A Better Blood

Hebrews 9: 11-14

Transcript

Cody Kaufmann: 0:01

A number of years ago, we've gone through many kind of ebbs and flows, and it's how life goes, specifically interests and habits and things. But we started moving into more of a, I'll say a homesteading lifestyle a number of years ago. And as part of that homesteading lifestyle, we wanted to get meat chickens. and process those meat chickens, raise them up and process them for our own meat, which we did a number of times. During that process, if anybody has done this, that process, there is a time at which, after you have raised these meat chickens for a certain length of time, where you have to process said meat chickens. Part of that process process, and the word processing is a kind way of saying, you know, killing them. And a part of that processing is also a kind word called dispatching. Dispatching, right? You dispatch a chicken. That process involves a lot of blood, if anybody has done that before. It involves a bit of horror, quite honestly, watching the blood drain from an animal. But even more than watching the grotesqueness and the bloodiness of that is watching a life leave an animal. There is an almost morbid sense of death that you see watching the life drain out of an animal. It's something that you don't forget. It's something that, quite honestly, there's no other word to say it. It's a little bit grotesque. It's a little bit gross. But this is the very means by which God has ordained the process of atonement. We saw very often, as we stepped through Hebrews 8 into 9, making reference to the Old Testament sacrifices and the means at which those sacrifices were made. It was a bloody ritual. Blood was shed. Blood was sprinkled, in fact, all over all of the instruments, and that's what we're going to talk about a little bit next week. Everything had to be covered in blood. Animals were cut in half, placed upon the altar. This was grotesque. It was bloody. The priests were daily, yearly, faced with the reality of death, seeing that life-leaving animals So then the question I've often asked, and certainly asked this week in wrestling through this text, why is that included in the God-ordained process of atonement? Why is it such a bloody ritual? Why did God ordain it that way? I'll give you this for your consideration. The sacrifice needed to be And maybe needed is not the right word. But the sacrifice needed to be as gruesome and as shocking as the sin for which it atones. Sin is gruesome, isn't it? And as we have learned, bloodlessness equals no gospel at all. And it is something that we often wrestle with as a people. The bloodiness of that ritual and that sacrifice, certainly looking forward to Christ, is something that is averse to us at times. I offer to you a quote by a bishop, John Shelby Sponge. He says this, quote, the sacrifice of His Son. Where there is no shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. And if we are a people who denies the reality that in order for our sins to be forgiven, Christ had to be sacrificed, we deny the Gospel. So let us then look the gruesomeness of that sacrifice in the face this morning. Sit with the reality of it that we may receive the gospel that comes from that sacrifice. So I gave us three points. Then the first of those starts in verse 11, the location. The location of his sacrifice is an eternal one. Verse 11 says, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through a greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation. But when Christ appeared, our text says. Well, something has changed then here. but with the word but. But when Christ appeared, something has changed in the old way of sacrificing to the new. And remember again what that old way was. That was last week. We looked at that. Remember all of the rituals, all of the blood that must cover everything. There was the golden altar. There was the curtain. There was the incense. There was all of the things that needed to be done in order to receive atonement. And it was continual in nature. It was never ending, repetitive. But when Christ appeared as a high priest, as a high priest of good things that have come, If you're looking at your Bible, there might be a footnote right next to that word, have come, where it says some manuscripts say good things to come as opposed to good things have come. This is one of those things that I had some time this week to look at, that word have in relation to have come. I'm not going to bore you with the Greek here, but this is an aorist tense verb, which is a timeless verb. meaning there is no reference to past, present, or future. So it could be translated, rightly, is to come, but it also could be translated have come, because in reality there is a timelessness to the good things that have come as a result of Christ's appearing as a high priest. They are past, present, and future. So this change then, that has clearly been given to us in our text, is not just a past change, not just a present change, not just a future change of good things, but rather a timeless good things that have come as a result of Christ appearing. But it was a location change as well. The location of the sacrifice changed in that moment. If you would turn back, and you don't have to do it, but if you were to, and maybe it's something you can do this week, read Exodus 25 through Exodus 30, 25 to 30. It's five chapters, six chapters, that lay out very specifically and intricately how the tent is to be built and constructed. Also, interestingly enough, God empowers certain men, as far as I know it's only men, but to construct the temple. By the Spirit gives them the abilities to sew all of the things that need to be sewn, to create, to build, and he is very particular and meticulous about all of those details about how the tent and the tabernacle are to be constructed and all of the various elements of it. I know my kids have often asked us, why is that? Why do we labor so much to make sure that the acacia wood is just right and it's inlaid right with this round of gold and the sewing and all the embroidery? Why do we spend so much time making sure that all of those things are just right? Have you thought about that? We will see. I don't want to give too much away for next week. But verse 23, thus it was necessary. This is verse 9, 23 of verse 9. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. The meticulous nature with which these things were laid out was because these were copies. God was instructing copies, earthly copies to be made of things that already existed in heaven. So why is it so meticulous? Because God is telling his people to make that which exists in heaven. So this tabernacle is a copy, an earthly copy of the heavenly things. And this is why the descriptions are so precise. Why the sacrifices needed to be done so precisely. because it was a foreshadowing of, or looking towards the substance, the real thing in heaven, of which this earthly thing was only a copy. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation. When Christ shed his blood on the altar, it was not in the earthly tabernacle. He did not enter into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle even his own blood on earthly things. Christ entered into the more perfect tent, the real one, the heavenly tabernacle, and that is where he offered himself. Verse 12 will continue. This is the value of His blood is eternal redemption. He entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. The value of His blood is eternal redemption. So then when Christ entered into that heavenly temple, not made with human hands, what was the way in which he entered into that temple? It was not by the blood of bulls, goats, as was the case with the earthly temple, but the means by which Christ entered into that holy temple, the heavenly tabernacle, was his blood. His own blood allowed him access into that heavenly place. When we consider then what it meant for the blood of the bulls and goats to be offered on that earthly tabernacle, there was really two things that were offered up on that at that time. One, two consequences of that offering. It was forgiveness of our fleshly sins, our sins of the flesh, and it was a yearly stay of God's wrath. When the blood of bulls and goats were offered in this earthly temple, it was a covering of our fleshly sins, external sins of the flesh, and it was a temporary stay of the wrath of God. Temporary. Only a year. So how valuable was that blood? Well, I mean, it was valuable in a sense that over that past year the cauldron of God's wrath had been boiling and the blood of the bulls and the goats God was pleased to accept as a temporary stay of His wrath against us and a temporary cleansing of our external sins. So in that respect, yes, it was valuable. The blood of bulls and goats. But it never removed the guilt. It was always this lingering feeling that we've only bought ourselves time with that. There was still that lingering guilt of our conscience. The blood of Christ, though. This perfect blood. given not in the earthly tabernacle, but in that heavenly tent. His own blood shed once for all, not staying God's wrath for a day, not postponing His wrath for a year, but appeasing it forever. The blood of Christ truly cleansed our sins. It truly cleared our conscience of guilt. It covered us forever, once for all. Forever. How valuable is that blood? I'll quote Andrew Murray. Quote, it was the life of God that dwelt in him. That life was gave His blood, each drop of it an infinite value. The blood of a man is worth more than that of a sheep. The blood of a king or a great general is counted of more value than hundreds of common soldiers. The blood of the Son of God, it is vain It is in vain the mind seeks for some expression of its value. All we can say is, it is His own blood, the precious blood, the Son of God." Providentially, this morning we sang, sin has left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow. Further we sing, O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. And in light of my introduction with respect to what we understand about blood, how morbid is that song to sing, O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. It's good news when we receive it as the gospel, that that cleansing flow of Christ cleanses us of our sins, covers our guilt, not temporarily, not just until next week when you come back in here again, not just of your sins in the past, but they've all been covered once for all, and you have a clean conscience. Their conscience is clear. And that moves into our third point. Verse 13 and 14. The purity of his blood cleanses our souls. Verse 13 through the end. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a defiled person with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh... How much more 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? What does that mean that our consciences have been cleared? I don't know about you all, but each week when I come in here, I'm beset with sins that I have committed throughout the week that are burdening me. I know we all leave here and go about our day, and before we even get home perhaps even, have already done something that we feel guilty about, don't we? Certainly we can look at our past and feel guilt for the things that we've done or left undone. What does it mean that the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience? It's clear of guilt. He mentions in those verses a couple things. The blood of bulls and goats, which as I said, cleanses our external sins. Sins of the flesh. And the sprinkling of a defiled person with ashes of a heifer. I think it was, I don't know if I made notes, I think it was, it's Numbers 19 that talks about the mixing the ashes of the heifer with water and this purifies you if you've been in contact with a dead body. So when he talks about the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling of a defiled person, what he is speaking of here is the sins of the flesh and of death. So the purity of Christ's blood not only cleanses us from the sins of our flesh, but it deals with death as well. It cleanses us of death. It was read in Hebrews 9, 9 last week. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices that are offered cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but only deal with food and drink and various washings. The blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of the heifer, they do not deal with the conscience. The blood of Christ deals with the conscience. It cleanses the conscience. I'll give you one last quote from Spurgeon. Upon our consciences there rests, first of all, a sense of past sin, as I mentioned. Even a man wishes to serve God, yet until his conscience is purged, he feels a dread and terror of God, which prevent his doing so. He has sinned, and God is just, and therefore he is ill at ease. God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turns not, he will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. And the sinner, knowing this, asks, How can I serve a terrible God? He is alarmed when he thinks of the judge of all the earth, for it is before that the judge he will soon have to take his trial." This is the reality of what those... under the old covenant dealt with. Though they were cleansed temporarily, though God's wrath was stayed, they still sat under that fear of judgment, asking perhaps, how can I serve this terrible God? And our text now gives us that answer. We can now serve the living God, not because we need to in order to purify ourselves, but because He has purified us. And we are now totally free of guilt to serve Him. We are totally free of guilt to serve Him. How much more 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? Turn back to Isaiah. I do want you to turn. Isaiah chapter 1. Verse 18 and following. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson... they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So even here in Isaiah, we see the promise of the gospel, forgiveness of sins, cleansing through the blood of another. But then we also see again we're returned to this guilt if, if you do this, if you refuse. And so that guilt conscience remains. Turn a couple of pages over to Isaiah 6. What is the result of that? The remnants of that guilty conscience. The revelation of the glory of God in His holy place. Verse 5 of chapter 6, And Isaiah said, Woe is me, for I am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Woe is me, he says. But, the text continues. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, the sweetest words we can hear, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt, is taken away and your sin atoned for. The guilt was cleared by the grace and mercy of God. And then, after the guilt was cleared, what are we to do? What did Isaiah do? And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Isaiah said, here I am, send me. So what are we to do? We're to be washed in the precious blood of Christ who cleanses us of our guilt, who washes away our sins once for all that have been paid for. Please feel the freedom of your conscience this morning. If you are in Christ, you are free of guilt. The conscience has been cleaned, has been cleared, because Christ went into the holy places, not in the temple made by hands, but into the substance, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood to cleanse us once for all. All our sins are gone. And He truly cleanses us of all guilt. He purifies our conscience to what? To serve the living God. To serve the living God. What is the chief end of man? Church. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. How do we enjoy Him? We enjoy Him from our freedom of our conscience, that it has been cleared by His blood. We enjoy Him by serving Him. not from obligation, but from freedom. Because of His precious blood that has freed us of our guilt, cleansed our consciences, we truly are free. Free to serve Him. And that is only possible by the blood of Christ, the better, the better blood. Amen? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as always for your word. Thank you for the truth that you give to us in and through your word. We thank you for the blood, the blood of Christ this morning. We thank you that he went into the heavenly places, Lord, the heavenly tabernacle by means of that blood, offered it for us. once for all, to cleanse us of our sins, to cleanse our consciences of guilt. Lord, may we receive that this morning as we have testified in and through your supper and been reminded again of that sacrifice, Lord, that once for all sacrifice. Lord, may we be reminded that our consciences and our sins are clear. And now may we go from here and serve you. joyfully serve the living God. Let's call these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.