156 - The Superiority of Christ's Sacrifice for Spiritual Maturity [B]

Hebrews 156    April 23, 2009

^NKJ Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

First of all, today I went to a meeting hosted by the Texas Pastor's Conference in Austin. We had a briefing rather from about 5 different leaders in state government. That was interesting. Second, after teaching on the 4 types of forgiveness last week, I continue to hear rumors of questions. One of the men who was rumored to have had questions of course isn't here. So whenever I plan to say, "Okay we're going to have a question and answer time for clarification", the people who have the questions don't show up. So much for planning. Then we're going to proceed into and finish up Hebrews 9 and go into Hebrews 10. 

Now let's start off with this Texas Pastor's Conference. Now just to brief you a little bit, I think there are some pamphlets, brochures out there in the foyer from when Dave Welch gave a little orientation to that, a little commercial for his work and what he's doing when he was here at the Chafer Conference.  He has a background working in various organizations. He's a lawyer by profession or by background, by education and training and he's been involved in a number of Christian based organizations who are involved in lobbying at different levels. When he moved to Houston (He's from, as he puts it, the People's Republic of Washington State) and when he came down to Texas part of what he wanted to do was to work with pastors to organize pastors, conservative Bible believing pastors. 

The doctrinal statement for the organization holds to inerrant infallible Scripture, the substitutionary atonement of Christ several others points. It's solid.  It's not an in depth doctrinal statement but it guarantees that those who are involved are conservative in their theology. It also involves a number of men in different ethnic groups. There are a number of Hispanic pastors there.  Several black pastors were there today and have been at different meetings.  They've done some good things that I have been pleased with observing over the last couple of years. They were vocal immediately. The idea is not to go out and march in the streets or that kind of thing, but when government leaders are engaged in certain policies or directions that they need to hear from the conservative Christian community; to set up a meeting and go in with 4 or 5 pastors and sit down with the mayor or the city council or school board and say, "Okay, this is what our concerns are", and to discuss those things and make them aware of our side. 

When they go to the clergy and you hear from the clergy and Christian leaders in the newspaper, who are they? Well, they're not in our camp. They're not conservative Bible believing pastors. So that's the approach. 

He organized what's called The Houston Area Pastor's Conference and they've got two or three chapters around the country. I've been impressed with their approach and their desire to educate pastors as to what is going on especially at legislative and policy levels so that we can properly address these things from a biblical perspective and inform congregations. 

There are a lot of things that go on at the city, state and national levels that we don't normally hear about. They're not normally reported by the news media until they happen. So it's important to be involved. We live in a nation where our government is based on the people – for the people, of the people, by the people. It is grounded on citizen involvement. Citizen involvement is not inordinate activism. There's a difference. As citizens we should be involved at every level to whatever degree we can. If we don't, if we sit back and get so concerned about our own lives and enjoying the benefits and the blessings and the prosperity that we have, and we don't pay attention to maintaining the mechanics of the engine; then it's very easy to wake up one day and all of a sudden things are falling apart. If you have a good car, you enjoy driving it and enjoy the benefits of it. But you don't get up every morning and go out there and before you go anywhere and test the belts, check the hoses and all those little things, then one day all of a sudden 4 or 5 things go wrong and you're in trouble. We're in that position in this nation. So when that happens, when trouble occurs, all of a sudden you have to stop paying attention to enjoying the benefits of the machine and you've got to fix things. That calls for attention and involvement and those kinds of things.

Anyway we went to the meeting today. It was set up to have different officials come in and give us a briefing and become aware of who we are and develop that communication. So Governor Perry came in and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Justice Dale Wainwright who is a Supreme Court Justice in the state and Jerry Patterson who is Land Commissioner. I found that interesting because I didn't know what the Texas Land Commissioner did. That's a pretty interesting office. They came in and communicated with us. It was good. As I reflected upon it, I thought this is the best bunch of upper level leaders we've had in state government in my lifetime. Every one of these men is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only one who didn't really give a testimony of their salvation was Gov. Perry. It was clear from different things that he said that he understood Scripture. He quoted some Scripture from memory as he was talking. He had obviously notes on different things, but he wasn't as strong as the others; but he is so much stronger than any number of governors that I can think of in the past 30 or 40 years. So I was very pleased at that. 

