The Gathering Surf City

Whoo. All right.

Wow. Y'all can have a seat.

And that's what it's all
about right there.

Just speak Jesus.

The second priority of this gathering
is that we live Jesus all around

us. So you're going to run into people
that need all the things that song

talks about.

And so which kind of ties right into today's
message because we are still

discussing the object of our faith.

And guess what?

The object of our faith is Jesus.

And so today's message,

really sort of more detailed,

is just Jesus Christ once for all.

So we're going to look at that.

But I got to tell you about something
that didn't make the top four

today. Tonight we have a hymn scene,

meaning that we're going to get together
and open some hymnals,

and it'll be on the wall,

too.

For those of you that forgot
how to use a hymnal,

several years ago,

we did it.

Not several years,

probably last year.

Year before we did a hymn sing and we
put the hymnals out and didn't put

it on the screen.

And somebody said,

I can't see these words because now
we've gotten used to them being

really big.

But tonight we're doing
a hymn sing at 06:00.

At 05:00 we're doing a reception
for Michael and Jenna Morton.

Michael got married on June 1,

and he and Jenna moved
off to Farmville.

And they are.

He said to me this morning
in a text,

he said,

and here you go.

I like this because it sounds
like they're shopping.

He said,

we're going to try a
church this morning.

I was like,

okay. But anyway,

so y'all pray for them,

newly married and all
that sort of thing,

as they try to find where God
wants them to worship.

That's really what they're doing.

They're trying to find worship
and so pray for them.

But tonight at five,

we're doing a reception for them right
here in the welcome center.

And if you want to just bless
them with some kind of gift,

you can drop it off at the welcome
desk this morning.

If you can't be here tonight,

but there'll be a basket,

might be a basket at the welcome
desk this morning.

There is.

So if you want to be a blessing
to Michael and Jenna,

just drop something in the
basket for them and.

Or you can come tonight
and bring it tonight.

And then after that is that parent meeting
for Camp Caraway and a couple

things. We're less than a month
from Camp Caraway now,

and that's the camp where all our first
graders through 8th graders go

off to the Ashburgh area
up at Camp Caraway.

And last I heard,

we were 80 ish and kids.

And we have to take a ratio
of adults with us.

And so we're still.

Today there's supposed
to be a baked sale,

right? It's going on.

There's baked goods out there,

y'all. So don't leave home with.

I mean,

don't leave here without them
and grab you something.

Make a donation to camp.

I will tell you,

we need some guys,

some men who are willing
to go to camp.

And particularly be on the middle
school side of things,

because we just need some
more men to go to camp.

So if you're one of those available
kind of people,

let trudy and Beth know
that you're available.

There you go.

All right.

So I like it where we are now
in the book of Hebrews.

Because now we're getting
down to some summary,

sort of now that the writer of Hebrews
and God by inspiration has made

the case that we get to these
words like sense.

Therefore, however,

those kind of things.

And the translation that we use on Sunday
mornings is the CSB Christian

standard Bible.

And it starts chapter ten with
sense meaning not since,

but since.

The law has only a shadow of the good
things to come and not the reality

itself of those things.

It can never perfect the worshippers
by the same sacrifices they

continually offer year after year.

Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped
being offered since the

worshippers, worshippers,

purified once and for all,

would no longer have any
consciousness of sins.

But in the sacrifices,

there's a reminder of
sins year after year.

For it is impossible for the blood of
bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, as he was coming
into the world,

he said,

you did not desire sacrifice
and offering,

but you prepared a body for me.

You did not delight in whole burnt
offerings and sin offerings.

Then I said,

see, it is written about
me in the scroll.

I have come to do your will,

God.

And after he says above
what he says above,

you did not desire or delight in sacrifices
and burnt sacrifices and

offering whole burnt offerings and
sin offerings which are offered

according to the law.

He then says,

see, I have come to do your will,

he takes away the first to
establish the second.

By this will,

we have been sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ.

Once. Once for all time.

