Christ in Contrast to the Old Testament System

Transcript

GR 1698
07/14/13
Christ in Contrast to the Old Testament System
Hebrews 9:11-14
Gil Rugh

We're in the book of Hebrews in your Bibles, toward the back of your New Testament. Really the last large book in our New Testament before you get to the book of Revelation. The book of Hebrews, and we're in the ninth chapter. Some of you have commented, it takes a little more attention to follow the details of what is going on in Hebrews, but what is being said here is crucial.

As a background I want to remind you that the Scripture says the foundational problem that we as human beings have is with the sin that controls and enslaves us. It comes from the inside. Come back to the Old Testament to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 17. Note what God says here, “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” You note what God is saying here, the real problem that we have is on the inside. At the very center of our being we are so desperately sick, so corrupted by sin that no one can truly understand the seriousness of our condition. Only God alone sees into our hearts and minds. This is foundational to understand what God is saying about the seriousness of our situation and the only possible solution to the sickness of our heart.

This is important to understanding what goes on in the world around us. A number of years ago we had a movement among some Christians and conservatives called the Moral Majority. It was being promoted in those days, the majority of our country are the moral people and they will prevail. That is an unbiblical idea. God says the majority, and when He says the majority He says everyone is not the moral majority, everyone is the unmoral majority. Because we are born in sin, we are corrupted by sin. That's why all ideas that by certain political action, by certain social action, by certain religious action we are going to stem the tide of depravity and sin and so on that seems to spread. And any of those ideas is a denial of what God has said. He said the real problem is at the core of our being we are desperately sinful. The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick.

Come over to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark, a section that Greg was leading us in in our study last week. Mark 7, Jesus is speaking. He says in verse 20, “that which proceeds out of the man is what defiles the man.” He says the problem is internal, not external. From within out of the heart of men, which God says in the Old Testament was deceitful, desperately sick. It's from out of this heart proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things proceed from within and defile the person. That's why you have not really accomplished anything of true significance before God because you get a person not to practice this sin or that sin. I'm not saying there aren't benefits humanly and physically speaking if you stop certain sinful activity. If you are drunk all the time, that will have an impact on your life, your family, your job and so on. You may stop drinking, that hasn't gotten to the core of the problem. It's like going to the doctor and you say, I have a pain in my chest. He says, take this pill, it will stop the pain. You take the pill and it stops the pain. You say, that's great but you are not cured because the real cause may be a serious disease that is destroying you from the inside. You have just masked the problem, you have not dealt with it. So it is with moral reform ideas, social reform ideas. They don't get to the real problem, which is the internal condition of man. We have a heart, the inner core of our being that is corrupted by sin that enslaves and controls us.

Come back to Hebrews 9. This is what the book of Hebrews is talking about dealing with. That's why we're talking about the contrast between the physical old system that Israel lived under with the Mosaic Law and the physical activity of that priesthood. The problem with it is it can't get to the internal condition and the coming of Christ has brought the solution that we so desperately need.

In Hebrews 9 the first ten verses have been broken down into two sections. We looked at these in our previous study. Verse 1 gives you the breakdown, “now even the first covenant,” referring to the covenant established with Moses that we know as the Mosaic Law and the Levitical priesthood that was associated with that covenant. It had regulations of divine worship and earthly sanctuary. Two aspects there, the divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. The divine worship took place in the earthly sanctuary. So verses 2-5 talked about the earthly sanctuary, the physical makeup of the tabernacle which was the center of Israel's worship. Then verses 6-10 talked about the priestly activity that took place within that physical tabernacle.

We showed some diagrams last week, let me just review those with you so if you would put up diagram 1. This is the setup of the tabernacle setting as an artist rendition. And you'll note there is an outer wall around it that is a curtain wall made of material, because this is a temporary structure that has to be moved. For 40 years of wandering in the wilderness Israel has to take this down and set it back up in a new location every time they move. But that outer perimeter, the tent, that is 150 feet long, that outer wall, and 75 feet wide. In the book of Hebrews we are focusing on that tent structure within that outer wall. That's what he talks about. It is divided into two sections, you may not be able to see it very well here, but there is a curtain that you go into it and then there is another curtain.

