Welcome to our program. Today
I'm going to be preaching from Hebrews chapter 9 beginning with
verse 13. The title of the message is Saved
by the Blood. Now, in history men have always
argued against or stood in opposition to the idea of a blood atonement. for sins, which is the heart
of the gospel. Christ is called the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sins of the world by his own precious
blood. He's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
When Adam fell, the first thing that God did after pronouncing
the curses upon Adam and Eve was to shed the blood of an innocent
sacrifice and clothe them with the skins, picturing how God
is just to save sinners by the blood of Christ." That was a
picture, a time, and how God clothed sinners with the righteousness
of Christ, the merits of His obedience unto death. A skeptic
one time made the statement that he would be interested in the
Bible because of its moral sayings and its examples and its teachings,
except that the Bible is a very bloody book, he said. Well, the
Bible is a very bloody book. It's bloody for two reasons.
Number one, the sinfulness of man. We see the legacy of man
and man's inhumanity to man running all the way through the scriptures.
We see that in history. But it's mainly a bloody book
because there's a scarlet thread that connects Genesis to Revelation,
and that's the blood of the Lamb of God, the blood of Christ,
which is shed as the pavement of the sins of His sheep. Now
here we see in the last part of Hebrews chapter 9 that salvation
can only come for sinners through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it starts out speaking here
of the power of Christ's blood. Is the blood of Christ powerful
enough to remove all my sins, past sins, present sins, future
sins, sins of omission, sins of commission. The guilt of Adam's
sin charged to me is the blood of Christ. Can His blood take
away all my sins? Now, not many people believe
that it can. And I want you to hear this.
Many people will claim to believe salvation by Christ, will claim
to believe salvation by grace, but they always want to add human
works, human will, into the mix. In other words, the blood of
Christ does so much, but then you've got to do your part. Now,
in saying that, what you're actually saying is that the blood of Christ
is not powerful enough. It's not sufficient enough to
cleanse me from all of my sins. And what the Bible teaches is
this, is that His blood, and when we talk about His blood,
we're talking about His atonement, the propitiation the Bible calls
it. for all the sins of his sheep."
We're talking about satisfaction to the justice of God. The payment
of sins, the soul that sinneth must surely die. God will by
no means clear the guilty. God must be just when he justifies
the ungodly. Mercy, the mercy seat, must be
covered with blood. And so when we're talking about
blood, Christ's blood, we're talking about salvation. And
what I'm saying is this, the Bible teaches that the blood
of Christ demands and secures the eternal salvation and complete
forgiveness of all the sins of all whom he represented. And
Paul writes that here in Hebrews 9.13, the power of his blood.
He talks about the blood of bulls and of goats in verse 13. The
ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifying or setting
apart to the ceremonial purifying of the flesh, that nation of
Israel. On that Day of Atonement, when
the blood of the Lamb was offered, that got them by another year.
But it had to be offered again. So that animal blood did set
them apart and purify them ceremonially as a nation. But it could not
purge their conscience. It could not bring about eternal
forgiveness for their sins. But Paul's point here is this.
If that animal blood accomplished that ceremonial cleansing for
a nation, how much more, verse 14, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, the blood of God the Son incarnate, the Lamb of God,
who through the eternal Spirit, not temporary, not earthly, but
an eternal Spirit, offered Himself, not the blood of an animal, but
the blood of Himself, without spot to God, he knew no sin,
he committed no sin, he's the sinless substitute, how much
more shall his blood purge, cleanse, purify your conscience, that
guilty conscience, soothe that guilty conscience from dead works
to serve the living God. I love the much mores of the
Bible, much more, where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound. You see that? How much more shall
the blood of Christ, the blood of Christ, satisfy God's law
and justice completely? The blood of Christ is powerful
enough to remove all the sins of all His sheep forever and
forever and forever. And it purges the conscience.