Of course David Dewhurst was extremely solid. He comes out of a very strong church. Maybe some of you knew him at Berachah. Then this young black guy – I think his first name was Del - Wainwright who is 47 years old and a Supreme Court Justice. He was extremely impressive as was that attorney general who is Greg Abbott. Those two men I would vote for anything. Dale Wainwright – that's his name. Those two were incredibly impressive in terms of their own ability communicate their spiritual lives, their convictions. They were very solid. 

Rick Perry talked about the importance of his own personal spiritual life. He and Jerry Patterson of course were Aggies. That meant that they had a special place in the hearts of many there. The thrust of what he said was the importance that the citizens of Texas need to communicate with their representatives and with the Governor and with the Lt. Governor. We forget that. When things are going well, we usually don't pay attention to what they're doing. The only time we pay attention to what government is doing is when we don't agree with what the government is doing. Then they hear from us. But they're fighting some tough and really important battles. It's important for us to pray for them. They all emphasized that again and again how important it was that we pray for them on a daily basis. They are in the heat of the battle and get a tremendous amount of criticism and also to communicate with them even if it is just to send them a note of encouragement or thank them for something that you notice - is good for them. He emphasized that. He talked about a number of pieces of legislation, policies that they have been able to get through in the last ten years or so since he's been governor. That was good.

David Dewhurst came in and he went through a number of things as well. He talked about the fact that they are paying attention to the budget. There are a lot of Texans who are hurting financially and that the budget increase this year is only 2% over last year. Of course I'd like to see it go down to -5%; but we can't get everything. They are tightening their belts in a number of different areas. They're trying to change some things positively with relation to health care system and trying to be proactive in addressing those issues before we lose the whole battle with things that are happening at the federal level. He talked about the defense of marriage act which was passed. The way it was written in Texas means that we should not be running into any of these problems that these other states are running into. They have had one case where one couple who got "married" up in Massachusetts – a couple of men tried to file for a divorce in Dallas. When they were alerted to that, they immediately shut it down because you can't file for a divorce if you're not married. In Texas they don't recognize that. All these men were unified in their understanding that to even call it a civil union is basically to give it away. Whether you call it a civil union or a marriage, if it's going to have all the same benefits; it's the same thing. So don't be confused or distracted by a change in terminology.

 On that note I heard today the Supreme Court in the State of Connecticut affirmed same sex marriage. Now they have to change the curriculum in the schools and change all their textbooks because now they can't use that terribly outdated right wing extremist terminology like bride and groom because that's just too sexist. What do you do? Have two grooms? So they're all hoping that that will stand. 

They passed a number of other pieces of legislation in the last few years. They have mandated a moment of silence which has been held up in federal courts. It has to be one minute of silence so that those who want to pray can pray. If you want to contemplate your feet, then you can do that - whatever you want to do. That has been challenged in the courts and has been upheld so far. He also mentioned that they passed some of the toughest Jessica Law in the nation and a number of other things. He also gave a very clear statement of his Christian convictions. 

He also ended with a statement that I thought was good. He said that if you read history the Christians who did the most for the world were precisely those who thought the most about the next and the involvement of Christians and pastors down through the history of this nation and how they impacted the government.

Then Attorney General Greg Abbott spoke. He emphasized right off the bat that we must not abandon the "under God" statement in the national pledge. In the last couple of years they added "under God" to the state pledge. 

How many of you know the state pledge of allegiance to the Texas flag? Very good, 7 or 8 of you do. That's very good. 

"Under God" was just added. And that was just challenged in the courts of course and was upheld. 

He also went through aspects of what we do in Texas. He used an analogy that he borrowed from listening to Tony Evans who is a Dallas Seminary - I think he is on the board now. He was the first African American to get a master's of theology and ThD from Dallas Seminary. He was one of my homiletics professors. He pastors a large church in the Dallas area. So he borrowed an illustration from him that he used to point out that if you have a crack in the wall in your sheet rock and you plaster it over, tape and bed it, paint it over and it looks good. A couple of years later the crack comes back. It doesn't matter how much you replace the sheet rock and do things to the wall, the problem is the foundation. The problem in our nation is the foundation has eroded terribly. That is what we have to do and that's the business of pastors in the church and Christians. They all emphasized that the bottom line is if we're going to have impact, it starts with the gospel, it starts with evangelism, it starts with changing people's hearts. That's the only solution ultimately. 