Put up the second diagram if you would. This is an artist rendition of that inner tent and the priest could go behind that first curtain. There is a candlestick with seven prongs, at the top of each prong it had a cup that contained pure olive oil. And there was a wick out of it and that was lit. That was the candlestick, sometimes we call it the menorah. That provides the light because there is no other light within this tent structure. On the other side of that there is a table, perhaps you can see it has two stacks of flat bread, six loaves in each stack representing the twelve tribes of Israel. And then just before the second curtain there is an altar called the altar of incense.

The Levitical priests came in and out of this outer portion regularly every day. They had to come in every morning and make sure the candlewicks were burning and make the adjustments necessary. They had to put incense on the altar every morning, they had to redo that every evening. So every morning and evening they came in to do those two items. The table of shewbread, every Sabbath day those twelve loaves of bread were replaced with new loaves. Now that was a daily activity. Behind that second curtain only the high priest could go and he could only go in there one day of a year, the Day of Atonement. That becomes the focus of what the book of Hebrews talks about because that was the central sacrificial action, the sacrifice offered for the sins of the nation so that they could continue with the blessing and provision of God.

You might put up the final diagram and that's just a flat rendering of that area. You see the outer curtain, the white line with the posts represented there. When you came in where the arrow is, that first item there is the brazen altar or the altar of burnt offering. That's where the sacrifices took place that were regularly offered. That round circle with the blue interior was a basin filled with water where the priest would wash himself after performing some of his duties with sacrifice. Then he could go in on the Day of Atonement through the first curtain, through the second curtain and apply the blood to the mercy seat. That is the Ark of the Covenant all the way back in the internal section. That's where the Shekinah glory, the glory of God's presence was above what was called the Ark of the Covenant because that's a chest with a lid. The lid is called the mercy seat. Within that chest were the two tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments, which represented and summarized the Mosaic Covenant, the Mosaic Law.

All right, that's the setting we're dealing with in Hebrews. There were some serious deficiencies in that physical Old Testament worship system. Now it was what God had instructed them to do, it was never intended to be a way of salvation. There were things it could not do. It provided only limited access to the presence of God. Look in Hebrews 9:7, verse 6 for the sentence. “Now when these things had been so prepared,” the structure of that tabernacle set up as we just reviewed it, “the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship.” So regularly in that outer portion of that inner tent, they go in and every morning and evening make the necessary adjustments to the candlestick, put new incense, make sure the incense keeps burning on the altar of incense. And then once a week on the Sabbath they will replace the loaves of bread.

“Into the second,” that back part of the tent, put the third diagram up again so you see the area outside. But into the inner tent, the second part of that tent where the Ark of the Covenant is, where God manifests His presence over that, the high priest could go in. “Only the high priest,” not any of the other priests of Israel. Only one priest, the high priest, and only one day of the year, the Day of Atonement.

Okay, back in verse 7, “only the high priest enters once a year not without taking blood.” He had made the sacrifice out at the altar when you came in to the general structure. Then he took the blood from that along with some of the incense and coals and went into the inner section. And he offers sacrifice “for himself and for the sins of the people,” the end of verse 7, “committed in ignorance.” People who defied the Lord and continued to openly rebel and reject him, these sacrifices didn't cover them. They couldn't provide for the external cleansing that enabled them to be acceptable to God. You'll note, the significance of this, verse 8, “the Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the Holy Place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is standing.” There was no access into the presence of God. How could we as a people come before God if so restricted: only one day a year can the high priest come in as our representative? It indicated in this system very limited access to God.

Put that picture back up again. Where the arrow is, the high priest could offer a sacrifice there. Other priests would offer sacrifices. The people could come into that area where the altar of burnt offering is, but only the priests could go into the inner tent. So more limited access. Only the high priest and only one day a year could go into the innermost part where the presence of God was manifested. So this structure indicated something of what is required for access to God but indicated at that present time there was very limited access to God and the glory of His presence.