When sinners look to Christ, and see that His blood took care
of the whole problem as to our legal guilt and defilement before
God, and that in Him God will not and cannot impute or charge
our sins to us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father
making intercession for us. You see, when I look to Him,
and see His blood as the complete and total 100% payment for all
my sins, then my conscience is purged, it's cleansed, it's purified. I see now by faith in Him that
I am whole and complete in Christ. And I repent of dead works. It purges my conscience from
dead works. Now what does that mean? It means
this. It means that my conscience rejects and repents of thinking
that anything or anyone else could ever recommend me unto
God. Paul saw that in Philippians
chapter 3. He said, when I saw Christ, all
those things that I was so proud of in my works and my efforts
and my own law keeping, all those things that I was so proud of
in myself and in my flesh that I thought recommended me unto
God, that I thought brought about forgiveness, I now count but
loss. My conscience has been purged
from them. In other words, they cannot soothe my conscience anymore.
My works cannot soothe my conscience because I see my works as inadequate. My best works are powerless to
save me from even one sin, let alone all my sins. But the blood
of Christ is powerful enough to cleanse me from all my sins. You see the difference there?
That's what it means to have the conscience purged from dead
works. Nothing will wash away my sins
but the blood of Christ. And he says to serve the living
God. Now this forgiveness of all my
sins based upon the blood of Christ does not give me an excuse
or a reason to sin. It does not motivate me to sin. It gives me a reason and a motivation
to serve God. I've heard people talk about
this. They say, well, if you believe salvation is totally
completed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that His righteousness
alone saves you and keeps you and brings you to glory without
your works, Then that means you can just go and sin as much as
you want to. Well now listen to me, that's
not what grace does. Listen, where God forgives sin
in the sinner, where he shows his grace, he puts his spirit
within their hearts. And he gives them a desire to
obey him and serve him. Now we have a real reason to
serve God. It's not a legal, mercenary,
condemning reason. But it's a motive of love and
grace and gratitude. And now we serve a living God.
Do you know, as long as you were trying to appease your guilty
conscience or soothe your guilty conscience by your own works,
the God you were worshiping then was an idol, a dead God. But
now in Christ, having been purged from all my sins by His powerful
blood, I can now serve the living God. Not in order to be saved,
but because I already am saved. Now that's the difference. So
there's the power of His blood. It's powerful enough to save
me from all my sins. And listen to me, His blood is
powerful enough to save a multitude of sinners. God's elect, all
that the Father gave Him from all their sins. That's how powerful
His blood is. He didn't come down here and
try to save people who would just let Him, or who would just
cooperate with Him. He came down here to save His
people from their sins, and His blood is powerful enough to do
it. Here's the second thing. Next
we'll see the necessity of Christ's blood. Look at verse 15 of Hebrews
chapter 9. Why is His blood necessary? Why is this necessary? Well,
simply put, it's God must be just when He justifies the ungodly. God must be holy. when he saves
sinners in mercy and grace. And here's the reason, he says
in verse 15, and for this cause, he, that is Christ, is the mediator,
he's the advocate, he's the go-between, the mediator of the New Testament,
the New Covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, that's
the Old Covenant, they which are called might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance." In other words, the Old Testament
saints, those who knew Christ, and the New Testament saints
are all saved by the same sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
is the mediator of the new covenant that by means of his death the
soul that sinneth must die. Now, let me say this. My friend,
if you do not have Christ, as your substitute, as your righteousness. If you do not have His blood
covering your sins, then you must die in your sins. That's what the Scripture says.
There are only two ways to die. You either die in your sins or
you'll die in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you die in your sins,
that means condemned. If you die in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that means justified, eternally glorified. So it's
by means of his death for the redemption. That is, he paid
the price by his death. God must be just. That's why
his blood was necessary. Somebody said, well, either you'll
pay for your sins or Christ will pay for them for you. Well, you
can't pay for them. I cannot pay for them. We don't
have enough to pay for that, for those sins. We don't even
have the first penny to pay for our sins. But Christ's blood
is powerful enough, and it was necessary that he shed that blood
as payment for those sins. He had to pay the price. Redemption. We were sold out to sin, to Satan,
and under the curse of the law. But Christ paid the price. The
hymn says, Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. You didn't wash it. I didn't
wash it. The priests didn't wash it. The
church didn't wash it. The waters of baptism didn't
wash it. Christ washed it. White as snow. So He redeemed us. And He did
that for those who were under the First Testament. He did that
for Moses. He did it for Enoch. He did it
for Abel. He did it for David. He did it
for Isaiah. All the Old Testament saints,
as well as for us, that they which are called They which hear
the gospel, and believe it by the power of the Spirit, might
receive the promise of an eternal inheritance." Now, this is key. Salvation here, including the
forgiveness of sins, including final glory in heaven, is called
an eternal inheritance. Now, what is it about an inheritance
that's unique? Well, you don't work for your
inheritance. Somebody else works for it. They
bequeath it to you in a will, and when they die, that will
comes into effect, and it's given to you upon their death. So this
salvation is an inheritance. It's not something you work for.
