Jesus the Superior Sacrifice

good intentions can take us a long way in healthy relationships. So one of my favorite examples of this is the well-known Christmas story called The Gift of the Magi, where there's a very young, poor, married couple. And it's their Christmas together, and they're giving gifts to one another. But they have a very small budget. And so they come up with a way to supplement that by selling their most valuable possession in order to give something precious to the other person. So the young man sells his very nice pocket watch in order to buy a set of combs for his wife's long, beautiful hair. Meanwhile, the wife has her hair cut and sells her hair in order to buy a chain for his pocket watch. And so they find themselves there on Christmas morning, very innocently, obviously thoughtful, but now useless gifts for one another, in a lesson that teaches very beautiful, sacrificial love. It's a nice story, pretty short. But good intentions like that only work in the case of ignorance. Intent always is informed by the amount of knowledge that we have. So it would be a very different story had they known about the other's sacrifice, had one of them known about it and still bought the gift anyway, right? It wouldn't be a quaint story of innocent joy. It would be a cruel mocking of the other person. And I say all of that this morning because I think it's often tempting for us to think that as we approach God, that sort of best intentions are all that really matter. That if we come to God, if we mean well, if we try hard, that that's just gonna be good enough and God kind of accepts that, accepts us on those grounds. But it's not. It's not good enough. That's not the way that it works with God. Good intentions are not enough because God has spoken. God has revealed himself to us, and so ignorance is not an excuse. God has told us very clearly who he is, what he expects of us as we approach him, and that's why the Bible is, that's what the Bible is, is God's disclosure of himself, and that's why we seek to make the Bible so central in what we do here as a church, both here in our services and in our lives throughout the week. We try to make the Bible, God's word central, because it's God's disclosure of himself to us. The Bible has to inform and constrain and transform us as we regularly encounter its truth. And that concept is really what a lot of the book of Hebrews is about. So if you're just joining us this morning, we welcome you. We're glad you're here visiting with us. We've been working through Hebrews as I've preached. I'm not the normal preacher here, but as I preach, we pick up where we left off in Hebrews and we've been in and out for about a year. And Hebrews is a sermon written to Jewish Christians in the first century. And they're confused about Jesus because some of them because of misinformation, some of them because of persecution, some of them because of just laziness. And they're so confused about him that they're actually tempted to leave Jesus, to go back to their old Israelite, old covenant way of worship. And the author of Hebrews is trying to awaken these Christians to the fact that when it comes to worship, Jesus is indispensable. They and therefore we can't miss who he is or what he's done for us. He's the final source of revelation from God. He's the only source of salvation before God. Jesus is better than and he's the fulfillment of everything that they thought they knew about relating to God. Jesus is God's prophet who speaks the final declaration, revelation of God's, of himself to us. He completes God's revelation of himself. He's God's king who reigns over the entire created world and in resurrected glory already reigns over the world that is to come. He's the true priest, and we've spent a lot of time thinking about that, how He mediates between God and His people, how He was like us in every way, but without sin. He's able to really, truly sympathize with us, beginning with His birth. It's what we celebrate this time of year at Christmas, His incarnation. He experienced the full weakness of the human condition. And although He is like us in every way, He's also done what no one else could do. He makes us right with God. So he sacrificed himself to satisfy God's righteous wrath against sin so that the legal penalty against us could be paid in full and the filth of sin in us could be washed away. His perfect life of obedience stands in our place so that we are adopted as God's son and ushered into the very heavenly presence of God where we can come to him for mercy and help. Jesus's resurrection and ascension guarantee that we are secure as God's children. He serves in this role forever. So if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, I want you to understand that what I just laid out is the message of the gospel. It's about how God has intervened in the human history to save us from himself, to sacrifice his son, to take his wrath against our sin. And we are required to respond to that message in faith and repentance, turning away from sin, turning away from our rebellion against God, turning to him to present ourselves as obedient servants, following him, trusting him. So if you don't know that message, if you don't know Christ, please stick around after the service, talk to me or talk to someone around you about him. As Carol read beautifully earlier, we are studying