A Glorious Salvation

So we continue in our study on the book of Hebrews and we're in chapter 9 and we need to start with verse 11 but let's start reading from verse 6 to remind ourselves of where we've been. So Hebrews chapter 9 reading from 6 through 22. Now when these things had been thus prepared the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the services but into the second part the high priest went alone once a year not without blood which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience concerned only with foods and drinks various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of the Reformation. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come of the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation not with the blood of goats and cows but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God and for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgression under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance for where there is a testament there must also of necessity be the death of the testator for a testament is enforced after men are dead since it has no power at all while the testator lives therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law he took the blood of calves and goats with water scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying this is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry and according to the law almost all things are purified with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission and so we have seen how that he gives us the picture of the old tabernacle last time we looked at that the outer court the holy place the holiest of all the outer court having the labor and the altar of sacrifice the holy place having the lampstand on the left and in front of you the altar of say of incense and on the right hand side the table of showbread and in the veil that separated between the holy place and the holiest of all the holiest of all having the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat and the angels or the cherubim that covered over the top and so he's he's using this as an illustration of of what we have that these are a shadow or a picture of the reality which belongs to us in the New Testament and so you remember that all along he's comparing the priesthood in the Old Testament to the priesthood in the New Testament he's comparing the sacrifices of the Old Testament to the sacrifice of Jesus in the New Testament the blood of the animals in the Old Testament the blood of Jesus in the New Testament so now in verse 11 he says but Christ came as high priest of good of the good things to come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation and so those things looked to the past what Jesus does looks to the future the good things to come the perfect tabernacle now remember the word tabernacle means a dwelling place a place of habitation and the tabernacle was the place where God met with man and because there were these two sections there was the holiest of all which is where God dwelt and then the holy place where the priests functioned and there was no overlap between the two the veil separating between the two the high priest alone was able to go into the holiest of all once a year and we're going to speak about that in a few moments and so he is saying then that he is what Jesus has done has to do with a more perfect tabernacle a more perfect tabernacle now as I've said before I don't believe that there is a tabernacle in heaven that there is a tent with an altar court and a holy place and a holiest of all he's simply speaking about the presence of God the difference between the Old Testament tabernacle and what we have and what we're looking forward to is that there is no veil that separates between the priests remembering that we are all priests and the presence of God that we know when Jesus died the veil was was rent and so we now have access directly into the presence of God Israel dwelt in tents they would come and meet with God in the holy place God would remain secluded in the holiest of all but what we are looking forward to is a place with no segregation where we are in his presence all the time not in heaven where we you know we talk about the mansions and so maybe we think well I'm going to live in a mansion over there and and God's going to be over there no we're going to be in his presence continually we're going to be in his very presence and so what they had in the Old Testament was a very weak as Paul says in the book of Galatians we can beggar the element it was something that was simply a bad picture of a glorious reality and a glorious truth and so what Jesus has come to do is he is not a high priest after the order of Melchizedek after the order of Aaron so he is not serving in an earthly tabernacle but Jesus is serving in heaven itself and so we have we have a greater and a more perfect a more complete tabernacle not made with hands not made not of this creation so he's talking about heaven itself now not with the blood of bulls the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption now he's going to speak a lot about blood in these next few verses and there are some Christians that have questions about blood and obviously unbelievers have a big problem of saying well this is a a bloody religion this is just all gory and and yet all of this blood points to the perfect sacrifice that Jesus would would bring remember that the blood in itself is in a sense ineffectual I want us to be very careful here because there's a doctrine going around that says the blood is nothing the blood is something the blood is important but the blood without the death of the of the sacrifice is of no value so so so Jesus could not go to the cross and they would maybe cut his veins and take some blood out of him and then patch him up again and and and