Before we begin, let's ask the
Lord himself to be with us. Lord Jesus, we pray that you
would make yourself known to us as you did to your disciples,
not only in the daily walk of your life and the sufferings
for them, in your death, in your resurrection and ascension, and
by your spirit in their hearts to make known those things you
spoke to them while on this earth. but you yourself, by your Spirit
in our hearts, would make yourself known to us in your saving work
of us, so that our hearts would be knit together with you in
life, and we would be bound, compelled to bless the Lord,
oh my soul, with all that is within me. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen. Okay, good, thank you Barbie. Hebrews chapter nine, we've been
working up to this, All the things in the Old Testament pointed
forward to this. And here it is being disclosed
by God after centuries of non-disclosure. God was pleased to hide the truth
of his son in the shadows and types of the Old Testament. But
in these last days, God has spoken to us in his son. In the fullness
of time, Christ came. He was born of a woman made under
the law, and having been made of a woman and made under the
law, redeemed us from the curse of the law. And by the gift given
to the apostle Paul, he has revealed this mystery, hidden from the
foundation of the world, that God had an eternal purpose in
Christ, which he fulfilled, and by that purpose fulfilled, he
has saved his people from their sins. God made himself known
in his son. Lord Jesus Christ walked this
earth, suffered and died, rose again, and ascended, returned
to his Father in heaven. And now we have the record of
it. We have the declaration of it in the Gospel and the Spirit
of God given to us to know Jesus Christ in his person and in his
work. And this person and work of our
Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us now. It's not hidden anymore. The Gospel makes him fully known.
Until we reach glory, we won't have a clearer or authoritative
revelation of God, but what he's given to us in scripture of his
son and in his saving work. So when we read this text of
scripture, these words here, recognize it's the breathed out
word of God by his spirit concerning his son, the revelation of his
son to us as sinners. and count yourself more blessed
than even the disciples who heard him at the seaside, because now
he's made himself known. He has declared to us His Father
in Himself. He has revealed His Father in
His own work, in His attitude toward God, in His love for His
Father and for His people, and what He did to save us from our
sins. This is a stoop unspeakably incomprehensible. We cannot understand
how far the God of glory stooped to do these works. And we can't
understand how high He has brought us by what He has done for us,
that He has brought us even to glory, to sit with Him in glory
at the Father's right hand now. And we have it by faith now.
We possess it. With faith, we possess what is
ours. We can't see it, but we're convinced of it. The evidence
of it is that we believe God. So as we read these words, I
have thought a lot about what these things say, and I realize
that when we read scripture, we need to have these things
in our mind. First of all, what did God actually say? What was
he trying to say? He didn't try to say it. What
did he say? What's the truth of it? How am I supposed to view
life and the world and myself and God? Because now he's made
clear what the truth is. This is what God's word does.
He makes known to us the way things truly are. And this is
the only way we can know it, from the word of God. So first
question is, what did he actually say? The second question is very
important too. What does it mean to me? It's
one thing to stand off at a distance and observe something, or as
we like to do as people, we like to talk about things, or we like
to talk about people. But here, God sets it all right
out in the open. We and God are put here in God's
word and truth. So what does it mean to me? What
did God say and what does it mean to me? And there's many
things we could ask in addition to this. What does God reveal
of himself here? What do I know about God because
of what he has said here? What has he said? What does he
mean by it? What does it mean to me? What
does it tell me about God and his nature, and his character,
and his purpose, and his work, and his glory? And what confidence
does it give me? What hope do I have? How is my
thinking and my attitude towards God modified? How is it radically
changed by this? And then here's another question
that we would ask when we look at scripture. What am I therefore
to ask? If this is God's revealed heart
and mind and will, then ought not I pray according to that
will? Don't I want to desire what delights Him? what He has
revealed about the way things are, and about me, and about
what it means to me, ought I not to therefore desire His will,
and seek Him in this revelation? What did God do? All these questions
have their answer here in these few words of scripture. The tent
of time is draped upon the center stake of Christ and him crucified. And here we have it. Let's read
it together. In Hebrews chapter nine, and
I'm going to pick it up at verse six. Now, when these things were
thus ordained, the Old Testament things, The priests went always
into the first tabernacle accomplishing the service of God. Notice it
was service for God. This service for God, to God,
was done for sinners. This is what was important. This
is what God's will was. This is how God made himself
known, what he did through the high priest for sinners. But
into the second went the high priest alone, once every year,
not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors
of the people." The Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into
the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first
tabernacle was yet standing. which was a figure for the time
then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience." Nothing in our conscience or the conscience
of the high priest for that matter was made clear. His conscience
was still tainted by the knowledge that he had sinned against God.
