the ninth chapter of Hebrews.
And let's begin reading in verse 18 and finish that chapter. Whereupon neither the first testament
was dedicated without blood. 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 sprinkle both the book and all the people, saying, This
is the blood of the New Testament, which God hath enjoined unto
you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and
all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood. And without the shedding of blood
is no remission. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of the things in the heavens should be purified
with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place made
every year with the blood of others, 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. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. I was wanting to look mainly
here at verse 22. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. This word remission is translated
different ways in the Scriptures. Some places we find in the Scriptures
the same word is translated forgiveness. And most of the time that's how
we use the word forgiveness. "...in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." That's the same word,
the forgiveness of sins. "...Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, remission of sins. And the Lord
Jesus said, This is My blood which is shed for many for the
remission of their sins." Another place this same word remission
is translated deliverance. And there when the Lord Jesus
preached His first message in Nazareth, He said, God hath sent
Me to preach deliverance unto the captive. That's the word
remission. It means deliverance. Without
the shedding of blood is no deliverance from the power and dominion of
sin. But sin shall not have dominion
over you. Why? because blood has been shed
for the remission of it, for the deliverance from it. Another
place this same word is translated liberty. I come to say that liberty,
those which are bruised, without the shedding of blood, there
is no liberty from a bruised conscience, from a wounded conscience,
a guilty conscience, a heavy conscience. Nothing else that
can relieve the weight of a burdened conscience but blood, shedding
of blood. David said, My sins have gone
over my head. The knowledge of them. had gone
over my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. But
what can give us liberty from such a conscience? The shedding
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week we looked at
the blood of Christ and the death of Christ and we saw these three
things. And I just want to read these verses to you again. Without
shedding of blood there is no eternal redemption. He said that
here 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." The blood
of Christ is the ransomed price for sin. The wages of sin is
death. That's the wages it requires. Somebody has to pay that wage,
or we can't go free. and were purchased at a great
price. And that is the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Then verse 14, without the shedding of blood there is no purging
of the conscience. 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? That is why David said, Lord,
wash me. Wash me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Purge me.
and I shall be whiter than snow." What is it that purges the conscience?
It is the blood, not just the blood but shed blood, the shedding
of the blood. And then of course here in verse
15, the blood of Christ secured the promise of eternal inheritance.
For this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by
the means of His death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under and against the first covenant, they which are
called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Without the shedding of blood,
we have no hope, do we? There is no hope but anything
but sin and guilt and death and wrath. That is all we have got
to look forward to. But through the shedding of blood,
the promise of eternal inheritance was given to us through the shedding
of His blood. John Gill had something very
interesting to say on this eternal inheritance that is promised
to all believers. And here is what he said, I quote,
he said, By the eternal inheritance is meant heaven, which is by
gift and bequest, that is inheritance, belonging to children only, and
comes through the death of Christ, and is a very substantial, plentiful,
and glorious inheritance. It is incorruptible, undefiled,
and fades not away, and here it is eternal. It was prepared
from the foundation of the world and will continue forever, and
it may be so called to distinguish it from the inheritance of the
land of Canaan or any temporal one. The promise of this was
made before the world began, and was put into the hands of
Christ, the surety of the better testament, by whose death the
heirs of it come to enjoy both the promise and the thing promised. And they are such who are called,
not merely externally, but internally and effectually, by whom are
meant not Abraham, nor his natural seed, nor the Old Testament saints
only, but all that are called with an holy calling, whether
Jew or Gentile, and who will enjoy both the promise of the
inheritance and the inheritance itself. And it is said to be
received. You have received an inheritance.
Every word shows this affair to be all of grace. It is an
inheritance and therefore the Father's gift. It is by promise
and therefore all of grace. It is to be received and so freely
given and not merited. And only such who are called
by grace possess it. And it is through the death of
Christ so that it might be received in a way consistent with justice. Now that's a long quote, but
that was a good quote, wasn't it? That's a good quote about
the eternal inheritance. And all of this is sealed by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
So we have no redemption. We have no purging of our conscience. We have no eternal inheritance
without the shedding of blood. But with the shedding of blood,
we have all these things. It secures all of these things
for us and remission of sin. And I was reading this and I
thought two more things about the blood of Christ secured.
And I want you to turn over to this book in the 13th chapter
and look in verse 20. The blood of Jesus Christ, the
shedding of His blood, secured His own resurrection. Look what He says in verse 20
of chapter 13. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. The Father sealed His promise
to raise His Son. He sealed that resurrection by
His promise. Listen to how David says it.
Here's Christ speaking to His Father. I have set the Lord always
before me, because He is on my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. for thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, that is the place of the dead, neither will you suffer
your Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand there
are pleasures for evermore." Peter quoted this concerning
Christ and the resurrection. And this is what the Father promised
him. My son, I promise you that I
will raise you from the dead. And when He breathed out His
last breath, He died and they put Him in the tomb with this
promise, that My Father has promised that I will not see corruption.
