The Freedom of a Cleansed Conscience (Hebrews Sermon 35)

All week long I’ve been looking forward to this moment, looking forward to the joy of preaching the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse a guilty conscience. What an incredible gift we have in the Gospel. And I think if we really have the ability spiritually to perceive the burdens, the pressures of the people around us, we would realize that the issue of a guilty conscience is one of the biggest issues of human life and experience. We have a sense inwardly that we are guilty and it presses on us; it’s an affliction. And it comes up throughout culture and music and literature. Some of you perhaps can remember in high school when you were reading Shakespeare’s plays and Macbeth, one of the darker plays, but Lady Macbeth urges her vacillating husband to kill Duncan, so that he can seize the throne for himself. And she assures her husband, just a little water will clear us of the deed. But it’s not so easy after the man’s murder. Lady Macbeth herself afflicted with a guilty conscience, sleep walking at night, having nightmares, rubbing her hands, rubbing them, rubbing them, as if to clean them of some substance and says very famously, “Out, out damn spot, out I say.” And she can’t get rid of it. Who knew that the man had so much blood in him. She’s actually thinking about the actual shedding of the blood, and the murder, and she just can’t get it out of her mind. She is absolutely afflicted by a guilty conscience and in the end, she commits suicide.

Or again, Edgar Allen Poe’s story, the dark tale, The Tell-Tale Heart, a man murders another man and the neighbors hear some noises, and a policeman comes and he had hid the body under the floorboards of the very room that the policeman and he are talking. And as they’re having this discussion, this murderer hears louder and louder and louder the beating of this dead man’s heart until, finally, he can’t stand it anymore and just rips up the floor boards and shows the policeman where the body is hidden. Well, those are literature tales. I think that I’m preaching today to people who know very well, intimately well, the power of a guilty conscience. And it’s my joy and privilege as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to proclaim liberty or freedom for the captives today, in the name of Jesus Christ. And so, what better work could there be of any preacher of the Gospel as we come to Hebrews chapters nine and 10, I think we really come to the glowing center of this magnificent epistle. This is the theological, the weighty center of the Book of Hebrews.

Now we’ve already seen the supremacy of Christ. Christ is superior to all of the Old Testament prophets. He’s superior to the angels, who were the mediators of the Old Covenant. He’s superior to Moses, who was the human mediator, who was just a servant in all God’s house, but Christ the Son over God’s house. He’s superior to Joshua who brought the people into a physical promised land but could not ensure that they stay there. He’s superior to Aaron and to Levi and that Levitical priestly system that was set up under the law of Moses, which had no actual power for the cleansing and the forgiveness of sins. He’s even superior to Abraham who in some mysterious way, paid a tithe, or Levi paid a tithe through Abraham. And so, therefore, Abraham is seen to be in some way inferior to Melchizedek who represents Christ. So we see the supremacy, the superiority of Christ. But what is the point of all that? It’s that this superior Christ brings us a superior covenant by which we are saved.

And the nature of that priestly work of Christ is the focus in Hebrews 9 and 10. And so in this text today, we’re going to see the superiority of Christ and His priestly work, superior in it’s location as He offers His sacrifice in heaven, not on earth. That the blood itself that He offers is superior. It’s the precious blood of Christ, superior to the blood of bulls and goats, and calves. We’re going to see the achievement and the effectiveness of Christ’s priestly ministry and how it results ultimately in us serving the living God with clear consciences. And so that is the delight that’s in front of us today.

I. The Perfect Place: Heavenly, Not Earthly (vs. 11)

Look at verse 11, as the author gives us this. He says, “When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say not a part of this creation.”

 So the author is dealing here with the perfect place of Christ’s mediating work as our high priest. It is heavenly and not earthly. The author gives us this title “Christ.” The word Christ is the Greek word for Anointed One or Messiah. And Christ was anointed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, the eternal Spirit is going to come up later in this morning’s message, but in every case, the Old Testament offices, prophet, priest, and king were anointed offices.

King Saul, King David, King Solomon, were anointed with oil for their office. Elijah anointed Elisha with the oil as prophet in his place, and so the prophet was an anointed office. Aaron was anointed with a special anointing oil as priest. These were anointed offices and the anointing, I think, in every case refers to the ministry of the Holy Spirit through these offices. And so Christ now, specifically His office as priest, is in focus here and it is an anointed office. When Christ came, it says, as high priest, our anointed high priest. And the word came here, implies in the Greek a certain appearance, when He appeared when He showed up or presented Himself as high priest. A sense almost of a majestic fanfare like trumpets, “Here at last is the high priest, and He is appearing for us.” Now, it could refer to His incarnation, when He was born, of the Virgin Mary, but I don’t think so. It could refer to the day in which He presented Himself to Israel or John the Baptist spoke and said “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But I don’t think so.

I think here is Christ presenting Himself to our Holy Father. Our Heavenly Father, on our behalf, is our high priest in heaven when Christ appeared in the heavenly realms, and it speaks here of the good things that are already here. Christ the mediator of a new covenant, who has come to bring us as it says in Ephesians, “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.” Oh, those are good things. Are they not? And they are already here, now that Christ has come. Jesus is the mediator of this New Covenant, which brings us rich blessings. A treasure trove of spiritual things, these good things that are already here. And they’ve been here now for 2000 years, we are in the new covenant era and Christ came as the mediator of this new covenant. It says He went through a greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made man made. Now, we’ve already looked at the beginning of this chapter, at the physical tabernacle. The Old Covenant tabernacle. It was a tent made of linen and animal skins and acacia wood poles, and precious metals and different things, but it was earthly it was man made; it was a shadow and a type of the perfect tabernacle that is in heaven.

And so I think it represents the heavenly throne room of God. The true Holy of Holies, the true Holy Place or most Holy Place, where Jesus has now appeared for us on our behalf, this greater and more perfect tabernacle. And it says, He went through this. There’s a sense of the movement of Jesus. And so I picture here in some amazing and powerful spiritual way Jesus moving through the heavenly realms. He has passed through the heavens, it says in Hebrews 4:12, He is exalted above the heavens, it says in Hebrews 7:26, Jesus went through this greater and more perfect tabernacle, the heavenly one that which is not part of this creation. So we see the superiority of the work of Christ in the location. He is ministering for us in the heavenly realms before the very presence of God.

