Move Over Clarence Darrow
Hebrews 8:1-13
Intro: We have heard a lot about trials in the past few weeks haven’t we? We had the Jodi Arias trial where this woman was convicted of brutally killing her boyfriend. We had the Gosnell trial where a doctor was convicted of murdering three children in the abortion clinic that he operated. After their convictions, it seems that there lawyers have now tuned into negotiators or mediators for their lives. As I prepare this sermon Dr. Gosnell was spared the death penalty through the mediation of his lawyer that he cannot appeal his conviction. The jury is still out as they say in the arias trial.
. As I read and studied our scripture this morning it lead me to understand that this is what Jesus is doing for us right now.
. The lawyers or mediators would love to negotiate their clients off of death row. That is their goal now that they have been found guilty.
. In our scripture this morning, that is what Jesus is doing right now.
. We all have been found guilty of sin. Judgment has already been passed on all mankind.
. Romans 5:12 says this:
. 12When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
. All mankind has been found guilty and is now on death row
.
. Here mankind sits and the only way man can avoid death is to get a pardon.
. In 1830, a man named George Wilson was convicted of killing a government employee while robbing the U.S. Mail. He was tried and sentenced to be hanged. Andrew Jackson, then President, issued a pardon for Wilson, but Wilson did a strange thing: he refused to accept the pardon and no one seemed to know what to do.
. What must that warden have said when his delivery was rejected? I imagine it was something like, “Pardon me? You don’t want the President to pardon you?”
. The matter went all the way to the Supreme Court…to Chief Justice Marshall, perhaps one of the greatest Chief Justices we ever had, and he concluded that Wilson must be executed. “A pardon is a slip of paper,” wrote Marshall, “the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.” And he was.
. This is what our scripture teaches us this morning. It teaches us what this pardon is and how it will affect our lives.
. Jesus, our mediator, our attorney is doing His job in Heaven right now.
.He is providing a pardon for all because they have been found guilty and are deserving death.
. We are back in Hebrews this morning
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. Hebrews chapter 8
. 1Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.
2There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.
3And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too.
4If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law.
5They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”
6But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
7If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.
8But when God found fault with the people, he said:
“The day is coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
9This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant,
so I turned my back on them, says the LORD.
10But this is the new covenant I will make
with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
11And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD. ‘For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already.
12And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”
13When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
. The writer of Hebrews has spent the first seven chapters explaining to the Jewish people the divinity of Jesus and why He was replacing all the old system that they had been living under.
. He says in verse one that here is the main point that I want to get across to you.
. Our high priest Jesus is now in Heaven and he has performed the duty of what is required of the High Priest.
. He has made the sacrifice that is necessary for the forgiveness of sin.
. Over in verse 6 we see this laid out for us.
. 6But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
. As I said earlier, Jesus is our mediator the one who arranges the pardon for mankind through what the writer calls the New Covenant.
. Now a covenant is basically a contract. A promise. God made a covenant with Noah and the entire world when He promised to never destroy life on earth by a flood again. He made a covenant with Abraham as we have seen in our Bible series on Sunday night. Some covenants are conditional and some are not.
. The old covenant that the writer of Hebrews is talking about is the covenant that God made with the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.
. That’s the one where God told them that if they would serve and worship only Him and if they would obey his laws, the Ten Commandments, that He would bless and protect them.
. We all know how that worked out don’t we.
. They didn’t live up to their end of the covenant so God took his hand of protection off of them.
. The writer of Hebrews is quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34 where the prophet told the people that they could expect a new covenant.
. A new way is coming. A new covenant was coming.
. The writer of Hebrews is telling them that the new covenant came with Jesus Christ.
. Vs 10 says: 10But this is the new covenant I will make
with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
. Instead of laws written on a stone tablet with external commandments, God will look at our hearts. He will change us from the inside out verses the outside in.
. Verse 12 is what this new covenant is really all about.
. Look at verse 12 with me
. 12And I will forgive their wickedness,
and I will never again remember their sins.”
. With the old covenant sins could be forgiven but that was done yearly through the sacrificial system.
. It was done all the time.
