Sermon: Never Again

If you would take a moment uh, with me. Let's pray before we open up Hebrews chapter 10 verses one uh, through or verses 11 through 18 this morning. Let's pray first

our Father, we pray this morning that you would bring us under your word, pray that we would find ourselves humbled under it and looking up to you as beggars for food as children in need of instruction.

And our stiff necks would be oh softened this morning and our hard hearts would be more made, more tender this morning and our minds that so quickly race after other things would be made ready. Receptacles for your word this morning and our affections, which are so dull and lifeless would be stirred for you this morning. All of this as we are humbled under the mighty power of your word. Help us to sit under it by the power of your spirit this morning to your praise

and to your glory. Christ name we pray. Amen. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 11 through 18. This is a holy er, sufficient word of God and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, sat down the right hand of God waiting from that time to his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet,

for by a single offering he has perfected for all time. Those who are being sanctified, the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds. Know more where there is forgiveness of these. There is no longer any offering for sin of the grass

withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

We saw last week that Jesus was the perfect priest and the writer of Hebrews is going to continue along that that line of thought here as we go through these verses. Uh, this morning as we saw he is the perfect priest, very God, a very God that adorned himself with flesh as he came into this world and he ministered on our behalf and he serves forever as the perfect priest of his people. What I want to do this morning is consider this passage along three lines, uh,

and three points this morning. The first is, is that this perfect priest administers the perfect sacrifice. Second, that he patiently waits and third, that he provides for us a perfect salvation. So a perfect sacrifice. He patiently waits and he provides a perfect salvation. First he offered a perfect sacrifice. In this passage what we are doing is we are taken back to the tabernacle in the Old Testament where the priest would've ministered. And so in our mind's eye,

you and I are supposed to be kind of seeing this priest ministering in the old tabernacle, that tent of meeting. And we would see a priest standing there and he would daily, as the writer says in verse 11, he would offer over and over the same sacrifices another bull, another ram, more of the same. Now this bull may be a little more brown than the last bull. He may be a little taller than the last bull. He may be a little squatter and shorter than the previous bull,

but it's the same thing over and over again. These repeated sacrifices that he says quote can never take away sins. It's practically shown by the fact that they keep offering them and the writer of Hebrews is declaring it. We all know this, they can't take away sins. We then have that great conjunction that often turns things in scriptures and it's there in verse 12. But, but when Christ had offered for all time a single

sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God And now in our mind's eye were to see Christ. Were to see Christ as this perfect priest that offers not many sacrifices but offers one sacrifice. The writer says one, one, not many one.

I want you to think with me back to the tabernacle and try and picture it in your mind. It's that 10th of meeting that was constructed and if we were in there, we would've seen a priest and he would have been administering the different sacrifices. And if we and I were to look around, there wouldn't have just been the priest, there would've been furniture in that that tent of meeting we would've seen there an altar of sacrifice.

We would've seen the the laver of washing that was used. We would've seen the golden lampstand and we would've seen the golden table of showbread and the golden altar of incense. And then of course in the holy of Holies we would have seen the golden arc itself. You would've seen all of these pieces of furniture and yet if you looked around you would find that there was something that was absolutely missing in that tent.

It all of the furniture that there was no chair,

a chair anywhere in that tent and there was no chair because there was no sitting and there was no sitting because the work never ceased and the work never ceased because the work was never complete. But what the writer of Hebrews once you'd understand what he wants these Jewish Christians reckon with as he's speaking to them in the sermon is he says this very startling thing in verse 12, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice

for sins, he sat down. He sat, that's astonishing.

After all of these years and all of these years and centuries upon centuries upon centuries, every Jew knew a priest doesn't sit. There's more to be done sad.

If you and I were to this afternoon go over to the emergency room at Sparrow or go to the emergency room at McLaren and walk in and if we saw all of the nurses in that emergency room sitting, we have a lot of nurses in our congregation. You walked in and you saw a of those nurses just sitting, it'd be shocking. And if they were all sitting because there were no more injuries and there were no more injuries because the patient that they had healed last week in that

emergency room ended all pain and suffering and they're just sitting, it would be shocking. Why? Because that's what happens in an emergency room that this is the activity of a emergency room. Nurses will tell you, we don't sit in an emergency room. Sat,

he sat 'cause it was done. Why is Jesus seated after centuries upon centuries of priest standing and offering sacrifices after sacrifices with the writer has already told us in verse 10, he repeats the idea In verse 12, he repeats it again in verse 14, as he says in verse 10, the body of Jesus Christ was offered once for all and he presses this home over and over in this book, he'll use that same phrase five times, once for all,

once for all perfect sacrifice.

