Christ’s Blood (Part A)

When Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you, I don't know if he prepared it like that or like that. I don't know if he's still working on it, if he just willed it. I mean, he's such a craftsman. God is he just enjoys creating things. I don't know what is happening, but I know when he said those words to those men, he said, if it weren't so I wouldn't tell you.

Believe this, for your sake. He meant it. When Christ speaks, he means it.

We're the ones that have so much baggage that comes along with us. If you have your Bibles, please open to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9.

We will resume at verse 11. 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. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator, for the testament is enforced after men are dead, since it has no power at all, while the testator lives. Therefore, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood, for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet, wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you. Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Again, as we have been driving these points home every session, so those of you familiar with it, please bear with me, but for those of you unfamiliar with it, the writer of this Hebrew letter is saying to the Jews who had come to Christ, who are now considering maybe going back to Judaism or mixing Judaism with Christianity, he writes this letter, as did Paul to the Romans and the Galatians, really spiritually and rationally insisting that they don't make that tragic mistake. They cannot go back. Now, they were well versed, of course, in Judaism.

We're not so much so. We have to bring out dictionaries and cross-reference materials and other commentaries, et cetera, to understand the Jewish culture, but they were very much on it. And so what may be redundant to us was very much alive to them and can be alive to us also. And so we are considering, in my notes, when I put my study notes together, I often do a word cloud because I think there's something sticking out, and I want to see if the word cloud grabs it.

So, you know, you just copy the text and you paste it into a word cloud document, and poof, it highlights the words that are used the most. And not to my surprise, when I did it with this morning's consideration, the word that stood out was blood. Blood was the word that stood out, and then Christ and God. Of course, it's Christ's blood that is central to everything we as Christians know. And it is this morning's consideration, that's the emphasis from this passage, Christ's blood. And so we look at verse 11 of Hebrews 9, 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.

You see how that stands out? But Christ came. Christ came to me personally, and to everyone born again. He comes personally. The day will rise, and we will see him face to face and eye to eye. But now we walk by faith, and it is not wasted. It is very serious business.

It is often very challenging, but special nonetheless. And so what the writer is doing here in the previous verses, he spoke about all of the symbols, those glorious symbols of that ancient tabernacle in the wilderness that Moses was trusted with establishing, and Moses did just that. And the writer here is saying those items in the temple, that tabernacle itself, they all spoke of Jesus Christ.

They were the coming attractions to his great fulfillment. So now he says, in contrast to the human priesthood of that system, that system of blood sacrifices of bulls and sheep and rams, et cetera, Christ, Christ comes. And he goes into the presence of God the Father, not with the blood of calves and bulls and goats, but his own blood.

It is his blood. It is his death that stands out. Israel missed this. Not all of the Jews, not every single Jew missed it.

Of course not. But as a nation, as a people, they missed it, and they still don't get it. At the end of our reading this morning, we read that without blood, there is no remission of sins. And as a nation, they offer no blood offering.

They have no tabernacle. Sin is really not dealt with, but for the Christian, it is dealt with in Christ. And so the high priest of Israel was the embodiment of the needs of the people, and his going to God on behalf of the people. He was the best that humanity had to offer to represent them.

That was his office. Yet Christ, our high priest, is the best God has to offer humanity. There's nothing higher. He is everything.

Jesus Christ is God the Son, the Son of God. And the born again, we know it, and we know it well. That's why we're moved emotionally in our worship as Christians. That's why we are startled and frightened and alarmed. Perhaps that's a better word than frightened. We are alarmed when we don't have the thrill of our faith.

Maybe we're being sifted. Maybe we're going through something in our Christian walk, and God is letting it happen to develop us, to build us up, to use us. And so we receive from his hand that which he has to give. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

He is no less in my eyes because he has not given or allowed me to keep that which I may have cherished. It's a very frightening thought, but a thought that is very encouraging, and when I say encouraging, it gives courage, is that he will never leave us nor forsake us. He is our high priest. He always stands for us. He knows what's coming, and he knows how to prepare us and work us through them.

And that's why, I don't know, I speak for myself. Maybe you share this view when I go through things that are difficult. I know what my, I know what I'm supposed to do.

I know my station on the ship. I am to rush to him. I am to rush to him for strength. I am to tap into all the strength that is available to me and to use it. And in the process of that, I may not feel very good.

I may not be very excited. I certainly am not entertained, but I am focused, and his Holy Spirit allows that to happen. First Peter, Peter writing, how much junk did Peter have to put up with? You know, Peter, the apostles, they got out of Jerusalem, and they eventually moved amongst the Gentiles even, and began to share their faith. And they knew that with all this junk in this life, all the things that we can't explain concerning human suffering and things that make no sense, they still knew Christ Jesus himself as God. Peter said, whom having not seen you love.

You know what it took for him to write that? Peter's writing, he says, I have seen Christ. I saw him alive, I saw him crucified, and I saw him risen, and I saw him ascend. I saw him.

You did not. But you love him just as much as me. That is humbling. So he writes, he says, whom having not seen you love, though not now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible, full of glory. Glory is power, but it's not sour power. It's not the power of that which the world has. It's the power of holiness and righteousness that comes from God's throne. And it doesn't always feel good, but it's there for the believer.

As high priest of good things to come, he says in verse 11, how profound is that? Good things to come. When? Because I'd like them now. I don't want to wait to cash in. I want now, but I cannot.

I cannot get all that I want now. And so there, patience, patience built on faith, more than hope. Hope is where we want it. Righteous hope is connected to the one that we are hoping in because he is faithful.

And so it is that hope that is built upon faith. And so he says, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. He's contrasting the tabernacle of Moses, that Judaic system. Everything in his speech is exalted.

It is high speech. He says the high priest of good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. He's taking them away from this physical universe. He's keeping them in the spiritual. You remember in Exodus when the temple was being designed by Moses and upon instruction from God. And there were those artisans that were gifted by God to make, to manufacture the articles for the temple. That temple, those articles were made by men. Wonderful as they were, the human craftsmanship that was anointed and going into it. But God's handiwork, what is that? We get just little bits of it from scripture because it is beyond us. Revelation 21, 21.

And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass. That's just the road. It doesn't take you into the glorious chambers and stations of the structures that belong to God and the spiritual. We can't even imagine. And so John leaves us. You want to say, John, come on, what do I got to do?

Hook up a pump and get it out of you? Tell me more. I can't. This stuff was happening all around me. I'm trying to focus on these shouting angels with trumpets and then all this stuff.

I can't tell you what I saw, but it was marvelous. And so when Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you, I don't know if he prepared it like that or like that. I don't know if he's still working on it, if he just willed it. I mean, he's such a craftsman.

God is he just enjoys creating things. I don't know what is happening, but I know when he said those words to those men, he said, if it weren't so, I wouldn't tell you. He's saying, I need you to believe this for your sake. He meant it. Christ speaks.

He means it. We're the ones that have so much baggage that comes along with us. And so that is not of this creation. You know, when Solomon had built the temple and Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it, and then Zerubbabel comes back and they rebuild the temple and they dedicate the temple. And there were those who knew what Solomon's temple looked like because they were there and they wept. They wept because by comparison, it paled. It was so dim.

It just did not have anything near what they once had. But imagine, imagine this in reverse when you get to heaven. It's going to make everything here look small.

Tiny, puny, you could even say. Imagine the magnificence of what God has prepared for the righteous. We really cannot.

We can just enjoy trying. But that's built on reality. So much reality that we want to share our faith with others so they can share this glory that God has prepared. And the opposition to that is fierce. It is intense.

It is never-ending in this life. In verse 12, he goes on, he says, 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. Well, for you Bible students, here's a thought. You see, the line of Aaron, they did bring the blood of bulls and calves in when they entered into worship at the temple. But what about the line of Melchizedek? If Melchizedek was a real man, he offered the blood of animals, blood sacrifices. But if he was a Christophany, then that's something to think about.

Well, that's for you Bible students, but coming back now to this before us, the high priest, our Christ is a high priest outside the Old Testament system, and he is beyond and above it forever. And there will be no human deaths, and there will be no animal deaths in the kingdom of God and in heaven. But to get sinners into paradise, there had to be blood. There had to be death. There had to be death enough and blood enough.

Not in numbers, but in quality. The one who died to get the sinners in had to be worth it. Moses wasn't worth it. Noah, Enoch, Isaiah, Paul, none of them worth it. Christ, Christ only. He is the one glorious enough. He is the one that is able to do what no other can do, and notice that defined me.

He is the one that is able, and no other can really do this, not the way he does it. He is the one that finds me and forgives me. He finds me knowing I'm a sinner. He forgives me knowing my sins.

But it doesn't stop there. He finds me. He forgives me. He favors me. He likes me. You know, there are people that we love because we're commanded to love, but we don't like them too much. It's like, look, I love you.

I hope you change that flat. I just don't want you coming over for dinner. But Christ, he says, I like you. Not the sin part, the flesh part. He sees beyond that. Remember we talked about those boards that made up the tabernacle of Moses? They were overlaid with gold. When you looked at that gnarled wood, you didn't see the wood, you saw the gold.

There's gold in them ear planks. When Christ sees you and me, he sees the gold of Calvary, of the empty tomb. So he finds, he forgives, he favors, and that's not all. It's forever.

It's not for a while. I hope he doesn't stop liking me. I hope he doesn't find out that, you know, not you, not me, but maybe you. If he finds out you're a Red Sox fan, for example. You've had it.

It's not true. And for those of you who don't know, that's a baseball team. And if you don't know that, you have some serious cultural ketchup to do. But the four F's that I put there, of course, are intentional. The alliteration. I want to back a little bit of this up with scripture. I want to back it all up with scripture. He found me. Luke's Gospel, chapter 10. Isn't this not beautiful to the one who was once lost but now is found? Newton, not Fig, wrote a song about this.

John Newton. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's why he came here. I'm going to go get sinners. That's why he came to earth.

Who else would do that? Who else would say, let's go fetch some sinners for ourselves, clean them up, make them our own. Christ.

We're forgiven. Colossians 2, 13. Of course, this is all over the scripture. So pronounced in the New Testament. Because in the New Testament, forgiveness does not have the blood of goats and bulls. It has the blood of Christ on it. And you, Paul writes, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, your distance from God, the barriers that existed, you, the dirty one, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses. Gone. God wills out of existence your sin. That's what forgiveness is. When God says, I want it gone, it is not delegated.

It's done. 1 John chapter 2. And you Christians who may always fret, am I saved? I don't know, am I saved? I'm saved today.

Okay, tomorrow, am I saved? Maybe you've got that issue. Satan has learned that that's a number that bugs you. And he keeps hitting you with that.

Maybe because you fail a lot. And so here's a verse just for you. And for you who are strong in the faith, here's a verse just for you. You're right, you little children, because your sins are forgiven you. Your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

That's what it says. Because of what he did, that's the his name's sake there. It is thorough. And you are favored, as I mentioned, you're liked, which is, why? Why does God like me? Because God is love, and God is perfect, and God is holy, and God is able. And God is able to take that which is not likeable and make it adored if that object will submit to him.

And if that object does not submit to him, then the wrath of God will abide. Ephesians 6 talks about this favor of God. To the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the Beloved. That Greek word, accepted, karitou. It is the root word is karis, grace. But in this form, it means to be favored. It means to be liked, accepted, highly favored, splendid honor put upon.

That's what the word means. Your Bible says, that's what the word means, the Bible says that we, to the praise and the glory of his grace, by which he made us favored in the Beloved. Every Christian should have a humble strut. And what I mean by that, I don't mean we should strut like little proud roosters or anything like that. But there should be this anchor that holds us that says, you belong to the king.

You're his subject, but you're more than that. You're family, you're loved, you are embraced, you are adored, you are cherished. We sing about adoring the Lord.

Oh, come let us adore him. We sing about our cherishing the Lord. But he loves, he adores, he cherishes us more. God loved us before we loved him, and he loves us more than we could ever love him, piled up together.

It's hard to believe it when you're suffering, but by faith you can do that. Then we come to the forever. Ephesians again, 3.21, to him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. That's what it says, forever and ever. The old King James puts it more poetically, world without end. And so we have a robust announcement that we have listened to, that we have heard from the Scriptures.

God has announced his care for us. And because we don't get the things we want, because we don't mature the way we want, we question these things. That's your flesh.

Your flesh is always insane when it comes to spiritual issues. It is never correct. It never gets it right.

It is always a connoisseur of fine wines. Oh, why don't I get this? Oh, why don't I get that?

How come he gets it? He says what with his own blood here in verse 12. He is the substitute for the sinner.

There is no substitute for him on any level. Christ died in the place of the sinner. So you broke the law of God. God said, this is my commandment. Don't do this. And you did it.

What's the penalty? Well, I'm a holy God. I'm not letting you around me.

If you're going to act like that, you're a sinner. You're unclean. And the penalty is separation from me forever. Death.

Real death. Not just the loss of life in this world. But God has provided a savior to make a way of escape, to resuscitate that life, to bring them back. All that Adam lost, God has made a way to regain.

And so he took the penalty. He took the penalty about death on the cross with his own blood, his own life. It wasn't easy because he was God the Son.

Well, you know I'm God the Son. Watch this. This is nothing. That wasn't like that. He suffered. The Bible says he suffered the shame also.

It was very serious. There's not a stroll through this life for him. It was a miserable experience. He saw the suffering. You know how much suffering exists in this life? We look at things and we say, why did God allow that?

All the diseases, all of the things that happened to human beings. But he's on it. And he's drawn a line. He says, you can understand this much, the rest is mine.

You can understand me and that should be good enough for you. So he says here in verse 12, but with his own blood. By his own blood, Christ paid the price for sinners. You're saved by the blood of the Lamb, not by the Bible. The Bible leads to salvation.

It stirs us to salvation, but you don't get saved by the Bible. You've been listening to Cross-Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross-Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross-Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.