Look at verse 9, the second problem. The first problem of the Old Testament system, it only provided very limited access to God. And secondly, it could not make the worshiper perfect in his conscience, in his innermost being. Remember the problem is an interior problem—the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick with sin. It is out of the heart, Jesus said, that all kinds of sin come. It's an inner problem. Yet verse 9 tells us this system was a symbol for the present time. Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. They don't get to the inner problem and they don't cleanse him in such a way that he had a final recognition that my sins have been forgiven and I have been cleansed for all eternity. They couldn't do that, they couldn't get to the inside because verse 10 said they only relate to physical things—food, drink, various washing, regulations for the body. So they only could provide what we call a ceremonial cleansing, symbolizing cleansing from the external defilement that would keep that from the presence of God.

In contrast is the coming of Christ changes everything. Maybe changes isn't the best word, it brings to full realization everything which was just being symbolized, as the first part of verse 9 says. These physical things were “a symbol for the present time,” the time when the Messiah has come, to give a picture of what is required. You cannot have access to God without the acceptable sacrifice because the penalty for sin is death. And only through an acceptable sacrifice can your defilement be cleansed. But these were all external things, couldn't get to the real problem. It just pictured what the real problem was and the real need was.

Look at Hebrews 8:1-2. “Now the main point of what has been said is this: we have such a high priest who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” So the change from this earthly, physical system that couldn't get to the heart of the problem. Now that Christ has come everything is changed. His ministry will take place in the context of the heavenly sanctuary, the very presence of God in heaven with a sacrifice that is so perfect and so complete it does cleanse us on the inside and provides access into the presence of God for each and every believer.

Come back to Hebrews 9. We come to verse 11 and verses 11-14 are comprised of two long sentences. And the contrast is being drawn as you'll see how verse 11 begins, with the but, “but.” In contrast to the Old Testament tabernacle and its worship system and its inability to provide full access to God, its inability to cleanse our conscience and our inner being, but now that Christ has come. And the contrast is going to be with the activity of the high priest of Israel on the Day of Atonement. Remember that's when the high priest could come in with the blood of the sacrifices and come into that inner tent where the Ark of the Covenant was and the presence of God was manifested above the mercy lid, the lid of the ark, the chest and sprinkle the blood. That one day because that is the height of the Levitical sacrificial system. And as we'll see as we move along in this all the other sacrifices are encompassed here. But this sacrifice, the only day when he could come into the very presence of God with a sacrifice. All the other sacrifices are lesser than this in that sense, and he includes them all in this system that has as its climactic sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement which takes place in the very presence of God within the tabernacle.

We have two long sentences, verses 11-12 are the first sentence and verses 13-14 are the second sentence. Verses 11-12 draw the contrast showing the superior place of Christ's ministry, not on earth but in heaven. And the acceptability of His sacrifice in heaven. The second sentence, verses 13-14, show the result or impact of that ministry in cleansing us within and thus providing access to the presence of God for every believer.

So verse 11 begins, “but.” And as you read we won't read the whole sentence, it makes up verses 11-12. We have that in our English Bible as well as it was written in Greek. But, the contrast, those sacrifices that couldn't make the worshiper perfect in conscience, the end of verse 9. Those sacrifices which, at the end of verse 10, were imposed until a time of reformation when God would set everything straight and that tabernacle which was just a symbol now could experience the full realization. “But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things to come.” So the appearance of Christ as high priest will fulfill what was pictured in type or symbol. Remember the beginning of verse 9, that Levitical system and the tabernacle were a symbol for the present time, anticipating when Christ would come, the time of putting things right, the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared, of the good things to come that had been promised and prophesied under the Old Covenant with the picture that had been prophesied in the New Covenant when God said that He would put . . . . Back up to Hebrews 8:10, “for this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel,” the New Covenant as the preceding verses indicate, “I will put My laws into their minds, I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, they will be My people.” You see the change occurs on the inside. Now the character and will of God has been placed within the person. Now they will be controlled and motivated by being made new on the inside, instead of hearts that are deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, out of which flow sins of all kinds. We now have a people who desire to serve God, please Him. Not to obtain salvation, but as a result of the salvation that has occurred in giving them new hearts and new minds.

