Welcome to our program. Today
I'm going to be preaching from Hebrews chapter 9, and the title
of the message is Christ in the Conscience. Christ in the Conscience. Now before I begin these verses,
Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 1, I want to talk a little bit about
the conscience. What is the conscience? You know,
the Bible says that every person is born with a conscience. The
conscience is the seat of judgment. It is our moral compass. It is
that standard in our hearts, our minds, affections, and wills
by which we accuse ourselves and others by whatever standard
we use. And man by nature uses a wrong
standard now. That's why we have to go by God's
standard. Or it's that standard of judgment
by which we excuse ourselves and others. For example, if you
claim to be a good person, then the question would come, by what
standard do you measure goodness? Well, it's in your own conscience.
And I would ask you this, is your standard high enough? The
Bible tells us of a rich young man who approached the Lord Jesus
Christ one day and called him Good Master. In other words,
this man did not believe Christ to be God in human flesh, and
Christ challenged him. He said, why do you call me good?
There's none good but God. He was showing the man that his
standard of goodness in his conscience was way too low. Goodness is
to be measured by God, not by man, not by myself, not by my
own subjective standard, not by how I compare to you or you
compare to me. So is our standard high enough?
And then, when we have a guilty conscience, you've heard of a
guilty conscience, I'm sure you've had one, I've had one. The question
then comes, what relieves the guilty conscience? What relieves
the conscience before a holy God? If you claim to be saved
by the grace of God, if you claim to be a Christian, by what standard
and upon what ground do you make that claim? You see, somebody
said, well, let your conscience be your guide. Well, the problem
is, as I said before, the conscience of natural man, born in Adam,
born in sin, totally depraved, is a defiled conscience. It's
a guilty conscience. It's an evil conscience, the
scripture says. Because anybody who expects salvation
from God based on anything but Christ and Him alone, Christ
and Him crucified, that is an evil conscience. Well, back here
in Hebrews chapter 9, the Apostle Paul in the book of Hebrews had
been showing the weakness, the inadequacy, the weakness of the
old covenant law, the law of Moses, to bring eternal salvation
to the worshipers, the people who were under that covenant
in Israel for 1,500 years. The Old Covenant law was not
given by God to the nation Israel to be a way of eternal salvation. The Old Covenant law, the Ten
Commandments, the law of ceremony and sacrifice, the old tabernacle
of old, the priesthood, the altar, all that was pertaining to that
Old Covenant law was given to show them their sinfulness and
to drive them to Christ. It was a schoolmaster, Paul wrote
in Galatians chapter 3, to lead them unto Christ for salvation,
for justification before God, for eternal life. In other words,
the blood of animals, the services that they did under the old covenant,
were not adequate. They were not powerful enough
to relieve their guilty conscience. It takes the blood of Christ
to remove the guilt of sin, and as we look to Him to relieve
the guilty conscience. And that's what he's doing here
in this first part of Hebrews chapter 9. He's talking about
the worshipers under the Old Covenant, that those things were
inadequate to relieve their guilty conscience. And he begins in
verse 1 by talking about the Old Covenant tabernacle. Now,
if you know anything about the Bible, you probably studied in
the Old Testament the tabernacle. It was a tent. It was a structure
that Moses was instructed to make by God. And in that tabernacle,
that's where the priests of the Old Covenant did their service.
Outwardly speaking, that tabernacle was not an impressive building.
It was a very plain-looking thing. But inside, in the very center
of that tabernacle, was the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the
Covenant, which contained the Law of God, and the Mercy Seat,
which covered the Ark. Now that whole tabernacle pictured
Christ, who is our tabernacle. He is The Bible says that Christ
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, John 1.14. And that
word dwelt in John 1.14 is literally tabernacled. In other words,
he was in this world and he dwelt in this world in human flesh
and he is the very presence of God. It was in that tabernacle,
in the holiest of all, that God would commune with sinners through
the blood of the animals, through the blood of the lamb, which
the high priest brought into that holiest of all one time
a year, on the day of atonement." Now, what Paul does is he takes
that Old Covenant tabernacle, that literal, physical tabernacle,
and compares it to what that tabernacle pictured, Christ himself
and the sacrifice that Christ made for the sins of his people
to satisfy law and justice and bring in righteousness. He says
that old covenant had to be taken away. And it was taken away when
the new covenant was established in Christ, when Christ did his
work. So he begins in the first 10
verses of Hebrews chapter 9 to show the imperfection of the
first tabernacle. that literal, physical Old Covenant
tabernacle, what it could not do. He begins in verse 1 of Hebrews
9. He says, Then verily the first
covenant, that's the Old Covenant, the Law of Moses, it wasn't first
in its origin or in its establishment, but it was first in time. It
was the first revealed. It was revealed before Christ
came. So it's the first in time. Then verily the first covenant,
had also ordinances, commandments, ceremonies of divine service,
and a worldly, earthly sanctuary. That's the tabernacle. He says
in verse 2, for there was a tabernacle made. God gave Moses the plans
for that tabernacle. And Moses instructed the Israelites,
the Levites, and others to make, how to make that tabernacle.
