Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us for this message from God's Word.
I'll be teaching today from the book of Hebrews in the New Testament,
Hebrews chapter 10. And the title of the message
is, Sins Remembered No More. Sins Remembered No More. What a thought that is. But it's
taken directly from this passage and verse 17 of Hebrews chapter
10. But I'm going to begin reading
at verse 14. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
14. And what the inspired writer
of Hebrews is dealing with here is the glory, the majesty, the
power, and the success, the effective work, effectual work rather,
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his offering for sin, offering himself
on the cross for the sins of his people as their surety. In other words, as the one who
had the debt of all of God's chosen people charged to his
account, the sin debt, and that he went for them as a substitute
under the law of God Scripture says he was made a curse for
them. He went under the curse of the
law of God for the sins of his people charged to him, accounted
to him. We use the word imputed. That's
what the biblical word is. It was imputed to him. That means
that the debt of the sins of his people was put to his account. That's what a surety does. He
stands surety. to pay the debt of another person
who cannot pay that debt. Christ said in the everlasting
covenant of grace, the son of God, he said, put it on my account. And that's why he came to earth.
That's why, that's why God, the son had to come to earth and
be made of a woman, made under the law, as Galatians 4 says,
the word made flesh. You see, who is Jesus Christ?
He is God manifest with us. He is God in human flesh without
sin. And he had to do that. He had
to be both God and man in order to suffer and bleed and die. You know, we talk about the blood
of Christ. The scarlet thread that runs through from Genesis
to Revelation. It's all about the blood. What
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. What does
that blood mean? It means death. The wages of
sin is death. Now I earned my death, but Christ
took my eternal death on himself and he died in my place. That's
the issue. Well, that's what the writer
of Hebrews here is talking about. In verse 14, listen to these
words. Hebrews 10, 14. He says, For
by one offering, the one offering of Jesus Christ of Himself, He,
Christ, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Well,
it was His one offering You see, as contrasted with the old covenant,
animal sacrifices, which could never take away sin, they were
many, many sacrifices. How much blood on Jewish altars
were slain? Well, we couldn't even begin
to measure that. But all of that blood of animals
could never take away sin, the scripture tells us back up earlier
in Hebrews 10. But here's a person, God the
Son incarnate, whose one offering, whose one offering satisfied
the justice of God and brought forth righteousness for His people. You see, we have no righteousness.
Our efforts to obey God cannot make us righteous. Perfect in
God's sight, but by one offering Christ hath perfected. Now that
word perfected means he completed it. He fulfilled it. He ended it. He finished the
work. The Bible says in Romans 10,
4 that Christ is the end of the law, the finishing, the perfection,
the fulfillment of the law for righteousness. to everyone that
believeth. How do I know Christ is my righteousness
before God? I believe in Him. I rest in Him. That's the evidence, you see.
My believing doesn't save me. Christ saved me. I believe in
Him. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which
I've committed. And Hebrews 10, 14 says, for
by one offering He hath perfected forever. This is not a temporary
thing, folks. This is one of those many, many
verses that proves that if you are truly saved by grace, you
can't lose that salvation. That's a false gospel. You see,
anybody who teaches you can lose salvation, they don't know Christ.
He perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, the word
sanctified means they were set apart. Now, who set them apart? Did they do it by walking in
an aisle or getting baptized or turning over a new leaf? No.
God sanctified His people. How did He sanctify them? Well,
the Bible teaches that He sanctified them, set them apart before the
foundation of the world, and gave them to Christ. He chose
them. He chose them. Their names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. So that's
setting apart in divine electing grace. And it was all of grace.
You know, people will tell you, well, God looked down through
the telescope of time and he foresaw what you would do and
all of that. No, no, no. If that's the case,
it's not the election of grace. It's the election of works. Some
will tell you, say, well, here's the election. God votes for you.
The devil votes against you. You cast the deciding vote. That
may sound good, but it's not in this book. That's not what
the Bible says. That's all a lie. That's the
reasonings of man because he can't stand the fact that God
is absolutely sovereign. He wants to have room to boast
in glory. So God chose before the foundation
of the world the election of grace and gave them to Christ.
Now Hebrews 10 14 is talking about sanctification by redemption. They were set apart in Christ
when He died for His people. He's the representative, the
substitute, the surety of His people. When He died, they died
because He died for them. When He was buried, they were
buried because He was buried for them. When He arose again
the third day, they arose with Him because He's their substitute. He did it for them. He's now
seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for Him. And then look at verse 15. Here's the third act of setting
apart. In Hebrews 10, 15 it says, Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. After that, He had said
before, and look at verse 16, This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my
laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them."
Now that's talking about the work of the Holy Spirit in setting
the people of God apart, the ones whom God chose, the ones
whom Christ redeemed on the cross, setting them apart in the new
birth. Regeneration and conversion.
You must be born again. And the Holy Ghost witnesses.