Every priest stands day after day ministering
and offering the same

sacrifices time after time,

which can never take away sins.

But this man,

after offering one sacrifice
for sins forever,

sat down at the right hand of God.

He is now waiting until his enemies
are made his footstool.

For by one offering he has perfected
forever those who are sanctified.

The Holy Spirit also testifies
to us about this.

For after he says,

this is the covenant I will make
with them after those days,

the Lord says,

I will put my laws on their heart
and write them on their minds,

and I will never again remember their
sins and their lawless acts.

Now, where there is forgiveness
of these,

there is no longer an
offering for sin.

So let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for showing
us what's important.

God, we thank you for highlighting
your work through the ages,

going all the way back to the fall,

going all the way back to the promise
of salvation and the Messiah.

And God,

we thank you that we can sit in this room
in 2024 and know you meant this

message for us.

So, God,

help us to not just hear you,

but to listen to you.

And God help us to make
priority in our lives,

those things which are
a priority to you.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right,

so the point of today's message
is pretty straightforward.

Jesus Christ is the final sacrifice.

So we've been looking at it,

and this week,

even in some of the devotional,

I went through the whole
summary of things,

and I'm going to do it really quickly
and really briefly just for the fun

of it,

because I've kind of got
it memorized now.

So Jesus is the point.

All right,

that's kind of what
we're looking at.

But here's what we found
out in Hebrews so far.

God has spoken.

He spoke through prophets
and angels in days past,

but in these last days,

he spoke it through his son,

Jesus. Jesus is the son.

Jesus is the heir of all things.

Jesus is the exact expression
of the essence of God.

He is the radiance of God's glory.

He is the creator of all things.

He is the sustainer of all things.

And as such,

he is the king of kings.

He is the high priest.

Everything about the Old Testament,

the covenant,

the law,

the sacrificial system,

all point us to Jesus.

And so today,

I can preach this message in one,

one statement.

Jesus is the point.

We should be paying attention
to him more.

We can't.

It's not cool to just satisfy ourselves
with a little bit of Jesus.

You see,

we really need to focus our hearts
and our minds on Jesus.

We know from John 316 where it says,

for God so loved us the world,

that he gave his only begotten,

his unique one and only son.

That whoever believes in him
don't have to perish,

but they have everlasting life,

this unique one and only person,

Jesus, you see?

And so he goes back right here
in this bit of a summary.

Since the law is only a shadow of the
good things to come and not the

reality itself of those things,

it can never perfect the worshipers
by the same sacrifices they

continually offer year after year.

So remember that the writer of Hebrews
is writing to a hebrew people who

have given themselves for hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of years to

this system of law and this system of
sacrificial covenant following.

And yes,

we know from the book of Hebrews that
the sacrificial system in the blood

of bulls and goats allowed
God not to see their sin,

but that their sin would be covered for
a time during the old covenant,

is what he says in the
Book of Hebrews.

But it doesn't do the job.

It doesn't perfect for all time.

See, the sacrifice of a bull
isn't good enough.

I mean,

bull's blood.

Now, why does he go into
this right here?

He starts getting really
specific about this.

Otherwise, wouldn't they have
stopped being offered?

Since the worshipers,

purified once for all,

would no longer have any
consciousness of sins?

But in the sacrifices,

there is a reminder of
sins year after year,

for it is impossible for the blood of
bulls and goats to take away sin.

So what's he talking
about right there?

All right,

so every year,

the people had to go to the temple,

and they would go to the temple for
other reasons during the year.

But every year,

the day of atonement,

the sin offering that took place every
year was the reminder that,

guess what?

Your sin stinks.

Okay, can I just go ahead?

And so guess what?

Our sin stinks.

So the remainder,

year after year after year,

was sin is serious,

folks.

And you're gonna drag a cow,

a bull,

a goat or something to the
temple every year as a.

As an act of worship,

as an act of sacrifice to remind
you that your sin stinks.

See? So when I looked at this,

I was like,

all right.