Second is patient waiting. Now we may be tempted to think that because Christ as our high priest because he has offered himself once for all and we are told that he is seated and he's seated at the right hand of the majesty on high that now he's doing nothing. He's sitting on his hands. But we know, if you'll remember back months ago when we were in Hebrews seven, the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear, no, his priestly ministry continues on yours and my behalf.

He continues to intercede for us. He continues to pray for us over and over and over we have this double guard and we have this double guarantee in this priestly service on our behalf. He's the perfect sacrifice securing our salvation and he continues to pray for us as we live in this fallen world. His ministry continues while he patiently waits, patiently waits. The writer notes sis in verse 13 Waiting. Waiting for what?

Well, he's waiting until he returns and he takes us home and he exercises judgment. He waits waiting until when. Well, he tells us until his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet. It's a fulfillment of that day of that most famous of passages from the Old Testament, Psalm one 10, the most quoted Old Testament passage in all the New Testament where this prophecy says of this, this Christ to come. The Lord said to my Lord,

sit at my right hand and so I make your enemies your footstool and he waits. He waits until he comes as judge of all of heaven and all of earth. But you say, but wait a second and it's a right question. Wasn't judgment rendered when he was on the cross? Isn't that where judgment took place? That's the right question. The answer of course is yes. Judgment came. Ms. Phil Pews rightly said, he said The coming of the son into the world is already his overcoming of the

world. John 16, the cross of Christ is the conquest of Satan. John 12, John 16. That is precisely why it is the place of our salvation. Future judgment is only the application of the final judgment that has already taken place at Calvary. Jesus is coming to apply his judgment that has already occurred. Jesus said in Matthew 26 63 through 64, he said that he is God eternal. He is one with the father and he is one with the spirit and it is the Son

of God who by virtue of being very God, a very God is the judge of all the earth and only God has the right qualifications. Only God knows the heart of men. Only God has unmatched knowledge, insurmountable knowledge. He knows all things and so only God can execute right judgment

and he's very God of very God. Nothing surprises him. Nothing is hidden from him. Nothing is going to shock him. He knows and he renders judgment without error and he waits patiently return for that day.

Why I musty judge, why is that necessary? We covered in our evening sermons when we deal with the doctrine of hell. I covered it a little bit last week, the week before. Let me just touch on it in two ways this morning, just mention the one that we've covered to some degree. The first is that God is just, he's just, he must uphold his justice. He's God that that's who he is in a very real sense. We could say it this way if it's we're careful with this language,

but we could say that uphold his very godness, he has to execute judgment as he's God

but but that's only one reason. It upholds his godness to execute judgment but it also upholds our humanity. Does both.

C s Lewis famously rod essay called the Humanitarian Theory of Punishment and in that essay he's complaining about our modern justice system. He doesn't like our humanitarian bent in the current justice system that we have where either we aim at criminal reform or we aim at deterrence and he argues in this essay that the problem with is that it denies our humanity. He says this, he says, the reason is this. The humanitarian theory removes from punishment the concept of dessert.

That is what you and I deserve. We deserve certain things, but the concept of dessert he says is the only connecting link between punishment and justice. It is only as deserved or undeserved that a sentence can be just or unjust. He says this, when we cease to consider what the criminal deserves and consider only what will cure him or deter others, we have tacitly removed him from the sphere of justice all together. Instead of a person, a subject of rights,

we now have a mere object, a patient, a case you see to receive judgment, to receive punishment because we morally chose what was evil when we knew it was evil. Honors our humanity that you and I are moral beings that make moral choices. Justice not only upholds, God's very godness, justice upholds yours and my humanity necessary. Christ comes to judge well why wait then? Why is it that Christ waits in his coming to judge if his

enemies are defeated at the cross, if he has secured victory over Satan and hell and sin and all of the demonic coast, if he's conquered them all at the cross and he's conquered death by his very resurrection, why is it that he waits? Why is it that there continues to be, he allows there to be suffering and he allows there to be bad people doing bad things over and over in this world. Why?

Peter takes up this question second Peter three and he says this, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises as some count slowness but as patient toward you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. The Lord patiently waits.

He patiently waits to gather all of his enemies as a footstool underneath his feet as he is gathering together all of his children.

He doesn't desire any, we lost.

