Pastor Muri's message from Sunday (part 4)

And that is that never at any time in all of the year upon year upon year upon year, generation coming, generation going, one generation coming, another generation succeeding, in all the years in which sacrifices were done on the Day of Atonement, no priest ever said, when the Day’s events were completed, no high priest ever said, “It is finished.” Nobody in Israel ever walked away from the Day of Atonement ritual and said, “Yes, it’s done! I’m forgiven forever. My conscience is fully purged. I will never again have to answer for these sins.” They just didn’t because they just weren’t because it didn’t happen because the blood of bulls and goats could not possibly do it. [track 7, 0:54]

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. I wish we had time to go painstakingly slow through the entire chapter. In fact, chapters 8, 9 and 10. It’d be great if we could just stop and read the whole book of Hebrews this morning. But if you look at what’s happening in Hebrews chapter 9. Let me just begin reading at the beginning of the chapter.

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.

What’s that? The Tabernacle.

2 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. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense

Actually, the golden altar of incense, as we understand, was outside the curtain. But it was very much associated with the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of God. And so the author here theologically conjoins the two more closely.

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.

The articulation of the law by the finger of God sat in that box underneath. And between that box, holding the law of God, written with His finger on the tables of stone, and the holy presence of God hovering above -- between those two was a seat of mercy where the blood was sprinkled. Get the implication of all that.

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

Sounds like a preacher.

6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 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 [the bullock] and for the unintentional sins of the people [the goats].

8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened

If there was anything that the rituals of the Day of Atonement screamed out to the people, [it] is, “The way to God is severely restricted. Access is difficult and limited.”

as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age [the Old Testament era]). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,

The Old Testament saint did not say, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” The Old Testament didn’t say -- or the Old Testament saint did not say, as Paul celebrated in Romans chapter 5:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,

Oh, the Old Testament saint would have given anything to be able to say that. Moving on, it says, these rituals, these rules

10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of [making it all straight]. 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest

Remember, the high priest was the representative of the entire nation, who did all of the work. He did all the manipulation of the blood. He did the sacrifice. He brought the sacrificial offering into the presence of God. He did the whole thing, while everybody just stood around and watched him do the work of atonement.

when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,

And the writer of Hebrews has already explained that the Old Testament high priests were imperfect. They needed offer sacrifice for their own sins. [end of track 7, 5:21] And they had to do it every time that they did the Day of Atonement.

then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)

Not material down here on terra firma.

12 he entered once for all into the holy places,

Can you see? Pushing back the veil. It’s pushing-back-the-curtain language here in verse 12.

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.

That’s an unthinkable concept to the Old Testament saint. How often, how many times during the average Old Testament saint’s lifetime did the Day of Atonement occur? Well, if you lived 40 years, then 40 times. If you lived 56 years, then 56 times. It happened every year. It was a repetitive thing. And it simply expressed in detail what every daily sacrifice did. Every time blood was shed, the whole meaning of the Day of Atonement was involved. Every sacrifice, whether it was a whole burnt offering, whether it was a trespass offering, whether it was a peace offering -- whatever kind of offering it was. If blood was shed, then atonement was involved somehow. It may not have been the centerpiece, like the sin offering. But it was involved somehow and at some point, because that’s what the blood was all about.

But here, Jesus Christ carries the blood -- not the blood of a goat, but the blood, His own precious blood, the blood of a sinless substitute beyond the veil of the made-without-hands tabernacle in heaven, into the very presence of God, He brings the blood of His own sacrifice.

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, 14 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.

I’m going to skip down in the context just a little bit. Verse 23.

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.

I didn’t mention, but when the sin offering of the people, the blood of the goat was brought into the sanctuary to sprinkle before the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, he also sprinkled the sanctuary and the furnishings and everything else to cleanse them, because anything that was associated with Israel was defiled and needed to be cleansed.

It was necessary [verse 23] for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 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.

Twenty-four, seven. Without interruption.

25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then

If Jesus did that, He would have had to from the beginning of time, He would have had to go to a cross and die every year.

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.

Amen!

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 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.

Jump down in chapter 10. There’s a lot of wonderful truth here that we won’t take time to read, but I want to pick it up in verse 9, where Jesus is saying what He said when He came into the world in fulfillment of Psalm 40. And the words Jesus said when he came into the world: “Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. You’re not satisfied in the sacrifices of bulls and goats. You are satisfied and will be satisfied in the bodily sacrifice of the body that you have given to me.” [end of track 8, 4:44]