And Jesus Christ sealed His part of that covenant with His own
blood. He raised from the dead through the blood, through the
surety of that blood of the everlasting covenant. So that secured His
own resurrection. How much more does it secure
ours? If it secured His, it secures
ours, doesn't it? That's the hope of our own resurrection.
And there's another thing, too, here in the 10th chapter, another
thing that the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ secures,
and that's our access unto His presence. Look in verse 19. Chapter
10, verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
liberty, all outspokenness, is the meaning of it, to enter unto
the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way
which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is
to say, His flesh. And having an high priest over the house
of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed in pure water." Access has been secured by the
shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ. You know there's no access
any other way, isn't there? God is too holy and we're too
sinful. But in the shedding of blood,
there's access for us. I love to think about that. I
have to remind myself of that all the time and I feel like
I need to remind you of that all the time. This is one of
the best encouragements to pray that ever was. That we don't
come because of the strength of our faith, the enlightenment
of our understanding, the strength of our soul, any power, our merit,
because we feel good or feel bad, any forms of our mind or
thinking, we have access through an altogether different means,
the blood of Jesus Christ that He poured out upon Calvary. And
therefore, it's a free access on our part. It's a continual
access through Him because that blood isn't going to change.
The Father always looks upon the blood. So when we go to pray
with our eye to that blood, we realize I have free access. I
can address God as my Father, and He'll be merciful to me and
forgive me and be a gracious Father to me. Access, in whom
we have access. And when we read this statement
here in our text, verse 22, without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission. And when we see it all in the
context, When you look in chapter 9, blood is everywhere. Ten times, right around verse
22, it speaks of the shedding of blood. Shedding of blood is
all through chapter 9. And what does this teach us?
Well, it confirms to us over and over again that we can only
be saved and welcomed into God's presence to worship Him and serve
Him and spend eternity with Him, not only in a way of mercy and
grace, but in a way of justice. Because it's only the blood of
Christ poured out upon Calvary's tree that satisfies justice. Look at the barrels of oil or
barrels of blood that we often talk about in the Old Testament
that shed. I just wonder if there's not
at least hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of barrels
of blood that were shed. And you know God started it,
didn't He? He was the first one that we
read shed blood of an innocent victim to clothe our parents
with skins of animals, innocent victims. And then you come to
Abel and his lambs that he slew and tuck the sacrifice into the
presence of God. Then you come to all the other
bulls and goats and calves and heifers and birds all the way
up into the One sacrifice, the great sacrifice, the effectual
sacrifice. And what does all of this shedding
of blood tell us? That God must be a just God as
well as a Savior. That the justice of God must
be satisfied before you and I can be saved and be justified. And I think this is the acid
test. I really think this is the acid
test. How can such as we are be saved? How can such people
as we are be freely forgiven and stand before God and be justified? And here I think is what we could
call the essential test, the acid test. And I've talked with
Baptists about this. I've talked with Presbyterians.
I've talked with Mormons. I've talked with Jehovah's Witnesses,
all kinds of different denominations I've talked with. And for the
most part, to be honest with you, Here's one thing, here's
one place that they cannot bring their hearts to to rest in wholly
and fully. The blood of Christ's own. If we're guilty sinners before
God, and nobody hardly will deny that, will they? If we're sinners
and God is holy, how can we be justified? How can we be cleared
of all charges? And you won't find one in a thousand
religious people that you talk to saved by the blood of Christ
only. And one thing we know for sure,
it's not by human merit. It's not by tears that shed. It's not by reformation of life. It's not by a strict lifestyle.
It's one way. and one way only, by the shedding
of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's why we see it everywhere.
God commendeth His love toward us and while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
out by His blood. And can we rest there? Can we
bring our hearts there to rest? Yes! It's blood that justifies
me. The blood of Jesus Christ justifies
me. And you won't find one in a thousand
that rests there. And I think the whole problem
is this, brothers and sisters. They don't realize the exceeding
sinfulness of sin and they don't realize the justice of God. And so they come to mix this
human merit with it. Mix something with it. I don't
know how many people I've talked to about about the thing of justification
through the blood of Christ only. And they said, well, sure, I
believe that. But, now listen, we have to do
our part. Have you ever heard people say
that? They add this to it or add that to it. It's the blood,
isn't it? That's why it's everywhere, all
through the Scripture, blood. You can't read from Genesis to
Revelation hardly a chapter without finding blood, can you? Either
blood mention or the implication of the blood having to be there. And it's because we have to be
saved in a way of justice as well as mercy. And nothing but
the shed blood will satisfy justice. i'll tell you one thing you won't
you won't find you won't find the gospel you won't find uh...