But here he says, As pertaining to the conscience, all that the
high priest did, did not make his conscience clear or the conscience
of the people clear, because it stood only in meats and drinks
and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until
the time of reformation. But look at verse 11 now. Here's
where we get to the whole thing, the whole matter being disclosed.
But Christ, being come and high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once. into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. And for this cause, because he
did this, he is the mediator of the new testament or new covenant
that by means of death, because this is a testament now, like
a last will and testament, he's the testator, that by means of
death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the first Testament, the old covenant, Moses' law, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Those are powerful words, aren't
they? And they become powerful when we realize what is it, as
I said, what is God saying here? What's the truth? What is it? How are things truly? How are
we to think of God in ourselves and what Christ did? How are
we to think of the Lord Jesus Christ by these things? The first
thing you see here is that the Lord Jesus Christ acted for his
sinful people. He did service to God, real service. He himself entered into that
place God had from eternity, made in himself for his people
and he would accept them in their high priest. That's called the
holy place. In the presence of God, in all
of his glory, God designed from eternity to accept a high priest,
his son, for us, and in accepting him, accepting him by the payment
of blood, he would accept us in him, by him, with him. So
he would accept us as he accepts his son, our mediator. And this
is called substitution. He acted not for himself, but
for his people. That's the reason he came. That's
the reason he lived and served and suffered and died and rose
again. It wasn't for his own sins. He had no sin. He was the son of God. He took
our nature. He was put in the office of high
priest and in that office he acted and he confessed our sins
upon his own head and put them there and stood in the presence
of God with our sins and endured our punishment as our substitute. And as our representative, he
offered himself as our substitute. He acted as our surety, making
us sure to God. by the substitution of himself.
So here we have a substitution, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
what God is saying here. The Lord Jesus Christ entered
the holy place with his own blood. He acted as a high priest and
he substituted himself. That's what it means by blood.
Himself offered, himself sacrificed, himself given for his sinful
people to make them holy. to wash them from their sins.
This is what the Lord Jesus, this is the truth. This is the
way we're to think. This is the way God sees it.
This is the way things really are. And that's why I say, what
did God actually say here? He's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God as our substitute. And notice also in
verse 12, Having done this, it says here, he entered by his
own blood, he entered into the holy place, once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Not only was
he a substitute, but there was a true satisfaction and a true
success. He obtained what he came to obtain
by the purchase of his blood. Our redemption. And what does
it mean? It's a release. A release from our debt. A debt
we owed a debt we could not pay. An infinite debt. And the Lord
Jesus Christ came by God's will, by God's providing. God took
responsibility in his son for our debt of sins, our crimes
against God, and he wiped the slate clean. He blotted it out.
He paid that debt. And therefore, the bondage we
were put under, the clamps of God's law and the curse under
which we were put because of our sin, that curse was removed
because our Lord Jesus Christ endured that curse. He offered
himself and paid with his blood and God forgave our debt. A blotting out of all of our
sins was made, a full remission. He obtained our eternal release
from all debt and from our sin and from every enemy, every consequence
of our sins. He actually successfully did
this. Therefore, if he actually did
it, then it is done. We are freed. We are set at liberty
from our sins. Our sins have been forgiven for
Christ's sake because of what he did, by his work. He, by himself, purged our sins. On the day of atonement, in Leviticus
16, the high priest would enter into the holy place, and on that
day, he would actually make atonement. He propitiated God. He appeased
God's wrath. He made satisfaction to his justice,
and he obtained a cleansing for our sins. He put them away. This
is what happened. This is what God has said here.
God said this. Christ did this. It actually
happened. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
actually entered into that place where God designed in His own
presence, where He would receive Him for us. And having received
Him from us, He gave a full remission, a full release to us for our
sins. John 18, verse 8, he tells the
soldiers, if you seek me, then let these go their way. Here,
the Son of God, in our nature, as a high priest, offering himself
as the Lamb of God, speaks to his Father, and he says, take
me, O my Father, and let them go from this debt. Release them
from the curse. I will bear it. And having born
it, God the Father gives to us all that was in that covenant
of grace. So that in verse 15, he talks
about an eternal inheritance because the Testament was fulfilled
when the testator Christ died. The will was put into force because
the one who made the will died. But then he rose to administer
the distribution, to administer all the blessings of that will.
So we see this, this is what's true. What does it mean to me?
