Full Forgiveness

Jesus is greater than the angels, prophets, and priests, and the new covenant he establishes is far superior. While the old covenant required continual sacrifices, Jesus offered himself once and for all to make us right with God. Yet we often live in a cycle of trying to pay for our own sin, carrying guilt and shame that Jesus has already dealt with. Do you believe that your sin is fully forgiven?

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Good morning, everybody. My name is James, one of the pastors here. Uh, if you were here last week, I'm the guy that would learn how to do a cartwheel for the first time a couple weeks ago. Uh yeah, I shaved my head because it was messing up my cartwheels. And uh no, I'm just kidding. Some of you are brand new and you're like, this guy is super weird. Welcome. Uh I am super weird, but I'm excited to be with you. And uh we're gonna be in Hebrews chapter 8, if you have a Bible, so encourage you to turn there, join me there. Uh yeah, it's gonna be a good one. I want to give you a quick uh just sort of disclaimer that we're gonna be covering a lot of ground today when it comes to scripture. So the the hope is that we're gonna find ourselves somewhere around halfway through chapter 10, which means we've got a lot to cover. Uh, if you've been with us during this series, we've been going through the book of Hebrews, and the main theme of the book is that Jesus is better, that he's greater, greater than Moses, greater than the angels, greater than prophets, greater than the Levitical priests, greater in uh the covenant system, just better, greater, right? In short. And so we're kind of coming into the tail end of uh the main meat of that idea. And so there's going to be just a lot of comparison of explaining, you know, how they were doing things and why Jesus is superior in some way or fashion. So it's going to be Jesus is greater than uh the temple or the tabernacles that they were worshiping in. Jesus is a greater sacrifice than the sacrifices that they were sacrificing, greater than the high priest. Like it just is a little bit repetitive, you know, it's a lot. And I also understand, too, uh, as a little disclaimer, that none of us in here were maybe contemplating going back to sacrificing goats and bulls. And so that's kind of what he's addressing right now. And you're like, man, I just really wasn't battling that this morning, you know. You were trying to navigate, you know, just getting the family out the door, right? And you maybe want to sacrifice one of those people, but you weren't going to sacrifice a goat or a bull. So uh I understand context might be, you know, a little bit, a little bit of a bridge to to build, but uh it's gonna be good, and there's a lot of stuff that uh is worth being reminded of and learning. So, like I said, it's written to those that are contemplating going back to the old covenant to Judaism, and so we get in Hebrews chapter 8, uh, again this explanation of how Jesus is better. It says, Now the point in what we are saying is this we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven. Remember that part shows up at the end of our of our time. A minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. Like I said, there is going to be this comparison back and forth. The high priest would go and they would make offerings, and so they're saying that the offering that Christ brings is better. The place in which Christ it mediates between us and God is better. They would mediate in these earthly man-made temples and tabernacles, and they, according to the scripture here, they were a shadow, they were a copy of what Christ is going to do. That Christ will mediate for us, but not in a temple or a tabernacle, but in the presence of God, that He's one who's seated in the right hand on the throne of majesty in heaven, and he is the one who makes us right with God, but not through an earthly tabernacle. One that is in heaven uh with God the Father. So it is a copy, and so what it's saying is that it's not that what they were doing was wrong or was bad, it was merely pointing a picture to what Jesus was going to do. So, but Jesus did it better. So there was Levitical priests, Jesus is our high priest, they served for a temporary time, Jesus is permanent and eternal. They had to make these sacrifices daily and even annually, specific ones. Jesus comes and he brings one sacrifice. They they offered up animals, he offered up himself, they entered into an earthly tabernacle, Jesus has a heavenly tabernacle, right? So the comparison is going on through these pages that he is superior. I want to make a quick note that this idea that they serve as a copy or a shadow, right? It's a it's not that the Old Testament is something that needs to be, you know, cut the book in half and throw it away. The whole purpose of it was that there would be a picture of what's to come, that that we would have a high priest. And yes, they have a man priest, right, that's serving the role of providing sacrifices and offerings for the people, but it's a picture of a need for Jesus who will come and do that role. And so the Old Testament serves as a great picture to remind us that man, sin is real, we fall short, we need a savior, we need covering, we need something to make us right with God, but it's just a preview of the work of Jesus. It serves to point you to Jesus, the need for him. We have thousands of years of human history where they don't have Jesus and they need him. And the sacrifices are a great picture of that, but it truly is a copy or a shadow or a preview. Uh, I think of a movie, right? When we watch a preview, it it tells us a little bit of the story of what's going to happen, but it doesn't tell us the best jokes, doesn't tell us the change, the you know, the big climax and change at the end of the story. It just simply points to the movie itself. But nobody, right, gathers around with their family, watches the movie and says, you know what we should do now? Let's go back and watch the preview again, right? You watch a preview one time and then it's over. You'll never see it again, you'll you'll never watch it again because you've watched then the movie. And so the author is pleading with them, you're going back to the preview. You're going back to the desire to make these short-term sacrifices, to do these offerings when we have that which is much greater, the actual thing that it's pointing to, the person of Christ. We got a lot of passages cover, so we're gonna have to go faster than that. Um, uh but as it is, let's see, he mediates since there's better, since there's better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. But there was a need for us to look for a second. The Lord himself finds fault with them when he says, finds fault in it. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out to the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. Right, this new covenant will be one of true mind and heart transformation, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall not teach each one each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. What a beautiful promise he has here. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete, and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. What a beautiful promise there, right? That at a certain point this new covenant will be one where they're mer he's merciful towards their iniquities, that he won't remember their sins no more. And you got to think for an audience where they're wanting to revert back to making sacrifice. Their sin is always in front of them, they're always remembering their iniquities and shortcomings. They're sacrificing a goat and a bull every other weekend. They have a high priest who's going and having to make sacrifices even for himself. And so they're continually gathering around this idea that we've sinned and fallen short. And so, what great news for us to now be in this new covenant where God says, I will not remember your sins anymore. You will not be, that will not be your main identity anymore, is the sins that you've committed. You will be made new. Like I said, I know that many of us here did not wake up thinking we should sacrifice a bull today. I'm aware of that. But I do believe that many of us we keep our sin ever present on our minds. It's always in front of us. We're marked, and and we feel as though our identity is the guilt and the shame and the embarrassment of it, that our sin will always define us, that that's the thing that we need to remember day in and day out is where we've messed up. We're marked by hiding and faking it and trying to trying to achieve, trying to be enough, trying to break free from it. And this new covenant is one not where we make sacrifice, but he shows his mercy towards us. Man, do I gotta go faster? Ver chapter nine. Now, even the first covenant had regulations for worship, and an earthly place of holiness, a tent, was prepared. The first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of presence, it is called the holy place. This is where they would go, right, to make sacrifices, this tabernacle, this tent. But behind that was a second curtain, and was a second section called the most holy place, or the holy of holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat of these things. We cannot now speak in detail. Amen. Uh, but these preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties. But into the second, only the high priest goes, only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, and he, but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic of the present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. The author of Hebrews is telling us that they would go and they would make these sacrifices and they would do these things, but ultimately there was a barrier between them and God that only the high priest could go, and even he was making sacrifices for his own sins and the unintentional sins of other people. But ultimately, these sacrifices offered, they couldn't change the soul. They couldn't make them new, they couldn't renew them. In fact, that's why they had to keep going and making sacrifice. Their conscience could not be made new, but it could only deal with the outward washing, the ceremonial cleanliness, it could make it to where they're outside religiously, they were clean. Because if it would have, they would have solved it by now. But in contrast, right? Verse 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, one not made with hands that is not of this creation, he entered once and for all into the holy places, right? So how often did they enter to the holy place? Regularly, daily, annually. But Christ went once and for all, not by means of the blood of goats or calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Amen. Christ is that picture of a high priest who goes into the Holy of Holies, who's going to make sacrifice for all of the other people. And he walks in there and he has no goat, he has no bull, and instead he lays himself on the altar and sacrifices himself on behalf of the people. And this sacrifice won't be done annually, won't be done daily, but it's done once and once and for all. And the the results of it is not that we would now be ceremonially clean, but that we would actually be redeemed. We'd actually be secure when it comes to the soul level with an internal redemption. The author carries on that there's great power, right, of the old ways, that they would take the ashes of a heifer and the blood of goats, and they would sprinkle it on them, and they would make them pure for when it comes to their flesh. But how much more, verse 14, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? The author wants it to be so abundantly clear that human beings, we've tried, we've tried to sacrifice enough, we've tried to be good enough, and there is nothing that you and I can do that will make us now right with God. There is but one sacrifice, there is just one mediator, and that is Jesus. Because he's the only one who's pure, who's holy, who gave himself up for us, that our souls can actually be transformed. And I believe that we need to hear this because we do try to pay for our sins. We try to do it all the time. We're gonna start praying so that we could get God's favor. Can I tell you that you already have God's favor? He died for you. Yeah, but if I pray, then he's gonna love me. You don't pray so that he loves you, he