It's not something you earn. It's not something you deserve.
It's something someone gives you. Which they earned. And he
goes on to show that. Look at verse 16. He says, for
where a testament is. Now the word, it would be like
the last will and testament. There must also of necessity
be the death of the testator. That one who earned all those
possessions. That one who worked for them.
And he obtained them. He has them. They're his. When
he makes a will out. And he says, you're going to
receive mine, the inheritance. And he names you in that will. It says for that will to be in
effect, he's got to die. He's the testator. He's got to
die. If he gives it to you before
he dies, it's not an inheritance, it's just a gift. But here it's
an inheritance. Well, Christ is the testator.
And he says in verse 17, he says, for a testament, a last will
and testament, is of force after men are dead. Otherwise, it is
of no strength or power at all while the testator liveth." So,
in other words, that will has no power legally to go into effect
while the testator lives. He has to die. But once he dies,
then all who are named in that will receive the inheritance. You see that? Well, that's a
good picture. of salvation by Christ. God has
given His Son all eternal blessedness, and Christ, the Son of God, earned
it. He worked for it. Now what did
He do? He kept the law perfectly. He obeyed the law in every precept. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He did it for His people. And
then because those whom He represented, those whom He willed all these
blessings to, were sinners, He had to die and pay the justice
of God for his sins. The law's justice must be exacted. And he died the death, shedding
his blood as payment for those sins. He earned it. Now, upon
his death, his people received the internal inheritance. The
Bible says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. If you're saved, you're saved
by the grace of God based on the death of Christ, based on
His perfect satisfaction to law and justice, based on His righteousness
alone, His blood. Now the next thing is this. He
shows how all this was illustrated on earth. The blood of Christ,
the power of it, and the necessity of it was illustrated on earth
in the Old Testament. Look at it in verse 18. He says,
whereupon neither the First Testament was dedicated without blood,
even in that Old Covenant. Now that First Testament is the
Old Covenant. Now remember what I said, not
first in order, in preparation and in purpose and in origin,
but first in time. It was the first one revealed
before the New Covenant. And he says, even that old covenant
was dedicated, purified, not without blood. There had to be
bloodshed. That high priest who went into
the holiest of all one time a year, do you know what would have happened
if he'd gone there without blood? He would have been struck dead.
He would not have come out of the holiest hole. Everything in that covenant had
to be dedicated, purified, separated by the blood of an animal. Blood
had to be shed. What was God teaching in that?
Law and justice must be satisfied. God must be just when he justifies. Payment for sin must be made.
And he says in verse 19, For when Moses had spoken every precept
to all the people, according to the law. When he read the
Ten Commandments, what did he do? Did he say, now listen to
me, look here in verse 19, when Moses had spoken every precept
to all the people according to the law, what did he do after
that? You remember when Moses come down out of the mountain?
Of course, the first time they had the golden calf and he struck,
you know, he broke those commandments. But later on he had, God gave
him two other tablets. And he spoke the precepts of
the law. He told those people the Ten Commandments. Now, what
did he do when he read those precepts? Did he say, now, fellas,
let's get busy and try to keep these the best we can, and that's
going to save us? Or did he say, fellas, let's
do our best to try to keep the law and recommend ourselves unto
God? Or did he say, well, we can't
keep these. Let's just give up and go on. Eat, drink, and be
merry. Tomorrow we die. Now, look what
he did. Verse 19, 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, that hyssop was like a brush, he dipped that in the
blood and he sprinkled both the book, the law, laws got to be
satisfied, and he sprinkled all the people. Their sins have to
be atoned for. When he read the law, he said,
look how sinful we are. We need a sacrifice. We need
a lamb. We need a blood. We need the
blood of Atonement. We need to fall at the mercy
of God and say, God, be merciful to us sinners. And he said in
verse 20, this is the blood of the Testament, the blood of the
covenant, which God hath enjoined unto you. Now it's like the preaching
of the gospel. What do we preach when we preach
the gospel? We preach salvation is of the
Lord, based on the blood of the crucified one, the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it says in verse 21, moreover,
he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, all the vessels
of the ministry, very bloody religion, you see. It says in
verse 22, and almost all things are by the law purged with blood,
and without shedding of blood is no remission." Now why does
he say almost all things are purged by blood? Well, there
were some crimes that were committed in Israel for which there was
no blood atonement. For example, willful murder.