What does this mean to me? It means that I have every reason
on the warrant of God's word looking to the Lord Jesus Christ
to know that all of my sins have been dealt with, that God has
received me in receiving my high priest and receiving the sacrifice
he made of himself for me, and to come to God with all confidence,
with full assurance, Knowing that God has provided and received
from Christ, provided in Christ and received from Christ all
for me, I come to God by Him. If God did this, then He will
most surely receive me for Christ's sake. Would God design and preordain
and determine beforehand to give His Son and not accomplish what
He set out to do? Would God have a purpose and
a will and a thought that wasn't fulfilled? What actually got
done here? Christ obtained eternal redemption.
Therefore, it was God's will, and He fulfilled it. It's done,
and we have it. And therefore, we have all confidence.
We have every expectation that what God said He would do, He
will fulfill, because He's already provided it for us in Christ.
So that's some of the things here. What is my condition in
light of this? Well, my condition before was
that I was under the wrath of God. I deserved it. But Christ
came and interposed himself. He put himself between me and
the judgment I deserved. He came, he redeemed me from
the curse of God's law. He redeemed me from my sins.
Christ himself gave himself for me. That's what it means to me. That's what I'm supposed to,
as a sinner, to lay hold on Him. To hear His words, it is finished.
To hear the completed fact and hear from God what He says right
here. He then, then, in history, obtained my eternal redemption.
So we have every confidence, don't we? We have an eternal
hope. We have assurance because of what Christ has done here.
It's a substitution that actually made propitiation, made atonement,
obtained eternal redemption. Notice the emphasis here in verse
12. He entered once. All of the animals
sacrificed yearly, day by day, all the time. never accomplished
anything except to portray and foreshadow what Christ would
actually do. And so Christ entered once. Why
did he only enter once? Because once was enough. Because
what he offered to God was everything. It was everything he had. And
it was all God required. And having obtained it, there
was no need to repeat it. It was done. It was an eternal
redemption obtained. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
rose from the dead, we were redeemed. We were justified. We were purged
from our sins. We were made holy before God
by His sprinkled blood. And this is what the rest of
the book of Hebrews talks about. He suffered without the gate
that he might wash us, or let me read it from Hebrews chapter
13, verse 12. He says this. Wherefore Jesus also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. How did he sanctify us? How did
he make us holy? By his own blood. He perfected
us forever. He obtained our eternal redemption.
He made reconciliation for iniquity. He put away our sins. He purged
us. He washed us from our sins in
his own blood. It's done. It's a real substitution,
a real satisfaction, full success. Everyone for whom Christ died
here and there in history, declared by God right here, atonement
was made for them. Now, I want you to think about
this because we often talk about this. God did this. What does
this say about God's character? that he would require this. Does
it not say he's holy? What does it say about my sin?
Does it not raise, heighten the wickedness and the evil that
my sin is that would require nothing less than the full pouring
out of the lifeblood of the Son of God to make atonement for
my sins to God? Here we see the justice of God.
Here we see the holiness of God, His righteousness. and we see
the grace of God that He would so give His Son. God has not
dealt with us according to our sins, because He dealt with Christ
according to our sins, and now He deals with us according to
His righteousness. That's the gospel here. And so
God has done this. And what does it say about His
grace? What does it say about His eternal purpose? Because
it was all in His mind, And what does it say about His glory that
He would make Himself known in this way? Who could imagine that
God, who created the world out of nothing by just speaking,
would Himself, the Lord of glory, lay aside His crown and set aside
His reputation and even lay aside His garments and take our sin
and dare them before His holy law and justice and answer and
fulfill our righteousness that we might be brought to Him? in
harmony with His grace and love and justice, in perfect satisfaction,
in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, in peace
with God. He did all these things. But
I want you to consider now just this thought. about this, because
I think that sometimes we, and maybe this is my fault as I reflect
on how I try to bring the gospel to you, and I may be missing
something huge here, maybe the most important thing, and that's
who died. Who died. Who gave himself. We don't think about it so much. A lot of times it becomes an
event for us. I was thinking about this. Sometimes
my children in the past have written me a note, a birthday
card or a note or something. And you know what I do with it?
I usually tuck it away somewhere. I'll set it out. I'll look at
it again and again. I'll tuck it away, keep it. It's
a keepsake. It's not worth anything, really.
Just a few words scrawled by a young child. But it means a
lot to me because who gave it to me? My own son or my own daughter? You see, the words have more
meaning because of who gave them and what they meant by it, right? You might have heard of an architect
named Frank Lloyd Wright. He's built a lot of homes and
a lot of buildings in California. He was known for his skill as
an architect. You may even live in a home Frank
Lloyd Wright designed. What do you know about Frank
Lloyd Wright if you happen to? Probably little, very little.