already loves you, hence why you talk to him. I'm gonna read my Bible because then God will be good to me. God has already been good to you. That's why you read it. Because he wants to talk to you and have a relationship with you. I'm going to give of my money and my resources, not so that you can buy God's favor, but because he's already blessed you with everything you own. He's given himself up. And so you're like, okay, I'll be generous. I'm gonna care for the other people around me. But we think, oh man, God needs his tax money. God doesn't need your money. We think I some of you, if you if you've sinned enough, you believe that you need to go serve in kids' ministry to just pay for those sins. Right? Some of you are here because you're like, I I need God to love me. So I came here today. You got so much sin, you're like, well, I don't know what else to do, but I better go to church. And I hope the walls don't fall in on me, and I hope I don't get struck by lightning, right? I I hear this stuff all the time. We use this language where we have to do something. We need to go to church, we need to give, we need to read, we need to pray, we need to serve in kids' ministry. That way, God will love us. And this whole book is telling you that your sin is so bad, there's nothing you can do about that. And all of those things that are encouraged, pray, read, give, serve, love, is not because so that we can get the favor, it's because we've already received God's favor. It's because he's already done the work of saving your soul. He loves you whether you came here today or not. Well, that's really bad for a pastor to say. But we come here because he loves us. God loves you. He died for you. And for everybody in this room, unless you're a couple thousand years old, he died for you before you were even born. On your worst day, he still loves you. He goes. Died for that. Died for that. Your most embarrassing moment, died for that. Paid it for that. Paid it in full. And so many of us in here, we feel that we need to pay the price for our sins, and so we're gonna pray, we're gonna read, we're gonna give, we're gonna serve, and then if that doesn't work, we're gonna pay it with penance, with guilt and shame and hiding and embarrassment, and it's gonna become our identity. Whether you feel guilty or not, that doesn't change the standing. Continually bearing the burden of guilt and shame for something that Christ already paid for, you're rejecting the work that he did. Do you believe that he died for you? Do you believe that he loves you? Then walk in that freedom. And it's paid for. So are you saying we just carry on and go and sin some more? No, not at all. Who receives an incredible gift and says, Alright, I'm gonna abuse this and take advantage of it? In fact, we go and sin no more because of the grace that we've received. Again, we just we get it so backwards and we get it skewed that I need to do things that I might gain God's favor. And I guess what this is saying is for thousands of years people have tried. The first covenant tried. You don't think that after their sacrifice of that that bull or their goat, they're like, we are not gonna sin again. And let's be real, we've all done this. God, I'm gonna pray this prayer, and after this prayer, I am done with that sin. Don't act like you guys are giving me this blank stare right now, this this stupid blank stare on your face, like you've never prayed that prayer. And some of you are more offended that I said stupid than anything else right now. Okay, get over it. You have this at it, we have this idea that I'm not gonna sin anymore. I I won't ever do this. God, if you provide in this way, I won't ever do this. I wonder how many times did they make that sacrifice? Did they go to that thing and they're like, this is the last year we're doing the Day of Atonement. This is the last time, especially for the priests. This is the last time we gotta pay for our own sins. We are not gonna sin anymore. Something tells me that they still found themselves next year doing the same exact thing. And for thousands of years, we've been trying to pay our way, trying to do enough, trying to muster up enough. And the truth is we need a mediator. We need somebody who takes the penalty for us. We need somebody that's going to make us right. Verse 15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised, uh, the promised eternal inheritance. Since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law has been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in the worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifice than these, for Christ is entered into entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf, nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own. For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once and for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment 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 eagerly waiting for him. Man do I hope to be in that second category. Amen Jesus is the mediator of this new covenant and you kind of get this language that comes up over and over again it's it's once and for all it's it's an eternal one it's it's in the holy place it's it's it's better it's superior. It's this competed uh you know compare and contrasting of the old ways chapter 10 though sort of gives us the so what for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the 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 read that one again our sacrifices can never the ones that we offer continually every year it cannot make us perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers once having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness for sins of sins. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently when Christ 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 for me of me in the scroll of the book 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 then he added 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 and for all 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 he sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet I know I just read a lot Christ's work is completed. He's seated which is again a sign of completion at the right hand of God through one sacrifice for all time for all man to to to draw near and to be a recipient of that grace there's nothing we can do to add to it nothing we can do to earn extra favor with it he's done all the heavy lifting and so what that means is that when God looks at you and me doesn't look at you the same way your your friends look at you doesn't look at you the same way your spouse looks at you doesn't look at you the same way your coworkers look at you he looks at you as though he's looking at his son you and I have the standing with God that only comes from Jesus Christ. We've gained the same standing as him if I could to just drive this point home for somebody who needs to hear this Colossians 2 13 and you who are dead in your trespasses that's all of us in the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him this is the greatest news for all of human history that we are not under the law that we are not redeemed by the works of our own flesh but that Christ has made us new and so what so so what is the the end result of that church do we live in that reality do you do are you saved for all of eternity but you came in here and you just got a scowl on your face like does your face know that you've been saved for all eternity by the works of Jesus is it evident right that that like do you can you just take a deep breath and just enjoy that you are the recipient of the greatest grace and sacrifice ever made for me it puts into perspective like man I gotta I gotta relax when it comes to how I treat people I got to relax the the things that I worry about the things that I stress about I gotta I gotta relax there's just this this tension that's just built up over life for no reason Jesus saved my soul and for all eternity I am made right with God because of him and he did it before I was born and there's days where where I get to be in the presence of Jesus be in the presence of my savior and the God of the universe and I get to just enjoy the work that somebody else did. That's a relief in our world of striving and achieving and trying to be enough trying to get the awards trying to get the out of boys we cannot even compete in this competition and yet we just won it and you're like that's not fair I want to earn it you can't you don't have enough money you don't have enough good deeds you don't have a mediator so in that I'm just man I should have a lot more joy in my life you know I should just appreciate him all that much more as we wrap up our time we've just read in like four different ways how Christ has paid the price for our sins right looking at it in every different angle and it doesn't make sense for us to read that and then not take the time to just slow down breathe and remember the incredible work of Christ there's a lot of different focuses and emphasis we could put on these elements and how we want to partake in them but man I would love if you're somebody who just you need to take a deep breath and and remember Jesus and and feel that freedom I would love for us to just slow down partake of this and just leave the guilt and the shame and the earning and the striving leave it where it belongs which is nailed onto the cross don't walk out the doors with the same same burden give it to the one who will happily take it who has taken it in uh Mark's gospel when Jesus is crucified you know he cries my God my god why have you forsaken me and they offer him wine to drink and he you know he utters his last breath and and and in verse 38 of Mark 15 it says and the curtain of the temple was torn into that curtain that the access to God everything we just read in Hebrews the the the the dividers and and the priest and and who has access to God and who doesn't having to make sacrifice the curtain of the temple was torn into as Jesus was crucified and the specific detail that it makes sure to include is from top to bottom because at the bottom of this curtain somebody might be able to tear. But when it tears from top to bottom it's God that has torn back the curtain through the sacrifice of Christ that we might be made right that we might now have access that we might now be the recipients of an incredible grace. And so for all of you strivers all of you workers all of you who just want to heap on guilt and shame as a form of penance you didn't tear down this curtain Christ tore it down top to bottom that you might experience true freedom and true life so let's pray let's partake of these elements and remember that sacrifice Lord we thank you for your body that was broken on our behalf Jesus we we take these elements not lightly and Lord I just want to say thank you thank you for the forgiveness of my sins thank you that my identity is not my worst day is not the dumb things I've said my identity is not is not the worst of me my identity is found in you God I thank you for your body that was crushed I thank you that I'm not trying to cover myself up Jesus we we just lay down our sins we hand them over to you and ask for your grace and mercy God we pray that your body wouldn't be crushed in vain but it would be exactly what it is a a payment on our behalf so Jesus we partake of this just in remembrance of you to honor you to celebrate you let's partake Lord your word is abundantly clear that the blood that was shed by you from you is what washes over us and makes us new transforms us changes our standing and so Lord we thank you for every drop of it I thank you that this sacrifice is once and for all I pray that we would own that we would live in that Jesus we thank you that we partake of this together Lord I pray for just a joy in our life because of the freedom that we have Lord would we celebrate you would our would our day not be dictated based off of the success of our sport team but the victory we have in you God I pray that the are the joys of our day wouldn't be determined by our financial standing that our joy wouldn't be determined by the attitudes of other people God would our joy be rooted and founded and placed in something that is never changing and that is the perfect good work of our high priest who died on our behalf Jesus give us joy let us live in this let us enjoy this we pray all this in your name amen