II. The Perfect Sacrifice: Christ’s Own Blood (vs. 12)

Secondly, we see the perfect sacrifice of Jesus in verse 12, it says there that “He did not enter by means of the blood of bulls and goats or goats and calves, but He entered the most holy place, once for all, by His own blood.” So the question here is this issue of entrance, the entrance of the high priest into the most holy place, definitely picking up on the echoes of that day of atonement, that one day a year in which the high priest was enabled, empowered, permitted to go into the most holy place where the presence of God was. The Ark of the Covenant, the cherubim of glory, sends the picture of the presence of God amongst his people. That one day a year, he was able to enter to go in into the presence of God. By what right did he enter? Well, he brought in the blood of animals under the Mosaic Law, but this high priest, our perfect high priest, did not so enter. He entered by means of His own blood. What right did he have? By what means did he enter? That’s the question in front of us. And so the issue there is the perfect holiness of God and the wickedness and sinfulness of man. What right did we have to stand in the presence of God? And this mediator, what right does he have to bring us sinful as we are into the very presence of Almighty God?

Our God is holy. As we saw last week, He is a consuming fire, he sits on a throne, that’s all ablaze, it’s wheels are all ablaze, Daniel chapter seven, a river of fire flowing from that throne representing the judgement and the righteousness the holiness of God and what right did this high priest have to enter into His presence? And so there’s a sense of the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man and the requirement of blood sacrifice. Blood sacrifice is essential for this high priest to enter, as it was essential for the Levitical priest to enter. And so we must have the blood. And so, the contrast here is the blood of animals versus the blood of Jesus Christ. “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves. But He entered the most holy place, once for all, by His own blood.” And so we come at last to this issue, the necessity, the absolute necessity of blood sacrifice. Now, historically in science, it was Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century who first started studying blood itself, biologically. Blood cells, the movement of blood and capillaries. And up to that point, the microscope had been somewhat of a toy, but he used it for scientific advancement. He was studying blood and trying to understand the connection between blood and life. But it’s not the biology of blood that’s of interest to us here; it’s the theology of blood.

And it’s very, very plain here in the Book of Hebrews that “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” of sins. And it goes all the way back to Leviticus 17:11, and there in the Law of Moses, says very plainly, “The life of the creature is in the blood. And I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” And so God set up this principle of the connection between the shedding of blood and atonement or forgiveness. There’s an absolute connection between the two. And so it is by the means of Christ’s own blood that He enters. And what is this connection? Well, it’s the death penalty for sin from the very beginning, God commanded forbad Adam from eating of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and He put the death penalty in connection with that, with that prohibition. Said, “You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die.” And so it says in Ezekiel 18, “The soul who sins will die.” “The wages of sin is death.” And so, it isn’t just blood per se, but it’s the pouring out of blood, it’s the death of the substitute that’s in view here.

And only by the shedding of this blood can forgiveness be worked, but Christ blood, His own blood is what He had to offer not the blood of animals, the infinite superiority, I say the preciousness of the blood of Christ is what’s in front of us in the text. The apostle Peter puts it this way. “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but it was with the precious blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish or defect.” What is it that makes something precious? I tell you that the blood of Jesus Christ is the most precious substance there has ever been. The most valuable substance. What makes something valuable? I think it’s rarity combined with a certain usefulness to the human race or a certain beauty or attractiveness. Gold is precious because it’s both rare and beautiful, attractive for jewelry and for other purposes, and so it’s precious. So also diamonds are considered precious because they’re rare and they’re beautiful. And can be used for jewelry or for other scientific purposes. Oil is not beautiful, it doesn’t smell good, but it is precious because it’s somewhat rare and it’s the most efficient energy supply that the human race has ever found. It’s tremendously efficient fuel and so it’s incredibly valuable. And so we see the preciousness.

Sometimes medications can be incredibly precious if they’re difficult to manufacture and they’re in demand. I read some time ago about not just the discovery of penicillin, but how it was mass-produced and what a journey it was from when Alexander Flemming first discovered that penicillin could kill these bacteria in the dish. From that observation to when it was actually available as a medicine was a long journey, was very, very difficult; it was extremely expensive to make penicillin. As a matter of fact, the first patient that ever received penicillin was a British man, who cut himself shaving and then got infected and he was dying from the infection, and so they gave him what penicillin they had available, and it was remarkably effective for a while. But they ran out of the supply and in the end, the infection resumed even more powerfully and the man died. And so the big press at that point was to manufacture more and more penicillin. But I tell you in the final hours of that man’s life, the most precious substance in the world for him would have been penicillin.

Well, how much more than the blood of Jesus Christ. There not only our physical lives hang in the balance but our eternity as well. It is by the precious blood of Christ that we sinners can stand blameless and unafraid with clear consciences before Almighty God, how precious is that? It is the most precious substance there has ever been on Earth and so it is by faith in the blood of Jesus that we are cleansed of our sins. And Romans 3:25, says it quite directly, God presented Christ, “presented him as a propitiation through Faith in His blood.” The word propitiation means, a sacrifice that removes the wrath of God, and it is by faith, by simple faith in the blood of Jesus, that all of your sins are forgiven, that you’re not any longer under the wrath of God. And so there is this complete link between the blood and our forgiveness. Now, modern sensibilities recoil from that. The picture of a bloody Jesus on the cross is repulsive. And some churches have chosen to kind of hide that a bit. I was reading once of a church that was trying to do everything they could to make the gospel comfortable to the non-Christians that were invited and so they were trying to take away any offensive images any offensive language.

Well, there was a new worship leader there, and he did a set of songs that all focused on the blood of Christ and this Pastor, this lead pastor actually got up and apologized for all the blood images has said it wouldn’t happen again. Dear friends, I will never apologize for the blood of Jesus, it will always happen again in this pulpit because it is only by faith and the blood of Jesus, that we can be forgiven. The picture of Jesus bloody on the cross has never been appealing or attractive. It wasn’t meant to be. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him. Nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. It says in Isaiah 52 that he was so disfigured and marred beyond human likeness. King shut their mouths and were appalled at His appearance, and “so will He sprinkle many nations.” It has never been attractive, the bloody Jesus, but it is by faith in this blood that we are made whole. It is by faith His blood that we are forgiven of all of our sins. And by that perfect means, Jesus enters once for all that most holy place. He doesn’t need to enter again and again, the work is done. He has entered and he stands there in our presence, pleading the merits of his blood.

