A Pure Conscience

The Old Testament reading this morning is in Numbers chapter 19, starting in verse 14. Please stand.

This is the law when someone dies in a tent, everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days, and every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean.

Whoever in the open field touches someone who is killed with a sword or died naturally or touches a human bone or a grave shall be unclean seven days.

For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering and fresh water shall be added in a vessel.

Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and all the furnishings and all the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone or the slain or the dead or the grave.

And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus, on the seventh day he shall cleanse him and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and the evening he shall be clean.

The New Testament reading is in Revelations chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come?

I said to him, sir, you know, and he said to me, these are the ones coming out of their great tribulation.

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. You may be seated. If you would take your

Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9.

You follow as I read this chapter. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.

For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence.

It is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, having the golden altar of incense and the

Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant.

Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.

By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy place is not yet opened as long as the first tent is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age.

According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink in various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

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, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons 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? Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.

For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying,

This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way he sprinkled with blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

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.

For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Father, thank you for your word. Help us now to understand it, that we might be more profitable servants of yours, that we might love you more, that we might see the glory of Jesus as our sacrifice.

Help us to that end, we pray now, in Jesus' name, amen. Do you ever notice that we're always looking for something better?

I mean, it's burned in our psyche, well, at least the American psyche. Think about it.

Where should we go to vacation? Should we go to the beach or should we go to the farm? And you ask yourself, what's the better opportunity for rest?

But then you might say, I'd rather go to Disney World. Well, why would you go to all those tiring activities?

Well, because you think that that's better than rest. See, we're always looking for the better. Should we go to Arby's or to Matt the

Miller's? Which is better? Well, if you go to Arby's, you get a nice sandwich. You go to Matt the

Miller's, you get a hamburger that's out of sight good. But then again, then again, if you've got to be in Cincinnati by 3 o 'clock in the afternoon, the

Arby's drive -thru might be better. See, we're always making decisions based on what's better.

Remember that this sermon letter that we call Hebrews was intended by the writer to show us that Jesus is superior, that he is better.

He is superior in every way to what God, God's people had under the old covenant.

And he tries to convince you that you must remain steadfast in your faith, your devotion, your loyalty to Jesus.

Now the people of his day felt pressured to abandon Jesus and go back to those old ways.

And even though we may not be tempted to go back to the old covenant forms of worship, we are tempted to abandon or to drift away from Jesus.

But Jesus, again, is our greatest and our only hope. And he is our only hope because he is better and what he does is better than anyone or anything.

Jesus' person and work are incomparable. Nothing can compare to him or what he has done.

So let's then, again, examine the glory of Jesus, our Savior, and see the incomparable work that he has done in our text today from verses 11 through 14.

Let's look at it together. Verse 11, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more greater tent not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons 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. Well let's look at what our writer has to say. He says, first of all, believe that Jesus brought better blessings.

Believe that Jesus brought better blessings, verses 11 and 12. Jesus is the high priest of the good things that have come.

Now remember the restrictions and the detailed regulations of worship under the old covenant.

You remember that, and he's just got done talking about that in verses 1 through 10.

And you remember that they existed, he says in verse 10, until the time of reformation.

That is the Holy Spirit, and speaking through that temple produced a longing, or that tabernacle produced a longing in the people of God, there must be something better.

And a time of reformation was supposed to come. And then verse 11 he says, but when

Christ appeared, signaling this contrast between the old and the new era, the time of reformation had come with Jesus.

But when Christ came, when Christ came, he brought those good things.

The new covenant's better promises. When he appeared, those better promises came into play, and they arrived with Jesus.

Well what are those blessings that he mentions here? Well the first thing he says is, you have the blessing of a better sanctuary.

The blessing of a better sanctuary. Now look, you must always have someone to represent you in the presence of God.

You always have to have someone represent you in the presence of God. Do you realize that every religion has a sense of alienation from God or gods?

And that every religion has a priest of some sort to represent people to God or to the gods.