His name, you probably don't think of his name. There was
a time when he actually built a house, designed it, and it
was built. So there was an event in history and a man in history
named Frank Lloyd Wright, but you're so disconnected from him.
You might enjoy the benefits of his skill, but you're very
disconnected from him because there's no person behind that
name for you. And it's the same way in all
of the experiences of our life. If someone dies, you read about
it in the newspaper, You know, John Smith, you don't know John. You feel, well, someone died.
He was, let's say, 50. He died, seems young, and he
died. But when someone near to you
dies, you think about it all the time, don't you? If your
mom dies, it has a huge impact on you, doesn't it? Because of
who they are to you. Because you know them. Jesus
Christ came into this world. He is the Lord of glory, but
he took our nature. He grew up as a man and he called
12 disciples. They lived with him. He cooked
fish for them and broke bread for them. They ate together.
He smelled them. They smelled him. They heard
his real voice. He talked to them in words. He
made known to them the truth of God. There was nothing about
what he said that was impure. Everything he said was true.
He was fearless against enemies. He was courageous where grown
strong men would shrink back. He actually spoke the truth and
he spoke it in tender kindness, but he was unflinching. They
saw him, they heard him. Peter's mother fell sick and
he went to her and raised her up again. A real sickness. And he comes to Peter's mom and
takes attention, makes a special point of going to her house,
walking there, entering the house. and raising her up from her fever. And this wasn't just one, he
did this many times. Personal, he went to individuals,
he laid his hand on a woman's back who couldn't stand up, she
was bent over. He laid his hand on the coffin
they were carrying out and raised up the widow's only son. He had
compassion on people. He looked at the multitudes that
were with him for a long time and he saw that they were hungry
and he met their need. The disciples saw this. He got
into the boat with them. He slept with them in the boat.
When the storm came, they were together in the boat. The danger
was there with them all. They saw him speak to the wind
and the waves and silence them and put them at peace. You see,
Jesus Christ to them was not just a Frank Lloyd Wright name
or a label. And it wasn't just an event they
were thinking about. They were thinking about him.
He was dear to them. He had endeared himself to them
as a person. And yet they didn't understand
most of what he said until he rose from the dead. And think
about all the things that happened. Peter is sinking and he felt
the grip of the son of God in his own nature, reaching out
and taking hold on him and lifting him up out of the waves and saving
him from drowning. Jesus, Peter saw that. Peter
believed he was the Christ. He didn't just believe that he
was Christ, he believed Jesus, his master, was the Messiah of
God, the Son of God. So Peter knew him, and he knew
who he was. And yet, Peter denied him, and
in that follow-up, what happened? Jesus simply looked at Peter,
Did he look at him to condemn him? No, in that look, Peter
felt the piercing of his eyes of love and forgiveness. And
he went out and wept bitterly because he loved the man, his
master and his God. You see that when Jesus Christ
offered himself in his blood, he offered all that he was. He
didn't live for himself. All of his living, he was serving,
serving his people. Remember, he took off all of
his clothes and put a towel around him. And then as a servant, he
washed his disciples' feet. He ate with them. He called to
them and they followed him. They wanted to do, they wanted
to be just like their master. They feared that they would leave
him or that he would leave them or be taken from them. And in
the end, they all forsook him. And Peter denied him. And yet
he was true. He was faithful to them. And
he spoke to them after he rose from the dead. And he said, Peter,
do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you.
then feed my lambs. And he spoke to them these kinds
of words over and over again. Listen just to the way he talks
to them in John chapter 15. As the Father has loved me, John
15, nine, so have I loved you. You see what he talks to them
about? His love for them. We've had friends. By God's grace
in our lives, most of us have had friends. And some of them
we feel very close to. And those close friends that
we have, there's very little that we wouldn't do for our friends. We spend time with our friends.
We like to be with them. We feel comfortable with our
friends. Our friends accept us. They know our faults, and we
know theirs. And so we talk about things,
and we're comfortable talking to them about intimate things. They tell us things, and we keep
them secret. These are friends. Jesus Christ
was a true friend. He exposed himself to his disciples
as a friend, and they trusted him, and he trusted them as friends. There was a mutual trust between
them, as a man would trust a man, a man and a man would trust each
other as friends. And so he says here in John 15,
nine, as the father has loved me, so have I loved you. He's
not ashamed to tell them, I love you. Continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love even as I have kept my father's commandments
and abide in his love. It's not just a set of rules.