So this idea that they repetitively
did this sacrificial system as a

reminder, it reminded them year
after year of their sin.

And yet God was.

God was accomplishing something
in the levitical law,

in the sacrificial system,

that let them know there was coming a
time when there would be a greater

sacrifice. There would be a sacrifice
that once for all.

And that's why he goes back over here
in verse 16 and quotes Jeremiah 31,

that there would be a new covenant
with a new sacrifice that would,

he would never remember their
sins and their lawless acts.

So everything about the covenant,

the tabernacle,

the levitical law,

the sacrificial system,

all of that points us to Jesus.

And Jesus is the final sacrifice.

So all the other sacrifice was
insufficient sacrifice.

So when he gets to verse five,

he says,

therefore, as he was coming
into the world,

he said,

you did not desire sacrifice
and offering,

but you asked for it.

But that's not what he wanted.

What did he want?

He wanted the heart,

he wanted faith,

he wanted trust.

What God was laying out for us is I'm
going to give you this system to

teach you how to love me,

how to trust me,

how to understand that I
am providing for you,

see? So all of those were
insufficient sacrifices.

And then he says,

but you prepared a body for me.

You did not delight in whole burnt
offerings and sin offerings.

So this comes from psalm,

I think it's psalm 40,

something like that.

But if you read it in the psalm now,

it kind of in the Septuagint and in
later translations it was sort of

reworded a little bit to give a little
different understanding.

And I don't argue with those kind of
things because those people are a

whole lot smarter than I am.

But if you look in the psalm,

the actual translation says,

you bored out an ear for me.

Now right here we read you
prepared a body for me.

So what does it mean?

What was he talking about?

Right there?

All right,

so if God wants us to worship him,

if it,

if it's God's desire for us to
give ourselves over to him,

what do we need to do first?

And what does the very first thing
we learn in Hebrews talk about?

God has spoken and we better listen.

Better clean out your ears so you can
hear what God has asked for and you

can surrender yourself to him.

You see?

So the idea of the ear hearing
is the idea of surrender,

that I'm not just giving my ear,

I'm giving my whole self.

You've prepared a body for me.

You did not delight in the whole burnt
offerings and sin offerings.

And then I said after that,

see, it's written about
me in the scroll.

I have come to do your will.

So these are all psalm,

prophetic passage,

messianic passage that refer to the
kingship of David in one sense,

but it also is the prophecy of Christ's
ultimate kingship and that he

came to accomplish what no one
else could accomplish,

because Jesus is the only begotten.

Jesus is the unique one
and only son of God.

See, King David couldn't
die for our sins.

Neither could the high priests.

Neither could the bulls or the goats
or the pigeons or whatever.

So in verse eight,

when he says after,

he says above,

you did not desire or delight
in sacrifices and offerings,

whole burn offerings and sin offerings
which are offered according to the

law. He then says,

see, I have come to do your will.

He takes away the first to
establish the second.

So the writer of Hebrews is telling
us the first covenant accomplished

what it was supposed to accomplish.

The Old Testament,

the covenant,

the levitical law,

the sacrificial system,

all pointed God's people to
a manger in Bethlehem.

That's what the prophets say,

right? You know,

Bethlehem, Ephrathah,

you're a little bitty place,

but out of you will come one.

So, so God had taken,

taken the broader picture of the exodus
and the tabernacle and the people

and the nation and the levitical
law and the,

the sacrificial system and the high
priest and the blood of bulls and

goats, and he pointed all
to Jesus by this will.

What will?

The will of God.

The statement of God's provision
of salvation.

Remember, a will isn't in effect
until somebody dies.

Got that about a chapter ago.

So who had to die?

We have been sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ

once for all time.

Now, what body are we talking about?

We're talking about the body
you prepared for him,

right?

So when you start cross referencing
these things together,

you see that God is summarizing everything
he did in the Old Testament

and brings it all the way
up to the sacrifice,

the death of his son Jesus.

We look at that.

I mean,

I see it.

