We'll be turning to Hebrews chapter 9. in our series through the book of Hebrews. This is now message number 26 entitled, Permanent Purification. And we're going to be looking in chapter 9, we'll be looking at verses 11 to 15. But Christ, being come and high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that's to say not of this building, 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. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, 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? And for this cause, he is 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." Chapter 9 opens explaining that last verse of chapter 8, that the Old Covenant was made obsolete and was then ready to vanish away because of the new and better covenant. Now the writer is keeping close to the subject of the Melchizedekian priesthood of Jesus, and his discussion of a better priesthood led to discussion of a better covenant that leads to discussion of a better sacrifice, and that's really sort of where we are in that progression. Now as long as the former, the first he says referring to the former, the Old Covenant, as long as it was in force people were not cleansed from sin and did not have access to God, not through the Old Covenant. He discussed the Old Covenant tabernacle and the priests, and the sacrifices, and he focused on the Day of Atonement in the first part of chapter 9, which occurred only once annually when the high priest would enter into the Most Holy Place. Now it was God's commands to build the tabernacle that caused Israel to build it and build it the way that they did. And it was his stated purpose for that tabernacle to be built so that he could dwell with his nation according to Exodus chapter 25 and verse number 8. But the tabernacle design, the regulated priesthood, the sacrificial system, all of these things actually spoke of restriction. This tabernacle that they made with hands was not the means through which God was going to actually dwell with His nation and people have access to Him. All of that, we learned, was only a figure, a shadow, a parable, a copy. All of these different words that the writer of Hebrews has been using, all of these were only a figure for that age when the Old Covenant was in force. In other words, they had and served a purpose in that time. And these were a shadow, though, of the greater that was to come in the future. And by their very nature, they were obviously only involved with externals. There was no efficacy in any of that in the Old Covenant to do anything with the heart, to do anything with the soul, the inner being of man. Well, verses 11 to 15 now presents the contrast what is greater to come. And the writer speaks of Jesus as a great high priest in heaven and how his sacrifice is better than that of the Old Covenant. And he shows us here in particular two certain results of his priesthood. In other words, his priesthood was only affected by his sacrifice, his death while he was on earth, his ascension to heaven. And two results of that are, on the one hand, eternal redemption. And we will look at that in this passage. And on the other, eternal inheritance. Both of those come out in this particular passage. And remember, when speaking of that inheritance, that the old covenant stated purpose was to fulfill that inheritance promise through the Abrahamic covenant. We studied that back in Exodus chapter 19 verses 5 to 6 and during our study of the covenants as well. But that did not happen and actually could not come through the old covenant. But it has, through the better, the new covenant in which this will be realized or received. So we're going to look at verses 11 to 15 where the writer speaks of the permanent priesthood and permanent purification affected by Jesus Christ. So let's begin here with verse number 11. But Christ being come and high priest of good things to come, by greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that's to say, not of this building. So the writer begins with a contrast from the external ordinances, and he referred to those in verses 1 to 10 in the first part of chapter 9, those external ordinances. And he didn't use the word there for flesh or fleshly, and it's translated carnal there. But it's not pointing out sin in a sense, but just that it's merely outward, it's merely external. And these external ordinances were imposed. They were in force as long as the Old Covenant was in force. In other words, it was right for them to do and to observe all of those rituals, all the commands that were given to fulfill all of the priestly service. It was right for them to do so. but not because that service was effective, but because that was what was required under the old covenant that was then in force. And that was imposed until the time of the new order, and that's how verse 10 ends. These things were imposed until the time of the reformation or the time of the new order. So Christ being come a high priest, that he starts out this verse with, refers to the declaration of his priesthood with an oath after the order of Melchizedek, which he has referred to in chapter 5 and verse 6 and chapter 6 and verse 20 and chapter 7 verses 17 and 28. He's referred to these things repeatedly. in this letter. And the good things to come that he refers to here is referring to that better priesthood, that better