III. The Perfect Achievement: Our Eternal Redemption (vs. 12)

And so we see the perfect achievement of this in verse 12, and that is our eternal redemption. “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the most holy place, once for all, by his own blood having obtained eternal redemption.” That is the perfect achievement of the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. He has achieved or attained for us eternal redemption. Now, what does that mean, what is redemption? Well, the idea of redemption is a huge issue in the Bible in the old covenant. The idea is the rescue of a captive by the payment of a price. So in our understanding, you could think about someone that’s been kidnapped and being held for ransom, and that person’s in captivity, they’re in danger, and the price has to be paid to deliver them. Or in the old testament world, there’s the issue of slavery, bondage, and so the idea of redemption is of buying someone out of that bondage so that that individual can either be free or serve another master. And so that is the image of redemption. When the Jews were delivered from Egypt.

When God, by His mighty hand and His outstretched arm delivered them, he did it by means of 10 supernatural plagues on the whole land of Egypt and the final plague was the most dreadful, the most terrifying one. God had said to Pharaoh, I told you to let Israel, as my first-born son, I told you let my first-born son go. But since you won’t then I will kill your first born son. And so the plague on the first born, all the first born of Egypt, of man and of animals, were plagued. And the implication was clear that the first born among the Jews also deserved to die, but a plan was made whereby the first born could be redeemed, by the blood of the Passover lamb. And so the Passover lamb was sacrificed and they were redeemed from the judgment of God. So that’s another issue of redemption, not just gotten out of being kidnapped, or being a slave, but under the judgment of God, to be redeemed from the judgment of God. And so God made it plain from that point on, effectively saying, “I want you to know all of the first born are mine, and they have to be redeemed.” And so they would be redeemed either by animal sacrifice or by the payment of a price.

So what is our redemption? It is the blood of Jesus Christ. The valuable blood of Jesus is the price that was paid to redeem us from slavery to sin and death, to free us from guilt, to free us from wrath and judgment. So it says in Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” And there in Ephesians 1:7, there’s a direct connection between redemption and forgiveness and the cost is His blood. The perfect consistency of the Bible on this topic, we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and we are forgiven. And as a result of that, now having been delivered from bondage to sin and death, we are now free to serve another master. We are not our own master.

No, it says in 1 Corinthians 6, “You are not your own, you were bought at a price, therefore honor God with your body.” God is our master now. Sin used to be our master, death used to be our master. Now we’ve been delivered, redeemed from that so that we can serve the living God. He is our new master, and will be for all eternity. It says in Revelation that his servants will serve Him. And so we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

But there is one extra word that I don’t want to skip. “Having obtained eternal redemption.” Eternal redemption. We are eternally redeemed. If you were forgiven yesterday, you’re forgiven today. If you’re forgiven today, you will be forgiven tomorrow and for all eternity. God doesn’t change his mind on this. You are completely free from all guilt if you are free indeed. And if you have come to Christ, if you have believed in Him, you were free 10 years ago, you’re free five years ago, you’re free today, and you’ll be free for a millennia, yet to come. It is an eternal redemption that Christ has bought for us.

IV. The Perfect Effectiveness: Our Cleansed Consciences! (vs. 13-14)

How valuable is that and see, therefore, the perfect effectiveness of the work of Christ in verses 13 and 14, says there “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctify them so they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death.” So we have here the effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice before us and the author is using a “How much more” argument, he’s comparing the effectiveness of Old Covenant sacrifices in their time to the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus Christ now, and he’s using a how much more argument. So how effective were those old covenant sacrifices?

Well, in order to understand this, you have to understand the issue of ceremonial unclean-ness. Back in the old covenant, there was such a thing as ceremonial unclean-ness. If something happened to you in everyday life, or something in some way had defiled you through sin, could be an accidental thing or it could be a volitional thing, you would be considered unclean and you had to become ceremonially clean in order to enter into the assembly of the people of God and continue to worship with them. You were excluded from the assembly of the worshippers while you were unclean, and so it could be you had an emission of blood or other bodily fluid that would make you unclean, you could have a sore that wasn’t healing, and so lepers were continually unclean, they couldn’t come into the presence of God. It could be that you touched a carcass that day, a dead body and you were ceremonially unclean. I think there are over 125 uses of the word unclean.

In the Book of Leviticus, Book of Leviticus is about holiness and about unclean-ness. And so if you are priest, you might actually spend a lot of time dealing with the issue of unclean-ness looking at wounds and sores and bleeding things and all that to determine if the person was clean or not and could enter into the assembly of the righteous, and continue to worship. And so what the author says here is that the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer when sprinkled on those who, up to that point had been ceremonially unclean, when that happened, when that ritual happened they were now considered clean and they could actually, in real life, enter the assembly of the righteous, and continue to worship; it was effective. It actually cleans them and enable them to worship the living God. So the author then says, “Well if that’s true, and you can see when you’ve got goats, bulls and ashes, something so low something so earthy compared to the blood of the eternal Son of God,” and we can see the argument that he’s making. “How much more then will the blood of Jesus cleanse our consciences?” Now, look at this phrase he gives right in the middle here. How much more will Jesus, the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself unblemished to God?

What an incredible statement this is. First, just the idea of the Spirit’s ministry through Jesus the spirit anointed Jesus he is the Christ anointed by the Spirit and covered him all the way through his ministry from beginning to end, and so it was by the power of the Spirit and He is called here the eternal Spirit. And so we have the doctrine I think of the Trinity here, God the Father is eternally Father God the son is eternally son, and here we have the eternal Spirit, the eternity of God, and so through this eternal spirit, Jesus offered Himself unblemished and so the Spirit is on Jesus from beginning to end, it was by the power of the Spirit that the Virgin Mary conceived, it was by the Spirit that Jesus was baptized when he was baptized by John the Baptist, the spirit was there, and descended as a dove.

It was by the Spirit that Jesus was driven out into the desert to be tempted by the Devil for 40 days and the implication of this phrase, it is by the Spirit that Jesus continued unblemished through his life and so he returned in the power of the spirit after the 40 days, sinless and holy, and it’s by the Spirit that He stood up in that synagogue in Nazareth and the scroll of Isaiah was unrolled and by the Spirit, He proclaimed the good news to the captives, so it was by the spirit that Jesus said all of his teaching, it was by the holy spirit that Jesus did all of his miracles, the miracles of Jesus, were by the Holy Spirit of God. But especially in view here, it is by the Spirit that Jesus died on the cross, and by the Spirit, he presents that blood un-blemished presents that blood to God on our behalf, this is a Spirit saturated ministry of Jesus, there is a perfect unity between the Father, the Son and the Spirit and the work of redemption isn’t that beautiful, magnificent expression is by the Spirit that He offered Himself unblemished to God. And so how much more will the blood of Jesus cleanse our guilty consciences.