a big chunk today, chapters 9 and halfway through chapter 10. And the author you heard is comparing the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, explaining how Jesus is greater, far greater, not just better, greater, infinitely greater than what the old covenant had to offer. And he's picking up an argument he started last time we were together in chapter 8, where we saw that Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise. God had promised his people a new covenant, and Jesus is the fulfillment of that new covenant, that new way of relating to him. And in chapter 8, it ended with this verse. And speaking of a new covenant, he made the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. And as we thought about that last time, we considered how the image isn't just a passive vanishing away, it's an active being destroyed. And so going back from Jesus to the old covenant is like passing a beautifully prepared meal on a table to walk over to eat discarded leftovers in the trash. And what I hope that we see this morning is that the author is explaining further why that is the case, why what Jesus has done in the New Covenant is so much better. We're looking deeply into the Old Covenant, how it works, and how what Jesus has done has fulfilled and surpassed it. And so the thesis of this morning I want us to see is that genuine worship is only possible through Jesus Christ, because he made the perfect sacrifice in the perfect place with the perfect result. Genuine worship is only possible through Jesus Christ because he made the perfect sacrifice in the perfect place with the perfect result. Now before we jump into that, I think we need to kind of go back a little bit to understand where this audience is coming from because we are not, most of us are not from a Jewish background where all of this kind of stuff that he's talking about is real familiar to us. So I want us to take a moment just to kind of put ourselves in their shoes with the context of all the old covenant and the sacrificial system before we get into what all this means. So the term Hebrew is both an ethnicity and a religion. So these are people who are biologically descendants of Abraham, and they are also the people who are identified with Yahweh, the God of Abraham, the God who revealed himself to Abraham and made promises to him in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17, that he would bless him and make him great, to make him into a great nation, that he would give him land and through him bless all the peoples of the earth. These great promises came to Abraham. A few generations later, Abraham's great-grandchildren find themselves in Egypt, and they eventually are slaves to the greatest nation on earth at the time. And God delivers them powerfully out of Egypt. He opens the waters of the Red Sea, causes them to pass through, crushes the Egyptian army in the sea, and then through the wilderness leads them, providing for them, caring for their every need. And then God gives them expectations. He says, I am your God. You're going to be my people. This is what I expect of you. And that is seen very clearly in Exodus chapter 20 when God gives what we know as the Ten Commandments and then for the next few chapters he further explains what he expects of those, how they apply those laws in very specific kind of cases. And God promises them blessings if they obey and warns them about curses that will come upon them if they disobey. So what we see playing out there and culminating in Exodus 24, which is what the author is looking at here, is that this is this legal arrangement known as a covenant. And it's what our author refers to here in chapter 9. So let me read again verses 15 to 22 so we have this in mind as we approach the text. 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 the blood both the tent and 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. So he's telling us that Jesus is bringing this new legal arrangement, new covenant, in terms of our relationship with God that fulfills and replaces the old covenant. The nation of Israel, as we see here, is in a legally binding relationship with God. God says, this is all that I've done for you as your God. This is now what I expect of you as my people. And they agreed. And they went through this ceremony of the sprinkling of blood to say, if we don't keep our end of the bargain, this blood should be ours. Our blood should be spilled just like these animals. And then what followed in the book of Exodus are very specific instructions about how to construct a space for worship, a special tent called the tabernacle and vessels used in worship. We'll be looking at those in just a minute. And those things also had to be sprinkled with blood. It showed that the people were not holy. They are not holy. They can't come into God's presence without blood. And it's saying, God is graciously allowing the blood of these animals to cover our sin. And that principle is made explicit in verse 22. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. So this is describing the initial setting apart of God's people. God consecrating them, sanctifying them, making them His people. And then what follows in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy is this elaborate system constructed around this principle. Sin results in guilt that demands death. But God allows for sacrifices to stand in the place of sinners to stay his wrath for a time. And that's what the Old Covenant is all about. So in this section, beginning in chapter 1 of verse 9, all the way through 10-18, all that Carol read earlier, is explaining the relationship between how the Old Covenant functioned and what Jesus has done to replace that. So we'll look specifically again at the place, the sacrifice, and the result. And these three themes are kind of integrated, woven throughout the text. They don't break cleanly according to certain passages, but I hope that we can draw those out and see distinctly what they are and then feel the significance of what the author is saying about what Jesus has done. And we'll spend most of the time at the end of the sermon really applying and meditating on that. A warning for those of you who love a really good, clean breakdown of the text. We don't have that this morning. As you heard, all of these themes are kind of woven in and out. So we'll be skipping around. I'll be referring to different passages throughout this. If that's distracting to you, just go ahead and give up now trying to write down every reference. There will be a lot of them. Try to take down whatever content you feel is helpful to you and then use that as you meditate on the text this week to go back to. So just want to relieve that tension before it starts. So let's look first at the place. Number one, the place. So beginning in chapter nine, verse one. 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 there were a lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence, 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, which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that it budded, and the tables of the covenant, the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim with 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 places is not yet opened, as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. We see right off the bat the importance of regulations, right? Both in the Old and the New Covenant, God has specified exactly how his people must approach him in worship. And it starts with the place. So this tabernacle was a very special tent constructed of very special materials, very specific dimensions. It consisted of two parts, an outer part and an inner part. So the outer part we see is called the holy place that had the lamp and the table of the bread of presence. These were 12 loaves representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And then the image of these together, light and food, light was always there, food was always there. It was a picture of a home. and the image of God dwelling with Israel, like being in a home together. Inside the inner part was the most holy place, the Holy of Holies. It was where God's presence was manifested very specifically. So it had the Ark of the Covenant with the urn that contained the manna. It had Aaron's staff that abutted the tablets of the Ten Commandments. And while those things were all very holy, I think it's important we remember they were also very embarrassing things for Israel. They were reminders of their failures and their unbelief. How they had complained against God's provision, how they had rebelled against His authority, and ultimately they had violated His law. They were reminders of Israel's guilt. And so on top of the ark was a golden cover that had two angels whose wings kind of came up and spread out over the structure. This was described as God's throne and also called the mercy seat, the symbol of God's presence among his people. And the wings of the angels hid, as it were, God's view of those reminders of sin. So we have even in the holy place this picture of the reality of sin and the mercy of God covering or not looking at that sin. But I think the most important feature for the discussion this morning, though, is the curtain. This curtain. There were two curtains. There was an outside curtain that separated the tabernacle from the rest of the world. But then there was the inner curtain that separated the most holy place from the rest of the tabernacle. And it told us that God's presence was veiled. Though God was among his people, he was also removed and distinct from his people. And the author explained how this works in verse seven through nine. Only the high priest goes into this place, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. And by this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy place is not yet open, as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. So this entering into this most holy place is describing the day of atonement that's in Leviticus 16. God's presence was open to his people for, to one person, one day each year. So that person, that high priest could come in and there was a ceremony attached to all this, but he was allowed to come in first with blood for his own sins and the sins of his own family, and then to go back out and make another sacrifice, bring that blood in to represent the cleansing of the people. And this is not a picture of intimate fellowship. It is a sober and fearful reminder that God is holy and that his people are not holy. Only in God's mercy does he allow animals to die in their place, and it only works for a year, because next year they have to do it all over again. And so even with these sacrifices, only the high priest is allowed to come in, but even he is removed from God. He's distant from him. He's unwelcome, unqualified to come near him, except for this one little provision. No one else can approach God. Compare that to verses 11 and 12. 