Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us for today's message. The message today will
be taken from the book of Hebrews, chapter 9. Hebrews, chapter 9. And the text is basically verses
13 and 14, which I'll read just a moment. The title of the message
is, How Much More? How Much More? And where I got
that title is here in these verses, Hebrews 9, 13 and 14, which says,
for if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an
heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying of
the flesh. Now that's a reference to the
old covenant sacrifices, setting the children of Israel apart
from the rest of the world in a ceremonial way. it says in
verse fourteen how much more shall the blood of christ the
blood of jesus christ how much more who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to god purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living god and so there's the
title how much more now this message is one of a series of
messages concerning the subject of how to interpret the Bible. And in this series of messages
I've given you the rules that I use personally of interpretation. There are rules that we must
go by in order to read and understand the Bible correctly. And let
me just list those rules. Today I'm going to give you rule
number eight, but let's just list those rules by way of review. The first rule is the rule of
what I call the rule of Jesus Christ crucified and raised from
the dead. That is the rule that states
that anything we read and study in the scripture, we must do
so with a Christ-centered view. The person of Christ. The work,
the finished work of Jesus Christ. This Bible, from Genesis to Revelation,
is a book of Jesus Christ. And if you read the book and
miss Christ, you've missed it all. You haven't understand anything
about it. But that was the first rule. The second rule is what
I call the rule of first mention. And that's where a truth, a concept,
of the scripture, a principle, wherever it is laid down first
in the Bible, that first mention of it, it stands true the whole
way through the Bible. And mainly what I'm talking about
there is the gospel itself. And we'll see that in just a
moment. The third rule is the rule of simplicity. The rule
of simplicity states that if God says it, if God reveals it,
that settles it. It's true. No argument. Whether
I believe it, whether I understand it, it's true if God says it.
That's the simple truth. And, of course, that's related
to what the Bible calls in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3 the simplicity
that's in Christ, that all of salvation All forgiveness of
sin, all righteousness, all eternal life and glory is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, conditioned on Him, accomplished by Him, secured
and assured through Him. And then the fourth rule is the
rule of revelation. And that's the rule that states
that in order to understand the Bible, we are totally dependent
upon God the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to us in a way of
saving understanding. We can read words, we can understand
sentences, but until the Holy Spirit gives us in the new birth
a new heart, eyes to see and ears to hear, we will not understand
these things savingly unto faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
rule of revelation. The fifth rule is the rule of
language. Some people call that rule the
rule of definition, the rule of words. It simply states that
words and phrases mean things within certain contexts that
we have to know the definitions of words. When the Bible uses
a particular word, does it mean something different than I know
already? Or does it mean something different in a particular context? So the rule of language. And
as you know, the Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew. The New Testament was originally
written in ancient Greek. And so there are some, there's
some merit to studying those things. You don't have to be
a Hebrew or Greek scholar to know these things, but you can
get a concordance. You can get a Bible dictionary.
You can look up these terms. The sixth rule is the rule of
context. Very important rule. Because
different words mean different things, or words mean, or the
same words rather, mean different things in different contexts.
A word that we read in our English language, in the book of Genesis,
may be found in the book of Revelation, but it means two different things
because of the context. The historical context, the cultural
context. and the context of the Bible,
the book of the Bible, the history, all of that. The seventh rule
is the rule of comparison. And that states basically that
the Bible is its own best interpreter, interprets scripture with scripture,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. Now today,
the eighth rule, the rule number eight, is what I call the rule
of typology. The rule of typology. And that
rule states that there are certain things in the Bible, persons,
events, objects, that the Lord inspired the writers to use and
to write down, that are types, or pictures, or shadows you might
say, symbols might be a good word, that represent other things. spiritual things, spiritual truth. And that's the rule of typology. Here in the book of Hebrews chapter
9, we have one of those things spelled out, one of these types
spelled out in the scripture. And it's that which was connected
with the old covenant law, the ceremonies, the tabernacle, that
those things were not salvation in and of themselves, but they
were types, they were pictures, they were shadows of someone
greater, someone better to come, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
For example, going back to Hebrews 9 and verse 13, it says this,
For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an
heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of
the flesh." Now that's referring to the old covenant sacrifices. They had animal sacrifices, the
blood of bulls and goats, the ashes of an heifer, that was
one that was sacrificed and burnt on the brazen altar. And those
sacrifices were performed by the high priest and the priest
of Israel all during the Old Covenant period of time which
was about 1,500 years from Mount Sinai to the cross. And these
things were ceremonies that God instituted towards the nation
Israel under the Old Covenant to which they were bound in worship
and service to God. But here's the thing. In these
animal sacrifices, there was absolutely no power to save,
to save a sinner. In fact, over in the book of
Hebrews chapter 10, it states that. The blood of bulls and
of goats could never take away sin. There was no power in the