So verse 11 says, “when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. That is to say not of this creation.” He entered. Now this is one long sentence and we get into diagramming. You know how when you diagram a sentence first you find the main verb and the subject and the object and then all the things that modify the different parts of those main parts. The main verb is down in verse 12, the middle of the verse, He entered the Holy Place. But to make it flow as we read it they have also, the middle of verse 11, put He entered. I just mention that because you have it in italics, it's not there but the meaning is because it picks up the meaning from that verb in the middle of verse 12. Just so you see the connection here. He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not to say of this creation. I think he is contrasting it with the Old Testament system.

Put up the third diagram. When the high priest after making the sacrifice out there at the altar, he would take the blood of that sacrifice. First the bull to offer for his own sin and the sin of his family, then he would come back. And incidentally we talk about he entered in once on the Day of Atonement. That means on that one occasion. The high priest went in to that inner section more than once on the Day of Atonement because first he had to offer a bull for his own sin and the sin of his family. He would take that in mixed with the incense and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. Then he would come back out and have the goat sacrificed for the sins of the nation, then he would take that in mixed with the incense. So don't get confused when he says, he only went in once. He went in on only one occasion, the Day of Atonement. But he went in more than once on the Day of Atonement to carry out what God had instructed, at least those two specific instances.

His first time in was the time of greatest concern because first he offered a bull for himself and his family. And he went in but if God found him unacceptably defiled, he would die in there. That's why he had bells on the bottom of his robe so that when he moved around in the inner section the priests in the outer section could hear he was still alive. If the bells stopped jingling, that means he is dead. Well, they had to know that because nobody could look in there, nobody could go in and get the body out. That's why they would have a little cord on his ankle, and if the bells stopped ringing, they would start pulling. It meant that his sacrifice hadn't been acceptable, he was unacceptable. So after God accepted the sacrifice on his behalf, then he could offer it on behalf of the nation.

So he went through, as he picked up the blood, he went through that outer part of the tent where the lampstand and the altar of incense are, and through the curtain. Now Christ has entered a more perfect tabernacle, “He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle.” So I think the picture is Christ now has entered into heaven itself and He passes through the courts of heaven to the very throne of God. The picture, there is no curtain or anything there but this was a copy, a shadow given to Moses to build, of the heavenly scene. So the picture is here you have Christ doing a high priestly ministry. The Old Testament high priest took the blood and went through the outer tent into the inner tent; Christ wasn't doing it in a physical, earthly tabernacle. Look at verse 11, He entered through the greater, more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, not of this creation. So it's not this earth, it's not the heavens around the earth, it's not the stellar heavens. That is all part of this creation. He entered into the perfect tabernacle where God resides, perfectly in heaven. Then passed through the courts of heaven to the very throne of God. So He entered the greater, more perfect tabernacle. And not through the blood of goats and bulls.

We haven't gone back to the Old Testament for time but you can jot down if you haven't read it recently, Leviticus 16. If you go back to Leviticus 16 you will have in that chapter of the Bible the details set out for what was required on the Day of Atonement. You find there that there were two goats sacrificed, the one we know was the scapegoat that would be led away into the wilderness, symbolizing the carrying away of the sin of the people. The writer here indicates he doesn't go into all the details and significance of everything here, he just picks up what is pertinent to the emphasis he want to bring.

But He entered “not through the blood of goats and calves.” And puts a plural here because this happens year after year. As I shared with you, I believe Josephus said there were 83 high priests in Israel's history down to his day who would be contemporary with our New Testament, the Jewish historian. From 1450, we are 500 years, how many sacrifices? If there were 83 high priests over those 500 years, and how many years did each high priest serve, and every year he brought in the sacrifices multiplied. The high priest came in with the sacrifices of goats and calves on the Day of Atonement, calves for themselves, the bulls, and the goats for the people.