There was a tabernacle made. The first And in that tabernacle
wherein was the candlestick. Now, he mentions some of the
pieces of furniture and items that were in that tabernacle.
And all of that pictured and typified some aspect of the person,
the offices, and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He mentions
the candlestick. The candlestick was a picture
of Christ, the light of the world. He mentions the table and the
showbread. The table of showbread, that
was bread. for the priest, and that bread
represents Christ, the bread of life. He says, which is called
the sanctuary. That was the outer court in the
tabernacle, which all the priests did service in. And then he says
in verse 3, and after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is
called the holiest of all, passed the outer court in that sanctuary,
passed that into the very holiest of all. There was a veil. that
separated that center of the tabernacle, that holy place where
the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat were, from the sanctuary,
the outer tabernacle, where the altar was, and the candlestick. So he says, after the second
there was a veil. You remember that was the same
veil that when Christ died on the cross, it was torn from top
to bottom in the temple. That was the veil, God signifying
then that the way into the holiest had been established through
Christ. But as long as Christ had not
come and done His work, that veil was there, because there
was a separation between God and His people. And that veil
was torn in two, Matthew 27 says that, when Christ said it's finished
and He gave up the ghost. So in that second veil, the tabernacle,
which is called the holiest of all, the holy of holies, in verse
4, in that holy of all there was a golden censer that had
the incense in it, and that represents Christ, the sweet-smelling savor
of incense unto God, his intercessory work. He's the advocate between
God and sinners. And he says in there, there was
the Ark of the Covenant. That's the Ark, that was the
box, that was wood overlaid with gold. He says, and round about
with gold, wherein was the golden pot. There was a golden pot that
had manna. That manna, you remember the
manna that God gave the children of Israel in the wilderness?
That manna was God's providential sustaining power to those. He
fed them. He kept them. And he says Aaron's
rod that budded. Aaron's rod was the rod of authority. And it budded. There was life
in that dead rod. That represents Christ, our authority,
Christ, our life. And then he said the tables of
the covenant. That's the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments represented God's moral law, His standard
of holiness, which exposed the sinfulness of men. Why was the
law given? Moreover, the law was given that
sin might abound. We might see the exceeding sinfulness
of our sin. He says in verse 5, and over
it, over that ark of the covenant, The cherubims of glory shadowing
the mercy seat. The mercy seat was a pure gold
lid that fit over the Ark of the Covenant, and there were
cherubims on each side pointing towards each other. That mercy
seat is Christ. He is the mercy seat. And it
was upon that mercy seat that the blood of the animal was poured,
the blood of the lamb. which represents Christ's blood.
And those cherubim, they represent Christ's ministers who point
sinners to Him. Preaching the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace. And it says, and over it the
cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat. And then he says
in verse 5, of which we cannot now speak particularly. He's
not just talking about the mercy seat there, but he's talking
about all these elements in the tabernacle. And he's simply showing
at this time it is not my purpose to go into detail over what each
one represented. But here's the purpose. He says
in verse 6 of Hebrews 9, Now when these things were thus ordained,
the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. at the time of those things that
they were ordained of God to be implemented, to be done, there
were priests, they went in always into that first earthly tabernacle
and they did the service of God. Verse 7, of all the priests went
into that first tabernacle, what that means is that outer court,
that sanctuary. But look at verse 7, but into
the second went the high priest, into the holy of holies, one
man was qualified to go in there. And that was the high priest.
