Last time we were together, we looked particularly at verses 11 and 12, and so we'll pick up the last two. And we said last time that this passage, Hebrews 9, verses 11 to 14, it follows 1 to 10, well obviously, but 1 to 10 was about the Old Testament, priesthood and temple, the earthly sanctuary, and the blood sacrifice of atonement that was brought into it, particularly on the day of atonement. But then the writer says, well Jesus is better than all of that. He's the true high sacrifice, and his blood is the only effective blood that really brings redemption.
And we said last time that word redemption is really the heart of the passage here, and we're going to see that word. He secures eternal redemption, and redemption means deliverance by payment of a price. Christ paid the price of our redemption. And so let me invite you to hear the word of God from Hebrews 9, verses 11 to 14.
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. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the filed 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 from dead works to serve the living God. Amen. This is God's word.
Let's pray together. Father in heaven, help us to see wonderful things in your word. Lift Jesus before our eyes and do our souls good in his name. I ask it.
Amen. Amen. Well, we said last time that you could divide the passage or at least I divided it into four pieces. And last week we saw the way of our redemption in verses 11 and 12 and the success of our redemption by Jesus at the very tail end of verse 12.
And then we can press on in verses 13 and 14, the effect of our redemption, and then at the end of verse 14, the ultimate aim of our redemption. And let's just review very briefly the way of our redemption. And of course what the writer said as we've been saying is that God accepts the atonement Christ made for us because he on the one hand positively fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law of God. And on the other hand, he suffered the just punishment due to us for our sins of breaking the law of God.
And his atonement, his atonement sacrifice dying in our place on our behalf is an expression of the love of God for us. In fact, of the Father's love for us. That God the Father's wrath is real. But it's not the case that the Son of God worked against the will of God the Father as if Christ somehow snatched his people out of the Father's hand.
As if the Father hated us but Christ loved us and what Christ did was somehow to manipulate the Father into loving us. No, that's not it at all. Christ on the cross is the very expression of the love of God for us. It's the Father who loved the world this way that he sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for us in so that the love of God sent the Son of God to bear the wrath of God for the people of God.
And so it is that God prepared his people and this world through Israel, through the tent and priests and sacrifice for his coming and then God sent him. And so it is that we said good Friday is actually the day of atonement. It's that one day a year, so to speak, that day when the true altar of sacrifice is the cross and the true blood of the atonement that the Jesus is the blood of Christ. That's the way of our redemption.
There is no other way. But then we also looked at the success of redemption, the effective success of redemption. It secures end of verse 12 in eternal redemption. Christ, unlike the high priest of all, has accomplished once and for all that is needed.
Did the high priest obtain eternal redemption? No, it was temporary. It needed to be repeated yearly and effective. But Jesus has provided the true effective work.
And then he said, Father, I have finished the work that you have given me to do. It is finished, he cried upon the cross. And so this speaks to the effectiveness of his atoning sacrifice. It actually accomplishes atonement.
It accomplishes propitiation, the turning away of the wrath of God. And therefore effectively secures for us justification, pardon, acceptance, peace with God, standing in grace, the certainty of our glorification, every spiritual blessing. The atoning work of Christ in his perfect obedience and his death on our behalf, purchases everything needed for his people to be truly and fully, finally saved. And therefore we are compelled to ask, well, who is this redemption actually effective for?
Who is it secured for? And there are three basic answers given to that question. And there are only three really possible alternatives answers to that question. Let me just walk you through them for a moment because I want you to see how we understand the effectiveness of the atonement of Christ and the blessing it is.
There is one view out there that Christ died for all the sins of all people. That view is actually universalism. If you're familiar with that term. Christ died for effectively died for all the sins of all people.
Therefore Christ actually does save everyone. It's a position or a view that the church has uniformly rejected throughout its history, but it's held by some that the Father will the salvation of all people. And Christ died for all of the sins of all people and his death guarantees the salvation of every member of the human race, past, present and future. It's a view as I said called universalism and it views the atonement as unlimited in extent and unlimited ineffectiveness.
So it's like a wide bridge completely spanning a river and everyone gets on that bridge and everyone crosses that bridge into heaven. Nobody misses out. It's basically a view that says Christ died for the sheep and Christ died for the goats and he saves every last one of them. Nobody anywhere ever actually goes to hell.
But then of course the objections to that are numerous and just mention a few. What then of Judas? What then of hell? What then of Revelation 20 verse 15?
If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. If God intended to save everyone, everyone would be saved, but God did not intend to save everyone and the death of Jesus did not accomplish atonement for those who go to hell. The second view is that Christ died for some of the sins of all people. In this view, the Armenian view, ask me about that later.
The death of Christ made salvation possible for everyone, but his death did not secure salvation for anyone. That is, it only made possible salvation for those who add to it their own response of faith and repentance. A response that was not secured by Christ for them nor given as a gift to them but is left in the sinner's hands. And that means that Jesus provided an atonement that does not quite actually get people fully reconciled forever to God until they add something to what Jesus did, something of what they do.