The Holy Spirit comes and He witnesses through the preaching
of the Gospel now. Not through dreams and visions
and feelings and all of that. It's all through the truth. The
truth shall set you free. That's what Christ said. The
Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believes
it. And that covenant he's quoting
there, the writer of Hebrews is quoting there from Jeremiah
chapter 31 where Jeremiah is telling the people of Judah back
then who were about to go into captivity that they can't put
their hopes and their assurances in this earthly land or that
earthly temple. They've got to look to the future,
to the coming of Jesus Christ who is life. And what the Holy
Spirit does As the fruit and the result of the death of Christ
on the cross, His death, burial, and resurrection, He applies
the resurrection life of Christ into the hearts of His people.
God says, I'll put my laws into their hearts. That's His doctrine.
That's the gospel. And into their minds. And then
verse 17, this is where we come to the title of the message.
And here's what God says, and I want you to pay attention to
this. He says, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. And read verse 18, now where
remission of these is, remission means pardon, forgiveness. Where
sins are pardoned and forgiven, there's no more offering for
sin. What offering you say? What can
wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
I want you to think, and think about that. God says here in
this passage, He says their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Now according to the Bible, there
are only two categories of people in this world. There are sinners
lost in their sins and there are secondly sinners saved by
the grace of God. Now these verses here describe
sinners saved by the grace of God. And this is God's Word. And God says of His people, their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now how is
that possible? First of all, the Bible tells
us that God cannot forget because God never changes. Now I'm going
to tell you something. I know that's a mind-boggling
truth, but it's true. Scripture says it. God is immutable. I don't know anything about immutability. That means not being able to
change. Because everything we experience
in ourselves in this world is change. Change all around I see. O thou who changest not, abide
with me. Over in the book of Malachi chapter
3 and verse 6, the Lord says, I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God cannot change. And I don't know how that's possible,
I don't know how to wrap, I can't wrap my mind around it, but I
know it's true, and I'll tell you how I know it's true, because
the word of God says it. So how is it possible that God
can forget. Is that what this is talking
about? When it says there in verse 17, He says, and their
sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. Does that mean
that God's going to forget him? He's going to erase it from his
mind? Well, it doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that at all.
We have to use scriptural rules of interpretation to understand
such things. Listen to me. I know some people
take this as an insult, but they shouldn't. There are times in
the Bible that God talks down to us. You ever get mad at somebody
because they talk down to you? Well, don't ever get mad because
God talks down to you, because God is so high above me and you
that we can't even fathom the depths and the heights. The Apostle Paul, he talked about
that. In the Psalm, such knowledge
is too high for me. In order to communicate with
us in His Word, God has to talk down to us. So, how is this possible? When we see that God says there's
sins and there are iniquities, I will remember no more. I heard a preacher say in a message
that the only way God could do this is because our sins do not
exist. Well, that's not true. Our sins
do exist. My goodness, how could anybody
say they don't exist? Well, he's talking about in the
mind of God, but they do exist. God is well aware of the sins
of his people. And first of all, the greatest
proof of that is of the existence of our sins is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself who stood as surety and substitute of his people
to die for their sins charged to him. Christ was well aware
of their sins. He was not a sinner. and there
was no sin in him, that he knew about it, and he experienced
the suffering unto death for those sins imputed to him. Another
proof is that even as sinners saved by the grace of God, even
as having all my sins forgiven and washed clean by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as a justified person, You know
what a justified person is? A justified person is a person
who is not guilty. A justified person is one who
is righteous before God based upon Christ's righteousness,
imputed, charged. So here I'm standing before God
imputed or charged with the perfect righteousness of his dear son
right now, not later. This is not something that I
work to or attain to. This is something that I am right
now proven by the fact that I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
here's the reality, even as a justified person, I cannot get away from
the plague of the influence of sin in my life. the corruption,
the contamination of sin and everything I think, say, and
do. Paul spoke of that in Romans chapter seven. We cannot even
hold a thought or a motive that is not somehow beset with sin. And then add to this the fact
that the Bible teaches that if we're true believers, if I'm
a true believer, if I'm truly saved, a true child of God, one
who has been born again by the Spirit, then I'm engaged in a
daily struggle, a daily warfare that every true believer goes
through in the constant warfare between the flesh and the Spirit.
And I will not get away from that or be free from that until
I die and my spirit goes to be with the Lord. In other words,
I'll have to put up with this sin matter in me, the flesh,
until I leave this world. And when I leave this world,
then I'll be free from the contamination and the influence and the corruption
of sin. But there's another proof that
our sins do exist, even in the mind of God. In other words,
God is well aware of them. You see, God doesn't just act
as if they don't exist. That would be God acting, fiction,
but he doesn't do that. And it's this, the Bible tells
us that if I'm a believer, my loving heavenly father sometimes
chastises me for my sin. Now we won't go there, but you
can read about that in the book of Hebrews chapter 12. It's called
the chastisement of a loving father. Those whom the Lord loves,
he chastises. That's his people in Christ.
Now that chastisement, people don't understand this, but that
chastisement is never payment, as some say, for sin. Somebody
said, well, you're paying for your sin. Let me tell you something.