It's a person. Have you ever seen your mother
in the way she behaves herself through her life and you think,
I couldn't do this? What would my mother think? Or
what would my father think? What would my best friend think
of me if I thought this way or acted this way? And it makes
you nauseous to think that you could be so wicked as to be opposed
to the one you hold most dearly in life. He's telling them, if
you love me. Keep my commandments. It's not
hard. It's not hard because you want to do. There's nothing you
wouldn't do for him because of his love for you. He says, these
things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you
and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment that you
love one another as I have loved you. And now listen to his words
and you can almost hear his voice breaking. Greater love. has no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends." You see the motivation
here? What does God say? Christ offered
himself, the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He gave himself for our sins. These are texts of scripture.
This is what really happened The one who made himself known
in intimacy with his disciples, laid down his life in all of
his living and then in all of his suffering for things he didn't
do, but they did. And he stood before God in their
guilt. And he took from God that eternal
wrath that his justice required and he endured it and was happy
to do so for them. Because he didn't think of himself
and his own needs. He thought of his people. He
served them. He served God for them. And he
was accepted because what he did pleased God. It was God's
son. God's son served him. He loved
his father and he served his father as a son who serves him. And nothing pleased God more. And he received from his son
in our nature as if from us. He received it from him for us.
We're counted righteous in his righteousness, he goes on. Greater
love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. You are my friends, if you do
whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called
you friends. For all things that I have heard
of my Father, I have made known to you. This is the Lord, the Lord of
glory. To some filthy, smelly, Foul,
unlikable fishermen. They were just men. This is the
one who gave himself for us. Thomas said in John 14, he said,
I'm going to go to my father. And he said, the way you know. And Thomas said, Lord, we don't
know the way. We don't know where you're going.
He said, you do. You know the way. You know where
I'm going. I am the way, and no one comes
to the Father but by me. Therefore, you know the way,
and you're gonna know the Father when you see me." Philip said,
show us the Father, and that'll be enough. Philip, have I been
so long time with you, and you haven't known me? You haven't
known me? You see how he points them to
himself, their intimate relationship to him? He says, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father, you see? You see, this is the one
who gave himself for us. The Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. This is the truth. This is what
it means to us. With all confidence, we come
to God because he accepted his Son for us. Substitution, real
satisfaction. Later, Thomas said he couldn't
help himself. He just couldn't believe that
Jesus, who he saw die, had risen again from the dead. And then
the truth of it came home to him. Jesus stood before him.
He holds out his hands. Look at the pierced nail, the
nail piercings in my hands. And he opened his side up to
him. He said, go ahead, put your hand
here in my side. There was something connecting.
him to Thomas and Thomas to him. It wasn't just a Frank Lloyd
Wright building that we live in. It wasn't just a historical
account. It was the one who came from
heaven as God became man and laid aside all in order to save
us and have us for himself. That closeness, that endearing
humility of Christ, Him giving all for us, it means more to
us when it's Him who gave Himself. He gave all. And now we can come
to Him. We can ask Him, based on the
revelation of Himself, to do what He has said, and expect
Him to do it, because He won't fail. He can't fail. He's Almighty
God. And so every trial in our life
were to cast all of our cares upon Him who loved us and gave
Himself for us. You see? So when He entered the
holy place, He entered with all that He was, His own blood, and
that's what satisfied God. That outpoured life of His, in
love for His God and in love for His people, doing all for
them, so that all that he is is all sufficient to bring us
to God, to make us holy, to justify us in his blood, to redeem us
by his blood, to reconcile us by his blood, to make us holy
by his blood, to perfect us forever by the one offering of himself
to God for us. No other offering is needed.
God gave his all. Christ gave himself. and we gave
nothing. We brought our sin. We were helpless,
unworthy, and doomed. But the Lord Jesus Christ stepped
between us and the wrath of God by satisfying his justice, by
fulfilling his righteousness, and clothing us in himself, so
that when we appear in his presence, we're actually clothed in Christ,
the one who gave himself for us. Let's pray. Lord, we pray
that when we read the Gospel, when we hear it, we ourselves
would find this connection to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
made himself known to us, and he has drawn us to himself by
your Spirit, Lord. and you have connected us to
you so that our hearts run out to you, so that the things you've
said are not rules to us, they're you, your mind, your thought,
and our sin is repugnant and nauseating to us because it violates
what you love, what you delight in. Help us to so love one another
as you've loved us, and help us, dear Lord, at this time,
to remember you.