Our Old Testament reading this morning is found in the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers, and we'll be reading together the 19th chapter. Numbers 19. Here now God's inspired and living and inerrant word. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, this is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect in which there is no blemish and on which a yoke has never come. And you shall give it to Eliezer the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. And Eliezer the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. And the heifer shall be burned in his sight, its skin, its flesh, and its blood with its dung shall be burned. And the priest shall take the cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire, burning the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water. And afterwards he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water, for impurity, for the congregation of the people of Israel. It is a sin offering. And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among you. Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean for seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died and does not cleanse himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person shall be cut off from Israel, because the water for impurity was not thrown on him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him. This is the law when someone dies in a tent. Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with the sword or who died naturally or who touches a human bone or a grave shall be unclean seven days. For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering and fresh water shall be added in a vessel. Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were who were there and on whoever touched the bone or the slain or the dead or the grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean. If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, That person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him. He is unclean and it shall be a statute forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening and whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening. And now let's turn this morning once again to Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. We were here last Lord's Day morning in our series on the ascension of Christ and we're returning this morning to look at two more verses, verses 13 and 14. But to get our focus, to get our bearings, let's read together beginning at verse 1. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence. It is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made the priest goes regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties but into the second only the high priest goes and he but once a year and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of Reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Or if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience and from dead works to serve the living God. Amen and amen. Let's pray together. Father, as we come to you this morning, we ask you to fill us with joy and gratitude that we have your word. Grant us the grace this morning to be studious to look intently into this perfect law of liberty. And Lord, may we not walk away from it being forgetful hearers, but make us faithful doers of your truth. Today is the seed of the word is sown. We ask you to plow up our hearts by your spirit. Let your word sink down into well tilled soil. And we ask you to bring forth an abundant harvest of spiritual fruit. All this we pray in our Savior's name. Amen. His prayer was lengthy. but in the best Protestant tradition, a tradition and experience sadly missing in many churches today. Pastor George Shrink brought the needs and the desires and the hopes and the praise of his congregation, the Monument Methodist Episcopal Church of Baltimore, to the throne of grace. one Lord's Day morning in 1865 during the pastoral prayer, something, whether it was an element of his prayer or an element from earlier devotions in the day, something caught the attention of one of the choir members. And she began to meditate upon the glorious work of Jesus Christ. Her heart was captivated by the truth and the power of the cross. And as she mused on the gospel, as her pastor prayed, the truth of grace simply wafted over her. And as her heart filled with joy, her thoughts began to come to her as lines of poetry and not having any paper, she opened up her hymnal and began to quickly write inside. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me Thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Last Lord's Day, those words of Elvina Hall, Jesus paid it all. really brought us to the climax of Hebrews 9, 11, and 12. Jesus paid it all. Those words capture the theological thrust of that text. The Lord Jesus Christ, as our great High Priest, has ascended into heavenly glory to present himself at the Father's right hand. He did not go into the presence of God the way an earthly Old Testament high priest did. Jesus did not go into an earthly tent that the author describes in those earlier verses of this chapter, but rather he passed into that greater, that more perfect tabernacle above where he ever lives and ever serves the church as our great high priest. The Son of God did not go as Aaron would have gone with the blood of goats and calves. But having accomplished a perfect atonement on the cross, Jesus presented himself risen, glorified, and yet now forever scarred. as the one who has achieved, the one who has secured and obtained forever our redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ did not die upon the cross and ascend into glory to make redemption a mere possibility. Oh, my dear people, Jesus shed his blood to make our redemption an absolute certainty. Jesus paid it. This morning, we're moving forward in the passage to look at verses 11, or rather verses 13 and 14, where we see that not only did Jesus secure our eternal redemption, but as our high priest, Christ has achieved our spiritual purification. What did Ms. Hall write? Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. Now in verses 13 and 14 the author once again contrast the new from the old as he had done in verses 11 and 12. But here he uses this contrast to present an argument to us, an argument from the lesser to the greater. The technical term for this in logic is an a-fortiori argument, or in Jewish studies it's called a kal-vah-chomer, light and heavy. Light and heavy. Now, we're used to this kind of argument. We encounter it in everyday life. One of the iconic commercials, one of the longest-running and most successful television ads was for Life Cereal. Perhaps you remember it. Three little boys, two of them looking at this bowl of cereal, and they're not about to touch it. Why? Because it's supposed to be good for you. And if it's supposed to be good for you, then it must taste disgustingly. But what were they going to do? They'll give it to Mikey. Mikey, he won't like it. Why? Because Mikey hates everything. But it turns out Mikey loves it. Now, you may not have realized it at the time, you may not have thought in these terms, but the Quaker Oat Company was plying you with an a fortiori argument. If Mikey loves it, everybody's going to love it. the lesser to the greater. Now, we find this kind of argument in Scripture. Jesus uses it. In fact, this kind of kal-vah-chomer, this light and heavy argument, was right at the heart of our theme text last year from Luke 11, 13. If you're evil, you're a sinful person, and yet you know how to give good gifts to your children, the lesser then how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Now, that's the kind of argument that unfolds the author's thought here. And he sets out for us the minor premise of this argument, the lesser of the argument, in verse 13, where we see that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant purified the flesh. When you read the ritual purity laws of the Old Testament, laws like we find in Leviticus, particularly chapters 11 through 15, but in other places in the Pentateuch as well, like Numbers 19 that we read a few moments ago, then you begin to realize that all kinds of things can make you unclean. Your food can make you unclean. The kind of clothing that you wear, that can make you unclean. If you touch a dead body, you can become unclean. The birth of a child can make a mother and the child unclean. Various bodily ailments can make you unclean. When you read Leviticus, you start to think, wow, just about everything in this world can make me unclean. And that's the point. That's the point. Because of all the good gifts that God gives us in this world, there is the potential of perverting those good gifts and not using them for His glory. And so, practically everything, it seems, can make us unclean. Now, this uncleanness had consequences. If you were unclean, you defiled the tabernacle. You couldn't approach those holy precincts for worship. And in some more serious cases, you were actually required to stay outside the camp for a period of time. There's a great example of this earlier in Numbers chapter 12, when Miriam sins by speaking harshly about Moses' wife, Zipporah. At that time, the Lord for her sins struck her with leprosy and she was quarantined outside the camp for seven days before God healed her and she could be cleansed and come back into the camp. Now, these physical and ceremonial defilements were used by God to teach Israel some very profound lessons. They were object lessons about the defilement that's caused by sin. And while you and I are not under the ritual laws of the Old Testament, We are still under the principles that they contain. And what is this principle of the law of uncleanness? Yes, practically everything in this world can make you unclean and sin defiles you. Sin defiles you. That's why you feel guilty when you sin. That's why you feel dirty when you sin. You realize that there is a blemish upon your conscience, a stain upon your soul. And this morning if you say, well, I don't really feel that way. I don't see any shame or I don't feel any kind of defilement when I sin. Well, then you're in a very serious spiritual condition. Remind me of that character in Peanuts, Pigpen. Pigpen is not aware that he's dirty. He walks around and there's this cloud of dust swirling around him. But everyone else can see that he's filthy, but no one else, but he can't see it himself. Why? He's become so accustomed to it. And I wonder this morning, If you feel the weight and the burden of sin on your conscience when you defile the law of God. Or have you calloused your heart by unrepentant sin and no longer feel the pricks of the spirit's conviction? Oh, my dear people, sin defiles. That's the lesson of the law, but it also alienates. It alienates us from God. When Miriam sinned, she was not able to go to the tabernacle for worship. But it also alienates us from the people of God. She was put outside the camp. Sin has consequences. Sadly, that is a lesson largely lost on our culture today. watch videos online of people who are caught red-handed committing a crime, and they're often quite astounded that the police would dare to arrest them. My actions have consequences? Yes. They always have and they always will and sin will always defile you and sin will always alienate you. It cannot but do otherwise. But of course, there was the hope of cleansing from sin. That's why all of the rituals and the ceremonies are in place. Just read the book of Leviticus, and you do read the book of Leviticus, right? You should read the book of Leviticus, and you'll see them laid out for you here. There are sacrifices, and there are washings, and there are scourings, and there are scrapings, all kinds of methods. And when you read Leviticus, you will see how elaborate these ceremonies were. You will start to sense, I think, how burdensome many ways they were. And you and I should all breathe a sigh of relief that we don't live under the regulations of the Old Covenant. You were able to get up out of bed this morning and you didn't have to bring a goat to church unless it was the old one you married. Sorry. preacher's temptation that he just couldn't resist. Here the author takes all of these sacrifices and he summarizes them in terms of the sprinkling of blood and the ashes of a heifer. Now the sprinkling of blood reminds us of what Aaron did on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. He would go into the most holy place and there upon the mercy seat he would sprinkle that blood seven times for the purification of the tabernacle. But here the author, after dealing with the sprinkling of the blood and the Day of Atonement, which forms most of the background for what we've seen prior to this in chapter 9, he takes hold, as it were, of the spindles of his Torah scroll. And with a few death turns, he rolls it ahead to Numbers 19 and the ashes of a heifer. We read the regulations for that. If you were defiled by some kind of contact with a dead body, then you were to take these ashes. They were from a