Now, we come at last to this beautiful phrase. “How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death.” So what is the conscience? What are we talking about when we come to the issue of conscience? Well, I think the conscience is hardwired into us as part of our human nature. It’s part of what it means to be a human being. And so every human being on the face of the earth has a conscience, and what the conscience does is it learns some system of morality, it takes that system of morality and applies it to your life and it urges you to do what’s right and to avoid doing what’s wrong.

It’s true all over the world. And then judges your behavior after the fact. And so after it’s done, then the conscience testifies to you that you’re either guilty or not guilty in what you did as far as you understand based on that system of morality you learned. Now, the conscience isn’t a perfect guide because if the system of morality that feeds into it is faulty then the conscience will accuse people wrongly for something they shouldn’t have been doing anyway. Like a Pagan who fails to offer a ritual sacrifice at a certain time may feel guilty but not before God; God didn’t command that. But the issue of conscience is there all the time. Pressing on us, telling us to do what’s right and to avoid doing what’s wrong or saying you did right or you did wrong. It’s right there. Now, of course, also if we continue to sin in a certain way, you can sear the conscience, so it doesn’t really speak that much anymore. You don’t listen to it. And that can happen, but it’s still an issue.

And all over the world, people are struggling with guilty consciences. And I tell you there is only one remedy. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That’s got to involve the guilty conscience. How can I be whole again and feel happy again and be healed, in reference to sin? Only the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fountain I know nothing but the blood of Jesus and so only by the blood of Jesus can our guilty consciences be cleansed. It’s an issue throughout Scripture. It was a guilty conscience that made Adam and Eve run from the sound of God, remember, as they’re hiding behind the trees. It was a guilty conscience that may Cain lie about what he’d done with Able; he knew what he did was wrong.

It was a guilty conscience that made David to cover up the sin, by killing Uriah the Hittite, he laid with another man’s wife, she conceived and became pregnant and then he tried to cover it up by killing Uriah and then, I believe for probably as much as a year, he hardened his heart and would not listen to God. And so in Psalm 32, it says. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” That’s that the plague of a guilty conscience. It was a guilty conscience that made Martin Luther flee after a lightning storm in Germany and join a monastery and try to work off the guilt of his conscience by good works in the medieval Catholic style. But nothing worked, nothing worked.

And so the guilty conscience… And I say that I’m not speaking just about biblical history or church history, I’m probably speaking about your history. It could be I’m talking to somebody right now who has come in here today with a guilty conscience and you’re struggling, and you feel the pressure of it, and the weight of it. And this text says very, very plainly that the blood of Jesus is effective to clear, to clean your guilty conscience. It is a powerful force for the cleansing of a guilty conscience.

V. The Result: Service to the Living God (vs. 14)

So the result of this is service to the living God. Look at verse 14. It says, “The blood of Christ… cleanses our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God.” The word serve here means worship I think, literally. It’s an issue of worship. So it’s literal. It means worship. So that we can basically… Now that we’re cleansed, enter into the assembly of the righteous, and worship God.

And so I don’t think it’s just the issue of corporate worship here, but it’s your whole life given over to worshipping God, and serving Him, and how much more than when you die, to enter the assembly of the holy in heaven, the spirits of righteous men made perfect and join in the worship there. And so the blood of Jesus is powerful to cleanse our guilty consciences from acts that lead to death from those sinful, wicked things so that we may serve the living God.

So let me ask you directly, how is it with your conscience today? Let me speak first to a non-Christian. It could be that God brought you here today, specifically, to hear this message and to hear the freedom that the blood of Jesus can give you. The text mentions acts that lead to death; those are sins where you violate the laws of God. And perhaps it’s something in your past, something you know that is wicked and sinful. You haven’t even told people about it, nobody knows, but it’s submerged in your life and you feel guilty and you can’t get rid of that guilt. You’ve come to the right place. Come to the cross, come to Jesus. The shedding of Christ’s blood is sufficient to free a guilty person from sin.

And so all you need to do is just trust in Jesus through faith in the blood of Christ your sins are forgiven. Well, what about for a Christian? Is it possible for a Christian to have a guilty conscience? And how does the conscience connect to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin? Well, as I said, the conscience is hardwired in. It’s part of what it means to be a human being. You don’t lose that when you become a Christian. What happens is the conscience begins a new education and a new moral system, a system of God’s holy laws, and now it’s pressing you to do what’s right as it understands the laws of God, and it stands over you and judges you.

But I think in this way, sometimes the conscience needs to be educated. Hey, conscience, I’m free. Hey, conscience, I’m sinless and holy now, you don’t need to accuse me anymore, I’ve already come to the cross. Sometimes you just have to preach to yourself and tell your conscience that you’re out from under the guilt and you’ve come at last you received eternal redemption, not just seven-week redemption or seven-year redemption, you’re already redeemed you’ve been redeem and you’re going to keep being redeemed. But does that mean the conscience doesn’t have something still the say to us now it does, because Christian still do sin, and when you sin, your conscience will do its work. It’ll speak up and say that was wrong and the Spirit will use that. The question is what to do. Do you wallow and guilt? Or do you come quickly to the cross and do you first John 1:9, Confess your sins to God If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so with this work of the conscience, we also resolve, as Paul says, “I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.” He’s speaking as a redeemed Christian. He’s not speaking as someone who needs to be educated on the atonement; he knows. And he says, because of what Christ has done for me, I strive every day to keep my conscience clear before God of man. In another place, he says, “My conscience is clear but that doesn’t make me innocent,” so he’s not trusting the conscience, but he’s striving every day to not do defiling acts, those acts that lead to death, but instead to lead a godly and an upright life.