Right? There is this innate sense that there has to be some kind of representative in the presence of God.

A priest must go to God on behalf of God's people. And so it was that the high priest under the old covenant would go into the presence of God, into the holy place, and then the holy of holies, into the very presence of God where he revealed himself on the mercy seat to go into his presence with blood, but only once a year.

He stepped into God's presence, sprinkling that blood of sacrifice necessary to turn away

God's wrath because of the sins committed in that entire year before. Now Jesus, as our high priest, also steps into the presence of God, but he steps into a greater and more perfect tabernacle.

It's not a tabernacle erected by men. It's not part of creation. That is, it's not a temporary residence of God.

It's far above the earthly tabernacle. It never contacts defilement and must be cleansed like the earthly tabernacle.

It cannot decay like every other part of creation.

And unlike that earthly tabernacle, our high priest is at the right hand of the majesty of God.

He is in the very presence of God in heaven.

And he has entered the presence of God, our text tells us, once for all.

The high priest had to go in every year, and only on one particular day of the year.

Once a year he had to go in. But our priest has entered the sanctuary, this eternal sanctuary, forever.

Not once a year, but once for all. He doesn't have to repeatedly go in because he's there.

He's always there before God. So we have the better blessing of a better sanctuary.

But he also says here that you have the better blessing of a better sacrifice when he talks about the blood of Jesus.

Now how did Jesus get into that better sanctuary? How did he get into that better sanctuary?

Now the high priest of the former days got into the earthly sanctuary by means of the blood of bulls and goats.

Remember the whole ceremony? Two goats, one sacrifice, one sent into the wilderness.

A bull, a bullock for the high priest and his family's sins. And then he takes the blood of both and goes into the holy place and sprinkles the blood of the goat and the bull on the mercy seat.

Well how did Jesus get into the better sanctuary? He came by his own blood.

He came by his own blood. Now when you read the word blood, it's not saying that Jesus, he kept a vial of his own blood and took it to the heavenly sanctuary.

It says he comes by his own blood. When you see that word blood, it means giving up a life in sacrifice.

It's talking about a violent death. And so the blood of Jesus is his sacrifice. And Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary by offering his own blood.

This is the blood of God incarnate, the sacrifice of God incarnate.

How can you possibly compare the sacrifice of Jesus, God incarnate, with the sacrifice, the blood of bulls and calves and goats?

Jesus surrendered his own life for his people. And because of his sacrifice, he entered the heavenly sanctuary once for all.

No repeated sacrifice necessary. He entered once for all. So Jesus surpasses the ministry of those former priests because he offered a better sacrifice.

So we have a blessing of a better sanctuary. We have the blessing of a better sacrifice. And because of those new covenant blessings, you have eternal redemption.

That's what he says at the end of verse 12. 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 result of ministering in that heavenly sanctuary with a better sacrifice achieved eternal redemption for God's people.

The blood of calves and goats could never accomplish eternal redemption.

Now what does redeem mean? What does he mean when he uses the term redemption? When you see the word redeem or redemption, you need to think of ransom or a price paid.

Always think that way. All right. So Rudolf Abel, at least that's what he called himself, was a

KGB agent in the United States. And he was caught.

He served four years of an incredible sentence. And then he was taken to Berlin and exchanged for the pilot

Gary Powers. Any of you know your history is Gary Powers was shot down as he was flying a spy plane over the

Soviet Union and captured. And so Colonel Abel was given in exchange for Gary Powers.

And there was this exchange. So you think of it this way, Abel was the ransom price. It was a ransom price for Powers.

He was the one. He was the price that was paid to get Gary Powers back.

He was the price that was paid. He was the ransom price. It was because of that that Gary Powers was freed.

Now, what does that mean? It means that by his death, Jesus secured for us eternal redemption.

That is, he secured for us glory. Do you remember what he said in chapter 2? That by his death,

Jesus what? Brings many sons to glory. He purchased for us glory.