how to be justified scripturally by the blood of christ among
the religion of ishmael it's not there they don't have it
and they don't have it because they don't believe that jesus
christ is the son of god you won't find it among the mormons
and you won't find it among the jehovah witnesses i've questioned
them Because while they talk about the shedding of the blood
of Jesus Christ, they do not believe that He is the eternal
Son of God. So they have no remission of
sins either, do they? And where, I don't care if it's
a Baptist gospel, I don't care if it's a Presbyterian or a Catholic,
where there's any human merit or free will mixed with this
shedded blood of Jesus Christ, where there is anything mixed
with it, then it is polluted. And we do not have remission
of sins. We do not have an eternal inheritance. We do not have a
purged conscience. We do not have any redemption
because it is all through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I was thinking about this verse
here in verse 19. about everything purged by blood. And it was. He said, verse 19,
When Moses spake every precept to all the people according to
the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, and water,
and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and
all the people, saying, This is the blood of the Testament,
which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled with
blood the tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry. And
almost all things are with the law purged with blood." Even
the first testament washed in blood. And the second testament
is the same way. It is blood. Without it, there
is no remission of sin. I was thinking of this verse
19 where he's talking about the mixture here of blood. They took
blood of calves and goats and they mixed some water with it
sometimes, imagining washing everything up. Then they had
wool and the way they got scarlet wool, they had these little bugs
that when they burst them open they were full of, it wasn't
really blood, it was more of a dye. And they dyed their clothes
and they dyed this wool that they'd taken from sheep and they
dyed it scarlet, made it scarlet looking. Then they tucked one
of these old, it was a little bush that grew in the rocks and
grew out in the desert. Sometimes it grew out of the
rock walls. It was a hyssop bush. and they'd
break some limbs off of it and tie that scarlet wool onto that
and dip it in blood and they would sprinkle the people. Remember
when that was first used? The first time you ever read
that hyssop was used was down in Egypt in Exodus chapter 12. That's the first time we ever
see that word used where they took hyssop, dipped it in the
blood of the lamb and sprinkled it on the doorpost and the Lord
said, when I see the blood, The last time in the Bible that you
see that word used, hyssop, is when our Savior was hanging on
the cross. They filled a sponge with vinegar
and attached it to hyssop and put it up to His bleeding lips,
His dying, bleeding body. So the New Testament as well
as the Old Testament is saturated with blood. Here's the only difference. That blood was just a figure.
It was shadows. But the blood of Jesus Christ
is real. It's effectual. And this is why
we can never believe, since the Lord opened my heart to this
blessed truth, I will never believe that there is a soul in hell
for whom Jesus Christ poured out His blood. It's effectual. It's powerful. It's redeeming.
He bought His people with it and He'll have His possession.
He'll have them. And they'll be in heaven. And
if there's any in hell that His blood was shed for and their
sins were atoned for and yet they're there, then I don't understand
this chapter. I don't understand these three
things. And I don't understand verse 22. Because he's speaking
there in a negative way. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. But what's he saying then? By
the shedding of blood, there is remission. There's nothing. There's no hope. There's no forgiveness. Without it, but with it, there's
all of these things. One or two things more, I wanted
to say something here about these patterns before we leave them
because we come to the 10th chapter and we'll be leaving these patterns
and figures. But a couple of things about
these patterns and figures, they break down. They're just like
parables. You can't squeeze them too tight,
they'll break down. and because you just can't represent
the Lord Jesus Christ by bulls and goats and ashes of heifer
and so on. You just can't can you? And it breaks down here. He says
you're in verse 25. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy places
with the blood of others. Now why would he even say that?
He's just talking about these figures. These figures are a
type of Jesus Christ. So someone might begin to think
then, well, if that's so, how many times did He offer Himself?
Because the priests went yearly on the Day of Atonement, and
they went daily to do the other services. So He says, well, these
are figures, and they represent Christ, but they break down.
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, and just
as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. You and I will only die one time,
and that is all Christ died, one time. There is no sense in
dying twice. One time is enough and he died
one time. The last thing he says here in this verse, he says it
twice. He says it in verse 23 and he
says it in verse 24. It was therefore necessary that
patterns, the patterns of things in the heavens, or if you want
to read that in some translations, it is patterns of heavens. are patterns of heavenly things. This tabernacle and the holy
place and the holiest of holies is a pattern of heaven. And when
we think of that, why, there's such a blessing just to think
that the Lord has given us a pattern. If you got into the holy place,
you had to go behind a veil. If you got into the holiest of
holies, you had to go behind another veil. And you know something?
The common people never got to see that. They never got to see
it. Only the priest and only the
high priest got to see the Most Holy Place. And you know, ain't
that a beautiful figure then of heaven? Have you seen it?