And then you ask the question under that view, why does anyone go to hell? And the answer is for their unbelief. But then we'd ask, but isn't unbelief itself a sin and it is a sin. So in this view, unbelief is the sin for which Christ has not died.
So he died for some of the sins of all people, but not all of the sins of anyone, particularly not the sin of unbelief. But then if that is the case, well, I don't know if your heart says this, but mine says, well, to me, I spent 18 years, the first 18 years of my life in unbelief. If my unbelief hasn't been atoned for, then my unbelief will crash upon my head of the judgment. And even as a Christian, doesn't your heart say, oh Lord, I believe help my unbelief?
Don't you find the impurities of your faith, the weakness of faith that there are sins associated with your own believing and certainly your own repenting? It's all very inadequate. And if it's inadequate, it's sinful. And if it's sinful, did Jesus die for it or not?
And the Armenian view is no, actually. He dies for all your sins, but you still go to hell if you don't believe. And so the sin of unbelief has not actually been atoned for. And so in that view, the atonement is like a wide bridge, wide enough for everyone, and it comes from heaven to our side of the river, but it doesn't actually get all the way to our side of the river.
And only those are saved who jump into the river and swim themselves through faith and repentance to the bridge and get on the bridge, then they can all go. And we find that view inadequate. It doesn't explain how our faith can be atoned or our unbelief, our lack of faith, our unfaithfulness can be atoned for. And so in this view, Christ died for some of the sins of the sheep and some of the sins of the goat, but not all of the sins of anyone.
The third view is the biblical view, sometimes called the Reformed view, but I'll just say frankly the Reformed view is the biblical view. Why? Well, it's glorious, first of all. But Christ died for all of the sins of some people.
All of the sins of his people, all of the sins of anyone who trusts in him and you are invited to trust in him. And all those for whom he died will be saved. It says the atonement provides a definite redemption or an effective redemption. His atonement atones, he actually put away all the sins of God's people and ensured that they would be brought to faith through regeneration and kept through faith unto glory.
And his death was intended to achieve it, and it did. He secured an eternal redemption. In this view, his atonement has unlimited effectiveness, but it is limited in extent. It's like a wide bridge, wide enough for all who believe in Jesus, all the electives to the Bible calls them.
And it completely crosses the river. It doesn't fall short. And so it's only made for the sins of unbelief and even our flawed, inadequate repentance. Christ died for all of the sins of his sheep and none of the sins of the goats.
We hold that view not only because of passages like this, but there's lots of scriptural evidence for it. Matthew 1, 21 says he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 28, the son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many. John 10 11, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Ephesians 5, 25. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. And sometimes pejoratively called, let's just say it. It's pejoratively called limited atonement because it says he's limited to the elect to all who believe.
But the reality is everyone except universalists limits the atonement. Our minions teach it's effectiveness is limited and before vote, it's intention is limited. We say it wasn't intended for those who go to hell or else they wouldn't go to hell. I mean, if Jesus was punished for the sins of all of the sins of those who go to hell, then God would be an unjust judge to also punish them for their sins in hell.
It would be unjust of God to punish Jesus and the sinner for the same sins. And so we delight in atonement that actually atones for all of our sins, which Jesus effectively secured for all who trusted him in eternal redemption. So we noted that, well, the acts we ended on it, we noted the effectiveness, the success of his redemption. His success was not left in the fickle hands of the unfaithful human heart.
His success was secured by himself in the plan of God. And then we see two more things here as we move forward through the passage verses 13 and 14. We see the effect of our redemption. The effect he purifies our conscience.
Now, before we look at 13 and 14 for a vote, just I thought this was a bit fun. A cartoon hit the nail on the head. It showed a psychologist saying to his patient, Mr. Figby, I think I can explain your feelings of guilt.
You're guilty. Well, in that case, more seriously, Rick Phillips says, if you come to recognize how your words have torn the hearts of others as knives tear the flesh, if you think for just a moment how you neglect your neglect of duty and selfish pursuit of gain have met sorrow and woe for real people. If you merely ask how many men and women in this world have real cause to resent you, to wish you had never crossed their paths, if you take stock of God's holy and unyielding law and your incessant violation of it, then your conscience will speak against you about what you really are and deserve. You will crave a cleansing such as Christ alone can give, and he can give it.
This is the point in verses 13 and 14. Notice the writer says, if the blood, he's looking back again on the Old Testament. If the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling of the defiled persons with the ashes of a heaver, sanctified for the purification of the flesh, and they did, well, how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God? Purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
The effect of our redemption is the purification of our conscience. He notes both as we've been talking about the sacrifice of bulls and goats and the praise bringing that into most holy places. But then he also mentions rather offhandedly, and I think as if they understood him in what he was talking about, and I think many of us probably doesn't come readily to mind, numbers chapter 19 and the ashes of the heaver. But that's where you find this expression where he speaks of the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heaver.