animal blood, the animal sacrifices, to wash away the sins of a sinner. There was no power in those animal
sacrifices to justify a person, to make that person not guilty
and righteous before God. There was no power in the blood
of animals to give life, spiritual life, to a sinner. So why were
these things given? Why did God command Israel to
do these things? Well, it's the same reason if
you go all the way back to the book of Genesis that God instituted
worship by sacrifice to begin with. You remember when Adam
and Eve fell and they brought the whole human race into sin
and death. What did they do? They tried
to hide from God. They were ashamed of their nakedness. They tried
to cover their nakedness with fig leaf aprons, representing
their own works. But what did God do? He slew
an animal, which I believe was a lamb. You can read about this
in Genesis 3. He slew an animal, he shed blood,
and he made coats of skin. And that was an object lesson
there. The slaying of an animal, the
bloodshed, the making of coats of skin and putting it upon Abba
and Eve. What God was saying is what he
told Abba before, in the day that you sin, you will die. That's
what blood represents, death. Why is that? It's teaching this
lesson. And it was a reminder to the
children of Israel all through their history that this is the
lesson, the soul that sinneth must surely die. The wages of
sin is death. We're all sinners. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And we're all sinners. So what did God do? Well, He
set up a system of worship through the blood sacrifice of animals
to do what? To typify to symbolize, to picture
and foreshadow the one and only way of forgiveness, not by the
blood of animals, but by what they typified, whom they typified,
the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what he means
here. He says, how much more, in verse
14 of Hebrews 9, 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. What
the blood of animals could not accomplish but only that which
they typified could only be fulfilled by the blood of Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God. Those, every sacrifice of the
blood of animals that was slain on Jewish altars was a type,
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the people back then were
told that by the believing priests, by the prophets. Don't look to
the blood of animals for your salvation. Look to the one whom
they typify. Look beyond the blood of animals
to the one they symbolize and prophesy of, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that was true of that whole
tabernacle, that whole temple. That's what Hebrews chapter nine
talks about. It talks about all the elements
of the temple, the golden candlesticks, the table of showbread, the sanctuary,
the Holy of Holies. You remember in the Holy of Holies,
there was the Ark of the Covenant, which contained, and the Ark
of the Covenant was made of wood overlaid with gold. That was
a picture of both the deity and the perfect, pure humanity of
Jesus Christ. Gold symbolized, typified His
deity. The wood typified, symbolized
His humanity. You see, in order to save sinners
from their sins, it took one who is both God and man in one
person. Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory.
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. So God saves sinners. He prophesied and promised to
send Christ in the Old Testament to send Him to save His people. He would be God in human flesh,
God-man. and that was pictured, typified
in that tabernacle. And you remember that tabernacle
in the Holy of Holies, you had the Ark of the Covenant, and
inside that Ark was the law, the Ten Commandments, which was
a law given to expose the sinfulness of the people. Here is the standard
of perfect righteousness, and we do not measure up. We're sinners. If God were to judge the best
of us based upon our best efforts to keep the law, we would all
be doomed and damned forever. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that doeth good.
That's what the scripture says. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in the sight of God. But over top of that ark,
which contained the Ten Commandments, was a mercy seat, again, made
of wood, overlaid with gold, typified Jesus Christ, who is
the mercy seat of His people. He is the mercy seat. The New
Testament way of saying that is the propitiation. You see,
that lid, the mercy seat, typified Jesus Christ, who is the mercy
seat of His people. And every year, one time on the
Day of Atonement, the high priest brought blood from off the brazen
altar and he brought it into the Holy of Holies and he sprinkled
that blood over the mercy seat. And that symbolized, typified
the only way in which a holy God could be just and still forgive
and have mercy and save sinners. It's by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now that blood represents, symbolizes, typifies what the Bible calls
in Romans 117 the very righteousness of God, which is the entire merit
of Christ's whole work of obedience unto death for his people. That
was a type typifying how Jesus Christ is all the sinner needs
for the complete, total forgiveness of all his sins, Jesus Christ
is all the sinner needs in order to be righteous before God. It's
the merits of his finished work imputed, charged, accounted to
the sinner. That was a type. Now the Old
Testament is full of types and pictures of Jesus Christ. and
him crucified and raised in God's way of salvation. How God can
be just and justify the ungodly. I made reference back to Genesis
chapter three and the first sacrifice that was made there in Genesis
three, where God slew an animal and made coats of skin. Slaying
the animal, that typifies the death of Christ as the surety,
the substitute of his people. The sins of God's elect were
laid upon, imputed to Jesus Christ. He was made sin. And the coats
of skin typifies the righteousness that came out of His obedience
unto death, the merit of His work, and that righteousness
is imputed to every one of God's people in time. and they're brought
to faith in Christ. And there's the types. We have
those types. We could go through the Old Testament
and talk about all the kinds of types. For example, Noah's
ark is a type of Christ. Noah was to build the ark. And
when he and his family were put inside the ark and God shut the
door, the rains came and fell upon the ark, but Noah and his
family were safe inside. Well, my friend, that's a type
of Christ. Christ is the ark of God's people. When the wrath
of God came down upon him, his people were in him. The wrath
fell upon Christ, but they were safe in him. We're safe in Christ,
that's a type. We could talk about all kinds
of, the cities of refuge. They're all types of Christ.