He purchased for us our freedom from the penalty of sin. The punishment that is due

God for our sin. He freed us from that punishment that we owe. He freed us from our guilt.

That is, we don't have a record any longer with God. He freed us from that. He freed us from the rule of sin.

From the bondage of sin, he's given us liberty so that we're no longer ruled by sin.

He gave us freedom to be called the sons of God. We're free now to identify ourselves as children of God.

He freed us from the wrath of God by his death. That's redemption. All those things that we enjoy were purchased for us by Jesus.

And it's an eternal redemption. It will never be revoked. It is ours forever.

Now when you compare what was accomplished with the blood of bulls and goats and that which is accomplished by Jesus, there is absolutely no comparison.

One, kept you from just being destroyed from God because of your national sins.

The other, we've got our freedom from all of these things that never was accomplished with the blood of those other sacrifices.

And so Jesus far surpasses the ministry of those priests in the

Old Covenant. Look at what he's gained for us that you could never gain in the

Old Covenant. And so this is why our writer continually puts this before us. When you're tempted to abandon or to drift away from Jesus and to go somewhere else, he's saying nothing else will accomplish what

Jesus has. Where are you going to go? Where are you going to go? You can't have any of that apart from Jesus.

You can't go anywhere else to get this redemption. And so we need to believe that Jesus brings us better blessings.

But he goes on in verses 13 and 14 and says, believe that Jesus achieved a better purification.

A better purification. Verse 13. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons 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. Now, rituals of purification were absolutely essential and necessary in the

Old Covenant worship. I want you to turn back to where we got our Old Testament reading to Numbers chapter 19.

Because this is where he's pointing us. To Numbers chapter 19. Alright, I'm going to begin reading in verse 1.

Now watch what happens here. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, this is the statute of the law that the

Lord has commanded. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which a yoke has never come.

And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest. And it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him.

And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

And the heifer shall be burned in his sight, its skin, its flesh and its blood with its dung shall be burned.

And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire burning the heifer.

Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and afterward he may come into the camp.

But the priest shall be unclean until evening. The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening.

And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place.

And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel.

It is a sin offering. And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.

And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

So they burn this heifer as a sin offering and they gather the ashes and they put it in this and when necessary they put it in this water.

So they take some ashes and put it in the water. Now drop down to verse 14. This is the law when someone dies.

We heard this this morning. When someone dies in a tent. Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days.

And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally or touches a human bone or a grave shall be unclean seven days.

For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering and fresh water shall be added in a vessel.

Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone or the slain or the dead or the grave.

And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean and on the third day and on the seventh day.

Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and that evening he shall be clean.

If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly since he has defiled the sanctuary of the

Lord. Because the water from purity has not been thrown on him he is unclean.

So when he talks about these ashes and so forth in Hebrews this is what he's referring to. You're unclean under these circumstances and you only become clean when you take the ashes of that heifer put it in this water and splash it on the unclean person.

And notice that he even defiles the tabernacle if he approaches the tabernacle in that unclean state having not been sprinkled with the ashes and the water.

Now what's going on? What is going on? Simply this

God is holy and he wants to communicate some truth to his people. I am holy you are contaminated you cannot approach me in worship nor can you be in fellowship with all the other people of God in your contaminated state.

You are defiled. You must be sanctified. You must be set apart from your impurity.

And he's giving them this object lesson. Something had to be done so they could approach

God. You must be purified. You must be cleansed.

Before you can ever approach me or have fellowship with God's people.

That was the object lesson he wanted to get across. Alright? Now our writer tells us that the sacrifices of bulls and goats and the purification rituals only cleanse you outwardly not inwardly.

Okay? It didn't cleanse you inwardly only outwardly. It taught you the lesson over and over and over again.

There has to be purity to come before a holy God. And so you learned about contamination and the holiness of God but those rituals and sacrifices never did anything for you inwardly only outwardly.

So you could be cleansed and you could be then able to approach God in worship.