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. So that passage starts off with what we didn't realize was a Christmas text. When Christ appeared. We can't escape it when Christ appeared. The author is showing us that he's already a different, he's already showed us that he's a different kind of priest. He's eternal, he's the king, he is established by God's oath. He's the high priest of the good things to come, which I am very eager to talk about. They are the good things to come later in this sermon. We'll get to that in a moment. But notice where he serves. In the greater and more perfect tent, the true holy place. And then if we skip down to verses 23 and 24, 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. So what the author is telling us is that the earthly tabernacle, its vessels were very real, the sacrifices they performed were real, but they were at the same time symbolic. They looked forward to something, they were modeled after something real and heavenly and in God's presence. And so where Jesus serves is where no human being could serve. So we're gonna say more, but let's stop there and move on to the sacrifice. So number two, the sacrifice. Verse seven told us that the high priest enters the holy of holies with blood, not his own. And then several more references, just to go through quickly. Verse 12, the blood of goats and calves. Verse 13, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer. Verses 18 to 20, the first covenant being inaugurated with blood of calves and goats. 21, the tent and vessels sprinkled with blood. 22, everything is purified with blood. There's no forgiveness without blood. Verse 25, the high priest offers blood, not his own. And we could keep going. But if you look back through these two chapters, the section that we read, and you reference every time it says blood, every offering, every sacrifice, you get the picture that this is one messy system. If we read back through the Old Testament, a large portion of the priest's job is basically that of a butcher. And I think for us, where we are in our context, it's really hard to get our minds around that, because most of us don't live a kind of lifestyle and live in a world where we see death like that up close and personal. Most of us, we get our meat from the grocery store, and it's pre-packaged or pre-cooked, and so it feels very sterile compared to what the author is talking about here. But for those of us who farm or hunt, we know that slaughtering animals is a messy business. There's no getting around it. It is not pretty. And that was the point of the entire sacrifice. You read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, it is not G-rated. It's ugly. The Israelites are confronted very personally, very real way with death. They're standing there at the altar looking into the eyes of an animal. It's about to have its neck broken, about to have its throat slit, about to watch blood spill out over the altar, eyes glaze over as it dies. That's what they are confronted with. It's a very vivid, real picture that God gives us to remind us that justice demands our lives. But God is allowing this animal to die in their place. The text highlights the inadequacy of this system. So chapter 9, verse 25, the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own. Chapter 10, verse 1, the same sacrifices are continually offered every year. 10, 11, every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices. You hear that every year, every year, every day, continually, repeatedly. It is monotonous. The same thing over and over again. The blood of animals is flowing daily, weekly, monthly, annually. And because sin continues to plague the people, there is no end in sight. It feels hopeless. But friends, listen to what Christ has done. Chapter nine, 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. Verse 14, the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God. Verse 26, as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Verse 28, Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many. And then listen to this passage, chapter 10, verses five to 10. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The author is demanding that we see that Jesus has made a completely different kind of sacrifice. Rather than year after year and day after day, it's once for all, one sacrifice. The old covenant demanded the sacrifice of perfect animals. They couldn't be diseased or disabled because God wants our best and not our trash. And here we see that God plays by his own rules, offering his own son without blemish. By this one perfect sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has forever satisfied and fulfilled every animal sacrifice, so they are no longer necessary. It's clear from that passage I just read, chapter 10, verses 5 to 10, quoting Psalm 40, this is what Christmas is all about. It's about Jesus taking on flesh, taking on a body in order to offer up that body as the one final sacrifice before God. Study through the Gospels, Jesus was never making sacrifices. He didn't have sin to offer for, but he came to offer himself in order to fulfill the old covenant and to establish a new one. So Jesus makes the perfect heavenly sacrifice in the perfect heavenly place. Let's consider now the result of his sacrifice, number three. Back to chapter 9, verses 9 to 10. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. Then down to 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. Chapter 10, verses 1 to 4. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And then down to verse 11. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. So under the old covenant, there is a provisional, a temporary holiness that deals only with external purity, reminds people of their sin, and demands these ongoing sacrifices. But friends, listen to what the perfect sacrifice of Christ accomplishes. Chapter 10, verse 12. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and I will write them on their minds, then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin." So friends, Jesus made the perfect offering in the perfect place with the perfect results. And so let's spend the rest of our time then considering what those results are. First, Jesus removes our sin. Jesus removes our sin. Under the old covenant, the sacrifices served as a reminder of sin. The animal's death represented the death of the one who was making the offering. It looked back on sins, committed both intentional sins and unintentional sins, but it didn't actually take the sin away. So you can imagine having come to make a sacrifice, make the sacrifice, and then on the way home, You sin, you think of something you shouldn't say, you say something you shouldn't say, whatever happens, and then you realize, right back tomorrow, gotta make another sacrifice, or right back next month, or next year. The system was not designed to take away sin, but to demonstrate the ongoing need for us to be cleansed, to be forgiven, to realize that sin is deeper and broader than it may first appear, to realize that it is a sickness that affects every aspect of our being. But Jesus' sacrifice actually puts away sin. So verse 15 talks about redemption. A death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the First Covenant. And that's a term used to describe purchasing a slave out of the slave market. Under the Old Covenant, we are exposed as slaves to sin. We're not free to worship in purity, but we are captive to our desires that run contrary to the glory of God. So Jesus' death then serves as the purchase price of his people. Jesus came to live the life of perfect obedience under the law, to offer that life in exchange for our life of sin. He died to suffer the penalty that our sin deserves. We deserve death for breaking God's law. And because Jesus is the eternal son of God, he can offer eternal redemption. So the effect of his work is that he actually puts away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The old covenant can be fulfilled and set aside so that salvation comes to those who are united with Jesus Christ by faith. And the glory of this system is that God's forgiveness is not at all arbitrary. It is the perfect expression of divine justice. His eternal wrath is satisfied by an eternal sacrifice. So God can count our sin as punished in Christ. He can count Christ's life of perfect righteousness to our account so that we can be accepted by God and holy in his presence. That's the glory and the beauty of the gospel. The author summarizes this in chapter 10, nine to 10. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. as we consider this language of the sacrifice. I think it's important that we take a minute, we don't take a lot of opportunities to do this, but to talk about the Lord's Supper in light of this. It's a ritual that we do monthly with bread and juice and formality, and it almost feels a little bit sacrificial in nature, so I think it's important that we talk about it. So let me say first, the Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice. We need to be very, very clear about that, and it's very safe for me to say that here, but let's remember, friends, that during the Reformation, people died for making that statement. Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper as a reminder that his death was the once and for all sacrifice for sin. It's not a reminder of sin, it's a reminder that sin has been put away forever. And I believe that Jesus is present in very real ways as we take the Lord's Supper. He's present as we believe the gospel message that he died, rose, and will return. He's present as we experience his forgiveness afresh, and as we extend that forgiveness to one another, coming to the table together. He's present as we anticipate and long for his return. But friends, he is not present in the literal elements as his body and blood. He died once. And he is now seated at the right hand of God because his sacrificial work is finished. And to say anything other than that is to actually deny everything this text is teaching us about the sufficiency of Jesus's death. This piece of furniture right in front of me down here is not an altar. It is a table. We do this in remembrance of Christ. The last altar was a cross on Calvary. That system is gone. And it's really important that we understand that. Our forgiveness isn't contingent upon us having taken the Lord's Supper since we sinned last, or even having confessed every sin. It's based on the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let's keep going. Second, it