And so it could be you’re sitting here today and you know exactly what’s making you feel guilty. Maybe you had an argument with your spouse or a family member. Maybe this week, you’ve defiled yourself on the internet. Looked at internet pornography. Maybe you have been prideful or angry or selfish maybe you’ve been unforgiving. Maybe you’ve bickered. It could even be something that you really have never dealt with years ago and you starting get convicted by the spirit about it and you feel guilty about it; it doesn’t mean you do nothing. We bring those things right to God, we bring them in confession to Christ and we say, “Lord, I’ve done this thing, I’m guilty, I’ve sinned against you, please forgive me.”

And you receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit and assuring you that you are a child of God, that all of your sins are forgiven, the blood of Jesus is sufficient for you. And then by the power of the Spirit you resolve to walk in holy obedience to His commands and the pattern of the New Testament teach you. You’re not going to continue to do that same thing. You’re going to actually bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. You’re going to fight the good fight of faith and not defile your conscience. Oh, the freedom that this text offers us, how sweet it is to stand today as children of the living God, the joy in our hearts, the accusations of a guilty conscience are addressed through the ministry of the blood of Jesus. Jesus is at the right hand of God and are seating for you, your faith is strengthened by the Word of God. And now we even get to partake in the Lord’s Supper.

And when you hold that little cup of grape juice, when you look into that purple fluid, it’s supposed to remind you of the blood of Jesus. You’re supposed to think about the blood that was shed for you. You’re supposed to think, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness; it’s just juice. It doesn’t magically change into the blood of Christ. But by the Spirit’s ministry, by the ministry of the word, as you’re looking at that, you can think, powerfully, “Jesus shed His blood for me, the precious blood of Christ, and I am clean.” And if you have some work to do with your conscience, do it before you partake. Please don’t partake if you’re not born again, if you’ve never come to faith in Christ and testified to it by water baptism, just refrain. But, instead believe the Gospel, trust in Jesus while you’re while you’re watching others partake and then next opportunity you’ll have a chance to partake. But let’s praise God now for the joy that we have in Christ of full redemption through the blood of Jesus. Please close this portion with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

O the wretched power of a guilty conscience… how much it assaults and torments sinners like you and me!!

Here today you will hear a message that presents the only power there is in the universe to cleanse a guilty conscience

In human experience, in literature, the power of a guilty conscience is often the centerpiece of the story:

In Shakespeare’s tragedy MacBeth: Lady MacBeth goads her husband into murdering Duncan to gain the throne for himself; she assures the weak and fearful MacBeth that “a little bit of water shall clear us of the deed” But her conscience does not find it so easily rid of; after the murder, she is found sleepwalking, night after night, anxiously rubbing her hands as if cleaning them, saying, “Out damn spot! Out, I say! Who would have thought that the old man had so much blood in him?” In the end, she commits suicide because she cannot face her guilty conscience

Edgar Allen Poe, “The Telltale Heart”: grisly story of a murder, and the murderer has successfully concealed the victim’s body in his house; but when a policeman comes over to investigate the sounds a neighbor heard, and during the mild inquiry the murderer hears ever louder the beating of the dead man’s heart… in the end, he cannot stand the sound anymore and rips open the floorboards to reveal the place where the body lay

Every day, we are surrounded by people tormented secretly by a guilty conscience… deeper… YOU may be such a person!!

The text today tells us of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse a guilty conscience so that we can serve the living God!!

Context:

·        In some ways the high point and centerpiece of the entire Epistle!!

·        The author is writing to Jews who had made some outward profession of faith in Christ but who were under immense pressure—persecution—to forsake Christ and return to Old Covenant Judaism

·        The Holy Spirit uses their immediate and temporary plight to teach a succeeding generations of Christians VITAL LESSONS about the salvation Christ came to work

·        More generally, the Holy Spirit is also using their plight to teach us all how the Old Covenant has been completely fulfilled and superseded by the New Covenant Christ came to establish

·        In this way, we have both an explanation of the Old Covenant, and the clear command to move beyond it

·        It explains both why the Lord established the Old Covenant, with its animal sacrifices, and why those sacrifices are no longer acceptable or needed today

·        Without Hebrews, we might be wondering what all that was about in the Old Testament… the Bible itself might seem like a disjointed book with no real cohesion

·        Instead, because of this vital lynchpin—this magnificent Book of Hebrews—everything fits together and makes sense

·        The author has been tracing out the superiority of Christ throughout the Letter… Christ is superior to:

o   The Old Testament prophets who spoke at many times and in various ways, when Christ is God’s final word to the human race

o   The angels who mediated the Old Covenant, but who were merely servants serving God’s people

o   Moses who was merely a servant in God’s house establishing the Old Covenant which could never save a single sinner from sin

o   Joshua who merely brought Israel temporarily into Palestine under the legal strictures of the Old Covenant

o   Aaron who was merely a sinful priest offering symbolic sacrifices that had no real power to remove sin

o   Even to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, who paid a tithe to Melchizedek and thus acknowledged the superiority of Christ

·        Now the author is settling into the centerpiece of his argument: Jesus is the superior HIGH PRIEST, and His once-for-all sacrifice, offered in the heavenly tabernacle is perfect and achieves the actual redemption of which all those Old Covenant sacrifices were merely pictures

·        Hebrews 9:1-10… clear description of the centerpiece of the Old Covenant: The Tabernacle and the animal sacrifices

o   The author described the earthly tent that Moses set up, with its Holy Place and its Most Holy Place

o   The author described the physical articles that were there: in the Holy Place, the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread; in the Most Holy Place, the golden altar of incense, the ark of the covenant (in which were a golden jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant)

o   The cherubim of the Glory over the ark were also mentioned

o   Then the author describes the ongoing ministry of the priests in the tabernacle: the continual (daily) sacrifice of animals in the Holy Place, but the once a year sacrifice of atonement in the Most Holy Place

o   The point of this brief overview was to show the LIMITATIONS of this Old Covenant system

Hebrews 9:8-10 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. 10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings– external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

·        The author zeroes in on the consciences of the worshipers… the sense of GUILT that sin leaves was completely UNTOUCHED by these animals… the sinner walked away from the earthly tabernacle feeling guilty still

·        Now by way of contrast, he shows the perfect effectiveness of the PRIESTLY MINISTRY of JESUS CHRIST… all of these are set against the INEFFECTIVENESS of the Old Covenant sacrificial system

o   the perfect place of His ministry: heaven itself… not merely an earthly man-made tent

o   the perfect means of His ministry: His precious blood… not merely the blood of bulls and goats

o   the perfect achievement of His ministry: eternal redemption… which the Old Covenant merely symbolized

o   the perfect effectiveness of His ministry: cleansed consciences… which the Old Covenant had no power to accomplish

o   the prefect end result of His ministry: our service to the living God from the heart

I.   The Perfect Place: Heavenly, Not Earthly (vs. 11)

Hebrews 9:11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man- made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.