Christ didn't come with animal sacrifice. The plural, he's going to move here, we ultimately get all the sacrifices could be lumped into what is being covered here with the Levitical system. He didn't come with an animal sacrifice, He came through His own blood. The picture is not of Christ carrying perhaps a vessel with some of His blood in it. He didn't come with His own blood, He came through His own blood. The point is the sacrifice He offered was the basis of His coming before the presence of God now. That was the significance when the high priest offered the sacrifice in the Old Testament and carried the blood in, it was being represented that this is a sacrifice that has been offered to cover my sin. Christ comes as Himself, the One who was sacrificed. He came with His own blood, through His own blood on the basis of the sacrifice He had offered when He died on the cross. That was the sacrifice, His own blood, representing His death. We still use it today, we talk about in a war there is a lot of bloodshed, we’re not talking about the amount of blood that comes out, we're talking about many people died. That's the picture, the blood represents death. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” down in verse 22 we will get to eventually. “The wages of sin is death.” What did God tell Adam all the way back in the Garden of Eden? “On the day you eat of that tree you will die.” And he immediately died spiritually and the process of physical death set in. From that point on he was a dying man, it was just a matter of time.

Christ came not having offered an animal like the Levitical system, He came having offered Himself. He entered the Holy Place once for all, death apox, once for all. Both the necessity and the possibility of any repetition is nullified. He entered the Holy Place once for all. That's different than the high priest, he entered the Holy Place this year, he entered the Holy Place next year, he entered the Holy Place the year after that. And when he died the next high priest entered the Holy Place once a year. For 500 years this had gone on. Christ on the basis of His final sacrifice entered the very presence of God in the heavenly sanctuary once for all.
Back up to Hebrews 1, this is where we began our study of Hebrews. Look at verse 3, the last statement. “When He had made purification of sins He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” The finality of His work. Put up that picture again, you'll note in that inner tent there is the Ark of the Covenant. The poles sticking out each side were how they had to carry it when they transported it. There is no other furniture, there are no seats, representative of the fact the high priest's work was never done. He will be back next year, he will be back next year, he will be back next year, he will be back next year. And each year he will be back with a sacrifice for his own sins, then he'll be back in with a sacrifice for his own sin. Christ comes to the very presence of God, not a place where God manifests His presence but the place where the fullness of God's glory is present permanently. And He takes the place in the seat of greatest honor, at the right hand of God the Father. He sits down. He had made purification of sins. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty, not in the earthly tabernacle, on high. There can be no greater finality than that action.

Look over in Hebrews 7:27, Christ did “not need daily like those priests to offer sacrifices first for His own sins, then for the sins of the people, because He did this once for all.” There we are, that “once for all,” that finality of His sacrifice. It was a finished work. Over in Hebrews 9, we'll pick up in verse 12. “Christ entered through His own blood the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption,” redemption. Eternal redemption. Redemption is setting free by the paying of a price. The wages of sin is death, Christ made the ultimate sacrifice as the God-Man when He sacrificed Himself. It was a final sacrifice because it obtained an eternal redemption, an eternal cleansing, redemption. We are set free, our sins are forgiven forever.

Turn back to Ephesians 1:7, “In Him,” in Christ “we have redemption.” There is our word, redemption. “In Him we have redemption through His blood.” It took His death so that we could be set free from the penalty and power of sin. “In Him we have redemption through His blood,” which means “the forgiveness of our trespasses.” The parallel reference in Colossians says the forgiveness of our sins. And it's all because of the riches of His grace. We don't earn this salvation, it wasn't because we were so valuable, we were so worthy we deserved this. It was God's grace. Undeserving, hell-deserving sinners, sinners by birth, sinners by choice, rebels against God. And yet God in infinite grace and mercy had His Son come to this earth, give His life on the cross to pay our penalty so we could know what it means to experience His redemption which sets us free from the power and penalty of our sins.