He mentioned a number of things that he has been involved in including defending the constitutionality of a monument to the Ten Commandments that stands on the grounds of the state capital there in Austin. That went all the way up to the Supreme Court building. He told something that I did not know.  He said when he was arguing it at the Supreme Court—obviously we all know that there are a number of carvings and friezes and paintings around the Supreme Court Building of the Ten Commandments. So you're inside arguing that it's not a violation of the U. S. Constitution to have a depiction of the Ten Commandments. The courtroom in which they entered had a depiction of the Ten Commandments on the door going in and at the top wall in the courtroom there is a frieze of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. So the irony of this is just absolutely mind-boggling—he noted that though they won that (they won that by a slim vote of 5 to 4) the same day the court also decided by a 5 to 4 vote to strike down as unconstitutional a monument displaying religious symbols in Kentucky. So there is a huge battle that goes on and continues to go on.

Then we had Dale Wainwright. He was very good. He is 47 years old. His father was a pastor; his mother was an evangelist. His father worked full time for DuPont. His mother was a high school English teacher. He practiced law for 12 years and then Gov. George Bush (at the time) appointed him (He's from Houston) to a judgeship here in Houston area. Then a couple of years later Rick Perry appointed him to the Texas State Supreme Court, a position to which he was just reelected. Up to 2002 when he was first elected, no African American had ever been elected to the Texas State Supreme Court. A lot of people told him it would never happen – and it did. This guy is a strict constructionist. He is an originalist when it comes to the interpretation of the Constitution.  He was just as clear as he could be on any number of issues, including the way he gave his testimony of how he was saved and trusting in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for his salvation. When he goes to Washington DC he enjoys going into Judge Anthony Scalia's private chambers for lunch. They are friends. They are graduates of the same law school. That was good.

Then Jerry Patterson who is the Texas Land Commissioner spoke. He is a 5^th generation full time military service. He is a retired Marine Corps officer and his son is an active duty Marine officer, career officer. Jerry Patterson is also a graduate of Texas A&M. So now he is serving as Land Commissioner. He went over what they do. I need to go to their website. That was interesting. He had some interesting stories, funny stories about Texas history. He talked about Happy O'Daniel and Ma and Pa Ferguson. He said every generation seems to fight the same battles. There is nothing new. Little details change.  Back in the 40's when Ma Ferguson was governor of Texas, they called her Ma because her initials were MA and her husband's initials were PA so they called them Ma and Pa Ferguson. He got impeached so he couldn't serve again. So she ran on the slogan that you get Ma and Pa Ferguson - two governors for the price of one.  So there was a problem. What are you going to do with all these Hispanic kids that come up from Mexico and can't speak English?  How are you going to educate them? It's a perennial problem. 

She said, "Well, you know. If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for us."

We have these colorful people in Texas history. We've elected a number of governors that just aren't real educated.

So that was the thrust of it. There were three questions that were asked. The first question that was asked had to do with hate crimes legislation. It was asked of Greg Abbott. The question was: what should we do in the event that the federal government passes this hate crimes legislation that will make it a felony, a prison offense, to say anything negative about homosexual behavior or homosexual marriage or to critique that? 

He said, "As long as it's on his watch, no pastor in Texas will ever be charged with anything they say from the pulpit." 

So he's very solid. But what's going to happen after the next election? I understand (it wasn't said today), but I understand that he's thinking about running for the U.S. Senate office when Kay Bailey Hutchinson steps down. He would be good, but who's going to replace him?

Well, somebody asked Dale Wainwright that. He's thinking about it. Who knows what will happen and who will get elected. But it could change in a heartbeat. As we all know, certain people and groups get elected. It can all go out the window. We have a solid conservative Texas State Supreme Court right now that has functioned remarkably well. Thirty years ago in the 70's, Texas had one of the most liberal state Supreme Courts. We were known for that. I remember Christians just screaming about the decisions that the Texas State Supreme Count was making back in the 70's. We've gone 180 degrees in the opposite direction now. But we don't know how long that will last. So the first question had to do with hate crimes legislation.