A.  When Christ Came as High Priest

1.  “Christ” = the title the Author is choosing to use here

a.  The word means “anointed one”

b.  Later he will mention the “eternal Spirit”… the anointing was always a picture of the Spirit’s work in setting apart a man for special service

c.  Christ’s three roles: prophet, priest, king

d.  All three roles in the Old Covenant were ANOINTED roles

i)  Kings were anointed for their office: Saul, David, and Solomon all had the anointing oil poured over them

ii)  Prophets were anointed for their office: Elijah anointed Elisha to be his successor as prophet

iii)  Priests were anointed for their office: Aaron had the sacred anointing oil poured over him

e.  Here the focus was on Jesus as the ANOINTED HIGH PRIEST

2.  When Christ CAME (appeared)

a.  Greek word is intensive… arrived, appeared

b.  Somewhat like his ARRIVAL as our high priest is announced with a flourish of trumpets

c.  It could refer to His incarnation and birth, appearing on earth in a human body

d.  Or it could refer to the time of Christ’s public appearance at His baptism, when John the Baptist pointed at Him and said

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

e.  BUT HERE it seems to indicate Christ’s arrival at His final destination… His perfect HEAVENLY DESTINATION

f.  Christ appeared in HEAVEN for us as our Great High Priest

B.  The Good Things That Are Already Here

1.  Here the author speaks of the achievement of Christ’s ministry as our Great High Priest

2.  By the time the author puts pen to paper to write this great Letter to the Hebrews, the “Good Things” Christ came to bring are ALREADY HERE!!!

3.  This is the New Covenant with all its magnificent blessings

a.  “eternal redemption” of verse 12

b.  The “promised eternal inheritance” of verse 15

c.  OR as Ephesians 1:3 puts it

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

C.  He Went Through (Entered)

1.  Here we have as the backdrop that magnificent “Day of Atonement” ritual of verse 7 and of Leviticus 16

Hebrews 9:7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

Leviticus 16:15-16 “He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. 16 In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.

2.  The word here is “went through”… as if it says “passed through”

ESV Hebrews 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Hebrews 7:26 Such a high priest meets our need– one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

3.  The author is referring to the heavenly realms, the heavenly dwelling place of God

D.  The Greater and More Perfect Tabernacle

This is all by way of CONTRAST to the man-made, earthly tabernacle of the Old Covenant… that moveable TENT God commanded to be made as a picture of the heavenly dwelling place of God, where God and man can meet

The author says Jesus’ PLACE of ministry is infinitely superior to that tent

1.  Greater

2.  More perfect

3.  Not man-made

4.  Not a part of this creation

Hebrews 1:11-12 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. 12 You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

In this way alone it could fulfill its purpose of leading sinful humanity into intimate face- to-face fellowship with a holy God!!

As we said earlier, this also points to Christ’s HUMAN BODY as the final, more perfect tabernacle by which a sinful human race can come into the heavenly realms and stand in the presence of God

E.  Heaven Itself: The Immediate Presence of the Living God

II.   The Perfect Sacrifice: Christ’s Own Blood (vs. 12)

Hebrews 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood

A.  The Question: By What MEANS Did Christ Enter?

1.  It asks the question HOW…

2.  By what means did Christ as OUR HIGH PRIEST enter into the heavenly HOLY of HOLIES and stand before God on our behalf??

3.  How could it be done??

B.  Issue: the Perfect Holiness of God a Restriction for Sinners

1.  God’s perfect holiness and our wretched sinfulness is the issue here

2.  Hebrews will tell us that our God is a consuming fire… a terrifying being before whom no one can stand, in whose eyes no one is pure

3.  He is the living God, the ruler of the universe, sitting on a dreadful throne of fire from which flows a river of fire

C.  The Contrast:  The Blood of Animals vs. the Blood of Christ

1.  He did NOT enter by means of the blood of BULLS and CALVES

2.  It was NOT by animal blood that our Great High Priest stood before God on our behalf… He did not present that ineffective symbolic blood to God for our sins

3.  But rather it was BY HIS OWN blood

4.  By MEANS OF His own blood

5.  Thus the blood was the means, the effective agent of entry by which He stood before God

D.  The Necessity of Blood Sacrifice… Despite Modern Offense

1.  “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! OH… precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow… no other fount I know… NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS”

2.  We come to the issue of BLOOD

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) a Dutch tradesman who sold fabrics. But in his leisure time, he liked making and using microscopes… although microscopes had been invented about 50 years before his time, they were seen more as toys than as serious scientific devices; it was Leeuwenhoek who first saw and described blood cells and observed the flow of blood cells in capillaries

Since that time, we have developed a great deal of scientific knowledge about blood… but it is not the BIOLOGY of blood that interests us here, but the THEOLOGY of blood

God used blood to atone for life… it was blood poured out, life for life, as a substitute to pay for sin

3.  But how could BLOOD do any kind of CLEANSING?

4.  In Shakespeare’s play, the blood was a filthy stain that Lady MacBeth could not seem to get out

5.  Blood stains are frequently the evidence by which modern Crime Scene Investigators are able to nail a criminal

6.  BUT when it comes to sin, and the alienation that sin brings in our relationship with a Holy God, only BLOOD can remove sin

7.  Clearest statement in the Bible

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

8.  The logic behind it: ALL SIN DESERVES THE DEATH PENALTY

Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Ezekiel 18:4 The soul who sins is the one who will die. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death

Christ entered on our behalf in the heavenly tabernacle with BLOOD offered as did all the Levitical priests, but it was not by means of the blood of bulls and goats… but rather by means of His own blood

E.  The Once-for-All Sacrifice of Christ’s Own Blood

1.  Once again, we have the phrase “once for all”

2.  This is the contrast… the animal sacrifices had to be repeated endlessly because they were INEFFECTIVE

3.  Christ died ONCE FOR ALL, a perfect sacrifice

Zechariah 3:9 I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

F.  The Preciousness of Christ’s Blood

1 Peter 1:18-19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

1.  The unspeakably precious blood of Christ… the most valuable substance in the history of the human race

2.  Value, worth, preciousness related to RARITY and DESIRABLILTY and USEFULNESS or ATTRACTIVENESS

3.  Gold is precious because it is rare and beautiful as well as useful for jewelry

4.  So also diamonds are precious for the exact same reasons: rare and beautiful as well as useful for jewelry (and for scientific purposes)