so this is sufficient his blood is now going to wash us away the blood clearly speaks about the death of the sacrifice you can't have the blood as it is used in the sacrificial system without the death of the animal or the death of Jesus Christ in this case and so the the blood speaks of a of a violent death it's an unnatural death when we die of old age or we die of some kind of disease generally there's not there's not blood we just die and and yet when someone is murdered there is the shedding of blood and so blood in the Old Testament that speaks of two things the one is of the victim in the case of murder and on the other hand of the sacrifice who then is killed in order to atone for the sins of the people or of the person himself and so the the priests in the Old Testament came with the blood of calves and of goats but Jesus comes with his own blood and and I think that we get used to this idea we get used to singing about the blood and and speaking about the blood that it becomes commonplace in our thinking and and yet at the same time this is a this is the the precious blood I think it's Peter who says that we've not been redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold but with these with a precious blood of the Lord Jesus and so his blood is precious because it is the Son of God who they're just for the unjust the righteous dying in our place and so with his own blood he entered the most holy place the priests in the Old Testament the high priest would go in once a year on the Day of Atonement as we've seen and he would go into the holiest of all with a basin of blood and he would sprinkle the mercy seat and the the Ark of the Covenant and he would make atonement for the people but the blood that he would be bringing would be the blood of an animal would be the blood of a bull and of a goat that would be killed but Jesus doesn't bring something else's blood he brings his own blood and so with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all he has another theme that we're going to see in the next a couple of chapters particularly in chapter 10 in Hebrews and that is this idea of a once-for-all sacrifice the idea that the sacrifices in the Old Testament could never make them perfect and so they had to continually make sacrifice and continually shed blood but that that blood could not remove sin it could cover sin for a period and you remember that earlier on in the chapter he spoke about spoke about the sin that was in verse 7 but into the second part the high priest went alone once a year not without blood which he offered for himself and for the people sins committed in ignorance and so there was sacrifice for sins committed in ignorance but there was no sacrifice for willful sin in the Old Testament there is no provision made for it whatsoever and so this is the heart of Isaiah of Psalm 51 remember when David takes another man's wife and he kills that man there is no sacrifice that would deal with that sin because it was willful sin all he could do in Psalm 51 is throw himself upon the mercy of God and say God just be merciful to me because because sacrifice could only deal now the blood of Jesus is able to deal with willful sin as well now unfortunately that gives us sometimes permission or license to continue in sin and Paul deals with us in Romans 8 and he says should we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid and so we are in a very privileged position in that there is no sin that cannot be dealt with by the blood of the Lord Jesus whereas in the Old Testament there were sins that could not be dealt with because it was willful sin the other problem is that the sacrifice in the Old Testament was simply retroactive in other words when the high priest came on the Day of Atonement he would make sacrifice for the sins that were done in that year but the moment he came out of the presence of God people were already sinning again and so there was no they would not have to wait that sin would now be adding up in in God's books until the next year or until the next time they make a sacrifice Jesus's sacrifice deals with past and with future sin and so his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all no need for a continual sacrifice having obtained eternal redemption not temporary the whole problem with the Old Testament as we've seen or the Old Testament sacrificial system was that it was temporary it was all a bookmark or a place marker for the cross none of those sins could finally or fully deal with sin it could cover sin until the final sacrifice came until Jesus came and made that final sacrifice and so that sent that that is a redemption you couldn't even really speak of redemption but that forgiveness that was that was bought by the blood of bulls and of goats and of of animals in the Old Testament was temporary what Jesus has done is eternal there is there is never going to be need for another sacrifice there is never going to be another sin that can be invented and of course man is very inventive when it comes to sin designing all kinds of new ways of of sinning and yet all of that it can be washed away by the blood of the Lord Jesus now verse 13 he says for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh so all this could do was purify the flesh he is saying how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works you see the sacrifices in the Old Testament could not deal with conscience because as we've said over and over they could only cover sin for a while they could not remove that sin and and yet Jesus comes and he is able to remove the sin and by removing the sin we're able to have a clear conscience this is a this is a wonderful privilege which is ours and yet it's sad that so many Christians will continue to live with an evil conscience that has not been cleansed and with issues that have not been dealt before the