He's patient for you, patient for me. All the insult, all the rebellion against him. He patiently endures it year after year and century after century for you,

perfect sacrifice, patient waiting. Now third, we see a perfect salvation. Verse 14, for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified, those he died for by offering the perfect sacrifice he perfects for all time. He he grants perfect salvation. Is it ours now or is it ours when he comes? Yes. Notice verse 14. He says, those who are beings sanctified, present, participle it. It has an ongoing work to it, it continues, it's ongoing.

But then look back at verse 10, he says, have been sanctified perfect tense. It's noting that it's a complete, it's a finished work. Those purchased by Christ on the cross are being perfected even as we are perfect. That is he has in view the sanctification of those who are already sanctified. We're being set apart even as we have been set apart. We are becoming holy even as we are already holy. The Christian is growing in Christ even as they are already perfect in

Christ

and he shows us this in the quotes from Jeremiah 31 in verses 1617, he says, the Lord puts his law on our hearts and he writes it on our minds. That is he. He sets us free to seek him. That is to be increasingly sanctified, to grow in holiness. It's that great promise from the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 that when the new covenant comes that God will take his law. You remember the law when Moses came down from the mount and he had the two

tablets of stone and it personifies God and says that God with his very own finger, he etches into the stone, the 10 commandments. He gave the law, he emblazoned imprint imprinted upon those stones. His law that Moses came down with and what the new covenant promises is that what comes with Christ and with the spirit is that no longer is it emblazoned upon the stone, but rather he makes our hearts, our minds, the canvas of his engraving

and he engraves upon our minds and our hearts his law so that now it's not just something of outward obedience, it's not just duty, it's also inward delight. Want to obey his law,

a desire do my duty

being sanctified. Being perfected,

set free, seek him, but also note that we are set free before him and this is what is most needed. He has perfected. He has sanctified, he has forgiven.

Remember he's coming to judge, he's coming to judge. Verse 17, quoting again from Jeremiah 31, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds know more doesn't mean that he no longer remembers it.

It means that you are fully forgiven Christ. He no longer holds it to your account in Christ. He no longer sees you as a sinner. He no longer sees you staying fully forgiven, fully free before him. If we're in Christ,

there is therefore now no condemnation. For those who are in Christ Jesus,

notice that it's their sins. It's plural,

not singular, but it's even better than that. As David McWilliams said, not some of the sins of God's people. Not a little of sin, not a few sins, not even most sins. All our sins are eradicated in the sacrifice of Christ. This is perfect salvation.

I've thought about this a lot over the last number of years. The great contrast of the gospel with our current culture, what I attribute mostly to social media. Someone, and you've noticed this over the last 5, 6, 7 years, someone can be at the very heights of our culture. They can be culture, celebrity. They can be the most welcomed at a party, the most celebrated, the the most awe wonderful person. Our culture has to offer everybody just, and then it changes overnight

because of one tweet or one Facebook post or one Instagram post or one old blog comment is brought up. It could be something from 10 years ago. And they went from celebrated to canceled.

Sona non grata.

Thank God that our God is more gracious than our culture. Thank God that our God is more gracious than you, gracious than me. He forgives all,

all for the Christian. There shall never be a day, not now more on judgment day, not in the eternity

where there is something that comes out of the darkness that comes to light that you're held accountable for. They will never be on that judgment day that you are appearing before Christ as judge. And he says, he says, I have forgiven you of every single one of your sins but this one, never,

never be a day when we're made to suffer.

Be a day where you're made to cringe under the weight and the guilt of your sin. Never be a day that it's hurled at you as an accusation. Never be a day

given.

Set free before him.

Over the years have done a fair amount of lot of premarital counseling couples,

many couples that get the great honor of marrying. Uh, and I've sat with a lot of couples, numerous couples, either the bride or the groom has crossed boundaries, a relationship with someone else.

I will at some point say to the fiance, they have you forgiven them. And

I almost always say, have to forgive them.

If that's going to be your husband or that's going to be your wife, you have to forgive them.

And forgiving them means that this never comes back up. It's never used as a weapon. It's never an insult. It's never something you entertain in your mind. It is surely never something that comes across your lips

forgiven. You chose them all forgiven. All forgiven

chose us, right?

Knowing everything you have done and will do

all forgiven.

He never looks at you. He's a stain. He never looks at you and sees a blemish. He's never going to look at you and hurl insult your way. In a word, if we could say it this way, as the writer of Hebrews says it here, when he looks at you as his bride, Jesus, you perfect,

perfect

forgiven. I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

And to bring that full circle, we have to be reminded though that we have this perfect salvation because there was a perfect sacrifice. Our sin as his bride is not simply forgotten. It was not swept under the rug. It was not looked past, paid for. It's paid for by our groom. He so loves us that he takes the weight of the guilt of our sin upon himself, that as our groom, he bears the very wrath and the judgment of his father upon the

cross as our groom. He willingly carries all of that

out of great love for his bride.