5.  Oil is precious because it is so USEFUL… the most energy efficient fuel known to man

6.  Some drugs are among the most precious substances known to man… for example, after Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin’s amazing effectiveness in killing bacteria, it was a LONG JOURNEY to actually developing the drug in quantities sufficient for actual use… the early efforts to mass produce penicillin were extremely costly, and the drug was almost unusable because only tiny quantities of it could be produced at a time; the first patient ever to use penicillin was a British man who had cut himself shaving and whose cuts had become severely infected… he was given a dose of penicillin and the cuts immediately began to heal… it looked as if this patient would recover; but the drug did not exist in sufficient quantities for his healing to be completed… in the end, the infection took back over the man’s body and he died… IN THOSE DAYS, TO THAT DYING MAN, THE SINGLE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE IN THE WORLD WAS PENICILLIN!

7.  How much more precious is the blood of Christ!!

a.  Not merely someone’s PHYSICAL LIFE hangs in the balance… but our ETERNAL SOULS

b.  This precious substance, the blood of Christ, atones for sin… it produces FORGIVENESS with almighty God

c.  This precious blood flowed from Jesus’ dying body

i)  From the wounds in His hands and feet as He hung from the cross, the precious blood flowed

ii)  From the wounds on His back, where His back had been shredded by the scourge, the precious blood flowed

iii)  From the wounds on His scalp where the crown of thorns had been crushed into His head, the precious blood flowed

iv)  From His side after He died, where the Roman soldier drove a lance into His heart, the precious blood flowed

8.  It is BY MEANS of this blood that Christ entered heaven on OUR BEHALF, and by this same means YOU AND I will be welcome as well, if we TRUST IN THAT BLOOD

Romans 3:25 God presented him as a PROPITIATION, through faith in his blood.

a.  Propitiation = a bloody sacrifice that removes the wrath of God

b.  God’s aggressive wrath against our sins is removed only one way… through FAITH IN THE BLOOD of Christ

G.  By That Perfect Means, Christ Entered the Most Holy Place

H.  Modern Sensibilities are Offended … But We Preach the Blood!!

1.  I heard of a “seeker sensitive” church… the central goal of their worship services every week is to make their non-religious guests and visitors feel as comfortable with Christianity as possible

2.  A new worship leader at that church did a set of songs centered on the blood of Jesus; the lead pastor actually APOLOGIZED to the people for all the unpleasant BLOOD images

3.  Friends, the idea of a bloody Jesus on the cross has NEVER been pleasing to the senses…

4.  BUT it is the only means by which we can be saved

Isaiah 52:14-15 Just as there were many who were appalled at him–his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness– 15 so will he sprinkle many nations

III.   The Perfect Achievement: Our Eternal Redemption (vs. 12)

Hebrews 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

A.  What Did Christ’s Blood Achieve?

1.  Verse 12 continues with the issue of the actual achievement of Christ’s bloody death on the cross

2.  What did it accomplish?

3.  The priests in the Levitical order may have wondered if their endless sacrifices of animals actually ACHIEVED anything at all

4.  But Christ did not wonder about this… His achievement is infinite and clear

B.  “Having Obtained Eternal Redemption”

C.  What Is “Redemption”?

1.  The theme of redemption is huge in the Bible

2.  The basic idea is one of rescuing a captive from bondage by the payment of a price

a.  Perhaps you could think of KIDNAPPING… and the victim is held for ransom

b.  More commonly in the Bible, the image is one of SLAVERY, and the payment of a price to deliver someone from bondage in slavery

c.  Sometimes in the Old Testament, the idea is one of an impending judgment from God’s holy law, but the payment of a price REDEEMS the individual and allows them to live

d.  When God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, He did so by means of ten dreadful plagues… the last was the plague on the firstborn; every firstborn in Egypt died; the implication was clear that the firstborn among the Jews deserved to die as well, but God redeemed the firstborn of Israel by the blood of the Passover sacrifice; FROM THEN ON, God claimed every firstborn of Israel as His own

Exodus 13:15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.

e.  The Levites were taken INSTEAD OF the firstborn of all the tribes of Israel… and they served God in the sacrificial system in the place of the firstborn of all the other tribes

f.  When God took a census of the nation of Israel, He found that there were 22,273 firstborn males… but only 22,000 Levites… to redeem the additional 273 firstborn males, the payment of a price was required… 5 shekels of silver for each one

g.  THAT IS REDEMPTION… the rescue of a captive by the payment of a price

3.  Effectively, for us, it means to be bought out from sin to serve a new master

a.  The payment of sin’s penalty is ACCOMPLISHED… that means FORGIVENESS of SINS is redemption

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

b.  So also the idea of ownership… we have a new master

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Romans 6:22 you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God

D.  What is “Eternal Redemption”?

1.  Eternally FORGIVEN… God will NEVER hold our sins against us, even to eternity

2.  Eternally OWNED by our new and loving master… Jesus Christ

IV.   The Perfect Effectiveness: Our Cleansed Consciences! (vs. 13-14)

Hebrews 9:13-14 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death

A.  The Effectiveness of the Old Covenant Sacrifices

1.  The author now seeks to address the EFFECTIVENESS of Christ’s sacrifice

2.  He uses a “how much more” argument…

a.  If this is true… how much more will that be true

b.  In this case, he is comparing the effectiveness of the Old Covenant sacrifices for CEREMONIAL CLEASING

3.  In the Old Covenant, certain things made people ceremonially unclean… that is, they were unable to participate in the corporate worship life of the people of God… they were EXCLUDED from the assembly by their uncleanness

a.  In the Book of Leviticus alone, the word “unclean” appears 124 times

b.  It was a HUGE issue…

c.  If you touch the carcass of a dead animal, you became ceremonially unclean

d.  If you had an emission of blood or other body fluid, you became ceremonially unclean

e.  If you had a running sore or some other disease, you became ceremonially unclean [that is why lepers were perpetually unclean… they could never join in the public worship of Israel]