. The new covenant though is a onetime only sacrifice for sin and God will no longer remember the sins of the people.
. Jesus ushered in this new covenant with his sacrificial death on the cross.
. No longer will man need to sacrifice animals for the forgiveness of sin.
. Jesus did that when He offered himself for our sins and died on the cross.
. God is now a God who forgets. He can no longer see our sin because the blood of the sacrifice, the blood of Jesus Christ covers them and makes them invisible.
. Jesus has mediated a pardon for our sin.
. We are still guilty of our sin, but we have been pardoned in this new covenant by what Jesus did to mediate for us.
. Sometimes people get confused as to what a pardon is.
. A pardon is forgiveness for the offense.
. We hear all the time about presidential pardons, especially in the last weeks of their presidency.
. When they pardon someone, they are set free and are no longer held responsible for their offense.
. That’s what the pardon that we get through Jesus Christ is. We are set free from our sin and are no longer held responsible for them.
. He is our mediator.
. He looks at the Father and says I know that they are all sinners and I know that they all deserve death but I died for them.
. I shed my blood so that they would no longer have to shed the blood of animals for the remission of sin.
. They deserve a full pardon. God grants us that pardon.
.That’s what a pardon is folks.
. Let me take a minute here and share with you what a pardon is not:
. A pardon is not penance. There is no penance in a pardon.
. Deciding to turn over a new leaf, or saying, "I’ll not do it anymore," will not get the prisoner out of jail. Many are laying aside their evil deeds and striving to live better lives. Some have already sown their wild oats, and now they feel that good, moral living will get them through the gate of Heaven.
.Penance is trying to reform, or trying to make up for sin, by doing good. The rich man pays the bills of the church to get God to overlook his sins. The society woman serves on all the committees and labors long to try to repay her evil acts in former days. But, this is the work of the flesh.
. A man with a nagging secret was unable to keep it any longer and he went to the priest to confess his sin. He admitted that for years he had been stealing building supplies from the lumberyard where he worked. “How much lumber did you take?” the priest asked. “I took enough to build my home and enough for my son’s house. Then I took enough to build houses for my two daughters. Oh, and our cottage at the lake.” “This is a very serious offense,” the priest said. “I’ll have to think of a far-reaching penance. Have you ever considered doing a retreat?” “No, Father, I never have,” the man replied. “But if you can get the plans, I can get the lumber.”
. Some of our friends believe that our pardon is contingent upon our penance.
. Folks once were pardoned, we are pardoned. There is no penance required.
. You cannot do enough to earn your pardon.
. The pardon is given freely and we must accept it freely.
. We need to realize also that pardon is not parole. The pardoned man is free, while the paroled man is under conditions.
If the man who is on parole gets into any trouble at all, he must go back and serve the original sentence. To be pardoned suggests that all guilt is stricken from the record. A cloak of innocence is given to the pardoned man.
Many today believe that the child of God is on a conditional parole. They accept that we have been made free by our Substitute, but they declare that if we do not hold out, we will be taken back to judgment and end up paying the penalty in Hell.
.Folks salvation is not you holding out, its God holding on!
Folks, God’s pardon is eternal and the man who realizes that lives for God, but only because of his thankfulness. The guilty man is not just released; he is transformed into a Christian.
Lastly, notice that pardon is not payment.
When a man has served out his sentence and released, there is no pardon involved. If he pays his fine and goes free, there is no need for mercy or pardon.
. Man does not have enough money to pay the fine. It would take eternity to serve out the sentence! The only hope is a full pardon.
. The apostle John writes in 8:36: 36So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
. Jesus is the mediator that between man and God, providing a pardon for all who believe in Him.
. Let’s go back to the story about the man refusing the pardon that the president offered.
. Many people thought him to be crazy not to accept the pardon that was offered to him.
. Perhaps you even thought he was crazy.
. If that is so, then why do people on a daily basis reject the pardon that is offered through the new covenant of Jesus Christ?
. The pardon is there, it has been offered. You must accept this pardon for it to be effective.
. Have you accepted the pardon for your sin that Jesus offers?
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Pardon Me, Jerry Shirley,( sermon central )