The second question had to do with civil disobedience. That was asked of Dale Wainwright. 

He said, "When is it necessary? When will it be incumbent upon Christians and what are the right conditions for exercising civil disobedience?" 

His answer was interesting. 

He said, "It may surprise you to know that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a strong believer in the rule of law. But when (his views) the law is unjust, we are in a system where we can make our voices heard. But if you are going to violate the law to do that, then you have to be willing to pay the penalty and go to prison for it."

That was his answer. There are a lot of people asking that question on civil disobedience today. I just don't think that we are to that point. I've heard a lot of people making comparisons with Nazi Germany and what happened in Germany and comparisons especially to the Valkyrie episode, the July assassination attempt on Hitler that was led by Count Von Stauffenberg who was an evangelical. There were other evangelicals who were firmly against what they were doing. I understand that, but we're not in a position like 1944. If there's an analogy there, it would be like the early 20's where the Constitution is still the law of the land; and we still have freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Nobody is trying to knock down anybody's doors and come in and take anything that you have in your house. Nobody is throwing anybody in jail for political speech that is unacceptable to the administration. 

So now is the time for people to be involved in the political process through all the different ways in which we can be involved in politics - writing your congressmen, writing your senators, writing your representatives, governor, mayor, making your voice heard and being involved from the local precinct level all the way up. That is how we are to do things. When we don't vote and we don't go to these meetings and we don't write letters and we don't make our voices heard and things don't go the way we think they should; then we're going to have a lot of regrets in hindsight. So this is the time to be involved.  There's nothing wrong with taking action, responsible legal action. That is the way the system is built. It's not built on passivity. It's built on the involvement of the citizens. So we need to think about how we can be involved, what we can do, what parties we can financially support, what other lobbying groups we can financially support in terms of what they are doing and working within the system as much as possible.

The third question had to do with what I think was more of a question to Dale Wainwright as to what his thoughts were about running for Attorney General if Greg Abbott runs for Senate.

I was really pleased. I was encouraged by these men. We have great state leadership, as good if not better than it has ever been at any time in my life.  What's happening at the federal level? Well, that's a different story.

Let's move on to the second issue which is questions on the four types of forgiveness. Now just to remind you of what I was teaching you last week, I've made a couple of more charts to make this, to try to make this a little clearer. I started off talking about forgiveness from the Greek word aphesis. The verb is apheimi and it has the range of meaning of release, liberation, forgiveness, cancellation. Forgiveness is a tough, tough concept for us to get our hands around because we don't like forgiving people who have deeply profoundly hurt us or betrayed us. That is a very difficult thing for people to do and to think about especially the more painful the circumstance or the situation. 

But forgiveness means the act of freeing or liberating or releasing someone from something, from captivity. It's certainly used within the idea of economics. I pointed this out when we looked at this verse in Colossians 1:14 and also a parallel passage in Ephesians 1:7.

^NKJ Colossians 1:14 in whom

That is Christ.

we have redemption through His blood,

That's the payment price. Always in Scripture the blood is the payment price for sin. 

the forgiveness of sins.

The phrase "forgiveness of sins" is appositional to the noun redemption. An appositional phrase is a phrase that explains a noun. It is "in other words." 

So when Paul says:

^NKJ Colossians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ

The phrase "apostle of Jesus Christ" is in apposition to Paul. It explains who he is. But if you read a verse, it says, "Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ to those in the church in Rome". If you leave the appositional phrase out and you are left with "Paul to those in the church in Rome", the sentence makes perfect sense. It is just an additional element put into the sentence to explain the meaning of a noun. 

A lot of times we think that forgiveness is not holding resentment or bitterness or anger against somebody. We think of forgiveness in a personal or psychological sense. There are various meanings to the word forgiveness. So I set it up this way. On the left you have the word redemption. Redemption always has the idea of paying a price or purchasing something. At the very core meaning of this concept of redemption is payment, purchase. Payment is an economic concept. 