We cannot pay for our sin. Those who die in unbelief and
go to eternal damnation do not pay for their sin. And believers
certainly can't pay for it. Christ alone made full payment
to God's justice for all the sins of His people. Chastisement
is correction, discipline, administered by God to teach and preserve
His children by His grace in Christ. So that's what chastisement
is. Now when it comes to those who
live in unbelief, continue in unbelief, and die in unbelief,
those things that happen to them in this life by way of disaster,
sickness, or death, they are manifestations of the wrath of
God upon them, and that's just a foretaste of the eternal wrath
that's coming. But for a child of God in Christ,
they're chastisements of a loving father. They're proof that God
loves me and that I'm His child. But getting back to Hebrews 10,
17, God says that He will remember our sins and our iniquities no
more. What an awesome reality for sinners
saved by grace. But here's the point. When the
Bible says that God will remember the sins of His people no more,
Here's what it means. It means that God will not bring
these sins up again in the way of imputing or charging them
to the account of his people. The psalmist David spoke of this
in Psalm 32 and verse two, when he talked about, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now, just by way
of clarification, what does it mean impute? It means God does
not charge the debt of their sins to them. You see, he says
sins and iniquity here. The word sins in Hebrews 10,
17, that's the most common word for sin in the New Testament.
It means we miss the mark. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. It means we do not measure up.
Iniquity, which is another word for sin, means that it doesn't
balance out. In other words, whatever I do
does not equal righteousness. It always falls short. And if
God, listen, if God were to judge me based upon my best efforts
to keep the law, What would it be? I missed the mark. Perfect
righteousness, you see. You say, but I'm trying my best.
Okay, probably not all the time, but even if you could do your
best all the time, it still would not measure up to perfect righteousness. You see, righteousness can only
be found in one person, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. You see,
he's the measure. So my only hope to stand before
a holy God and not be damned is to be in a position where
my sins are not charged to me. Well, there's only one way that
can happen and God be just to do so. He can't just say, well,
let's forget about it. I'm a merciful God and I don't
want to do this, but no, no, no. God is a just God. He is
mercy, but his mercy can only be found at the mercy seat. That's
Christ. God must be just. And in order
for him, To say, I remember your sins no more, those sins would
have had to have been charged to the Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom it says, for by one offering, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. So when it says, I will remember
their sins and iniquities no more, here's what God is saying.
It doesn't mean he's changed. It doesn't mean he forgot anything.
It means there is no record of the sins of God's children in
heaven against them. That record has been expunged,
it's been purged, not because the sins do not exist, but because
those sins were imputed, charged to Christ. Christ was made sin. for His people, Christ who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And He paid the debt in full with the price of His blood,
for by one offering He hath perfected, He finished it. And therefore
we can say with the Apostle Paul as he was inspired to write in
the book of Romans chapter eight, verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Over in the book of Hebrews
chapter 10, that we're looking at over in verse one, the writer
of Hebrews shows a great contrast between the Law of Moses, under
which Israel remained for 1500 years from Sinai to the cross,
and the greater glory of Christ in the New Covenant. And listen
to what he says in verse 1. He says, for the law, having
a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the
things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect.
The law, and he's mainly referring to the ceremonial law here, but
it's all one unit. But he's talking about the sacrifices,
the animal sacrifices. You know the Day of Atonement,
they brought a lamb. and they sacrificed the lamb
and they shed the blood on the altar, the brazen altar. And
the high priest would take the blood and on the day of atonement,
he would go into the Holy of Holies and he'd sprinkle the
blood on a mercy seat. Now that animal blood, those
sacrifices offered year by year could never make those who came
to the tabernacle perfect. The animal blood could not wash
away sin. Animal blood could not make them
righteous, you see. Look at verse 2. He says, For
then would they not have ceased to be offered, because that the
worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins? Now what does he mean by that?
Well, if that animal blood could have made them perfect, could
have washed away their sins, atoned for their sins, and made
them righteous, then once cleansed, they would have no more conscience.
Now that word conscience has to do with the seed of judgment
within the heart and mind and it has to do with a guilty conscience.
It has to do with a condemned conscience. In other words, when
I look to the blood of Christ and plead the merits of His blood
and righteousness, I see now I'm not condemned. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ. I'm aware of my
sins. I'm conscious of my sin. But my conscience is not condemned
because the Holy Spirit has applied, through the gospel, the blood
of Christ. And then in verse three there
of Hebrews 10, he says, but in those sacrifices, there's a remembrance
again made of sins every year. Remember God said, there's sins
and iniquities, I will remember no more. Well, in that old covenant
law, it was brought up again and again, a remembrance of those
sins. Why? Verse four, because it's
not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away
sin. In other words, that animal blood
couldn't do the work, couldn't pay the debt, couldn't wash away
sin. Well, what do we need? Well, go back to Hebrews 10 and
verse 14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. You see in the book of 1 John
chapter 3 and verse 4, John writes, whosoever committeth sin transgresses
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And
in verse five he says, and you know that he, that he there is
Christ, was manifested, made known, came to this earth to
do what? To take away our sins, the sins of his people. And in
him, as we stand in Christ, there is no sin charged. I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.