Everything's Better with Christ - 38

You can learn a lot of biblical truth by paying attention to the words of these hymns. Well, we come to Hebrews chapter 9 and are looking today at verses 11 through 14. And the theme of this section, and indeed I think we could say the simplest summary of the entire contents of the book of Hebrews, can be wrapped up in three words. Jesus is better.

Jesus is better. Old Covenant worship served its God-intended purpose for a time. And the New Covenant, inaugurated by Christ, fulfilled Old Covenant worship and replaced it. Therefore, writing to the Hebrew Christians, the author says, don't go back.

Don't go back to the Old Covenant. It's no longer of any value spiritually to the people of God. The old is inferior to the new. The old is no longer applicable today. It is obsolete. We can be instructed by studying the Old Covenant, and we should, but we cannot please God by holding on to it.

It's gone forever. The New Covenant has replaced it. And so we saw Old Covenant worship described in Hebrews 9, 1 through 10. And today, moving on into verse 11, we see that New Covenant provisions are better than the Old Covenant ones in every possible way. And so in verses 11 through 14, I'm going to give you six ways that the New Covenant is better than the old.

Six ways in which everything is better in Christ. Number one, because we have a better high priest. Number two, because we have better promises. Number three, because we worship in a better tabernacle. Number four, because we have a better sacrifice. Five, because we enjoy a better atonement.

And number six, because we have received a better result. And we'll look at these one by one. First of all, a better high priest. Verse 11. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come. Christ came as high priest of the good things to come. That, of course, is obviously in contrast with the Aaronic priesthood. Christ came as a high priest better than the Old Covenant high priests. But let's consider for a moment what we know about the Old Covenant high priest, the Aaronic priesthood. The Old Covenant high priest, whether Aaron or any of his successors, was indeed the epitome of Old Covenant worship.

He was the highest ranking religious official under the Old Covenant. And he performed the most important Old Covenant ritual that took place upon the Day of Atonement, which we have described in previous messages when he went into the Holy of Holies that only could happen one time a year. And I don't think I mentioned to you, but when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, there was nobody even in the holy place because nobody was allowed even to get a glimpse into the Holy of Holies. Nobody could peek into the Holy of Holies as he lifted the curtain to go back into that place.

He went alone once a year, not without blood. He had to come, first of all, with the blood of a bull sacrificed for his sins, and then come back with the blood of the goat that had been sacrificed for the sins of the nation. And all of that on the Day of Atonement, which indicated that God now accepted this as an atoning sacrifice to forgive the sins of the people who were covered by that Old Covenant, the members of the nation of Israel primarily, and to forgive their sins, to pardon their sins for one more year, but then next year it'd have to be repeated all over again.

But nevertheless, there's no question that the high priest, the highest ranking of all the priests, represented the best of the Old Covenant system and performed the most important activity of Old Covenant worship. But he himself was a sinner, just like those that he represented, and that's why he couldn't even represent others until first a sacrifice had been made for his own sins. And through this act of going into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement as prescribed by God, he could only secure forgiveness for one more year.

And then he had to do it again, year after year after year. That's what we know about the Aaronic high priest. But let's consider Christ as high priest. But, verse 11 tells us, Christ came as high priest of the good things to come. We realize, therefore, that his role as high priest was part of his messianic role. Christ came as high priest, and that's not accidental that the writer of Hebrews selected that particular term to describe our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He didn't say Jesus came as high priest, though of course he did.

He didn't use any of the other titles or names by which the Son of God can be identified. But he picked that messianic title because this is part of his messianic work, maybe the most important part of his messianic work. He is the high priest of the New Covenant.

He is the high priest of those who believe in him. And so as an aspect of his messianic role, and he had other aspects as well as we know, but he came as a high priest. He was, therefore, the antitype of Aaron who was only a type.

We've used those terms before, but I will explain them again. In the Old Testament, nearly everything about Old Covenant worship was, each element was a type that is a symbol that pointed to some truth that would be made clear in the New Covenant. And Aaron as high priest was a type of Jesus Christ, the eternal high priest. Aaron was the type, the symbol, that pointed to the greater truth of the antitype Jesus Christ who actually fulfilled in his work what Aaron could only do symbolically and could not actually accomplish.