Come back to Hebrews. Before you come to verse 13 and the second sentence, you see something of the place of Christ's ministry. It was in heaven and that's where He entered on the basis of the finality of the sacrifice He offered, which was accepted because He was seated in the very presence of God, because He had with His blood paid for an eternal redemption.

Now the second sentence, the conflict and the benefit, conflict with the Old Testament and the benefit we receive. “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who had been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience...?” So verses 13-14 show the impact of what Christ has done in His high priestly ministry for us. And the contrast is with the Old Testament. The blood of goats and bulls, that could be the repeated sacrifices of the Day of Atonement over the many years, but he is including the whole sacrificial system and interestingly adds here “the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled.” He seems to have pulled that out of the blue. This is the red heifer sacrifice. And what it was and you can read about it in Numbers 19, we're not going back there, the red heifer. There was a heifer that had a red color, not literally bright red but a reddish brown color. That was offered and burnt. And then the ashes were mixed with water, then that mixture of the ashes and the water was kept in a vessel. And any time a person came into contact with a dead body, either intentionally or accidentally, there was a procedure for being cleansed from that defilement, ceremonial defilement that hindered those people from being acceptable in worship before God. And part of that was they had to be sprinkled with this water and ash mixture. When that was sprinkled on them and they performed what was required, then they were ceremonially clean again to be involved in the worship system.

Why does he include that here? I think what he is showing here, and clearly the sacrifice of the red heifer, it is not even being offered every time a person comes into contact with a dead body. That was one heifer burned and then the ashes mixed with water could be used repeatedly until it ran out, then they would offer another. So you could say this is not even an individual sacrifice here, this is obviously a ceremonial cleansing. Sprinkle it on them and that will cleanse them from the defilement that external defilement, ceremonial defilement that God said kept them from being acceptable in worship before Him.

The point he is making is he is focused on the Day of Atonement, this shows the whole Levitical system of the Mosaic Law can only deal with the external, ceremonial, physical defilement. It doesn't get to the inside. It pictured something very important, their unacceptable condition before the Lord, the reality of their sin and guilt, the defilement that comes from that, the various sacrifices offered in various settings for various things. But none of it got to the heart of things, sprinkling that solution, those ashes on that person just was a physical action acknowledging the ceremonial defilement and the cleansing that comes. So this pictures the whole Old Testament system. You can lump the sacrificing of goats and bulls on the Day of Atonement and the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer. They all were the same in being effective but only for external. They were effective for those who had been defiled, for example by the dead body, to sanctify for cleansing of the flesh, the physical body. But there is something greater needed. It's the heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, it's the heart that has to be changed.

“How much more,” if these physical things could bring external cleansing, “how much more will the blood of Christ,” His death, His sacrificial death “who through the eternal Spirit” I take it it's the Holy Spirit here. There is discussion on that but the use of spirit in the singular throughout the book of Hebrews refers to the Holy Spirit. You remember all the way back to Isaiah 42:1, God promised He would put His Spirit on His Servant. When John the Baptist baptized Christ, Matthew 3 and it's repeated in all four gospels, he saw the Spirit of God descending on Christ as a dove. The Spirit comes upon Him to enable and empower Him for all aspects of His ministry. And that would include His ministry as offering the sacrifice of Himself on the cross.

“Through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God.” Remember we have seen, been reminded several times in Hebrews, the high priest had to first offer a sacrifice for himself and his sins before he could offer a sacrifice for the sins of his people. But Christ, come back to Hebrews 7:26, “for it was fitting for us to have such a high priest,” referring to Christ. And what is He like? “Holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily like those priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins, then for the sins of the people.” He offered one sacrifice for the sins of the people, but He had no sins of His own. He was born without sin, He lived without sin. He is the sinless Son of God. So He offered Himself without blemish to God.

Turn back to 1 Peter 1:18, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your empty way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” That perfect Lamb of God without any sin. In the Old Testament they had to bring an animal without blemish. You couldn't say, this animal is deformed or this animal has not developed right, I'll sacrifice it. We're only going to kill it anyway. No. It had to be an animal that as far as you could tell humanly speaking it was without defect. It was to remind them that I need a perfect sacrifice to take my place. And Christ was that.