covenant, the better sacrifices, all of those ways in which Jesus Christ and a new covenant are superior to the priesthood and the old covenant. That's what he's been referring to in this letter. Now, as great high priest, Jesus entered the true tabernacle in the heavens in the presence of God. He stated that back to the beginning of chapter 8 once again in verses 1 to 2. From chapter 1 he has talked about Jesus ascending to heaven and being in the heavens on the right hand of God, but a lot of that refers to his kingly exaltation but also it's tied, according to Psalm 110, to his priesthood. And the writer has been pointing this out time and time again as we've been going through this letter. Now, the more perfect tabernacle means, the word means end or completion. It's not just better in the sense that maybe it's a better model or maybe it has a better design or it's improved in that sense, but this is that language of type and antitype. It's the fulfillment. It's the true. It's the real. That earthly tabernacle, although it took all that time, it took all those materials and everything to make, and it was a a physical building that was located and it was moved from place to place and they had to carry it around. And despite all of that, the true is the actual fulfillment. The earthly tabernacle was the type, the true heavenly tabernacle is the anti-type. Now furthermore, Jesus was not made a priest, or not a priest, in the temple or tabernacle that was made with hands. Now we've already seen this reference before and the writer is simply referring to the fact that the temple, the tabernacle, all the furnishings, all of those things had to do with the priesthood and their garments and all of that. That was all made. It was made by those of Israel, those that had been particularly skilled in the various crafts and things that were necessary that God had given to them. They were made with hands and it's according to the Old Covenant commands. We've seen that reference back in chapter 8 and verse 5 and then really in several places at the beginning of chapter number 9. It's not made with hands so it's just a contrast to that that was made under the Old Covenant. But he also says it's not of this building and building is kind of an odd word here but the word in the original it really is pointing to creation. It's the creation. It's not of this creation. It's not of this order. He's further distinguishing the true tabernacle in the heavens as not belonging to or not being a part of this creation of which that earthly tabernacle was. 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." He's further distinguishing the priestly service of Christ. Now, the blood of animal sacrifice was required. It was required to sanctify and to cleanse the altar, the tabernacle, the priests themselves, all the utensils, the vessels, all of these things for service. It required blood from animal sacrifices. And the particular day of atonement ritual that was featured back in the first verses of chapter nine, The Day of Atonement ritual showed how all that blood was required, everything that had to be sprinkled, all the things that had to be done. The priest had to begin with that offering for himself and the blood had to be sprinkled and all these things before he ever actually made the offering for the sins of Israel. So all this blood was required. Now the Day of Atonement, the writer points out, was repeated every year. That was old covenant law. It was repeated every year. But Jesus Christ, he's saying, entered into the true holy place only once. Now, if the Day of Atonement had been effective, it wouldn't have needed to be repeated every year. It would have been done one time, and that would have been it. That would have been good. But by Jesus Christ entering once into the true holy place, he tells us that he has secured eternal redemption. Eternal redemption. Saying eternal means once for all time. Never repeated. It means everlasting. It means permanent. The writer, of course, highlights different aspects of this in this letter. He referred to eternal salvation in chapter 5 and verse 9. He refers to eternal redemption twice here, in fact, in verses 12 and 15. And he refers to eternal inheritance again in verse number 15. Now, redemption This term refers to the freeing or the releasing, purchasing with the ransom price. So under the Old Covenant, if a person had to sell their inheritance, they had to sell their property and home and such, or maybe they lost it due to poverty and they became enslaved, Well, that could be redeemed by the kinsman redeemer. And that redemption meant paying the redemption price, and that would involve the settling of debts and what have you, and restoring that person's freedom and inheritance. Now, of course, that redemption was a shadow of the greater redemption to come in Christ. Because technically, a person could end up in such a situation where they lose their inheritance through some means, they could then be redeemed by a kinsman-redeemer, and then could go on and lose it again. But what he's saying about Jesus is that he entered once into that holy place in the heavens, the true holy place, And his sacrifice was required in order for him to enter there. And through that he's obtained eternal redemption. His blood was the redemption price and his one sacrifice secured