Hebrews 9:15

This pulpit, sections that fit into sermons. I assure you that a meaningful place to end here this evening, this ninth chapter, is the portion of the epistle discussing the death of Jesus Christ. It also defines if Aaron's rod, which budded things have been so, but in a second, one of the high priests enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the Holy Spirit, signifying this, the way of the disclosed still standing, which is a symbol of the present time.

Since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, not through the blood of goats and cows, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctified with cleansing the flesh, how much more of the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

So here we are, the first portion of this chapter, this is the context that brings us up to where we are today, but since it's such a long chapter, I'm going to stop just for a moment and remind us of what has been said up to this point that gives us the context, especially for the B -15.

Notice that all the intimate understanding is an exhortation to be put under pressure to go back to the old ways. It's demonstrating the supremacy of Christ. There is nothing to go back to. The author talks about the worship that is going on in the temple.

That's why I believe very clearly that the book of Hebrews is written before the destruction of the temple by Titus and the Roman legions in A .D. 70. He talks about the fact that we have all this earthly shadow that is but a copy of the heavenly reality, and that Jesus now, not through the blood of goats and cows, but through his own blood, has entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

And we emphasize very strongly, and I've lost count how many times we have made reference to this particular verse in the preceding chapters, because it so summarizes the whole reason why there's nothing to go back to, and that is because we have a high priest who does not take the blood of sacrifices in a bowl once a year through the veil into the holy place.

But we have a high priest who does not take the blood of goats and cows, but through his own self-giving, he has entered the holy place, the holy place in heaven itself, the true holy place, once for all, one time, not once for every person, but once for all, it's a temporal advert, one time, and having obtained eternal redemption.

Not having made it a mere hypothetical possibility. Not having made a reservoir of grace that now you have to go to various sacraments to avail yourself of these things. No, he has obtained eternal redemption.

Not a short period of time of redemption, eternal redemption. This is the act of the God-man. Then he says, if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, drawing from a number of these Old Testament types and shadows and the types of cleansing that was done to people who, for example, had touched a dead body or things like that, if that kind of sacrifice and that kind of ceremony could sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Mashiach, Messiah, the one who was to come, the very fulfillment of the prophetic hopes of the Jewish people, how much more will the blood of Messiah, who, through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

See the supremacy in the fulfillment, the supremacy of the New Covenant, in the fulfillment of the Old, this then becomes the background of our portion of the chapter this morning. So, beginning at verse 15, for this reason he is the mediator, so that since a death has taken place, the redemption of the transformed, the called ones, where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it, are dead, for it is never, therefore even the first, without blood, for when every commandment has been spoken, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water, the book itself, and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant, and the same way he sprinkled me with the blood, and according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now, once, at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation.

The form of the argumentation, and the depth of, we are truly entering into it here. Once again, I remind us, I think one sees so much of a shallow understanding of the work of Christ in much of what calls itself evangelicalism.

The heart, the depth, and yet what's the context? Sacrifices, and priesthoods, and Moses doing stuff with blood. Let's just be honest. You're trying to create a culturally cool Christianity. This is not the book to be preaching from, and this is not the tie to be wearing.

Culturally cool Christianity is not what we're trying to create here, because that's not the speed our culture, because it's going to be different next week. When someone is truly touched by the spirit of God, and they desire his truth, and they desire to know that they're right with him, they're not going to be looking for culturally cool Christianity.

What hasn't changed? What won't change next week, or next year? What's going to be firm and unchanging? And here we have a letter, and people say, well, wouldn't this be relevant? To walk away from their commitment to the centrality, and meaning, and purpose of Jesus Christ.

And is that pressure not against us? And is it not an in-depth understanding? In the cross, is not the cross the very center point of history itself? And so if we really want to ground people in the truth, if we want to see the fulfillment of Paul's prayer in Colossians, that we be grounded and firmly rooted in him, then what will we make sure that each, what is the sacrifice of Christ?

But why? Why is it such a horrible, soul-destroying thing to think that Christ, his sacrifice, is something that's repetitive? Or it's something that only provides a certain amount of grace, or a certain amount of forgiveness?

Why is that so important to say, no, no, no? It's right in front of us. He, Jesus, is the medium evidence so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed in the first covenant, may receive the promise of the eternal life.

You might say, I stepped out of Hebrews one night just simply to look at this term mediator, and to look at how Jesus is a mediator, what a mediator does. So you might say, well, New Covenant, he's taking all these things that he's established, that he's proven in the past, and now he is weaving them together into that core, that gold and silver and all of the cords that come together to form the beautiful message of the sufficiency of Christ.

And so he says to his readers, for this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant. His death is sufficient. He, through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God. For this reason, he's the mediator of a new covenant.

Because you see, the old covenant did not have a mediator like this. Remember, just a few months ago, I went through, if I recall correctly, 17 points. Blame John Owen for it. The sermon outline is way too big, but 17 points where the new covenant is unlike the old.