He for us, surely he has born our griefs and he has carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him Shri and smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have each turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was made sin

for us so that we might become the very righteousness,

our sin to him, his righteousness, clothing

perfect.

It's at the cross.

It's at the cross that our God is most fully displayed. That is why the cross is the very center of the Christian faith. It's there that you and I get a picture of him like we get nowhere else. It's at the cross that he shines before the world. His holiness, even as he pours out his love, it's at the cross. Whereas holiness which knows no limits and his love, which knows no bounds, that they're both exemplified before all the world and scream out for all

of eternity. Our God is just and he is holy. Our God is loving and he is gracious and merciful forever.

Calvin said it this way, he said at the cross, in a marvelous and divine way, he loved us even when he hated us,

whom I to critique Calvin, but I might say it this way, the cross in a marvelous and divine way. He loved us even when he opposed was opposed to us so that he might no longer oppose us and love us forever and ever.

Remember the context.

These Jewish Christians are tempted, return back to Judaism and they're wrestling with, is Christ really worth this? Is he worth all the suffering that we're going through? Is he really worth waiting upon?

And the answer to the writer of Hebrews is this,

do you not realize that what the law could not do? He did what the Levitical priests and Aaron and all of his descendants could not do. He did what all those bulls and goats and rams could not do. He did. He is the perfect priest that offers a perfect sacrifice that secures for you a perfect salvation,

elite forgiveness,

be worth it. Ah, everything that you can give to him, all your life is worth it.

Close with just two things. Some of you this morning, uh, you are skeptical of this Christian faith room like this are a lot of you. I

wanna be honest with you, you should be skeptical. All kinds of reasons to be skeptical.

As I've alluded to this morning, as I hit hard last week, calling you a sinner, your sinner, that that's offensive. It cause you to be skeptical. But even more than that, that God would become flesh. Really

that's reason to be skeptical. But even harder than that, to think that God, the sovereign God of the universe is offended by sin and that he would sacrifice his own son upon a tree and that he would pour out his wrath upon his own son and that satisfies divine justice.

That probably leaves for some of you really oh, bitter taste in your mouth. That's that seems scandalous.

That seems horrific.

And it is right, absolutely is. I'll tell you a little secret.

Those of you that are wrestling with this and saying no,

this just seems scandalous and savage and horrific and how do you all believe in that?

Every Christian in this room would say to you this secret, once you come to know Christ in a saving way, even becomes more scandalous, even becomes more horrific. But here's what every Christian will also tell you in the room. It becomes the most beautiful thing you've ever seen as well.

It's absolutely scandalous

that God and the person of the Son would become man and that he would die for sinners. Scandalous

is absolutely be.

Here's what I would say to you. If you're wrestling with that this morning, I can't convince you I can't do it. I could give you all kinds of arguments. I can't convince you.

This is what I would say to you this a have a conversation. We call it a prayer as a Christian, but you can call it a conversation and you just say, that's a good way to start it. God, if you even exist, fine. He can handle it big enough. If he exists, he's big enough to handle you saying that God, if you even exist and if this thing about the cross and Jesus dying is true, would you show that to me? Would you show me that? It's beautiful?

That's a good conversation for a skeptic to have

to pray that prayer. The Christian, I'm gonna say this this morning,

want to remind you

summarizing Donald McLeod that our task is not to craft a message that's in keeping with the preconceptions and the plausibility structures of the culture that we live in. It's not your job. It's not my job. We have a much simpler job than trying to make the gospel more palatable.

You and I are ministers and we are ambassadors in this world. And the job is very simple. We are not to make it more palatable. We are just to declare what we have received. What you know you tell. We are heralds, we are ambassadors, we are preachers. And what is the message that we have received? It is Christ and Christ crucified.

And it is the necessary message for this age because it is the necessary message for every age. Keep hoping in the gospel,

keep proclaiming the gospel. Keep clinging to the gospel. Doesn't get outdated

'cause He's a perfect priest who has offered a perfect sacrifice, has given a perfect salvation. There is nothing like it. Keep clinging to it. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you this morning.

You have given us such a great salvation, such a great high priest and savior.

Pray for every person in this room that there would be true wrestling, that you would in your kindness, that you would pour out your grace. Every one of us would know the freedom there is before you of having all our sins forgiven.

And that'd be true of every soul in this room. Pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.