perfects our consciences. So Jesus, through his sacrifice, actually perfects our conscience. Verse 14 of chapter nine says, Jesus came to purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. So under the Old Covenant, the cleansing that people experienced was ritual, it was superficial, and it was temporary. There were all kinds of sacrifices for all kinds of things, and the point was that you would very quickly realize that you don't have enough animals, or enough money to buy enough animals to make enough sacrifices to actually deal with your sin. And even if you did, you don't have any confidence. If somehow you got everything to kind of square everything away, the system is still all about your performance. So you could even start the day clean with no confidence that you were going to stay clean for the rest of the day. There's no hope of staying that way. We see that after God saved Israel, He assembled them at the base of Mount Sinai. He came down in the form of thunder and lightning, the sound of a trumpet and smoke. And Exodus says that the people trembled and stood at a distance, and they sent Moses to the mountain to intercede for them before God. Fear and trembling was the only option for God's people. There was no assurance. There was no confidence. No sacrifice they could make could actually deal with their sin. No one but the priest could go into the tabernacle. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies once a year with blood. That was the system. And we have these glimpses throughout the Old Testament of people who get creative or get lazy about their worship. Aaron's sons came and offered unauthorized fire on the altar and they were consumed. Uzzah, when they were transporting the ark, reached out his hand to steady it, and he was consumed. Because God is holy, and we are not. And there was no way of addressing this in the old covenant system. The sacrifices, they only went skin deep. They couldn't solve the problem. But by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Friends, that is a declaration of our status for those of us who are in Christ. His past sacrifice has an ongoing effect for his people. Jesus' one work means that we are forever regarded as complete before God. That is good news. So it says that we have a perfected conscience. The blood of animals couldn't do that, but Jesus' blood does. Because Jesus' blood was perfect and eternal, our sin is decisively and finally dealt with. And as a result, we have a clean conscience before God. We have assurance that we really are forgiven, that we really are accepted in his sight. So brothers and sisters, I think we need to grasp the significance of that, to feel the weight of that. I said this in the last sermon, I think it's worth it repeating, don't be more aware of your sin than God is. Don't be so focused on your sin that you minimize and trivialize the actual effect, the beauty, the glory, the weight, the accomplishment of what Christ's sacrifice has actually done. If you are in Christ, God sees you through Jesus's work. And the duty and the responsibility for us as Christians is to learn to see ourselves through Jesus's work. So if it says we have a perfected conscience, then what are we actually supposed to do when we have feelings of guilt? Well, the first thing I think we're supposed to do is ask, is there sin in my life that requires repentance? Is there something I need to confess and to make restitution for? And if so, then we do it. We confess. God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. As I said earlier, though, it's essential that we understand that our status is not changing based on our adequate confession of our sin. We can't ever adequately confess our sin. Each of us will die having failed to adequately assess the real effect of sin in our lives and really reckon with that before God. Our forgiveness is not based on our appropriate response, but on the historical fact of the spilled blood of Jesus Christ and our faith in that. But if you've confessed and you've repented and you still have a guilty feeling, then friend, that's the time that you look to Jesus. Remind yourself of these precious truths of the gospel, that His sacrifice was once and for all, that His blood actually removes sin. Stop focusing on your subjective feelings of guilt and focus on the objective work of our great Savior. I've heard it said, I've heard that psychologists say, that if you raise your children and you give them roughly equal amounts of encouragement and criticism, that the child will grow up with a terribly distorted, a terribly low view of themselves. What they need really is something like ten compliments for every one criticism. And I think that that same principle is probably true for us as Christians. And some of us have terribly misinformed identities because we took a look at Christ when we were converted. Maybe we take a look at him here at a weekly gathering. Maybe we take a look at him, you know, daily during quiet times. But then we spend the vast majority of our time thinking and looking at ourselves. And we really don't like what we see. We have to fill our hearts with Christ and what he's done for us. And that's why corporate worship and Christian fellowship are so essential to our health as God's people. We have to be surrounded by people who are constantly reinforcing the gospel message for