Lord so of how much more shall the blood of Christ if those sacrifices had some merit and and and of course we're saying that they have very little merit but they had some merit if they had some value how much more value is there to the blood of the Lord Jesus how much more does the father recognize the blood of his son than the blood of animals of sheep and of goats and of and of and of bulls and he offered himself without spot to God this is another important aspect of the atonement of the Lord Jesus sometimes we look at this and we say well you know was it the Romans was it the Jews but here the writer is saying Jesus offered himself he did not defend himself he laid down his life for us you know there is no comparison anywhere in the Old Testament for this no animal in the Old Testament laid down his own life every animal in the Old Testament had to be taken and had to be bound and had to be killed against its will the closest we can come to this is Isaac who remember Abraham takes his son and he he lays him on the altar and it seems that Isaac is not struggling Isaac is submitting to his father it's an amazing picture of the Lord Jesus but that was the only that was the closest one could come to a sacrifice of someone willingly sacrificing themselves and so Jesus through the eternal spirit and I'm not going to that's it there's a lot of rich stuff there when we speak about the eternal spirit but he offered himself without spot to God reminding us again that as much as the sacrifices the Old Testament remember that the condition was that they had to be without spot and without blemish the the the sacrifice had to be checked that there was no no disease that they were not crippled or blind or in any way and and and they needed to be checked over a period of time to make sure that there was no hidden disease only then could they make the sacrifice but doesn't does that mean that those animals were perfect no well the you know no animal is perfect day they have idiosyncrasies and things that don't that they don't quite they're not quite right but Jesus is without spot he was without spot the perfect sacrifice and of course we've emphasized this so many times that if he had guilt then he would have to die for his own sin and he would not be able to die for us but right up to the last moment even as they push him to the very limits as he hangs on that cross and as they had beaten him and they'd mocked him and they had they spattered him and done all of these things not for one moment does he say the wrong thing does he do the wrong thing but he is absolutely perfect and holy before the Father right up to the moment that he that he dies and so he's without spot to God how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God now here's the second time we've come across this idea of dead works in chapter 6 remember he speaks about the foundation of the faith the repentance from dead works faith towards God dead works remember are things that we do that have no value so they are religious deeds that have no value because we do them for the wrong reason but they also refers to sin which are works that lead to death and so he is able to cleanse our conscience from dead works and I think that you can quite legitimately replace those words dead works here with sin and so he is able to cleanse our conscience from sin that that is a that that is a wonderful blessing and privilege which is ours it's it's it's one thing to to say well I'm hoping that this animal is going to be able to cover my sin and and at the same time to know well you know it's only temporary and it's not tomorrow if I sin again there's going to be another issue and I'm going to have to bring another sacrifice and so on and yet it's a privilege of the believer to have a clear conscience to have a clear conscience now there's a difference of course because Paul speaks about the fact that there are some who have a seared conscience a conscience that has been burnt and is no longer able to feel the pricks of guilt that's not a clean conscience the clean conscience is one that says I am right with God I have not sinned now I may have sinned but the blood of Jesus cleanses of all unrighteousness so he's able to cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the Living God now here you can see why he uses the word serve because now he's going to talk about sorry the dead works because he's now talking about serving notice he says dead works serving the Living God so what they did in the Old Testament was all dead works it was not able to save yet he has cleansed our conscience not so that we can just revel in forgiveness and sing wonderful songs about our forgiveness and about that we're saved and so on but he has cleansed us so that we can serve the Living God now remember the priests in the Old Testament in order to serve God they needed to be cleansed and so they have to go through a whole ritual of washing and putting on clean clothes and making sacrifices and putting the the blood on their on their right thumb and on their right toe and so on they have to go through all of this in order that they might be cleansed to serve God and so God has cleansed us so that we can serve him and so he's reminding us about chapter 6 where he says repentance from dead works turning away from the dead works that we might serve the Living God unfortunately too many Christians rejoice in their forgiveness and in their salvation but they don't get to the point of actually serving the Living God we need to be those who are serving him the priests in the Old Testament were not cleansed for the sake of just being cleansed they were cleansed for one purpose only and that was that they could stand before God and make the sacrifices and and enter into the holy place and and light the lamps and do the various works of the ministry and so he has cleansed us