What was the punishment for willful murder? It was capital punishment,
death. Now what they called accidental
murder, or incidental murder, they had the cities of refuge,
as spoken of in the book of Numbers. And they could flee to the cities
of refuge. And that old covenant was limited. But now Christ,
in the new covenant, is unlimited. His blood is sufficient to cleanse
from all sins. But look what he says there.
Without shedding of blood, no remission. no forgiveness, no
pardon. Again, God must be just. And
then in verse 23, it says, it was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these, these animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these. Now, God's teaching a lesson
there in that old covenant. He says without the shedding
of blood, there is no forgiveness. There is no remission, there
is no pardon. Without the shedding of blood,
nothing. And God's teaching a lesson there. He said that the pattern,
those earthly things, that earthly tabernacle, the altar, the priest,
the book, all of that, it had to be sprinkled with blood, you
see. But now in heavenly matters,
spiritual matters, eternal matters, there's got to be a better sacrifice.
There's got to be something greater. Animal blood won't do it. Over
in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 4, it says, it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Blood of animals won't do it.
I never forget hearing a faithful man of God preach a message.
I can't remember the title of the message, but he kept repeating
this throughout his message. He kept saying, it is hard to
put away sin. And he went through a list. He
said, our works won't put away sin. Our tears won't wash away
sin. Baptism won't wash away sin.
What does it take to put away sin? It takes the blood of Christ. Well, here's the last point.
Here's the blood applied in heaven. We've seen the power of his blood.
We've seen the necessity of his blood. We've seen his blood illustrated
on earth. Now let's look at his blood applied
in heaven. Look at verse 24. For Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the truth, but Christ is entered into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Christ
didn't go into that earthly tabernacle, but he went into heaven itself.
You see, we need something better. And he says in verse 25, nor
yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth
into the holy place every year with blood of others. Christ
didn't have to do it over and over and over again like that
priest in the old covenant. It says for verse 26, for then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You see, Christ, He
didn't go into an earthly tabernacle. He didn't go into that holiest
of all, holy of holies, where the mercy seat was. He didn't
have a right to do that. He was not a priest under the
old covenant. He was not from the tribe of
Levi. He was a priest after a better order, the order of Melchizedek,
which typifies an eternal priesthood. He went in, not into an earthly
holy place, but into the holiest of all, the very presence of
God. He didn't go in with animal blood. He went in with his own
blood, the blood of the Son of God incarnate. And he didn't
go in over and over and over again, like those earthly priests.
He went in one time. His blood is powerful enough,
it took care of the problem one time, and he appeared to put
away sin. by the sacrifice of himself. You see that? His blood in heaven. He says in verse 27, and as it
is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,
verse 28, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. How many? However many he represented. Who are they? Those who come
to him. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you know Him? Do you trust Him? Are you looking
to His blood and His righteousness alone to entitle you to all of
salvation? You see that? That's the many
here. That's the ones whose consciences have been purged from their own
dead works to serve the living God. So the sins of many, and
unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. Now that speaks of his second
coming. He sealed up the vision and the
prophecy. He took care of the problem when
he died. He went into the grave with our
sins, took them into the grave, and when he arose again the third
day, he came out without sin. He ascended unto the Father,
and he's seated there at the right hand of the Father, having
finished the work. Now, when he comes back again,
it won't be as the one who has sin upon him, but it'll be as
the sinless Lord of glory. It won't be as a sacrifice, say,
to die. It'll be as a Lord to reign and
to rule.