eternal redemption for all who believe in him. Permanent redemption, everlasting redemption, one time redemption. Verse 13. Now, verses 13 and 14, the writer begins an explanation of how much greater the blood of Christ is than the blood of the animals in the Old Covenant. Now, the Old Covenant required animal sacrifices for purification and for cleansing, referring, of course, to the ceremonial cleansing. And when you read the Old Covenant, you read how the people and various objects had to be purified, and they had to be purified from defilement. or they were purified in order to be sanctified, to go from being common to being consecrated to sacred use only. And then he refers to the ashes of the heifer. This is a reference back to Numbers chapter 19 and the slaying of the red heifer that cleansed. And there's several defilements that are listed there that this was to be maintained for purification. One of those being sin, in verse 9, back there in Numbers 19. Another was having that contact with a dead body. in verses 11 to 13. And then another that is particularly mentioned in verses 16 to 19 is coming in contact with, and this would be more of like out in the field at some maybe accidental situation or whatever, you know, accidentally coming in contact with a body, with a dead body, accidentally coming in contact with a bone, or a grave of someone that had been buried. Now, of course, all of these things would defile a person, would make them ceremonially unclean. And so the slaughter of the red heifer, the sprinkling of the ashes, all of these things were done for a cleansing from that defilement. And that's what he's talking about here. The blood of bulls and goats, the ashes of the heifer that was burned, these things were effective to the purifying of the flesh. Now the word for flesh here is again, it's referring to the external, it's referring to that material part of a person, the body, in distinction from the internal, the immaterial part of a person, the soul. So the writer's point is that all of these ceremonies involving these animal sacrifices They were effective in this way. They were effective in ceremonial cleanness. In other words, they were effective at cleansing ceremonial defilement. They were effective at doing that. The blood accomplished the cleansing of that external defilement and the required cleanness in order to enter the camp, in order to enter the tabernacle, in order to serve the altar in the case of the priests, and so on. So those things were effective. In other words, if a person had violated the law, and had come in contact or in some way had become defiled, then they could not enter the camp, they could not enter the tabernacle, they were to be put to death. But if the blood of bulls and goats and what have you was shed and these various rituals were observed, they could be cleansed from that defilement and then they could enter in again freely without fear of death. So they were effective in that way. They could accomplish that much. And what he's doing is setting up the contrast because those sacrifices, though they could do that, they could never cleanse the inner person. They could never touch the heart, the soul of a person. Verse 14, 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? So how much greater, the writer says, is once for all time sacrificed blood of Jesus Christ? Now, of course, keep in mind, as he's writing to these first century Jewish believers who are tempted in some ways with the thoughts of returning to this old covenant, returning to this temple in Jerusalem, returning to these sacrifices and this blood that the writer is showing clearly that even according to the old covenant, it was ineffective. He, that Jesus, he says that he was without spot or without blemish. And this is another way that's maybe a little more subtle, but it's also distinguishing him from the animals that were sacrificed. Now those animals, of course, they couldn't be sick. They couldn't have certain physical blemishes. They had to you know, be free of those sort of physical defects in order to serve as an appropriate offering, they were externally without blemish. But Jesus was internally without blemish. And in fact, the writer has already referred a couple of times to the perfect sinlessness of Jesus Christ back in chapter 4 and verse 15 and in chapter 7 verses 26 to 28. As a sacrifice, he was internally, he was thoroughly spotless. And no animal, of course, was so clean in that way. Well, his perfect sacrifice actually cleanses consciences from dead works, he says. Now, he has referred to dead works back in chapter six in verse number one, where he's referring to the works of the old covenant. These things that didn't cleanse the conscience of guilt. In other words, every bit of the Old Covenant that was kept by a person would in no way make up for the least bit of the Old Covenant that was violated by that person. In other words, that sinfulness was in no way made up for by observing the good works and such, and keeping the covenant in every other way, so to speak. So those works of the Old Covenant did not cleanse the conscience of guilt. And actually, the writer's going to refer to that in the beginning of chapter 10. But this cleansing that he's talking about here, in connection with Jesus Christ, his priesthood, and the New Covenant, which