us because it's easy for us to forget and lose sight of it in the course of day-to-day life. Assurance comes to us from looking to Jesus. This is something we see or hear played out in the hymn, Arise My Soul Arise. Shake off your guilty fears, the bleeding sacrifice on my behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands, my name is written on his hands. Five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me. Forgive him, oh forgive, they cry. No, let that ransomed sinner die. So that's what Christ is saying in heaven on our behalf. And then listen to this, the Father hears him pray. His dear anointed one, He cannot turn away the presence of His Son. The Spirit in me answers to the blood of Christ and tells me I am born of God. That's how assurance works. When we look to Christ, we have confidence in what he has done for us. So we fight for assurance, not by looking first to ourselves, but to the objective historical evidence of God's love for us in Jesus Christ. And rather than running away from God in fear, we run to him for help. We fight together by holding out that truth for one another. Number three, Christ's sacrifice enables our service. So 9.14 again says, Christ's blood has purified our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Under the old covenant, it was the priests who were separated for a special service to God. They were the only ones who could enter certain places and do certain things. When it came to worship, they had a more important service. But in the new covenant, every Christian has been sprinkled with the blood of Christ to be purified and to be set apart to serve the living God. because our sin has been dealt with, because we are perfected in God's sight, because our consciences are cleansed, we are now free to serve. Christ's blood has purified us so that we can serve as honorable vessels for God's purposes. And it's really important for us to see that. One of the things that distinguishes Christianity from every other religion is how we understand our works in relationship to our salvation. Every other religion is based on performance. So you obey, and you serve, and God owes you. But being performance-based is actually contrary to having a real relationship with someone. So you can be performance-based, but you have no security, because there's the constant possibility that you fail, that you don't meet your expectations. Or there's pride and self-sufficiency, that you can do it on your own. But in the end, there's no personal relationship with God. But in the New Covenant, it's the exact opposite. God guarantees our acceptance through Jesus Christ, and we have a right view of God and His holiness, we have a right view of ourselves and our sin and being forgiven and covered in Christ, and then we're actually free to have a relationship with God, adopted as His children through Christ's work. So before Christ, service was something we did to try to earn God's favor, to make Him owe us, to put Him in our debt. And if we're honest, a lot of us are still tempted to do that, I think. I suspect many of us at some time or another have thought that we could put a little more in the offering plate, we could jump into that nursery slot, we could do something to help another church member because we were bothered by a particular sin in our lives and we were trying to offset that guilt and that sin. Or we sometimes just stay home, we stay away feeling like we need the adequate time to be cleansed, to be purified so that we can come back to the fellowship. But friends, we have to see that for what it is, which is an affront on the sufficiency of Christ's work for us. We can't put God in our debt and we can't get rid of our sin by anything that we do. Only Christ's blood can do that for us. So then through Christ, service is something we can do freely out of love and joy, responding to what God has done. It's something we as Christians do naturally because we see the service that God has rendered us in Christ and we gladly follow in his steps. So let me ask, Christian, is your life characterized by service? Does your mindset reflect that you are no longer your own, but you have been purchased by Christ for service in his kingdom? Do you serve joyfully and sacrificially? And I don't ask that to say that service is just sort of always easy. It's not easy. But if we are consciously responding to Jesus' service to us, if I am consciously responding to Jesus' service to me, that changes my outlook. I don't see people as obstacles. I see people as opportunities to demonstrate God's love for me to them. So I'm compelled to go outward and move toward people I usually wouldn't care about or do things that I may not otherwise want to do. Because I want to respond to God's love in my heart. The other question we should ask is, is whom do we serve? Of course, we are called as Christians to do good to anyone wherever we can. But the New Testament is clear that if we love Jesus, we will love those whom he loves. And that's normally expressed through being identified with a local church where you are known and committed to that part of the body to carry out the gospel in context of a community. Fourth, Jesus's sacrifice brings us into God's presence. So chapter nine, verse 24, Christ has entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. The old covenant did not make people holy so that they