that we might serve the Living God not a dead religion but a Living God now verse 15 for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant now he's going to introduce two new words here or two different words the one is mediator and the other is testator we'll come to the testator in a moment so what is a mediator well a mediator is obviously someone who stands between two we have one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus sometimes if there is a legal dispute or there is a dispute in a marriage you may bring in a mediator or sometimes we call him an arbiter and the purpose of the mediator is to be able to bring the two sides together and so he is the mediator of the new covenant so he is the one who brings the two sides together God on the one hand who is offended by our sin we remember Paul says we were at enmity with God and so there there is there is this war going on between between the unbeliever and God the unbeliever is resisting the voice of God he's resisting the call to repentance he's resisting the call of his conscience and so he is fighting with God all the time and we know people who find themselves in that kind of situation they desperately unhappy because God is working with them and yet they're resisting God and yet he is the mediator he is bringing the two sides together and so he is the mediator of the new covenant the new covenant remember Jesus said at the Last Supper he said this is the blood of the new covenant the purpose of the covenant is to bring us into that new relationship with God and we've dealt with that in the previous chapters and so he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant now there's a lot of big words here and a long stretched out a series of thoughts but I want you to to just try and and let's let's just tease this apart and so he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death normally a mediator would mediate in the sense of compromise so he would bring the two sides and say well you've got to see it from his point of view to see it from his point of view well you know this is not so you know and try and bring some kind of compromise some kind of bringing together of the minds Jesus is a mediator not in that sense but he removes the offense you see because here's the problem many times in our relationships we have we have broken relationships they the relationships are broken because there is some kind of offense somebody did something that is wrong and generally we say well you know let's just sweep it under the rug and move on now you may be able to do that I don't think that that's really the basis of a good relationship I believe that things need to be dealt with things need to be removed the offense the cause of the problem needs to be taken out of the way so that the two can come together and so what was the offense the offense was our sin and so Jesus had to die to remove the obstacle that prevented us from getting together with God and so he's not a mediator in the sense of somebody who talks and somebody who negotiates but he's a mediator in the sense that he is the one who removes the problem so that man and God may be reconciled is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death so how does he remove the offense by laying down his life that's an amazing thing earthly mediators will walk away they may have dent in their reputation if they're not able to resolve the problem but they never get personally involved they never have to make any kind of personal sacrifice in order to fix the problem between two parties whether it's in business or in politics or in marriage or whatever but Jesus lays down his life removes the problem now we are able to be reconciled to God so by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant so here you see him expressing what we've been saying all along and that is that the Old Testament blood sacrifices could only cover sin they could not remove them and so you see what he's saying here for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant so those transgressions still stood until Jesus came until Jesus is dead but when he died he was the redemption he paid the price remember redemption has to do with paying a price when somebody said when something has been has been put in hock at the at the at the pawn broker PAWN broker the you have to come and bring the money to redeem the watch or whatever it was that you that you you gave a surety and so Jesus paid the so that the transgressions under the first covenant can be dealt with and so that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance now here's another very deep thing that we need to get our minds around notice that he says that those who are called now he's speaking about the Old Covenant that those under the Old Covenant who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance so what did they have in the Old Testament did they have eternal life no they only had a promise because the price would have to be paid in order for that promise to be made real to be accessible and so they have a promise so and Hebrews chapter 11 we when we get there finally it's going to speak about the fact that these all died in faith not having obtained the promises so we have have obtained the promises our our promise our hope is that when we die we're absent from the body and we're present with the Lord they had to wait until Jesus paid the price and so they're in Abraham's bosom in a place of comfort remember in Luke chapter 16 is it the the rich man and Lazarus Lazarus is in comfort in Abraham's bosom or in paradise waiting until Jesus paid the price having paid the price they are now able to be redeemed and they are able to receive the promise that they had in the Old Testament of eternal life of an eternal inheritance let's do one more versal so let's see how we go for where there is a testament