Bring in your sacrifice or your offering of some kind into the tabernacle courtyard. Alright? You're now able to do that but you could be doing it grudgingly.

I hate doing this. This is such an inconvenience. I had other plans for today. I gotta take this sacrifice.

Right? Purified outwardly but inwardly still a rebel.

Right? And you have to offer repeated sacrifice and repeat the rituals since you could never be cleansed inwardly.

It never brought permanent forgiveness or never changed your heart. They could only achieve ceremonial purification.

That's it. Ceremonial purification. But he says in verse 14 that Jesus achieves conscience purification.

That is, his sacrifice actually purifies your conscience. Now note this.

That Jesus offered a sacrifice to God through the eternal spirit. What's that all about?

What's that all about? Jesus was anointed by the eternal spirit of God.

Now, go back to the Gospels and you read every account of his baptism and what do you see in every account?

What happens? What's recorded? The spirit of God descends on Jesus.

Well, when the spirit of God descends on Jesus you hear a voice from heaven that said, this is my beloved son.

Listen to him. This is him. This is my beloved son. What's going on? It's a fulfillment of Psalm 2 where God says this is my son when he's talking about the king.

The spirit of God anointed Jesus as Messiah. As the king.

Psalm 42 verse 1 talks about the suffering servant of the Lord will be anointed by the spirit of God.

And so it fulfills Isaiah 42. And so this is the eternal spirit who anoints

Jesus for his work. So he offered this unblemished sacrifice having been appointed to that task by the anointing of the

Holy Spirit. Notice our writer also says he offered an unblemished sacrifice to God.

It's an unblemished sacrifice. All the sacrifices offered to God in the

Old Covenant had to be unblemished. We just read that a few minutes ago. This red heifer who has to be unblemished.

When you brought a sacrifice to God it could not have you could not go out and say okay, you know what you know what you know what goats are mighty expensive.

And you know what I'm never going to get any money out of out of Bluebell because you know she's got, she's lame.

No one will ever buy that one. No one will ever want that. I'll take that one. Right? You take that because you're not going to lose as much.

No, God says you've got to bring an unblemished sacrifice. It's going to cost you. You've got to bring an unblemished sacrifice.

No lame legs. No blisters. Nothing wrong with it.

And you offer that. But Jesus, unlike those animals, is also morally and spiritually unblemished.

There is nothing wrong with him at all. Remember what our writer has already asserted.

He's already told us in chapter 4 that Jesus is without sin. And in chapter 7 he has said he is holy, innocent and untainted.

So he is morally unblemished. Consequently Jesus needs no sacrifice for his own sins like the

Levitical priests. He doesn't have to offer any sacrifice for his own sins. And he is now the faultless sacrifice that can pay the price for others.

This is a greater sacrifice. And thus because of that he offers an effective sacrifice.

He purifies your conscience from dead works. Now what is that all about?

A couple things here. Dead works. What's that? Those are acts that lead to death.

Acts that lead to death. Acts that lead to judgment if you will.

He cleanses us or cleanses our conscience from acts that lead to judgment.

Conscience. What is that? Alright listen carefully. When you look at the scriptures when it uses the word conscience it's talking about your moral consciousness.

That is your moral sensibility. That is that part of you that makes moral judgments.

It isn't merely this nagging feeling of discomfort. That's how we use the word conscience.

We have this idea of conscience is this nagging feeling that maybe

I might be doing something wrong. I'm not sure. I just feel uncomfortable. That's not what the Bible means by conscience.

Conscience is the part of you that makes moral judgments. So when you say

I'm not going to vote for that politician because he is dishonest. That's your conscience at work.

That's you making a moral judgment. That's what your conscience does. When you say son you're going to be punished because you hit your sister.

That's your conscience making the judgment that what he did is wrong.

So you have to get into your mind that when the Bible speaks about conscience it's not talking about that nagging feeling in the back of your head that makes you feel uncomfortable.

It's the part of you that says that's wrong and that's right. That's your conscience.