I've never seen heaven. It's out of sight, isn't it?
We can't see it now. But you know something? These
people knew that the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was real.
It was real just because they didn't get to see it and go there
was no sign it wasn't real. Is heaven real? It's just as
real as that holy place was and the most holy place. And here's
the second thing, behind the veil was the most holy place. And if that's a figure of heaven,
then heaven must be a holy place. A holy God is there. Jesus is
there and the Bible says He's holy, harmless, undefiled. Holy
angels are there. The spirits of just men are there,
made perfect. Heaven is a holy place. That's
one reason the saints want to go there. They're finished with
sinning. It must be a wholesome, clean place. You know they had
one whole tribe, the whole tribe of Levi, was set aside just to
keep this place clean. That was their main job. is to keep this place clean.
I bet you it was a beautiful place, don't you? Heaven's got
to be a beautiful place because inside this tabernacle you saw
gold, you saw blue, green, white, cloth. What a beautiful place. And it's a figure of heaven.
Heaven must be a beautiful place. I'd say any place without sin's
got to be beautiful, would you? That's one of the things that
keeps this earth from being so beautiful. It's tainted with
sin. I'll tell you something else that heaven must be. It must be a place of mercy because
in the holiest of holies there was a mercy seat. I remember
telling you about the preacher that was dying and one of his
friends went to see him and he got down next to his ear and
he said, Dear brother, you're going to receive your reward. And the old preacher opened his
eyes and he said, I'm going to receive mercy." You know heaven
is a place of mercy? That's where the mercy seat is,
I guess, isn't it? Come boldly to the throne of
grace that you may obtain mercy. I'd be afraid to go to heaven
if I didn't think there was mercy there. Jude said, looking for
the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. I fully expect to receive mercy
when He comes, don't you? The Lord was within this tabernacle. His shekinah glory rested upon
that mercy seat. He told Moses, He said, You be
sure and tell Aaron, and he can tell it to his sons, that I will
meet you on the mercy seat. I'm going to be there in the
holiest of holies. So what is heaven? It's a place
where the Lord is. The Lord is there. That's why
Paul said, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.
Where's Christ? He's in heaven. To be with Him
for all eternity. That's what will make heaven
heaven, isn't it? That's what will make it heaven. And He'll
be a redeeming Lord. What kind of God was it that
met with the high priest upon the mercy seat? Well, it was
a redeeming God. And that's who we'll see in heaven. is a redeeming Lord. And you know why I say that?
Because He still possesses the scarves in His hands. And when
you get there, you can put your hands in them if you want to. You can put your hand in His
side if you want to. Because that's who's there. He
is there in heaven. I read where one commentator
said, there's no doubt, It's all ended and the last judgment
has come that he'll lose the scars in his hand and the hole
in his side. And I thought, why would he want to? That's his
chief glory, is it not? I want to see him, don't you?
And in eternity, I want to be with a redeeming Christ. And
that's who they saw when they went into the holy place. Thereupon
the mercy seat, the shekinah glory, a redeeming God meeting
His people. Thereupon the mercy seat sprinkled
with blood. I don't want to go to heaven
if there's not a redeeming God there. But that's what He said
He was. I saw Him as a Lamb as He had
been slain. And where was He? In the midst
of the throne. He's our redeeming God. Well, this was a place then of
refreshment because when you went into that first veil there
on the table was always fresh showbread. David ate this shewbread
when he was fleeing from Saul one time. Remember that? The
priest said, We don't have any bread, just that shewbread. And
David said, I'll take that. And it refreshed him. I tell
you, heaven is a place of refreshing. There will be no sorrow there.
There will be no tardiness there. It will be a place of continual
refreshing. And we read, don't we read about water of life flowing from the
throne, a place of refreshment. And it's going to be a place
that's well lit. When you went into that first tabernacle behind
the first veil, there was a huge lamp there that had seven lights
on it. And I imagine it really lit up
the holy place, don't you? You know heaven won't have any
darkness in it. There won't be any dark corners.
It is a place that is going to be very well lit. There will
be no night there, the Bible says. The Lamb is the light of
that city. In His light we shall see light,
and it will never be dark again. Now we see through a glass darkly,
darkly dark. Sometimes I have gone all day,
I have read the Bible for hours, and I tell you what, they might
as well have took all the words off the pages. Everything was
just dark. You go to pray and everything
is dark. Sometimes you go for days and everything seems so
dark. And when you do get any light, it seems like it is just
so through a glass darkly. But there, there, you may have
been in darkness outside this tabernacle, but buddy, when you
stepped inside that tabernacle, everything was lit up. And that
is the way it will be in heaven. I long for it, don't you? I really
long for it.