4.  A big part of being a priest was making pronouncements concerning who was clean or unclean

5.  Now, the author’s point is that the blood of bulls, goats, and the ashes of a heifer were actually EFFECTIVE… they produced a CLEANSING effect that actually DID enable the previously unclean Israelite to worship God

B.  “How Much More…”

1.  If that is true of a bull, goat, or heifer, HOW MUCH MORE the blood of the spotless SON OF GOD!!!

2.  How much more will Jesus’ blood cleanse you!!!

C.  “Who through the Eternal Spirit Offered Himself Unblemished to God”

1.  The “Eternal Spirit” is just another name for the Holy Spirit

2.  It points to the eternity of the Triune God… Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

3.  Everything Jesus did as our priest, He did by the power of the Holy Spirit

4.  It was by the Holy Spirit that Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin

5.  The Holy Spirit descended as a dove on Jesus at His baptism by John

6.  It was the Holy Spirit that drove Him out into the desert to be tempted by the devil

7.  It was in the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus returned UNBLEMISHED from the temptation to begin His ministry of miracles and preaching

8.  It was by the Holy Spirit that He did every miracle He ever did

9.  He spoke the word of His Father by the power of the Holy Spirit

10.  AND it was by the Eternal Spirit that Jesus died on the cross… by the eternal Spirit he offered Himself unblemished to God

D.  The Perfect Effectiveness of Christ’s Blood… a DEEP CLEANSING

1.  Christ was Himself UNBLEMISHED as He offered Himself to God

2.  His blood has the power to make us UNBLEMISHED too… to cleanse us completely from our sins

3.  The Old Covenant sacrifices had a certain power to cleanse… Jesus’ blood has infinitely more

4.  The cleansing here goes to our very hearts… to the internal structure of our souls

E.  Guilty Conscience

1.  For the second time, the issue of conscience is raised in Hebrews 9

2.  We’ve just been told of the Old Covenant…

Hebrews 9:9 the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.

3.  Conscience is part of our special nature as created in the image of God

4.  Conscience does two things

a.  It exhorts you ahead of time to do what’s right and refuse to do what’s wrong

b.  After the fact, conscience JUDGES your actions based on its understanding of right and wrong… it accuses you of wrongdoing, or it commends you for doing right

5.  Sin has a defiling effect on the conscience

a.  Just as touching a dead body in the Old Covenant produced a very real UNCLEANNESS physically for the Israelite, so our sins produce in our consciences a very real SPIRITUAL uncleanness

b.  It is a “guilty conscience”… our conscience accuses us, condemns us as guilty

c.  We cannot shake the sense of guilt, and of the impending wrath of God for what we have done

6.  Adam and Eve both felt guilty after they ate the forbidden fruit and they hid from the sound of God

7.  Cain also felt guilty after murdering his brother; that’s why he lied to God about him

8.  David felt absolutely tortured in his conscience after laying with another man’s wife and then having that man murdered to cover up his sin

a.  For over a year, his conscience accused him day and night

Psalm 32:3-4 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

b.  His body wasted away because of the power of a guilty conscience

9.  Peter denied Christ three times and after the rooster crowed, he went outside and wept bitterly because of a guilty conscience

10.  Saul of Tarsus was tormented in his heart by the words and example of Stephen, the first martyr… an innocent man whom Saul thought worthy of death; when Jesus confronted him, he said

“It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

11.  Martin Luther was terrified of God’s righteous judgment… his guilty conscience accused him day and night… he could not shake free of his guilt; he tried to cleanse his conscience by religious deeds but nothing worked

F.  The Cause of a Guilty Conscience: Acts that Lead to Death

1.  People feel guilty because they ARE guilty

2.  The “acts that lead to death” or “dead works” are SINS

3.  Every sin deserves the death penalty as we’ve said…

4.  Those sins defile your conscience… they make you spiritually unclean before a holy Judge

5.  Your conscience tells you that judgment day will result in your eternal condemnation

Hebrews 10:27 a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

G.  The Power of the Blood of Christ to Cleanse YOUR GUILTY CONSCIENCE

1.  Let’s get personal… if you have committed sins, your conscience is accusing you of those sins right now

2.  It could be something you’ve done, even this week, that you know is forbidden by God’s holy law

3.  It could be some heart issue… some lust, some covetousness… some hidden bitterness or unforgiveness… your conscience is smiting you, attacking you

4.  There is only one remedy to this assault of conscience: the blood of Jesus Christ

5.  Or perhaps it is something from YEARS AGO… something you’ve never forgiven yourself for… something shameful, something you keep hidden in the recesses of your mind, and never utter a word to anyone about…

6.  The only power in the universe that can cleanse a guilty conscience is the blood of Jesus Christ

V.   The Result: Service to the Living God (vs. 14)

Hebrews 9:14 … the blood of Christ… cleanses our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

A.  The End Result: Freed from Guilt to Serve the Living God

1.  The word “serve” is “latreuo” which usually means WORSHIP… a service of worship

2.  Those who were ceremonially unclean could not WORSHIP God… they were excluded from the assembly

3.  In the same way, those with unforgiven sins exclude us from worshiping and serving the living God

4.  BUT through faith in the power of Christ’s blood, we are FREE… cleansed from all guilt so that we have the right to enter the assembly of the righteous and take our places with the other redeemed in worshiping Christ

B.  Is YOUR Conscience Cleansed from Acts that Lead to Death?

1.  Non-Christian:

a.  Perhaps you have never trusted in Christ before now

b.  Perhaps you have felt so guilty, not knowing how to get free

2.  Christian

a.  It is not only non-Christians who have guilty consciences

b.  Every time we Christians sin, our conscience smites us, we feel unclean

c.  We must BELIEVE in the power of Christ’s blood to cleanse our guilty consciences as well

d.  Perhaps you’ve had an argument with a family member this very morning and you feel defiled and guilty

e.  Perhaps you’ve violated your conscience in some other way… you have strayed to some website you know God doesn’t want you to visit

f.  Perhaps you’ve overspent on your credit card… buying luxuries or other things beyond your means

g.  Perhaps you’ve harbored some unforgiveness against someone in this church

h.  You feel GUILTY… but the grace of Christ is like an OCEAN able to cleanse every guilty conscience

C.  What Does it Mean to Serve the Living God?

1.  Personal worship… day after day, praising God

2.  Personal service… deeds done in obedience to God’s law

3.  A cleansed conscience results in FREEDOM TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD