Hebrews 9. I think we left off
in verse 14 last week. We'll pick back up in verse 15. How far we get, we'll see. God has made it very clear to us that without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. That's what
I titled this message, The Shedding of Blood. There is no forgiveness
without the shedding of blood. The foundation of forgiveness
is not my repentance, it's not my faith, it is the blood of
Jesus Christ. When God established the Passover
back in Exodus, He did not say, when I see your faith, I will
pass over you. He did not say, when I see your
repentance, your broken heart, I will pass over you. He said,
when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. It was never the types. They were only able to cleanse
the ceremonial types. As I said last week, the types
cleansed the types. That's what they did. Christ
has always been the One through whom sinners have been accepted
and cleansed from all their sins. Jesus Christ has always been
the One. He's always been the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The covenant of grace has always
been the one covenant that God has operated by in saving sinners. It's always been the covenant
of grace. Even though it's called the new covenant, it's really
the old covenant. It's the eternal covenant. It
was just revealed last, or second. It says in Hebrews 13.20, Now
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. This covenant is as old as eternity. God made it back before the world
began. Now the word and in verse 15
is a continuation of what has been said in the previous verses
that we looked at last week when he gave the example of the first
covenant. It had ordinances and a sanctuary
and a tabernacle and all that furniture in it. Those things
were just examples. They could never take away sin.
The blood of the bulls and goats could never take away sin. And
he says here in this verse 15, And because of this, for this
cause, He is the Mediator of the New Testament. That by means
of death, death has occurred. His death. And it's His death
that has occurred for many, for many. And it's for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the First Testament. His
death put away the sins of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, thou worm Jacob,
that's what God called him, it put away all their sins. And
he's making it very clear to the Hebrews here that all whom
God saves, all who are called of God, are saved through the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And it's always been
that way. It's always been that way, and
it always will be. It always will be. It will never change. And for this cause, he's the
mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Now what does this mean? Well, first of all, that a death
has occurred for the redemption of those transgressions. A death
has occurred. And it wasn't the death of bulls
and goats. It's the death of the Son of
God. That's the death that occurred. And because of this, He's the
mediator of that new, listen, it says, it's the New Testament.
And He's talking here, and we're going to see this in a minute,
He's talking here about a will. About a will. And He's talking
about God's will. God's will in this matter. And this also
shows how effectual the death of Christ is. The redemption
price has been paid by our Lord, and all for whom it's paid, He
says, are redeemed. They're redeemed. Scripture says in John 8, If
the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
All for whom Christ dies shall be free. Someday we'll know it. Someday we'll know what the real
freedom is that we have in Christ once we get out of this life.
Once we get out of here. It's always been in Christ that
all the elect of God have been accepted, justified, and cleansed. And the older I get, the more
I appreciate this. The more I really appreciate
this. Because I know that as I get older, I don't grow any
better. This old flesh doesn't get any better, does it? It can't
get any better. It's corrupt. All you can do
with this old flesh is bury it. That's all you can do is bury
it. And it says here, even those under the first testament are
redeemed from their sins by the means of this death right here. And they are the beneficiaries
as well as we of all that Christ purchased for us. And I can't
even put that into words. This also shows us how connected
we are to the Old Testament saints in this life and in Christ. That's our brothers and sisters
also. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Those are our brothers and sisters
also. Now verse 16 speaks of a will. He says here in Hebrews 9.16,
for where a testament is, and that word testament here means
a will. He's not talking here about a
covenant made between two parties like the old covenant. That was
made between two parties. God said, Do this and live. And
they said, We will. And Moses was the mediator of
that. And they said, We will. Well, they didn't. They didn't
at all. But this one, this is a will. This is a will, is what it is. It says here, for where a testament
is, or where a will is, there must also of necessity, in order
for that will to be put into effect, there must be the death
of the testator. Well, what's a will? A will is
a legal document that states the will of the testator or the
one who made the will and who are the beneficiaries of that
will. I don't make myself a beneficiary. If my parents leave me something,
they do it because they just want to do it. They do it because
they love me. They don't owe it to me. They can leave it to anybody
they want to. I brought it. In fact, let me
read a little bit of it. This is the will. They made me
the executor. There are seven kids in the family, so I get
the headache of being the executor of this will. But it says here,
and this is my mother's, and my dad reads the same thing.
And it says, I, Charlotte Chapman, a resident of the state of West
Virginia, County of Cabell, being of sound mind and memory, You
think God Almighty is of sound mind and memory when He made
the will? I think so. Do hereby declare
that this is my will, and this is what we're reading. Get into the book. This is the
will of God, and this is His will for us. I want to be included
in that will. I want to see what I have, what
I have in Christ. "...do hereby declare that this
is My will..." And she gives her Social Security number. Now
listen, this is interesting, because this is exactly what
He's saying here. "...I revoke all former wills
that I have previously made." That is exactly what He's saying
right here. This will, this Testament right
here that we're reading about, It supersedes all other wills.
All other wills are null and void. All other covenants, everything. The one God made with Adam, He
said, Adam, don't eat of that tree. The day you eat of it,
you'll die. That's gone. The one He gave
to Israel through Moses, that's gone. He said, that's gone. That
was just types, that's all it was. Israel was a type, the covenant
was a type, all those pictures, the tabernacle was a type, the
lambs, the slaying of the lambs, they were all types. Now that's
all over with. That's all over with. Now, what
is His will? Are you interested in it? You
know, my parents gave me a will three,
four, five years ago. And they told me, they said,
tear it up. And they gave me this one. That was no good. That was no good. And they had
it in an envelope. And Vicki said, how do you not
open that? She said, how do you not open
it and see what's in it? I said, well, I just, I said, I'm fine
with it. I just put it in a safe and it
didn't bother me at all. But, but listen, this will, this will,
I want to know. I want to know. Turn over to
John 17. She'd shoot me if she were here
and hear me tell that on her. But she won't be back till tomorrow. I got the floor. A little dive
bomber up here. These mosquitoes look like drones
right now. Like something Fort Bragg would
send out. John 17. Here's the will. This is beautiful now. Verse
24. Father, I will. That's it. There it is. I will
that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.
that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for
Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world. Father, I will. those whom Thou hast given Me."
Those of you who believe, you believe the Gospel. God's given
you to Christ, and He gave you to Christ before the foundation
of the world. And you're included in this will. Right here it is.
You're going to be with Him. You and I are going to behold His
glory, the glory He had with the Father before the world was
created. And then in John 6.39, listen.
And this is the Father's will. This is the Father's will. Now
since you're turning there, I'll wait and listen. I've got it
written down here. Go ahead and turn to it. John 6.39, And this is the Father's
will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. That's His will. We're going to be with Him. We're
going to be with Him. Now, for this to be put into
effect, for this will to be put into effect, what has to happen?
He says here, "...for this to be enforced,
for it to be established, and for those who are the inheritors
for them to actually receive it, there has to be the death
of the testator. This will of my parents, this
is absolutely useless right now. It's useless until they die. And then everything in here goes
into effect. And everything in this will,
I have the power to now start distributing it, take care of
everything, spread it out among the family. So in order for this
covenant, this testament, this will that was made between the
Father and the Son, for us to enjoy the inheritance of it,
which is eternal life and all that it includes, there has to be the death of
the One who made it. There has to be. Has to be. Here's something interesting.
Boy, this jumped out at me today when I was looking at this. Who
made the wheel? God did. God made it. So in order for
this to be put into effect, God Almighty has to come into this
world take upon himself flesh, the second person of the Trinity,
the Son of God, come into this world, take upon him flesh, go
to Calvary and die. God Almighty in the flesh has
to go to Calvary and suffer death in order for this will to take
effect. Until then, it's not going to
take effect. Until then, all the blessings of it, all the
blessings to all the beneficiaries of it, it's not going to come
into effect. Not until He dies. Not until
the One who made it. Boy, when I read that, I had
to sit back on that. That's so plain and so powerful.
The One who made this will has to die in order for it to come
into effect. That's what He's saying. And this last will and testament
right here that God made with His Son supersedes all the others. And the death of the testator,
which is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary, releases,
it releases the inheritance to those to whom it's given. To
those who are mentioned in the will. Your names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Your names are written in that
will. Now he says here, and he's going
to give us an example here of something, of why this had to
happen. And he says in verse 18, "...Whereupon,
neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. Even
the first covenant, that old covenant of works, was not put
in force without the shedding of blood." I had to look at that. God said, do this and live. Don't
do it. and you'll die. But then, at
the end of all that, after Moses had read all the law to them,
and they said, we'll do it, yet it's ratified and sealed by blood. You know why? I thought about
this today. God knew they weren't going to
keep it. He knew they couldn't keep it. He knew Adam couldn't
keep that one law. God gave Adam one command. Won't
come in. And he couldn't keep it, even
when he was perfect. Even when he knew no sin. He couldn't do
it. He failed. That's why I believe at the end
of all that, he ratified it by blood, which is also a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. For when Moses, in verse 19,
for when Moses had spoken every precept, To all the people, according
to the law, He took the blood of calves and of goats with water
and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book,
the scroll, the one they broke." They broke that log. Moses stood
there and read all that to them. They agreed to it. And they broke
it. They didn't keep any of it. But it was sprinkled with blood. It was sprinkled with blood.
and all the people were sprinkled with blood. After every commandment in the
law had been read, Moses killed those animals and sprinkled the
book and the people, and he said, this is the blood of the Testament
which God has enjoined to you. This is the blood of the covenant
that seals the arrangement. That's what he's saying. that
seals the arrangement which God ordained and commanded Moses
to deliver to you." This is the blood, the blood of bulls and
goats. They were types. And he says, this seals the arrangements
that God made with you. But now listen, that's all gone.
They were trying to hold on to it. Even these Hebrews here,
some of them were trying to go back under it. And he's saying to him, that's
gone, that's gone. Moreover, in the same way, he's
saying, in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle, see, he
sprinkled the book, he sprinkled the people, he sprinkled the
tabernacle, he sprinkled everything, all the utensils in it, everything,
everything that was used in the service of God that had to do
with types and pictures, it had to be sprinkled with blood.
You can't get away from blood, can you? If you're going to preach
the gospel, you're going to believe the gospel, you cannot get away
from the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. As he says in verse 22, And almost
all things are by the law purged with blood, And without shedding
of blood is no remission." No remission. No forgiveness. You know, if God forgives me
of my sins, all my sins, the blood of Christ answers for them. His blood answers for my sins
that God forgives. The payment has been made. Punishment
has been dealt out. And I'm free to go. I'm free
to go. My sins are all taken away. They have all been purged. Not
by repentance. Not by faith. These are the gifts
of God. Faith and repentance are the
gifts of God. God has to give that to me, He
has to work that in me. They are purged with the blood
of Christ. Turn back to Hebrews chapter
1. It is written in verse 3, Who being the brightness of His
glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when Jesus Christ had
by Himself purged our sins." Now how in the world can anyone
wind up in hell if Jesus Christ has purged their sins? If He
has put my sins away, What does God have to condemn me for? Turn to Romans chapter 8. Let's see if I can find what I'm looking
for here. Romans chapter 8 verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation Zero. No condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. But in Christ there is no condemnation. There's peace. Peace. Peace with God. We've been purged. Every believer,
everyone of God's elect has been purged from their sins. And it's been by the blood. Not
by the blood and my cooperative effort, my cooperation. No. By the blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. You know, when they were on the
inside of that house, they couldn't see it. They couldn't see it. That blood was on the outside
of the door. But God could see it. And you
know what? That's what matters, isn't it?
That's what really matters is what God sees. By His grace,
He gives us faith to see it. But sometimes now, sometimes,
sometimes that faith is way down there. And you really can't see
much of anything, can you? As Paul said, we look through
a glass darkly. But God always sees it. The blood
is always before God. It's always before God. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness, there is no release from sin, there
is no release from guilt, there is no cancellation of the punishment.
Only in Jesus Christ are we free from condemnation. Now he says here in verse 23,
it was necessary, it was therefore necessary for our understanding If you took away the Old Testament,
you couldn't understand the New. You really couldn't understand
it. God set up all these types and pictures that we might now
understand the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's what
they're for. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens And that's all these
things were. They were just patterns. My mom
used to make my sisters a dress when they were young. My mother
was a real seamstress. And she didn't make their dress,
but she'd have a pattern. And she'd lay that pattern out and
go around it and cut it and then take the pattern and set it aside.
And she didn't leave the pattern on the dress. I mean, my sister
didn't wear a pattern to school. They wore a dress to school.
He's telling them they were just a pattern for us to learn by,
for us to see Christ by. That's what they are. That's
why it's important to study the Old Testament. You know, really
and truly, this book right here is one book. This is one book. The Old and New Testament is
really one book. And it's all about Jesus Christ. It's all
about Him. "...but it was therefore necessary
that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified
with these." They couldn't purify the heavenly
things. "...but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than..." The types could be purified with
the type. Now the heavenly things themselves, I'm looking at the heavenly things
themselves. I'm looking at it. You. You. The heavenly things themselves,
there had to be a much better sacrifice than bulls and goats.
There had to be an infinitely greater sacrifice on my behalf
in order for me to enter into God's holy presence in heaven,
not over there in Jerusalem, but in heaven itself. There has
to be a far more infinite sacrifice, and we have that sacrifice in
Jesus Christ who is God. Who is God. It was necessary for the copies.
That's why he's saying it's for the copies. It was the heavenly
things to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves
got to have a much, much, much better sacrifice. And we have
it. That's what the whole book of
Hebrews is about. Christ is better. Better than Aaron, better than
Moses, better than the angels, better than that old priesthood.
Christ is better. He's better. For Christ, he says here in verse
24, for Christ has not entered into the holy places made with
hands. He did not die on a cross and rise again and go back into
that temple in Jerusalem. He didn't do that. He didn't
enter into a place made out of bricks and mortar and mud. He didn't enter into an earthly
building. The man, Jesus Christ, literally
entered into heaven, in God's presence, in the Holy of Holies.
That's what He did. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures, that's
all. It's just a type of the truth. But into heaven itself, now, I like this, now to appear, in
the presence of God for us. I have, you have, a mediator
in God's presence for us. So turn over to 1 John, I believe
it is. Look in 1 John 2. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. You know, the Word of God never
approves of sin. God never approves of sin. And
if any man sin, and you can just write there, and when any man
sin, because we do, it's just when. And if any man sin, listen,
we have an advocate. We have an advocate with the
Father. He's right there in heaven with
the Father. He has entered into the Holy
of Holies. We have an advocate, a representative, right there
in heaven with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He
is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. Not for the Jew only, but also
for the Gentiles. He did not enter those holy places
made with hands, but He entered into heaven itself. And there
He is right now representing us, interceding on our behalf. Nor yet that He should offer that he should offer himself
often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year
with the blood of others, that is, the blood of bulls and goats."
The high priest did not enter in with his own blood. He entered
in with the blood of bulls and goats and what God had required. And he had to do it once a year.
But he's saying here that he didn't do that. He's saying Jesus
Christ didn't do that. For then, if he had done that,
listen to this, I caught this today, if that would be the case,
then he would have, for then must he often have suffered,
listen, since the foundation of the world. The high priest,
I thought about this today, I thought if Jesus Christ If his blood was no more effectual
than the blood of bulls and goats, and all he did was just do what
they did every year, offer it once a year, he would have had
to die 6,000 times. It's been about 6,000 years since
the beginning, since the fall, since the foundation, he says
here, of the world. And he's saying here, if that's
so, he'd had to die about 6,000 times. He would have had to suffer the
same thing he suffered about 6,000 times, and then once a
year go in. No, he said, that's not the way
it happened. Not the way it happened. Not
at all. No, he entered in once. He entered in once, but now once
in the end of the world, end of the ages. You and I are living
in the end of it. Now how much longer it's going
to be, I don't know. But He's saying here, you're living in
the end of it. But now once in the end of the
world hath He appeared in the flesh, He took upon Him flesh,
and He did so to put away sin, and He did so by the sacrifice
of Himself. He came here, Son of God, who
is God, took upon Him flesh, came into this world, suffered and died, and put away
sin. And He did that one time. Not
going to happen again. Doesn't need to. Doesn't need
to. Tomorrow, I may be the biggest
mess-up ever. He's not going to come back here
and die again for me. They've already been taken care of. You
say, well, if you believe that, if you carry on like that and
believe that, people just go out here and think they can do
what they want to do. I think pretty much everybody
here is doing what they want to do. Besides, as the Scripture says,
the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness. The Holy Spirit indwells every
believer. Greater is He that is in you
than he that is in the world. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law, you are under grace. But now once in the end of the
world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself, and as it is appointed unto men, wants to die." And
after this judgment, we all have to die, don't we? We all have
to die. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. We all have to face it. And after
that judgment, But here's the good news in verse
28, "...So Christ was once offered to bear the
sins of many, and unto them that looked for
Him..." Are you looking for Him? Am I really looking for Jesus
Christ to come? Am I looking for Him to come
or am I just looking to die? Just thinking, it's just the
process of life. "...To them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin." Because this sin
issue has already been taken care of. This sin issue is not going to
come back up again. It's not going to be dealt with
again. God sees every one of His children
just as they are in Christ, righteous. You know, I remember sins. I
can remember a lot of things. The sad thing is, I remember
the things I wish I couldn't. I always remember the bad things.
Let somebody tell you a clean joke and a dirty joke and see
which one you remember. I can still remember some ornery
jokes I heard in elementary. That's just the mind we got.
That's the way we are. But God does not remember our
sins at all. They're gone. They're gone. And unto them that look for Him
shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. I go away and prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where
I am, there you may be also. I tell you, I'm interested in
this will. I'm interested in the will of God. I'm interested
in this Testament. I tell you, we ought to get into
His Word and read more about it and find out more about it.
Because Christ has died. And here's something, you know,
I was talking about this will of my parents. You know, if we make
a will, my parents made a will, some of you probably made wills.
When you die, You know, that can be contested. Somebody can
contest it. I mean, if somebody in the family
thinks they're not getting done right, they can contest it. They
can say that mom wasn't in her right mind when she made it.
You know, they can contest it. And my mother could not come
back and defend it because she'd be dead. But here's the good
news. Here's the good news. Jesus Christ,
who died To put His will into effect, rose again to see to
it that it's not changed. It will not be changed. Every
last thing that He has willed to us, we will have, and He lives
to see to it. That's good news. That's good news.