I mean,

I grew up with it,

right? I had one of those little picture
bibles when I was in first

grade, Sunday school,

you know,

that showed me Jesus with kids sitting
on his knee and showed me Jesus by

the river or by the water,

and showed me Jesus hanging
out with his disciples.

And showed me,

showed me,

I had the picture of Jesus in the
temple flipping tables over,

right? You see those pictures
in the Bible,

right? And then you get
to that picture where,

where Jesus is carrying the cross.

And then you see the picture
of Jesus on the cross.

And then you see the picture of Jesus
empty tomb and Jesus standing

outside the tomb with Mary
bowed at his feet.

You see?

So you got all this picture image
of what God is pointing to,

which is the sacrifice of his son,

Jesus. He is the abundant sacrifice,

offering the body of Jesus
Christ once for all time.

Now, I told you last week.

There are those who practice the
death of Jesus every Sunday.

You know,

they believe that.

Yeah, every time we go ahead,

I'll say it.

Every time we do communion,

Jesus dies again.

That's what they believe.

See?

So when I look at this,

and this tells me that Jesus
died once for all time,

and then he goes back
to remind us again,

every priest stands day after day,

ministering and offering the same
sacrifices time after time,

which can never take away sin.

But this man,

which, offering one sacrifice
for sins forever,

sat down at the right hand of God.

So remember now,

we've got the idea that Jesus
is not simply king,

but he is also high priest.

And the law said a man
could not be both.

Remember way back,

chapters ago,

we talked about Saul,

who decided to offer
his own sacrifices.

And Samuel walked up and said,

what are you doing?

He said,

well, you were late.

Samuel said,

but it's not your place to
offer the sacrifices.

You know what his punishment was?

He lost the kingdom and died.

Okay? So there is this expectation
and anticipation of obedience.

And Christ,

Jesus, Jesus the Christ is the only
one who has ever been wholly and

completely obedient to
the will of God.

And he is the unique son of God man.

But he also came from God.

He is God.

That's why when it says
back in chapter two,

where it says he is the exact,

or chapter one,

chapter, the exact expression
of the essence of God,

Jesus said,

if you've seen me,

you've seen the father.

I and my father are one.

You know,

there's some people who
can't get past that.

They think it's a math thing.

All right,

one doesn't equal three.

But if you use the word God,

instead of getting hung
up on the math,

he's one God,

which is beyond our understanding.

See? So then we keep reading.

He says,

this man,

after offering the one
sacrifice for sin,

sat down at the right hand of God,

and he's now waiting until his enemies
are made his footstool.

What's he waiting for?

The ultimate victory over sin,

death, Satan and hell.

Anybody here still deal with sin?

Don't raise your hand,

right? Yeah,

we still deal with sin.

We still deal with the self.

Paul's the one who told us.

He said,

I'm killing my old man.

I remember the first time I heard a song
about killing my old man back in

the eighties.

I was like,

oh, that's kind of mean.

I kind of like my daddy,

right?

But what he's talking about is that,

that self within us,

that serves self.

For by one offering,

he has perfected forever,

those who are sanctified,

those who are set apart,

those who have been called out.

The Holy Spirit also testifies
to us about this,

for after he says,

this is the covenant I
will make with them,

this comes out of Jeremiah.

I've already mentioned it.

After those days,

the Lord says,

I will put my laws on,

on their hearts and write
them on their minds,

and I will never again remember their
sins and their lawless acts.

Now, where there is forgiveness
of these,

there's no longer an offering of sin.

So what is the great forgiveness?

I remember having this conversation,

I won't call it an argument,

having this conversation
in seminary one time.

Sometimes in the New Testament,

you see forgiveness of sins,

and you see forgiveness of sin.

What's the great sin that
Christ died for?

Our rebellion,

our rebellion against God.

All the other sins fall under
the idea of rebellion.

So, see,

God has forgiven us,

our rebellion against him while
we were still sinners.

Christ died for us,

so our sin is forgotten.