The other priest of Levi could not go in there, the priest of
Israel, they could not go in there. Only the high priest. He went in alone, it says, into
the second, went the high priest alone, once every year. That
was on the Day of Atonement. And look here, it says, not without
blood. There had to be bloodshed. Now
why? Because sin demands death. Without shedding of blood, there
is no forgiveness of sins. God is holy. God is just. He must punish the guilty. The soul that sinneth, it must
surely die. God is a God of mercy. He's a God of love. He's a God
of grace. But I've said this so many times
and it bears repeating. It's the heart of the gospel.
God cannot show mercy, love, and grace apart from His justice
being satisfied. So there's mercy. See, that was
a mercy seed in there. There was the seed of all mercy.
But mercy cannot be displayed or implemented or shown without
justice being satisfied. God must be a holy and a just
God, as well as a merciful and a forgiving, gracious God. The
forgiveness of sins in the Bible always comes based upon justice
satisfied. You see that? God must be a just
God and a Savior. He cannot have one at the expense
of the other. So that high priest, and that's
what this all represented in the tabernacle. You see? All of this was a picture. It
was a shadow. of something better to come.
And the Israelites of that day were instructed by those who
knew the gospel, by Moses, for example, and by the prophets,
not to look to the earthly things for their eternal life, not to
look to the blood of animals for their forgiveness, but to
look beyond those things to what they pictured, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, who would come, the promised one. So into
the second went the high priest alone, once every year, not without
blood. And he offered it for himself,
because he himself was a sinner, and for the errors of the people,
for the sins of the people. He offered that blood, one time
a year, in the holiest of all, on the Day of Atonement, for
his own sins and for the sins of the people. Now look at verse
8 of Hebrews 9. Now in this, The Holy Ghost,
this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. Now what he's saying here is
that as long as that high priest was going into that tabernacle,
into the holiest of all, bringing the blood of animals, as long
as that was in effect, As long as that kind of worship was to
be carried out under God's command, the Holy Spirit was saying all
that time that the way into the holiest of all, the way into
the very real presence of God, was not yet known. It had not
yet come. Because it was simply pictured
and foreshadowed there. In other words, Christ had not
yet come. What he's showing us here is
a very important point. As long as that kind of service
on earth in an earthly tabernacle through animal blood is implemented,
as long as it is in effect, then we can say Christ has not come
yet. The way into the holiest of all is not yet made manifest,
so that when Christ does come, he did come. and the way into
the holiest of all was made manifest in him, then that tabernacle
service is over. It's through. It's through now. You see, there's no more need
for it because Christ has come and he says in verse 9, that
old tabernacle and that old service with animal blood, it was a figure,
which was a figure for the time then present. It was a figure
for that time in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices Now
look here, that could not make him that did the service perfect
as pertaining to the conscience. In other words, those who worshipped
under that old covenant, that animal blood which was offered
every year, and there was other blood offered at other times,
that couldn't make them perfect. What is it to be made perfect?
It's to be saved by the grace of God. It's to be made complete,
perfect. It's to be justified before God. It's to be declared not guilty
before God. It's to know that our sins are
no longer charged to our account. God does not, will not, and cannot
impute or charge or account sin to me. That even though I'm a
sinner, I'm not guilty anymore. I'm not subject to God's just
condemnation against my sin. Now why? Because Christ has taken
my place. Christ has purged my sins. To
be perfect is to be complete. The Bible says in Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 9 that in Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in Him. So to be
made perfect here is to be made complete. It's to be forgiven
of all my sins. It's to be made righteous before
God. Christ's righteousness imputed
to me, charged to me, which entitles me to the whole inheritance of
grace and glory, not by my works, but by His. Well, that old covenant
system, the animal sacrifices, the earthly priesthood and tabernacle
could not do that. It could not cleanse the guilty
conscience. It could not give the worshipper
peace of mind and conscience, knowing that his sins were forgiven
by the blood of Christ. It couldn't do that. All it could
do is point him to Christ. Now, there were believers under
that old covenant who did look beyond those elements to Christ. But those who looked to those
earthly services, who looked to the animal blood, who were
so proud and puffed up about their continuance in those ceremonies. It couldn't do it. He says those
things, verse 10, stood only in meats and drinks and divers
or various washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them, brought
down upon them as a burden until the time of reformation, until
the time of change, until that time appointed of God, when everything
would change. When that old covenant would
be abolished, it would be established and abolished and fulfilled by
way of abolishment, and the new covenant would be established.