there must also of necessity be the death of the testator now here is talking about a will remember when we see the word testament in the in the Bible we immediately think about the Old Testament and the New Testament interesting the word testament here is exactly the same Greek word as we have in the previous verse verse 15 and for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant so that Greek word covenant is the same word testament in verse 16 so why do the translators then translated in this case quite correctly as covenant there and testament here because clearly he's talking about two different things a what is a testament or a will when we were in South Africa now we had to update our will it is a it is another form of a covenant it's an agreement it's an agreement that you make with your descendants with your children they not part of that agreement it's a unilateral agreement in the same way as God's a covenant with Abraham is the unilateral agreement but it is a covenant nonetheless and if if the conditions of that will are not carried out in detail then there can be a law a lawsuit and there can be legal action because it is an enforceable contract and the contract says that when I die then this is what happens to my stuff and so it's just another form of covenant but a covenant that is particularly applicable he says once the person who made the covenant who made the testament has died and so you know this is a very obvious point that he's making and that is obviously that that anyone and I trust that that all of us have a will and that you don't leave your children with with the problems of having to deal with an intestate estate but that will has no value whatsoever until you die nobody can come and say well you know he left 50 bucks to me I want my 50 bucks no he hasn't died yet you can't get your 50 bucks it only becomes relevant once he dies very obvious point and so he is then saying that Jesus not only made a covenant but he also made a will and that will becomes effective at his death now what does the what does the will or the Testament do it gives certain things to the beneficiaries to the children or to whoever are named in the will so there are privileges there are blessings there are things that come out of the will for those who are the beneficiaries of it and so he is bringing the same point so in order for Jesus so Jesus makes a will in a sense and what does he leave us he leaves us eternal life but that eternal life does not become effective until Jesus died and so that's really the point he's making so a testament in verse 17 is in force after men are dead since it has no power at all while the testator lives while the person who made the will is alive therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood and I'm going to stop here and so he's coming back to the issue of blood and we're going to see in the next few verses he's going to speak about a blood many many times if you look at verse 19 every precept of all the people going to the law he took the blood of calves and goats and he sprinkled by the book and everything there's 20 this is the blood of the covenant verse 21 likewise he sprinkled with blood but the tabernacle in the vessels of the ministry was 22 and according to the law almost all things were purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins and so now he's going to introduce this whole area of the blood so because the will does not become effective until the testator dies the blood is a symbol of his death and so not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood so remember that God makes a covenant with Abraham and the animals are killed and the carcasses are laid out and or laid out into into lines and God walks between this is the way that they made the covenant that's more specifically what he has in mind here I'm just going to introduce this and pick come back to this next week Lord willing but what he is introducing here is the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai and so when Abraham came down and the law was written in the book not just on the tables of stone but on the in in the scroll all of that was sprinkled with blood and so that covenant was sealed with blood and of course again Jesus said this is the blood of the new covenant and so again it's the old covenant not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood therefore he is saying the new covenant is also dedicated without blood father we thank you for the Lord Jesus we thank you Lord for the tremendous privilege that is ours of living in the New Testament Lord that we don't look forward to maybe one day Jesus will come and deal with our sin but that we are able to look back at the cross 2,000 years ago where Jesus died and once for all dealt with our sins the Lord that there's no reason for us to be living with an evil conscience but Lord that we can have a clean conscience and that we might be able to serve you with that clean conscience and so Lord we pray that again we've not said anything new or novel this evening but I pray Lord that we may once again just be gripped with the with with a wonder and the and the glory of your grace towards us Lord that you've saved us that Jesus has died for us that you washed our sins away not only that but you've prepared a home in heaven for us where we can live in your very presence and so Lord I pray that you'd help us to understand but Lord more than that help that these things may sink down into our very being and and create within us a deep gratitude and worship and an adoration of you and of your immense grace and mercy towards us who were sinners and yet we've been saved by your grace make these things real with it for us we pray and we pray as you as we part now that you'd go with us keep us and protect us bring us together again safely on Sunday we pray in Jesus' name.