We have forgiveness,

and you don't do that every year.

You don't do that over
and over again.

You can't work hard enough to earn
it and accomplish it yourself.

So it comes down to Jesus Christ
is the once for all king,

priest, sacrifice,

savior. Now,

my encouragement all of this year,

so far as we've been making
our way through Hebrews,

is we better be paying
attention to Jesus.

We better be focusing our hearts
and our minds on Jesus.

There's a whole lot of
tradition out there.

For instance,

levitical law and the practice
of the sacrifices.

Do you know,

it got to the point where for them
it was not an act of worship,

it's just what we do.

Oh, yeah,

well, we have to take
this sacrifice,

or we have to take this grain,

or we have to take this oil,

or we have to take this animal.

I remember we did a,

I was preaching through John
a couple years ago.

Remember I told you,

I said,

you know,

we got to the place where Jesus washed
the feet of the disciples.

I said,

those were the same feet that walked
down the street where they were

hauling sheep and goats and bulls into
town to take them to the temple to

sacrifice, and Jesus got down
and cleaned those feet,

right? Can you imagine
what it would be like?

You're getting ready to leave home,

up in galilee somewhere,

and you've picked out the sheep
that's the cleanest,

the brightest,

the prettiest,

the most perfect sheep,

and you're going to take him
with you to Jerusalem,

right? You're going to take him
down the road with you.

Your kids are going to
be playing with him.

Probably got a name,

right? You're taking that sheep
down there to do what?

So that you and your family can stand
there while that sheep's throat is

cut.

Kind of points out how serious our sin
is and the sacrifice Jesus made

for that sin.

And we should pay more attention to
Jesus every day of our lives.

Okay, see,

if you don't know Jesus
this morning,

we want you to know Jesus.

I love it that you're here.

We have a great time here
on Topsail island.

And I know there's folks
who come every year.

Thank y'all.

Glad y'all are here.

There's some folks who
come for vacation,

and I say,

come on back.

Cause we vacation all year round.

But here you go.

If you don't take anything out of
this worship hour this morning,

we want you to take Jesus.

Maybe you're a Christian.

Maybe you've trusted Jesus.

You've received the salvation that
God's offered in the shed.

Blood of Jesus.

Maybe, you know,

but. But you're one of those people
that the world crowds your walk.

You know,

Sundays are great.

Cause we're all reminded
on Sunday morning,

but Monday.

Ah. All right,

see, we're supposed to focus.

Pay attention to Jesus,

the friend,

right? Think about him.

Ever send a text to somebody that just
pops into your mind for no reason?

Maybe they're not popping into
your mind for just no reason.

Maybe you're supposed to send
them a note and say,

you know what?

I was thinking about you.

I was praying for you.

Can I pray specifically for you?

Man, you don't know what kind of
conversation that can open up.

See, if you don't know
Jesus this morning,

we want you to know Jesus.

If you're not focused on
Jesus this morning,

we want you to focus on Jesus.

Maybe you want to come be a part
of what God's doing here at the

gathering, because it's kind of fun
and God's doing some really cool

things. We just want you to answer God
this morning as we sing this last

song.

You respond to whatever God
has spoken in your heart.

All right,

I'll be down here at the front to pray
with you if you want to pray,

but you pay more attention
to Jesus than you do me,

please. All right,

let's pray.

God, thank you.

Thank you for your love,

and thank you that you've
loved us first.

God, we want to love you back.

I mean,

we wouldn't be here this morning if
we didn't want to love you back.

So, God,

my prayer this morning would be that
we would focus our hearts and our

minds and our attention on you,

God. That we'd understand the sacrifice
that Jesus made for us.

That, yes,

it was brutal and it was ugly,

and it was.

But it's the reminder that
our sin is serious,

God, when we live our lives in
open rebellion against you,

Father, my prayer would be that this
morning we'd stop and we'd take

notice that you loved us first
and you loved us most,

and you certainly love us the best.

So God,

help us to love you back.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.