is where we are contextually, was actually prophesied in the New Covenant. So, Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse number 8, where God said, And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity. whereby they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me." And, of course, in other places, connected to the New Covenant, it says, he will remember them no more. In other words, there will be a true and a permanent cleansing through the new covenant, which was prophesied in the old. And this, of course, is what the writer is pointing out that has been accomplished through Jesus Christ. Now that Jesus Christ offered himself through the eternal spirit, that's a phrase that has puzzled preachers and scholars and pretty much everybody that's taken up the phrase. And there's a lot of different ideas of what is being spoken of. And some people are surprisingly dogmatic about what they believe is being stated there. It seems that he is clearly referring to the Holy Spirit, if we keep that in context in this letter. And so, the best that I can understand it, which I'm not saying it's unimportant, but I don't believe it alters I believe it alters the point that he is making. At least there's a couple different ways that it could be taken. I don't believe that it alters that point. But the best that I can understand it is that this offering of himself through the eternal spirit is in some way a reference to the humanity of Christ as being empowered by the Spirit. And of course this was foretold of the Messiah. Places like Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 and 2, chapter 42 and verse 1, chapter 61 and verse 1, and so on. And spoken of in fulfillment in Christ, in Luke chapter 1 verse 35, chapter 3 verse 22, chapter 4 verse 1 and 14, and some other places. In other words, As best I can comprehend it, it's somewhat along the vein of when Jesus said that no man knows the day or the hour, not the angels of heaven, nor the son of man on earth. in some way, how that he set aside, so to speak, that deity in a sense, that he didn't avail himself of divinity in order to escape his sufferings. Now, that may or may not make sense to you. It's what I can understand as best this phrase that it means, and there are a lot of ideas about what is being said here. But again, I don't believe this interferes with the main point of what the author has been talking about, and that is how much greater the blood of Jesus Christ in sacrifice was than that of all of those animals that were sacrificed under the Old Covenant. And all that they could accomplish was cleansing the flesh in terms of ceremonial cleanness. And what Christ's blood accomplished is actual purging, purifying the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Verse number 15, And for this cause he is 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. Because of this, he says, he is the mediator of the new covenant. Of course, this has come up before in this letter, and he's just continuing to fill this out. Through his death, Jesus has redeemed the transgressions. And that's a very particular word. There are a few different words that are used to describe sins in the Old Testament and New Testament alike. And this particular word, transgression, as it's oftentimes translated, it does it does indicate the violation, the breach of some sort of law, some sort of command. In other words, something has been broken by either something done or not done. Breach of the Old Covenant law in this particular sense. And the Old Covenant, the first or the former, The Old Covenant could not redeem those transgressions that were real sins. So don't lose sight of that fact. The fact that the Old Covenant contained all of these shadows and figures and types, that doesn't mean that the breaking of that Old Covenant was not actually and really sin. It is. It was. The Old Covenant, though, gave knowledge of sin, but could not actually redeem those transgressions. In other words, the Old Covenant made very clear what those transgressions were. The Old Covenant makes very clear that anyone measured against that Old Covenant is guilty and condemned before God. That's entirely clear. So it gave the knowledge of sin, but the Old Covenant itself could not actually redeem those transgressions so that a person was saved, rescued, delivered from the condemnation that their sins so rightly deserve. So this redemption is effective here in this for the called. Referring to the saved, those who believe. Chapter 3 and verse 1 talks about those partakers of that heavenly calling. Now this promise of eternal inheritance. And this inheritance, and we've already seen in this letter, this inheritance that he's referring to, it is the inheritance on earth in the kingdom of the Messiah. And that is consistent throughout actually Old and New Testaments, though we certainly learn some things about that inheritance in the New Testament. has been a persistent thread in this letter, beginning with the inheritance of the son, all the way back in chapter one and verse number two. So inheritance is an important theme in the letter to the Hebrews, and it particularly was the focus of chapters three and four for using the language of rest that was spoken of in terms of bringing Israel to the land. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ actually secures that inheritance eternally or permanently. There is no temple in Jerusalem today and hasn't been for 2,000 years. Israel has not possessed the entirety of the promised land of the Abrahamic covenant ever. They possessed a large portion of it for a time, millennia ago. So what am I getting at? What I'm getting at is that the Old Covenant never secured that inheritance as an everlasting possession. Wasn't possible. And of course, we've talked about the flaws involved in the Old Covenant. So the comparison and the contrast now that the writer of Hebrews is making is that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His priesthood in the heavenly holy place, actually secures that inheritance eternally, permanently, everlastingly. And His sacrifice also confirmed the Old Covenant. He is the mediator of the New Testament. Sacrifice, rather, his sacrifice confirmed the New Covenant. And there was also sacrifice that confirmed the Old Covenant. And we saw that in Exodus 24, verses 5 to 8. But Christ's greater sacrifice confirmed the New Covenant once for all time. And of course, the writer is going to talk about that more in the next passages. So the Old Covenant blood that the writer has been writing about in this passage in particular, that Old Covenant blood from sacrifices, cleansed objects, And I think in this case we can even think of people as objects. It cleansed objects. All of the furniture of the tabernacle, the tabernacle itself, the altar, the priest's garments, the people of Israel. Moses sprinkled that blood on the scroll of the Old Covenant as well as on the people of Israel. It cleansed objects. made them ceremonially clean. For ceremony, by the way, that was only a shadow and was only a figure of what is greater. New Covenant blood sacrifice, on the other hand, the writer has pointed out, cleanses people. by which I mean inside and out. He says in particular, cleanses the conscience, purifies, purifies, and notice how he said that at the end of verse 14, purifies in order to serve the living God. Now another way to look at this, how the blood of Jesus Christ sets us free. He used the language of redemption in this passage as well as the purging or purifying of the conscience. So often Our very low views of what freedom or liberty in Jesus Christ means keeps us down among the porks and sausages and shellfish. We just don't seem to get much further beyond that. I have liberty in Christ to enjoy things of this creation. And that is true. We do have freedom in Jesus Christ to enjoy things of this creation that we would not have under the old covenant. That is true. But the writer emphasizes here, not that, but that freedom in Jesus Christ means we are free to serve God with a clear conscience. That is what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has accomplished. Now that word for service, it's the same that we've been talking about that refers in many cases to priestly service, not in every case. The point is it's a different word from that diakonos, that table waiter sort of service. It's a word that sort of means a public service in some way. We've talked about that and that's the word that is still being used here and not necessarily meaning that we have freedom in priestly service, so to speak, we have freedom in in service to God, in public service to God. We could even say in office of service to God. So what if? Think with me for a moment. What would our lives look like? What would our service look like? What would our churches look like? If we served God, not in the restrictions of old guilt, not in the chains of the approval of other people, not in the burden of legal guilt-driven preaching and expectations, but in the freedom of Jesus Christ's redemption. what would that look like? And then I wondered what if the old hymn that we sing would actually be reality for us? The old hymn, redeemed. How I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the land. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus. No language my rapture can tell. I think of my blessed Redeemer, and I think of Him all day long. I sing, for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song, I know I shall see in his beauty the king in whose love I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night." What would our lives, our service to God look like if we had that sort of focus on the redemption that we have in Jesus Christ. Yes, by all means, enjoy the ham and sausages and thank God for them. But what would our service and our lives look like if we really just left behind all of those shackles, all of those chains, all of those guilt, all of those things that hinder us, if we just left those behind and were so happy in Jesus that we could not help but sing his praises? I'm not worried about what brother or sister over here thinks about my singing. Or how loudly did I sing? Or how cheerfully did I sing? Because my mind is fixed on my great king. What would it look like? That's what the writer of Hebrews says. He has purged our consciences from dead works to serve the living God freely without any of the encumbrances of the old covenant. We have believed in Jesus and we who have believed in Jesus have been set free to serve him. Do we honor him? Do we honor his sacrifice? Do we honor his blood by clinging to the chains of dead works and guilt?