actually came into God's presence. That was very clear. It made them just holy enough so that they weren't destroyed by the slightest manifestation of God's glory. That's what the old covenant did. But through Jesus' sacrifice, we receive the invitation to draw near to God. And because Jesus has definitively dealt with sin, we are cleansed, we are forgiven, we can actually approach the throne of God. The way into the holy places is now open for those who are in Christ. The message of the Old Testament over and over again was keep your distance. That was the picture, that was the symbolism, that was the words, stay away lest you be destroyed. But one of the major exhortations throughout the book of Hebrews is draw near to God. This is something we do particularly in prayer as we come to God who is our father in heaven, the father who is good and knows how to give good gifts to his children, the one who knows what we need before we ask him. And as we thought about it, it's the spirit-given instinct to trust him as father and to cry out to him as Abba, Father. In the old covenant, the place was essential to worship. It had to take place in the authorized location with the proper furniture through the authorized representative. And we see that authorized representative translates through in the new covenant. Jesus is our authorized representative. But through Jesus, his people can worship anytime, anywhere. When Jesus died, the curtain of that most holy place was torn in two from top to bottom, and it showed that access to God was now completely open through Him. Anyone can worship by the new birth of the Spirit, and in the truth of the gospel, anyone can approach God. And that means that every moment of our lives now are lived in God's presence. So we really shouldn't call this place that we're meeting in, this room, a sanctuary. Because this pulpit is not any more holy than the pews, or the cubicle that you work in, or the kitchen table that you serve out at home. This room is significant, this room is holy because it's where the saints, the holy people gather, and that's it. We are called to present our lives as God's people, as living sacrifices to God, to live as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation wherever we are. God's holiness is to be channeled through us and into the world. Number five, Christ's sacrifice guarantees our inheritance. So verse 15 of chapter nine, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. And then down to verse 28 of chapter nine, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, Christ will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. The Old Testament, Old Covenant sacrifices had no lasting impact. They had to be repeated daily and annually. Their accomplishment was shallow and short-lived, but Jesus' sacrifice, his one sacrifice, has global, eternal significance. He delivers God's promised inheritance to his people. So Israel lost the land due to their disobedience, their failure and unbelief, but Christ's accomplishment for us and in us means that we are guaranteed to inherit the promises that God has made for us. Christians have assurance of eternal life in the new heavens and in the new earth with God. And he's also promised, Jesus has promised to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. As we've seen, the nation of Israel didn't fulfill their covenant obligations. They lost God's favor. But for us, through Christ, we have confidence of his return. And that day that will be a day of fearful judgment for those who don't believe will be a day of our salvation, a day of our rescue out of judgment as we're ushered into the presence of God. Christ's sacrificial work is finished. So unlike the priests who stand daily maintaining the purity of the temple, Jesus is seated as the reigning king of the new creation, waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool. What he accomplished is global and universal. As we conclude then, back to where we started, we have to realize that God has spoken. This is what we know about Him. This is what He's revealed about Himself and what He expects of us as we come to Him in worship. So good intentions won't cut it. We have no excuse for going back to old ways of relying on our works, of looking to ourselves. Our best efforts, friends, are earthly and temporary and result in fear or self-righteousness. Brothers and sisters, what Jesus offers for us is heavenly and eternal. He has removed our sin by his blood. And so let us celebrate that precious truth by serving God as we eagerly wait for the return of our King. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we confess to you that we stand on holy ground this morning. As we hear these truths, we're reminded of the reality of the sacrifice that was made for us on the cross. We have no claim to any of that on our own. But God, you loved us and you purchased us and you adopted us. And so God, we are forever changed as your people because of that. And we pray that you would impress upon us your love for us in the completed work of your son. We pray that we would see what he has done for us and feel the freedom of forgiveness and joy and hope. that we would see our freedom to worship and serve you as you want us to, as you created us to do, and that we would live in the hope of our eternal salvation when Christ returns. We pray this in his name, amen.