The scapegoat, a type of Christ. The scripture talks about the
rock that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness
from which when Moses struck it, they got water. That was
a type of Christ. Paul said that. The manna that
fell from heaven, that's a type of Christ, the bread of life. The serpent that Moses, the brazen
serpent that Moses put upon a pole, that's a type of Christ hanging
on that cross, bearing the wrath of God for the sins of his people
to save them from their sin. All of these things were types
of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said, that whole tabernacle
and temple, those were all types of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
about it. The temple, the high priest of
Israel, he himself was a type of Christ. The kings of Judah,
they were types of Christ. Now, one of the things we need
to understand about these types is this. No type is perfect in
and of itself or himself. And so when you see, for example,
King David, who in his office as king was a type of Christ,
but when we see him as a sinful human being falling into sin,
we cannot equate that as a type of Christ, his behavior. You
see, it's not, my old pastor used to say, you can't make a
type stand on all fours. You see, types are just that,
they're limited. The only complete complete salvation
that a sinner can find is in Jesus Christ Himself crucified,
the righteousness of God in Christ. He's the only perfection. That's
why He's called the anti-type, A-N-T-E, not A-N-T-I. That means
against. He's not against the type. He's
the anti-type. In other words, He's the one
upon which the type is based and He Himself is the fulfillment
of the type. So the high priest of Israel,
he's not perfect in himself, but in his office, in his duties,
he typifies the perfect work of Jesus Christ. Well, I want
to show you something in the New Testament. that shows us
the fulfillment of the time. And let me say this, one of the
things that was a great type of Jesus Christ and the salvation
that he freely provided for his people was the seventh day Sabbath. They worked six days. They were
to rest on the seventh day. That seventh day Sabbath itself
was a type of Jesus Christ and the rest that His people have
in Him because He finished the work. That was a type. And therefore,
our Sabbath today is not a day. Our Sabbath is Christ, reading
in Hebrews chapter 4. But over in the book of Romans
chapter 2 and verse 28, Paul's talking about circumcision. physical
circumcision. And he's showing the significance
of physical circumcision for the Jews and what it typified. And he says in verse 28, for
he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. Now what he's teaching there
is simply this, that physical circumcision was itself a type
of something greater, spiritual, and eternal. And what did it
typify? It typified the new birth, what
the Bible sometimes called circumcision of the heart. You know, some
people say that infant baptism was the New Testament replacement
for Old Testament circumcision. Oh no, that's not right. Infant
baptism is a concoction of men to gain control over people.
No. Circumcision physically was a
type of the new birth, which is spiritual birth, circumcision
of the heart. And that's why the Apostle Paul
in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3, when defending him and
the church against the Judaizers who wanted to enforce physical
circumcision on the Gentiles, he said this, he said, for we
are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. How do you
know? that you've been circumcised
in the heart, you've been born again. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We have confidence in Christ
Jesus. Our confidence of salvation.
Our confidence of being forgiven. Our confidence of being righteous
before God, our confidence of salvation is in what? Not in ourselves, not in what
we do or try to do or promise to do, but in Christ Jesus alone
and have no confidence in the flesh. We don't have any confidence
in our works, We don't have any confidence. If we're born again
now, we look to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith. We are the circumcision. You
see, circumcision in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant,
and that which was given even to Abraham, was a type of being
born again by the Spirit of God. And there's so many other types
that we could talk about, especially in connection with the tabernacle. But here's the point. It all
typified, in some way, the person, the glorious person, the finished
work of Jesus Christ to save His people from their sins. The blood of bulls and goats
could not do that, but the blood of Jesus Christ certainly did.
How much more, Hebrews 9.14, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot without fault the sinless Christ who was made sin as the
sins of his people were imputed to him suffered and without spot
to God purge your conscience cleanse your conscience you know
what the conscience is that's the seed of judgment in the heart
in the mind It's that by which we accuse or excuse others and
ourselves. The conscience by nature is defiled. It's an evil conscience. That
means it's a guilty conscience. It's a legal conscience. It's
a condemned conscience. Well, what can purge that conscience
from all sin? Only one thing. The blood of
Jesus Christ. When we, by the power of the
Spirit, see the blood of Jesus Christ, cleansing us from all
sin, making us righteous before God, and ensuring and demanding
our complete salvation under glory, then we can say our conscience
has been cleansed, purged from dead works to serve the living
God. What are those dead works? They
are works aimed at establishing a righteousness of our own before
God. They are works aimed at saving ourselves or keeping ourselves
safe. You see, we are the circumcision. We who believe now, not all without
exception, but we who believe this gospel, we are the circumcision. We worship God in spirit. We worship God as he reveals
himself and we worship God from the circumcised heart, the born
again heart. We have confidence, boldness,
rejoice in Christ Jesus. We glory in Him. Not in the church,
not in our works, not in ourselves. We glory in Christ Jesus and
have absolutely no confidence in the flesh. Now that was shown
in the Old Testament back in the type of circumcision. So
these are the types and I hope you enjoyed this. I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.