay. I'm never going to be the kind of believer that's a good witness to my friends and family, because look at what I've done.
I'm such a terrible person. If that's you today, God has not. He's not bringing that up anymore. Put it away. Christ Jesus helped that person put it away, that they can serve you wholeheartedly and no longer feel this constant sense of, I'm not good enough.
I'm a broken mess. I pray you would restore them to your ultimate purpose for them, for that perfectionist in the room, Lord, that you would help them to see that they can't earn your favor. That they already have your favorite. That walking with you is not about earning but about yielding, abiding, resting in. That's what walking with Christ is.
It's not earning, it's doing it. Because it's just more fun to walk with your father. It's just more fun. It's more purposeful. It's like suddenly I get to know who I really am when I walk with him.
I'm not trying to earn his favor. I couldn't if I wanted to. God, remind that perfectionist today that God's purposes are awesome. His will for you is good. Just walk in peace with him.
For that one who's come today, and I don't know who dragged you in here, maybe this was a pretty hard time to sit and hear God's word. It's a pretty heavy conversation. But I don't think your being in this room was a mistake.
There's no accidents in what God's doing in your life, my friend. And maybe you've been running from him. Maybe you just haven't wanted to deal with this. But friend, I'm asking you, don't put this off any longer. That place that you don't really want to look, that scary place of I don't know who I'm supposed to be, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
I don't know what's coming next. That terrifying, terrifying space in your head that you just shut off at times. Let's go ahead and look there because you don't have to be afraid anymore. Christ Jesus has paid in full. Would you walk with me on just this very, very simple, simple move towards faith?
The Word says in Romans that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. We will get paid in full, put on our account, such that now we can live for him, walk with him and know what's coming. At least to an eternal extent. If that's you, my friend, stop putting it off. Pray this with me.
Pray these words simply. Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for me. That I did owe a debt. It's hard for me to say, but I know I've made a lot of mistakes. I've thought things, I've done things I should not.
And sometimes I really make a mess of things. And God, I'm recognizing, Jesus, I'm recognizing today that someone had to pay this. Jesus, I believe it was you, that you died on the cross for my debt. And Jesus, I'm asking now that you would guide me in this fearful area, that you would begin to show me your purpose in this life and the next. Lord, I'm hopeful now.
I have a confidence that God, you raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The cross and the resurrection give me incredible hope. And I'm asking now, Lord, would you guide me in this life, Remove those fears.
All this brokenness of my past, can I lay it at your feet now? Christ, can I lay it there? You take it from me and I pray, Lord, I pray your word back to you. Would you remember it no more? Help me to get over it.
Do that in each and every one of us. My friends, thank you for if you prayed that prayer with me, I would ask you let someone know today, a friend who brought you, maybe me, if you want to talk after. But we're praying right along with you, my friend. God guide us to overcome our sin first, but then to put it behind us that we might live purposely for you and God. Show us the way in the way only you can.
In Jesus name, amen.