He could only by what he did point to the need for a greater accomplishment. And so he is the antitype, the fulfillment of Aaron who was an Old Covenant type. Aaron's work as the Old Covenant high priest indicated by this symbolism, by his typology, the need for a mediator to bridge the gap between God and man. Everything about that Old Covenant worship system, as I've tried to show you, was to demonstrate to people the barrier between man and God.

There is something that keeps you from coming unhindered into the presence of Almighty God and the rituals, the construction of the tabernacle itself, the very architecture, the way it was constructed and who was allowed to go where in that. All of that was indicating that men cannot get into the very presence of God, but they need someone that will represent them in the presence of God. And that was Aaron, the high priest, who represented them there once a year on the Day of Atonement. But Aaron was not able to accomplish what was needed to reconcile sinners to God.

He could only symbolize something that was needed, which was to come later. But you see, Christ came as high priest and he was both able to reconcile sinners to God and successful in doing so. Hallelujah. We have a better high priest. We have a successful high priest. Christ came as high priest of the good things to come. He came because he was anticipated by the Old Testament prophecies, a lot of them. Just think of any of the common Christmas texts that we take out of the Old Testament scriptures.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and so forth. Many Old Testament texts that are often picked up during the season when we remember, especially the Incarnation, and talk about the coming of Christ prophesied in the Old Testament and then the day of fulfillment came. And so Christ came, we read in our text in Hebrews 9-11. When Christ came, he came as anticipated by Old Testament prophecies.

He appeared at the appointed time, Paul tells us in Galatians, in the fullness of time, the perfect time for his time to come. And he fulfilled the promises of the God sent Messiah. All of the promises that the Old Testament prophets said about the promised Messiah, which were helpful but also were somewhat vague and shadowy until Christ came and made everything clear. But all those Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled when Christ came.

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come. What Old Covenant worshippers needed and waited for, New Covenant believers possess. What Old Covenant believers, or rather I should say, Old Covenant believers who cast themselves upon the mercy and promises of God were saved by the sacrifice of Christ yet to come. But New Testament believers are saved by the Christ who has already come. We are one with those who believed the promises of God in true faith in the Old Covenant, but they were saved on the promise of a Messiah to come to save them.

And in the meantime, all of these Old Testament rituals to teach them, to instruct them, to point them to the need of a mediator, to point them to the promises which God said that he would send one. But we stand in a better position because now we are looking back to the Christ who came 2,000 years ago and accomplished on the cross of Calvary and accomplished in his resurrection and accomplished in his ascension back to heaven that mediatorial work of bringing believing sinners into the presence of a thrice holy God. We have, therefore, a better high priest.

Number two, we have better promises. Our text in verse 11 says, But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come. What are the good things to come? Well, the good things to come are clearly, number one, something future to the Old Covenant system. They were looking for something. When Christ came, he brought them. But they didn't come until Christ came. They were looking for good things to come, future to them.

But Christ, when he came, brought the good things that were to come. These good things were something future to the Old Covenant system. They were something superior to the Old Covenant provisions in comparison with the Old Covenant provisions. These are good things.

They are better things. However you describe the Old Covenant provisions, and they were God's appointed provision for that time, they weren't as good as what we have in the coming of Christ in the New Covenant provisions, which are described as the good things to come. I don't know anywhere in the scriptures where Old Covenant rituals, as elaborate and complex and God-given as they were, I don't know any place where they are described as good things.

They were God-appointed things. God designed, of course, believing people in that day, submitted to those things that were given to them in the Old Covenant, all designed by God for many purposes, but certainly to teach them about their need of a Savior. But when Jesus Christ came, he brought all the good things that the Old Covenant couldn't provide. He brought all the good things that the Old Covenant pointed to. He brought all the good things that the Old Covenant raised anticipation for, but he brought it and he caused it to happen.

He brought all of this to full realization. And so these are better promises because his coming brought more than the provisional forgiveness of sins, as were experienced by Old Covenant worshipers. He brought the finalization of the forgiveness of sins. So what are the better promises? Old Covenant promises pointed to something better in the future. New Covenant promises bring better things accomplished in the past. Old Covenant worshipers believed reconciliation would be accomplished because God had promised it in the promise of a Messiah, but New Covenant worshipers believe that reconciliation has been accomplished. It is finished. Nobody in the Old Covenant could say that.

They couldn't bring their sacrifice to the priest at the Tabernacle and sacrifice their animal on the altar for a sin offering and say, it is finished. I'm done with that. Praise God. I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Yes, you do. In fact, the next time you sin, you better bring another one, another animal. Never finished. But when Christ died on the cross, it was finished. Christ accomplished the good things that the Old Covenant anticipated, better promises. Number three, we find in this passage a better tabernacle, a better place of worship. And now I read the entirety of verses 11 and 12. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Again, we see the contrast. Old Covenant worship was all centered in that Old Covenant tabernacle, constructed meticulously according to the design that was given to Moses by God, and later the temple constructed after a similar pattern. The Old Covenant tabernacle, the central place of worship, was material. It was physical, obviously.

It was constructed out of materials that are found here upon the earth. It was instructive. It contained many types, many shadows is sometimes another word that is used, because it showed truth but in a shadowy way that was not always completely clear. But it did show the need for propitiation.

There we use a big word again. Well, propitiation is whatever will satisfy a holy God to enable him to justly, to righteously forgive sinners. A propitiation, a satisfactory sacrifice. And you see the Old Covenant worshippers were making sacrifices, but they weren't really able to propitiate.

They only symbolized the need for that. And so the Old Covenant tabernacle was not only instructive, it was temporal. We are told here it was made with hands. We are also told that it was not of this creation, or we are told rather that the greater, more perfect tabernacle is not of this creation. The obvious implication, the obvious contrast is as the tabernacle was.

It was of this creation. It was representative of another tabernacle, another temple, another place of worship, which is not made with hands and which is the true and lasting place of worship. And therefore, when we are comparing the Old Covenant tabernacle with the New Covenant tabernacle, and you say I'm not accustomed to hearing that word, New Covenant tabernacle, that phrase, but I draw it, of course, from the language of this text. Christ came as high priest of the greater things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation.

So here we have presented something that is a tabernacle, but not of this, not made with hands, not of physical, certainly not of earthly construction, not of this creation, it's not made out of materials that we have before us here on the earth, and yet it is called a tabernacle, is it not? But the New Covenant tabernacle is greater because what took place in it was efficacious and eternal, whereas what took place in the Old Covenant tabernacle was never fully efficacious and it was never done. So the New Covenant tabernacle is greater. The New Covenant tabernacle is perfect. What took place there fully accomplished the needed reconciliation, the actual bringing of sinners into the very presence of a thrice holy God who does not allow sin into his presence, and the Old Covenant pointed to the need, pointed to the need, pointed to the need, but never met the need. But the New Covenant tabernacle and what takes place there does indeed meet this need. It is spiritual, this New Covenant tabernacle is spiritual.

It is not made with hands, it is not of this creation. It is spiritual, meaning probably several things. Number one, that it deals with spiritual needs. The Old Covenant did deal with something, but it didn't deal with cleansing of sin. It did not deal with the needs of the soul, the inner part of man.

It did not deal with the most important issues, the sinfulness of man's heart in the presence of God. It dealt with ceremonial cleansings. There were certain things that God said in the law made a person defiled and in that state disqualified to even worship in the Old Covenant tabernacle. When a person was defiled, say by touching a dead body, he couldn't come into the courtyard and bring a sacrifice to the priest to offer until first he was cleansed from that ceremonial defilement, but that defilement is something that is external, not internal. Again, the New Covenant is entirely different. Eating the wrong kind of foods, eating pork in the Old Covenant would make a person ceremonially defiled.

Disqualify him from the worship of God's people. But when we come to the New Testament, we read of Christ that what a man eats, what he puts into his body doesn't defile a man. That's just physical things, external things, ceremonial things, ritualistic things. What defiles a man, said Jesus, are the sinful thoughts which arise out of his heart and pollute his whole mind. It's a spiritual matter.

That's what's different. The Old Covenant could deal effectively with ceremonial pollution and bring about ceremonial cleansing and purification, but it couldn't get to the inner man, the real needs of the heart. But the New Covenant tabernacle provided a worship that represented sinners before the throne of God in heaven. A tabernacle greater and more perfect, not made with hands, not of his creation, and not served with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, Christ, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption in heaven above, and therefore accomplished what the Old Covenant tabernacle could not accomplish. We have a better tabernacle.

Now it does raise one question which I am not totally settled on, but I'll tell you what I think and I'll have to leave it at that. The question is, is there actually a construction of a building in heaven that is a temple or a tabernacle, a temple let's call it. Anything in heaven has got to be more elaborate than a tent, a tabernacle. So a temple, is there a temple in heaven, an actual temple?

And there are a number of things that would seem to suggest that there may be and yet there are other things that to me suggest that there is not. I think about what's described as the final state of God's people when they worship in the New Jerusalem and we read there's no temple there. We don't need a temple, we don't need a building, we don't need a location, we don't need a place, we're in the very presence of God. Those things that were appropriate for a different sphere of existence are no longer appropriate when we are in heaven with the Lord.

Therefore my opinion is that no, there is not actually a temple in heaven, though I'm not dogmatic about it, you may disagree. But the temple was constructed to teach the spiritual lessons that we need to understand and that's described in this text today that Jesus Christ went with his blood into the holy place, that sounds like into the temple, but where did he go? He went into the presence of God and presented the evidence of his sacrificial death.

There's a lot of things we could talk about here. Did Christ actually take his physical blood into heaven? No, I could be more dogmatic about that one. No, I'm positive he did not, though some people teach that he did. But he brought the evidence of his sacrifice upon the cross. That's what accomplished reconciliation for believing sinners.

So we have, what do we have so far? A better high priest, better promises, a better tabernacle, a better sacrifice, back to verse 12. Not, in the case of Christ, with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Old Testament sacrifices were animals and therefore were insufficient, they had to be, because the blood of bulls and goats, which represented the death of bulls and goats in the place of the worshiper, there bearing the judgment that was due unto him, but the problem is that the value of an animal isn't even equal to the value of the man that he represents. So the old covenant sacrifices are insufficient. They were of less intrinsic value than the one that they were representing in their sacrifice. And the fact of the necessary repetition indicated that they weren't fully effective.

They didn't do the job. And it's interesting that when this text talks about the old covenant sacrifices, it uses the plural because there were so many. When it talks about the new covenant sacrifice, it doesn't use the plural, it uses the singular. One sacrifice, one, not two, not many, one.

Because one was all that was needed, one was perfectly efficacious, one did the job. So the new covenant sacrifice, singular, is better, it's of greater value. It is Christ's own blood. The infinite God robed in sinless flesh is worth more than all of humanity. Here's a sacrifice that is of intrinsic value, not only greater than an animal, but even greater than one individual man because there's never been a man like this.

This is the God-man. This is eternal deity robed in perfect sinless humanity, and his intrinsic value then is greater than all the human beings that have ever lived upon the face of the earth. And so his sacrificial death was of enough value, sufficient value, to pay for the sins of all of his people, however many millions of them there may be. The new covenant sacrifice is better because it's of greater value. The new covenant sacrifice is better because it provided something of greater accomplishment.

One single sufficient sacrifice and it's over forever. By his one act of death upon the cross, the shedding of blood is simply a picture of a reminder of his death. It's evidence of his death.

When his blood's poured out, he's dead. On the one hand, I don't want to diminish in any way the beauty, the glory, the religious value of the blood of Christ, but on the other hand, I don't want to get into this idea of venerating the blood of Christ apart from the death of Christ. It's just, it's a part of the whole. It is, to use a phrase, a metonym for the death of Christ.

It's a figure of speech, the blood of Christ. When we say, I don't know if you've said it, but you've heard it said, something's on a ship at sea, and some of the sailors are below, and some may be above, and suddenly everybody needs to be above, and the captain says, all hands on deck! And so naturally, up from below, you find a pile of hands coming up and landing on the deck.

No. The hand is a metonym for the whole sailor. Everybody get up there.

That's a metonym. The hand represents the whole sailor. The blood of Christ represents the death, the whole, the death of the person of Christ. And he obtained in one sufficient sacrifice an eternal redemption, a one-time eternal purpose. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained, past tense, obtained eternal redemption. Listen to me carefully now.

This is important. Jesus did not die to make sinners redeemable if they would add something to his death. Jesus died to accomplish forever eternal redemption for his people. When he died on the cross, it was finished, it was accomplished, yes, even for those who hadn't been born yet, it was accomplished for his people.

Who are they? For all believers, whoever would believe in him, who are they? For God's elect, he died to accomplish salvation for his people. And it was done 2,000 years ago. But the effects of that continue as the Holy Spirit, searching out God's elect, brings them one by one to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrificial blood. And so we have what?

A better sacrifice. We have number five, a better atonement. We talk about atonement.

What does that mean? I'll give you one definition. Atonement is the reconciliation of God and men through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Atonement is the reconciliation.

This is what we're getting at. How do polluted sinners become reconciled to be able to come into the presence of, to be able to come into the fellowship of, to be able to come helpfully and properly into the circle of God's divine presence and fellowship? How are sinners reconciled to God? And the atonement is the answer to that. The atonement is the reconciliation of God and men through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. But in the Old Testament, though, atonement is, the word atonement is used sometimes in connection with the old covenant sacrifices. It really did not accomplish atonement according to the definition that I just gave.

And let me see if I can explain that. Old covenant atonement, as I've already said, dealt with ceremonial purification. It's interesting that in this passage, it not only talks about the blood of bulls and goats, those were the two animals that were represented on the day of atonement, the bull for the sins of the high priest, the goat for the sins of the nation. But it also goes on and talks about the ashes of a heifer. What is that all about? Well, that is an act of old covenant worship, which is so clearly external, ceremonial. Let's learn about it.

I'll read if I can find my notes here. Let me read a few verses. I'm going to skip some because of length, but let me read a few verses out of Numbers 19 to tell you what this ashes of the heifer is all about. Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, this is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord has commanded, saying, speak to the children of Israel that they bring you a red heifer without blemish. I'm not picturing in my mind a bright red, a fire engine red heifer. I'm picturing a brownish red heifer, a red heifer.

A red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come. And you shall give it to Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the succession is already beginning. You shall give it to Eliezer the priest that he may take it outside the camp and it shall be slaughtered before him. And Eliezer the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of the blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting.

How many times have we seen the sprinkling of blood as a seven times sprinkling? We've already covered that in previous passages. Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight, its hide, its flesh, its blood shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast them into the midst of the fire, burning the heifer. Then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and store them outside the camp in a clean place and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of purification.

It is for purifying from sin. He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with the water of the heifer, the ashes of the heifer, on the third day and on the seventh day. Then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him.

His uncleanness is still on him. So this reference to the ashes of a red heifer is a reminder of one of the, and there are other ceremonies under the old covenant, which provided for ceremonial purification. If you do this, you become unclean, ceremonially. But if you do this, you can become cleansed and once more qualified to enter into old covenant worship. So the ashes of a heifer cleansed the flesh, cleansed externally, ceremonially.

And that actually speaks of all of the animal sacrifices. They were not sufficient to accomplish reconciliation. Not true atonement could they make.

They provided a covering for sin, but they did not cleanse it away. They provided a provisional pardon for sin, but something else must be added to it. Here's a case where something else must be added.

And what must be added? The sacrifice of Christ. When that comes, then the provisional becomes eternal, but not until then. They provided, the animal sacrifices, provided a temporary stay of execution. God held back his just judgment until Christ came and could actually atone for sins. But in the new covenant atonement, the old covenant atonement didn't really accomplish atonement.

It didn't really accomplish reconciliation. But the new covenant atonement was a satisfactory payment because it was the blood of Christ. The perfect one, the God-man. And that satisfactory payment accomplished, as we read in our text, in the power of the Holy Spirit, I don't have time to get into that now, a perfect sacrifice. Christ presented himself without blemish, a perfect sacrifice. In the old covenant, the animals who were brought for sacrifices were to be without blemish.

They were, in a sense, perfect, and yet not a single one of them was completely perfect because there is no such thing. If you'd look long enough and hard enough and careful enough, you'd find some imperfection. So don't look too close. It looks pretty good. The leg's not broken. There's nothing obviously wrong with this animal.

It qualifies. Bring it quick before you see something and sacrifice it because God will accept that provisionally. But the only thing that will really atone for sins and truly reconcile sinners to God is the sacrifice that is totally perfect, completely perfect, sinless, spotless through and through, no matter how long you look, no matter how long you examine, no matter what you look for, you'll never find any sin, any moral blemish, any transgression, anything in this one. He is the perfect sinless Lamb of God, and he is the infinitely worthy Lamb of God. So one of infinite worth who is perfectly pure and spotless provides the only sacrifice that could actually accomplish atonement for sinners. His sacrifice can accomplish spiritual cleansing, not just external cleansing, ceremonial cleansing, but inward cleansing. From dead works we read in here, works that lead to death, spiritual cleansing that are fully effective, his sacrifice fully effective to accomplish that.

The conscience is cleansed, not just the outward body, the conscience, the inward man is cleansed by this sacrifice. And so finally, and I come to this quickly now, number six, if you're taking notes I'll review to help you out. What have we had so far? Number one, a better high priest.

Thank you for taking notes. Number two, a better promises. Number three, a better tabernacle. Number four, a better sacrifice. Number five, where's number five? What was number five?

What was it? Better atonement. Better atonement, thank you. Here it is, I lost it under another sheet of paper. A better atonement. And number six, I'm glad people do pay attention, that's the proof of it right there.

So let's see if I can find my last page of notes, number six, a better result. What's the purpose of all this? We're told in the last part of verse 14, to serve the living God.

Did you see that? How much more, verse 14, shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works. For what reason? To serve the living God. That's the goal, to serve the living God. That is our reason for being, raison d'être, reason for being.

In other words, our created purpose. Why did God create man in the garden? To serve him. Why isn't man serving him now? Because of sin, which started in the garden.

That's the impediment. Sin, which is an offense to God. So he doesn't take people, sinners that offend him and put them into his service. Sin, which is a barrier to our relationship with God. Because of our sin, we can't get into the presence of God.

We can't serve him. Sin, which is a weight upon our conscience before God. As we think about our sins, as the Holy Spirit makes us sensitive to our sins, we are weighed down with our sins.

How can we possibly serve God? Now, heedless sinners don't have, many times don't have a conscience that bothers them. But if your conscience is bothering you, that's actually a good thing. It means that God is troubling you and showing you your sin, but don't leave it there.

Don't just be continually troubled. Find the God-given remedy and get cleared of that guilty conscience. But sin, which is an inward defilement of the soul, keeps us from serving God.

What's the remedy? Cleanse your conscience from dead works. Works that lead to death. Works that weigh upon the conscience.

But there's a divinely appointed remedy. A believing embrace of the Lord Jesus Christ in his perfect life and sacrificial death and bodily resurrection and ascension back to heaven. A perfect, a faith in that will take care of the whole problem. And how do we know this? By divine revelation. God has told us in his word. You've got to believe the word of God. And if you will believe what God has taught us about these things by faith, then you will be free to serve God wholeheartedly. When I find Christians, as I do sometimes, people that I have every reason to believe are a Christian, but they just can't seem to get over a troubled conscience, I know these are Christians who are only partially believing the word of God. They may have believed the part that Jesus' blood saves from sin, but they haven't realized that Jesus' death cleanses the record completely. If there's no record of your sin in heaven, then why are you allowing the memory of it on earth to hinder you and your relationship to God? It's a matter of unbelief, isn't it?

Believe him. And when we do, the result is we serve the living God. Not because we have become perfect, impossible, but because God has dealt with our imperfections.

He can do that. And we know this because of divine revelation, and we believe this by faith, and we are therefore free to serve God wholeheartedly. I read a couple other things and I will close. This comment, this quotation from Jeffrey Wilson, reconciliation is the beginning of true worship. No work is so pure or free from sin as to be pleasing to God by itself. Cleansing by the blood of Christ, which destroys all stains, must necessarily intervene.

Did you get that? If you are under the impression that some work you do is just wonderfully, gloriously, perfectly acceptable to God, He's just so impressed with your work, you don't understand that nobody on earth has ever done anything perfectly to serve God. So how can we serve God if we can't do it perfectly? Because His atoning blood makes our imperfections perfect in His sight.

That's how. Christ has come. Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come. Christ has come. Christ has died and risen from the dead. Christ has entered the holy place and presented the evidence of His sacrifice to God in heaven.

Christ has obtained eternal redemption for every one of His people. Believe it to your soul's salvation. Believe it to the clearing of your conscience before God. Believe it to enjoy the freedom purchased by Christ for all of His believing people.

Believe it to wholeheartedly worship and serve the true and living God. Shall we pray? Father, thank you for these truths. Seal them to every heart. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.