spotless red heifer whose blood was shed and whose body along with its blood was burned up. Those ashes that were kept in a clean place outside the camp were mixed with water and sprinkled on you. And then you would be allowed after the third day sprinkling and the seventh day sprinkling to once again enter the camp. Now here's the point. These ceremonies did what God intended for them to do. They provided ritual cleansing. They provided a ceremonial way for those who had become defiled some way physically to experience the purification of the flesh, of the body, so that they could be restored to fellowship and worship. But there's a point here that I don't want you to miss about the nature of these sacrifices and ceremonies. They didn't just work mechanically. Go through the steps, follow the details of Leviticus and presto, everyone is right with God. Oh yes, they in an outward way restored you to the camp, but these ceremonies, these sacrifices and rituals were intended to function in a sacramental way. Now, here's what I mean. As New Covenant believers, God has given us bread and wine and water, physical means that serve as means of grace that offer to us the truth and the power of the gospel that turn our attention to look back to the cross of Christ and beckon us to believe. Now for our brothers and sisters under the Old Covenant, the goats and the calves and their blood and the ashes and all of the ceremonies that went along with cleansing served a sacramental function. They were physical means that in that simple way proclaimed and offered the gospel to the people. And just as we use these means of grace to look back to what Christ has accomplished, they use those means of grace to look forward to what He would accomplish. And those sacrifices, when used as God intended them, beckoned them to faith. and they carried out their God-intended purpose. The blood of goats and calves and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer do secure, they do sanctify for the purification of the flesh. But if that's the case for the lesser, then what are we to say about the blood of Jesus. What about that blood that was so powerful that it secured our redemption? Well, these questions are answered in verse 14, where we have the greater conclusion. Yes, the sacrifices of the old covenant purified the flesh, but the sacrifice of the new covenant purifies the conscience. If the lesser offerings had a role to play, and they did, how much more the death of Jesus. Now let's just pause there for a moment. And let's meditate on those words, how much more. They really capture the heart of the book of Hebrews. Those three words summarize the author's argument. How much more? When I was a teenager, I often carried with me a small red New Testament. In fact, I brought it with me this morning. I love this little New Testament. It probably cost me $2 and is getting worn out. But I carried it all over the place and the book that I read most in this little New Testament was the book of Hebrews. It's pretty obvious when you open it up because it's the book I've marked up the most. I was fascinated with the book of Hebrews and I would read it over and over again. But I wrestled with this book and its message and I wrestled with what I was reading other people say about the book of Hebrews because they kept emphasizing the better nature of what's revealed in Hebrews But in my very simple way of thinking in those days, I thought, well, just a second here. Are you denigrating the Old Testament? Wait just a minute. I mean, the Old Testament's the word. I was even an Old Testament geek as a teenager. Okay. It's longstanding. The Old Testament's God's Word. It's over three-fourths of God's Word. We've got to take it seriously. We've got to obey the Ten Commandments. We've got to love this book. So what's going on here? Until it dawned on me that the author was not denigrating the Old Testament, he was putting it in its context. The Old Testament was good. Old Testament was better than good. It was marvelous. But oh, how much better is the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the Son of God. Very popular today to see food videos on social media. People are all the time cooking and prepping meals and I only wish it could happen in real life as fast as it does on Instagram. Wonderful looking meals, marvelous desserts. You know, you keep saving them, those meals and desserts you're never going to make, but you save them, right? It can be fun to watch those, but isn't it much better to sit down to a good meal with a fork and knife? It can be a lot of fun planning your dream vacation, going from website to website. But oh, how much better is it to be there? And we all have pictures of family and friends, people we love. And it's wonderful to look at those pictures, isn't it? Oh, but how much better to see them face to face? Aaron was marvelous dressed in his high priestly attire. Oh, the angels are majestic and glorious coming from the very throne of God. But how much better is Jesus? How much more glorious is the son of God who comes in fulfillment of all those types and shadows? I think this morning we ought to turn to Matthew chapter 1 and right at the top of the page, how much more? God has given us the 39 books of the Good Testament and he's given us the 27 books of the How Much More Testament. Now to appreciate the how much more nature of Jesus' sacrifice. To appreciate the power of his blood, we need to look at two elements that the author lays out for us here in verse 14. First has to do with the nature of Christ's sacrifice. There are four elements to this. First of all, it is a self-sacrifice. Did you notice that? Christ offered himself. That wasn't possible for Aaron or for any of his successors. It was necessary for them to bring a goat or a calf or a lamb. They had to bring them, in fact, first for their own sins, then for the sins of the people. But Jesus Christ laid down his own life. On the cross of Calvary, our Lord was both priest and sacrifice. And that old rugged cross was the altar where He was slain. Remember those words in the Good Shepherd discourse when Jesus says, for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me. The Romans thought they were taking it from Him. The Jews thought they were taking his life from him and finally getting rid of what they thought was this pesky pretend Messiah. But Jesus says, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. Why? Because this charge I have received from my father. That leads us to the second element of this sacrifice. Not only was it a self-sacrifice, but it was a sacrifice directed to the Father. He offered himself up to God because God is justly angry with our sins. The wrath, the holy, just wrath of God must be satisfied for our iniquities. And the Savior said, I will bear the punishment of my people. It's not very popular today to preach the substitutionary atonement. It's not very popular to talk about penal substitutionary atonement. That Christ was punished in our behalf. But brothers and sisters, that is the heart and that is the glory of the gospel. That Christ loved us so much. That He was for the joy that was set before Him. The joy of redeeming you. He was willing to endure the cross and despise the shame. A self-sacrifice, a Godward sacrifice. It was a sinless sacrifice. He offered himself without blemish to God. I'm sure you're familiar enough with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament to know that when an Israelite brought his or her offering to the Lord, it had to be a perfect, a blemishless offering. The animal couldn't have a broken bone or some defect. So an Israelite was bringing the most valuable from his flock or his herd. And he was bringing an animal that was without flaw to take the punishment for his flaws, for his sins. The apostle Peter compared the Lord Jesus to these blemish less sacrifices when he wrote, but we are redeemed not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. The author of our book Hebrews here makes this explicit earlier in chapter 4 when he says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Why was the death of Christ so powerful? Because the life of the flesh is in the blood. And in pouring out His blood unto death, Christ was pouring out His sinless, spotless life. And that's how it accomplished the plan and the purposes of God. But you'll notice in the fourth place here that this is a Spirit-empowered sacrifice. He offered himself without blemish to God by or through the eternal Spirit. This is a lesson I think that is often lost on us. When we think about Jesus and the person of Jesus and what theologically is called the hypostatic union, the union between God and man, Two distinct natures, one person. We tend to transform that in our minds into thinking of Jesus as a superman. But Jesus was a true man. There was not a mingling of deity and humanity. There were two distinct natures joined in the one person. And so the work that Christ accomplished in his life, he accomplished not by being a Superman, not by emerging from the phone booth as it were, to do all of his miracles, to perform all of his deeds and endure all of his sufferings, and to die on the cross. No, Jesus offered himself as a Spirit-filled man. as one who submitted to the leading of the Spirit of God when He stretched out His arms and they were nailed to that tree. You see here, do you not, in the nature of Christ's sacrifice, the Trinitarian nature of it? Oh, the Trinity permeates everything in the Bible. It permeates the gospel that we hold so dear. For in our salvation, the Son of God offers himself to God the Father through the power of God the Spirit, so that working inseparably, working together, and yet working distinctly in their own callings, our great God brings about the cleansing we so desperately need. And that leads us to see this second element here in the verse. Not only do we find here the nature of Christ's sacrifice, but there's an effect to it. What does his sacrifice accomplish? It cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. What are dead works? They are works that cause death. This is the author's way of describing sin. Your sin, my sin, works death in us. But the blood of Jesus can cleanse away that sin. By being applied to your conscience, your soul, that seed of knowledge where you're aware of your wrongdoing. And your conscience condemns you. And it brings you a sense of shame. And you would not want the person sitting next to you or down the road from you to know your sin, to know what goes on in your heart and your mind that defiles you day after day. And yet the blood of Jesus can wash all of that away. Every bit of it. If you are here this morning and you have never come to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, let me assure you this morning, you can know forgiveness and peace with God. That guilt that weighs you down, that sin of which you're being convicted this morning, you know the wrongdoings in your life, you know that you are not right with God this morning. Come to Jesus. Look to Christ and ask Him, Lord, wash me. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. This is not just a message this morning for those who are without Christ, this is a message for every one of us here. Because as you know and as I know, not a day passes in this world without us sinning in some way. In the way we think, the things we think about, the words we say, the acts we perform, the motivations that lie behind even seemingly good things that we do. Oh, how we need the cleansing of Jesus' blood. It's given to us when we first come to him in faith and repentance. But conversion in the Christian life is never a one-time event, is it? Conversion is a daily event. Conversion is daily repentance and daily faith. And what happens each day as we confess our sins? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And to what? Cleanse our consciences from all unrighteousness. Because if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the conscience cleansing blood of Jesus washes us pure and clean from every spot and stain. Christ, our great high priest, is now seated at the Father's right hand. He's there making intercession for us. We'll look at that more closely next Lord's Day. But he's seated there this morning as the one who has accomplished our redemption and has achieved our cleansing. Isaac Watts put it so beautifully when he penned the words, not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away its stain. But Christ, the heavenly lamb, takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they. Do you know the joy and the peace of a clean conscience? You can know it today. Let's pray. Father. Accept our thanks and praise for Christ, our Lord. We are so unworthy. Cleanse us afresh and anew, Lord. May the blood of Jesus in such a powerful way come to us and impress upon our consciences that we would joy serve you, the living God. May we go into this week with all that lies ahead of us, confident in the work of our Lord. And may we live in its victory and power. We pray this in his precious name. Amen.