Okay? Now, you've been born into this world with a defiled moral compass.

If you want to put it that way. You've been born into the world with a defiled moral compass that instead of pointing you to right it points you also to acts that lead to death.

Your conscience has been defiled and corrupted. Now, does it mean it's useless? No. The Bible says that every person has a conscience and it operates and tells us certain things are wrong.

We all know that everyone has a conscience that does operate correctly. But, we're born into this world with a defiled conscience that can operate wrongly and point you in the wrong direction.

For example, lying is wrong unless of course unless of course it keeps you from losing your job.

Hmm. You see? Your moral compass is off. Or, homosexuality is not a sin.

It's just the way you are. The moral compass is defiled, corrupt.

It's off. And where is that going to lead you? It's going to lead you to acts that lead to death, to judgment.

People's consciences are making this kind of judgment today. Don't listen to any so -called exterior external moral code that demands certain actions and certain attitudes from you.

No! You do those things that make you authentic as a person.

Right? And that's the cry of today. I've got to do whatever makes me authentic as a person, and you don't have any right to tell me that.

I know I was born this way, but my authentic self is a woman.

So you do not have any right at all to tell me that's wrong, because that's what's going to make me an authentic person.

That is a defiled, corrupt conscience. The moral compass is off.

And it will lead you to death. So you see what he's saying here?

He's saying he cleanses that conscience now. He purifies your conscience.

He sets the moral compass to where it ought to be. Inwardly, because of Jesus' blood, your conscience is changed and cleansed from the pollution that will put you in the direction of death.

And because of that, because that kind of defilement, because you've been purified at that level, because of that, you can now serve the living

God. You can serve the living God. You no longer need some kind of purification to come to God, other than the purification that comes through Jesus' death.

You don't need anything else. You've been purified. You've been cleansed. Your conscience is cleansed.

And now you can serve the living God. In fact, that cleansing is so comprehensive that now you do what the priests used to do.

He uses that term to serve the living God. That's the term that he uses when he's talking about what the priests do.

Okay? That's what the priests do. You can now do what the priests used to do in the presence of God.

You can now serve the living God. You don't need anyone else to do that for you, because it's been done.

So what do you see here? You see here that Jesus surpasses the ministry of those former priests, because his sacrifice actually purifies your conscience.

It actually purifies your conscience. It cleanses it. The other day

I was listening to a radio program. I'm trying to remember the name of it.

It's called Code Switch or something like that. I just picked it up recently.

It's all about how to live a flourishing life as a human being.

The other day, I think it was yesterday I was listening, it was talking about anger. How do you deal with anger?

Well, you take this step. You keep a journal and you do this and you do that.

This is how you deal with your anger. Here's the thing. Think about this.

There is never, in any of the discussion, there is never a hint that maybe your anger is a sin problem.

That's never going to enter it. Why? Why? Because their moral compass is off.

It's distorted. Their conscience will never make the assertion.

Here's how you deal with your anger. You trust in a

Savior who actually can save you from that anger. He gives you the

Holy Spirit and the Word of God and other Christians to help in the process of sanctifying you so that anger becomes less and less of a problem.

That's never going to enter that conversation on this program.

Listen. There is nothing and there is no one who can do what

Jesus does. He brings better blessings and better purification.

There is no one and nothing out there who can accomplish what Jesus does.

And so it is absolutely foolish. It is absolutely right.

It brings you to final judgment without any hope if you abandon Jesus. Nothing and no one will do what

He can do. And so you must continue to believe because He is better.

Choose the better. Father, thank You for Your Word and for its ability to tear down the false solutions and to point out the counterfeit saviors that are offered to us all the time.

Father, help us to see that Jesus, a steadfast devotion to and loyalty to this

Savior is our only hope. Father, we confess that we're not tempted to go back to sacrifices and those sorts of things, but we sure are tempted to look elsewhere for what only

Jesus can give. Help us to steadfastly hold to our