So in Hebrews 9, He offered Himself without blemish to God, “how much more.” If these animal sacrifices could bring about the ceremonial cleansing of this physical body of the Jew, “how much more will the sacrifice of Christ... cleanse your conscience.” Here we finally have the sacrifice that can do what no other sacrifice could ever do—cleanse the conscience, the inner person. You know one thing we have now under the high priestly ministry of Christ, we have a consciousness of the forgiveness of sins. The Old Testament believers had to keep bringing a sacrifice, they did not have the full understanding of the provision that would be made to be the basis of their salvation, as we'll see in our next study. They were just reminded, I'm a sinner, I'm guilty, I'm offering this sacrifice. Every year the high priest offers a sacrifice. They had an awareness of their sin and guilt, but Christ's forgiveness penetrates to the innermost recesses of our being.

2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” We are made new, we become a new man. We die the old man, we are raised a new man is the picture Romans 6 gives. If any man be in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5 says, “he is a new creation; old things pass away, behold new things have come.” Verse 21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It's a total transformation, it's not trying to change the outside, stop practicing that sin, don't do that, make yourself pleasing to God. But you can't, it doesn't work. God says it doesn't work. Your heart is so desperately sinful that the living God is the One that knows the depths of our depravity. We sometimes look and say, “I can't believe people do that, I can't believe that people in our country have degenerated to the point that they'll do this or that and it's acceptable.” God is never surprised. He has told us “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) It's a rhetorical question. “I the Lord search the heart,” the only One who really knows the depths of depravity. That's one of the frightening things about sin, it drags you in and drags you down and keeps wrapping its tentacles and more and more and more and more around. It's just like chains being wrapped around and around and around. The world says they have an addiction. They do, the Bible says they are enslaved to sin and the only freedom comes from the sacrifice that Christ offered so that when we believe in Him those chains are broken. God pierces through the innermost recesses of our being to make us new, to inscribe His character in the very hearts and minds so that he cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. We have been redeemed because He made the sacrifice to set us free, to provide forgiveness and cleansing.

We are not set free now so we can do what we want, we're set free to serve God. This word “to serve,” we get the word liturgical from it in English, but often has to do with our ministry before the Lord. We'll talk about this when we get toward the end of Hebrews and the sacrifices now we as priests who have access to the presence of God, our lives become a ministry of service to the God who has redeemed us by His grace. Incidentally, I think this makes clear when a person has truly been cleansed on the inside their life changes, there is a clarity that comes.

I had a lady come in toward the end of last year to share with me. She had been saved at Indian Hills some thirty years earlier while a college student. Came in and said the first time in a Protestant church and nervous and wondering what was going to happen, what we were going to do. And the portion of Scripture happened to be, we were talking about your religious activity can't change you. She said, the light came on, I saw clearly what Christ had done, I believed in Him. She says, I could never go back. That's a mark of true conversion.

We sometimes wonder, people in these false systems, are some of them saved? Well He cleanses your conscience from dead works. Cleanses the conscience from dead works, do you continue on doing those religious activities which are nothing but dead works? Here it was the Levitical system. No. God brings a clarity that is not there until He changes us on the inside. Now I see clearly the finality of the work of Christ and what He has done. It makes us new, you can never go back. I love what this lady said, I knew I could never go back. Thirty-some years later she was here to share her testimony. She has never gone back, she has continued to follow the Lord and faithfully serve. He changes us and makes us new on the inside.

And that's the glorious message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's the only way to be set free. That's why He came, and He died so we could be set free, made new and belong to God for time and eternity.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your grace, the power of Your salvation. This message of Christ is Your power for salvation to everyone who believes. Lord, it is amazing and overwhelming as we try to plumb the depths of this awesome truth that when we turn from our sin and cast ourselves on Your mercy, believing the finished work of Your Son and His death on the cross as payment for our sin, You change us on the inside. You cleanse us, You make us new and life is never the same. We give You praise in Christ's name, amen.