The mediator, and here we have one who is uniquely qualified to be the mediator of the covenant whereby the triune God will glorify himself. That is the God-man. It's not surprising to me. It's the mainline denominations.

It does not surprise me. Once they abandon a belief that scripture is consistent with itself, then they abandon, they say that he's a wonderful example. They don't really believe, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, that he was truly a deity, that he was virgin-born, that he was God in human flesh.

And once they've abandoned that, the whole message must seem extreme. They don't understand why the social gospel, because you see, it all hangs together. You cannot have this kind of expansive, universe-changing death that Paul says in Colossians is the means by which reconciliation takes place.

That doesn't mean every creature's reconciliation is just the devil. Or as he says in Ephesians, the summing up of all things in Christ. You can't have that if Jesus is just, well, he said nice, pious platitudes about being a being loving, and that's about the extent of it.

How does his death provide you a foundation for something that Paul says has cosmic ramifications? So once you start taking out the foundation stones, it's not going to stand up. What's left is just a shell.

And so this mediator of it, we need to understand, why is he capable, why should we be worshipping this mediator? 2 ,000 years later, the world says we're not. The world says we are deceived, wasting our What's the basis?

And when we look such processes off, and it's just a mantra we repeat, I mean there are people who do, is that the stuff makes those, just sense in them that godliness and that consistency, and that nearness to Christ.

Here it is in plain words. It is God's intention, through the death of Christ, to bring about the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant. Aren't all those who committed sins under the first covenant glad to hear that?

That's what Paul talks about in Romans chapter 3. He talks about God looking over those things because of the certainty of the coming of the cross. He didn't treat those under the old covenant unjustly, but the blood of goats and cows has never been, it's never been its purpose to actually bring eternal redemption.

It was always pointing away from itself. And so that death has taken place, the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, so that those who themselves seek forgiveness in their darkest bedside, in the face of death, the damnation.

Jesus has promised that if they believed in Him, they would pass out of death into life. And how is it that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance? Especially since every single one of those who, isn't it possible that I'm going to die and then stand before the foundation?

Why is it so that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance? That's what God wants to accomplish. That's His end, that's His purpose. What's His means? So focus. Christ and His gospel.

He and He alone. There is only one. Pretty elderly folks. If you're talking to my generation of beloveds, there's objections into everyone's minds. But you see, there is no way to read anything in such a way.

He is a mediator. Somebody else has their own. You want to have a different kind of inheritance that comes before Him. And that's the real problem. People do not believe that. Because they've been given a view.

He doesn't care about His law. It is. Put the Son through. Think of Him. The purple being. Think of Him caring. Think of Him honoring. It wasn't anything about justice. It wasn't anything about punishment.

No, we don't want a God like that. Showing them, opening their minds to scriptures, showing them what the prophets themselves had prophesied. To say that there is some other way. So that since a death has not truly manned.

They're dead and gone. Jesus wasn't really action. It's not just some cut. It's not just some bedtime tale. Since a death has taken place. A death, a propitiatory sacrifice. Having something to do with the look at the cross.

The sentimental God. The triune God's purpose from eternity past. And there is purpose in this atonement. People with Christ in His death. Proceeding chapter. Although His law. These are the called ones.

You see the connection here? This is an argument we have. For the covenant. Those who have been called. Called. New covenant. Consistency. The wrathful God. They don't want to hear about a bloody cross any longer.

That just doesn't resonate. Yeah, I can understand. Soul destroying. Mind destroying. Spirit destroying. Kind of. This message that death has taken place. There is forgiveness of sins. Those who are called will receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

And this is the only way. How do we take that? Without compromise. You see that's the line. See you're the ones that have to take this message. Fathers this is what you have to teach to your children.

Mothers this is what you have to teach to your children. And explain to your children. Young people this is what you have to take into. And I know you're going to be mocked. I know. But this is the message you have to take into your school.

Between huge difference between those two things. And unfortunately it seems very clear to me that we have apostolic example. Using the language of the day. To communicate to a particular audience. The Apostle Paul had use of the Gnostic heretics.

Using their language. Crusty in our traditions. He insists that the exact same words we use 60 years ago. Express myself in such a way they can see exactly what it is I'm saying. That's one thing. It's completely different to say.

I know that they're pretty fabulous men. And when we don't tell people that. We're not doing them or ourselves or God anything. So you see this one verse. Yeah it's a summary. But it touches upon so many important claims to us.

The very basis upon confidence. Amongst those who have been called. If we have received that call in our life. We've bowed the knee to Jesus Christ. We have a reason for belief. Made a guarantee. And he did so publicly.

A significance. You do not stand in judgment of that. What do you think of these things now? Something at that last moment of prayer. Tremendous work. Seen in his death. His burial. So focused. May you seek to draw in such solace.

Such encouragement.