And when is that time of reformation? When is that time of change?
It's the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. When He Himself would
come into the world, when He would obey the law for His people,
and go to the cross of Calvary and satisfy God's justice for
them by shedding His blood unto death. He was buried and rose
again the third day for our justification, and He ascended unto the Father,
seated at the right hand of the Father on high, having purged
our sins, so that their sins are no longer charged them."
God made Him to be sin, Christ, who knew no sin, that we who
are in Him might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
You see, in Christ, I am perfect and complete, not in myself now. As you look at me here on earth,
as you see me, and I'm getting older, as I'm subject to the
infirmities of the flesh and the consequences of sin, this
body's dying. You see, the body is dead because
of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness, Romans
chapter 8. Not my righteousness, but His. The body is dead because of my
sin, but the Spirit is life because of His righteousness. So this
is the issue here, you see, what can cleanse my conscience? What
can, you know, when I see my sinfulness, When I look at myself
and see how far short I fall of God's perfect standard of
love, love God perfectly, love my neighbor as myself. And when
I see my sinfulness and my wretchedness and cry like the Apostle Paul
in Romans 7, a wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver
me from the body of this death? Now, what can purge that conscience? What can cleanse it? Well, here's
the second point. Here's the perfection. that Christ
alone has accomplished. Look at verse 11. He says, but
Christ, being come and high priest of good things to come, good
things to come. What is that good thing? Salvation,
eternal salvation, complete forgiveness of all my sins. He says, Christ
being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not like that earthly one. That
earthly one's gone. And I don't care how much they
look for in archaeology. It's gone. It was imperfect. It was earthly. It was deteriorating,
you see. But Christ, by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle. What is that greater and more
perfect tabernacle? His humanity. Christ himself. And it's one not made with hands.
We didn't make him. He wasn't of man. That is to
say, not of this building, this temple. That's what the writer
of Hebrews is referring to, Paul, the temple that was made by men's
hands. But Christ is a better tabernacle,
a better temple. And then he says in verse 12,
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. You see, Christ is the one who
brought in the perfection. Not Moses. Moses and the law
couldn't bring in that perfection. Moses and the law could show
us what perfection is, but it couldn't make us perfect. Moses
and the law can show us what we need because we're sinners,
but it cannot give us what we need. That perfection was not
by the blood of animals. It's not by the works of man.
It's by the work of Christ. He obtained redemption. He's
the one who makes his children perfect. They're complete in
Him. He's our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption. So this is the perfection that
only Christ has brought in. Now this is the only way the
guilty conscience can be purged and cleansed and settled before
God. Here's the third point, the glorious
result of Christ's work. He says in verse 13, 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,
what he's saying is that animal blood and the ashes of a heifer,
if all that accomplished a civil, ceremonial, temporary atonement
for that nation, not eternal now, but civil and temporary,
if that animal blood could do that, verse 14, how much more
shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience, soothe
that guilty conscience from dead works, from our own works, from
our sins, to serve the living God. You see that? What can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? but the blood of Jesus. You see
that? When that guilt comes, and I
want you to think about this, whenever you feel guilty because
of your sins, where do you find relief? And here's what I'm telling
you, if you find relief for the guilty conscience anywhere but
in Christ, His blood and His righteousness, then your conscience
has not been purged by Christ. to serve the living God. And
people find different things to purge their conscience, to
soothe their conscience. Sometimes it's their works. Sometimes
it's joining the church or walking up an aisle. Sometimes it's baptism. That'll soothe their guilty conscience.
Now, baptism is said to be the answer of a good conscience.
In other words, I follow God, but it cannot purge the guilty
conscience. Some people use their tithing. Some people will use their charity
work. All kinds of things. Some people will go to the priest
and go to confession, and that'll soothe it. They'll do penance.
My friend, none of those things can purge the guilty conscience
before God. It takes the blood of Christ. And that's applied as we look
to Him by faith. Look unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith. How do I know the blood of Christ
is applied to my conscience, my heart, when I look to Him?
Look to Christ alone. You see, Christ must be in our
conscience. Not works, not what we do, not
what we're proud of in ourselves, not the flesh, but Christ, the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. That's
who I need in my conscience. As I said, what can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
There's nothing else that will purge the conscience before God.