That's Numbers chapter 19. Go home and read it this evening, verses 1 to 13 certainly. But here's what it was. In addition to the Day of Atonement ritual, the author here adds the Red Heaver ritual found there in Numbers 19.
It was a ritual for purification, especially if somebody had been defiled by touching a dead body. If they had touched a dead body, they were unclean, and it was inappropriate for them to come into the public assemblies of the people of God and into the temple or the tabernacle until they were made clean. Well, how were they made clean? Well, the priest burned a red heifer outside the can, and the ashes were kept and mixed with water, and the water was sprinkled on anyone who'd become richly impure or unclean from touching a dead body.
And the sprinkling with this water, with the ashes of the heaver, made them ceremonial clean again, so they could come to worship. That's what he means by it. It made or provided for the purification of the flesh. It was outward, it was external, but it made you clean by God's plan and God's command.
And the author argues then from the lesser to the greater, saying that both these rituals could cleanse the flesh, the blood, bowls, and goats sprinkled on you even, as well as the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer, but how much more, he says, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead words. So these rituals cleanse the flesh externally, but they couldn't cleanse the conscience. That internal mechanism inside of us, that alternately condemns us or approves of us. And the conscience couldn't be cleansed by these external rights, because the conscience isn't satisfied with an animal substitute in its place.
The conscience knows it's not adequate for an animal to take the place of a moral being who's guilty before God. But by contrast, the conscience can be satisfied to understand that the incarnate son of God, a fellow human being, partaking of our own human nature, and therefore as a man is fully adequate to stand for us as a substitute in our place by God's design, and God is readily ready and willing to accept his substitution. And so we're about to sing, as I mentioned, well I already read these words, I'll do it again. Not all the blood of beasts, none Jewish authors slain, could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly lamb takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they. Some of us are troubled and conscious, because we're always trying to measure up and to do more, and our conscience condemns us for being less than we ought to be, or think we ought to be, or know who we ought to be. Sometimes our conscience is correct and sometimes it's not. But a lot of us know, we fall short of what we ought to be, and our conscience is bothered by that.
But Jesus cleanses us as our conscience how? By being for us all that God requires. He is all our righteousness. God is satisfied with him.
He loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and he loved his neighbor as himself, and he did it for you and in your place. Some of us are troubled and conscious, because we know we've crossed lines and the saying that God is drawn. And Jesus also cleanses our conscience by being condemned for us. We know we deserve to be, the judge, held accountable, and he satisfies the demand for justice, because our conscience can rest.
God is satisfied with him. God is satisfied with me in him. Some of us are troubled and conscious, because we feel dirty and we can't imagine God would ever welcome somebody so stained with pollution as us. But Jesus, the writer says, isn't stained.
He provided purification for sins as a lamb as it were, unblemished. And so he is our hope when our conscience condemns us. Our conscience needs to be cleansed. And cleanse, notice this language from dead works.
That is, dead works are works we do to try to see their conscience. You ever do anything to try to see your own conscience? Every now and then I find myself doing the dishes at home and I'm really doing the dishes, not because they need doing. Or because I really love my family and I want to serve.
But I feel guilty about something. Some inadequacy, some failure, whatever. I'm actually doing self-attonement of my dish cleaning. And it's not effective, trust me.
Oh goodness. We do all kinds of dead works to try to see their conscience, to cleanse the conscience and they're ineffective. And the writer is saying, but Jesus is adequate to the task. He is everything we need.
And our guilt isn't removed by doing penance or doing what we think are good works. And if we're doing them to cleanse our conscience, those are just dead works. But Christ really achieved the tone and we simply received it. Now, some people would respond and say, well, you know, that kind of security you're talking about, where Jesus actually pays for all my sins of every kind, even my sins of unbelief.
You know what that does? It makes people unproductive. It makes Christians sit back on their heels and just kind of stand around doing nothing because you tell them Jesus did it all for you. But I would say, if that's your thought, you actually have it backwards.
Security is an impetus to service. You notice at the end of verse 14 here that he purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And to have security is an impetus to that service. It's an amazing illustration.
But during the initial construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, there were no safety devices used. And 23 men felt their deaths working on the bridge. But for the final part of the project, a large net was used as a safety precaution. And at least 10 men fell into it and were saved from certain death.
But even more interesting is the fact that 25% more work was accomplished after the net was installed. Why? Because the men had the assurance of their safety. So they were freed a wholeheartedly serve in the project.
And that's how this security of the effectiveness of Christ works in the believer. And so then we see finally the aim of our redemption. To what end has Christ done all this? It is that we might serve the living God, not for fire insurance, not just to get us out of hell and into heaven, but to serve out of gratitude, to serve out of thankfulness, to serve because we've been reconciled to God.
And he is ours. And we are his. And he made us for his kingdom. And so I'd ask, has the truth of the gospel motivated you to serve him?
Let's pray together. Father, thank you that Christ died. That those who live should no longer live for themselves, but live for him who died for them, who was raised. Grant that that love of Christ would constrain us, compel us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Let's stand together and sing.