Some of you are old enough to remember back years ago when they used to give out stamps to people. You'd go to a store and you would get bonus stamps or S&H Green Stamps. Then when you wanted to buy something, you collected all these stamps – for the purchase of a toaster, a blender, a school bus in one case. I remember Camp Peniel saved up bonus stamps for like 3 years, people donated bonus stamps, and then they bought a school bus with it. That was the first Camp Peniel school bus. 

You would go to a redemption center to buy that. It's that idea of purchase. Now you have on the right under forgiveness, I have four different meanings I took out of different dictionaries (The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, the Webster's 11^th Edition Collegiate Dictionary,  Collins English Dictionary)  that I looked at.  There are four different definitions that can be given for forgiveness. 

1. The first is to give up resentment or bitterness. That's the - when you look in the dictionary, when they rank the meanings 1, 2, 3 and 4; it's from the most common usage to the least common usage. So the most common usage is this idea of giving up resentment or bitterness. That's what people think of. 
2. The second meaning is to grant relief from the payment of a debt, to grant relief from the payment of a debt. That is an economic term. 
3. The third meaning is to pardon somebody from a penalty. 
4. The last is to excuse someone. 

So if you have an appositional phrase and that is explaining a noun that means to pay a price, then what you do is you look at the optional meanings for the word in the appositional phrase and you pick the one that is in the same field of meaning as the head noun, as the main noun. So that would mean that you're only going to use the one that has to do with finances, to grant relief from payment of a debt. 

So that becomes very clear that when Paul says, "We have been redeemed in Him," redemption is the forgiveness of sin. It has to do with cancelling a debt. Of course that's the idea that we looked at in Colossians 2:13-14 where it uses that phrase, especially in the King James Version - uses that phrase "the certificate of debt against us." 

Now that means that we owed something. We owed a penalty, a legal penalty to the justice of God.

In the early days of the church there was this question that came up: well if this is a ransom payment, who is the ransom paid to? The dominant view in the early church (I'm talking about the late 2^nd century, 3^rd century), it was the ransom to Satan. That's how they understood the atonement; that Jesus was paying a price to Satan to free sinners from going to hell. Eventually came to be understood correctly that the payment is the payment of a price to the judicial demands of God in the same way we say that a criminal is found guilty and has to go to prison. He is going to pay his debt to society. It's that idea. He has to make a payment to justice. 

That's the idea here. So when I broke down these categories of forgiveness, the first category I listed was judicial. That is the payment of the price to the justice of God, which means that the penalty for all sin for believers and unbelievers is paid for; the judicial penalty is paid for by Christ on the cross. That becomes the foundation then for the Doctrine of Unlimited Atonement. Christ paid the penalty for every sin and that forgiveness in those passages is directed toward God. 

The second is positional.  This is what applies to believers only. Our position in Christ, In Him we have forgiveness. 

The third category was experiential. We're familiar with this. This is when we confess our sins and God forgives us of our sin.

The last is the really tough one, the personal forgiveness to one another. Forgiveness towards others reflects our understanding of God's grace toward us. Now I'm going to come back and say something about that in a minute. But before I do I want to put one more chart up here to try to help clarify what it is that I'm trying to communicate. 

On the top we have a diagram, a triangle expressing the trinity, the triune God. Below we have mankind. Now at the cross (using the parallel of what we understood from what happened on the Day of Atonement), these aspects of Christ's work on the cross are directed toward God. 

1. Propitiation, that means God's justice and His righteousness are satisfied.
2. Reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:19 that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Another verse used for unlimited atonement. But it is God who is being reconciled. I mean we are the ones being reconciled to God. Reconciliation is Godward. 
3. Redemption, that is directed toward God. 
4. Forgiveness, that first classification of forgiveness, is directed toward God. 

Redemption is that payment of a price. It's directed toward the justice of God. It is those elements that are pictured in the Day of Atonement. The payment of the price is when the animal is offered and sacrificed. The propitiation occurred when the blood was put on the mercy seat and the cherubim representing the justice, the holiness, the righteousness of God looking down upon the blood that has been put on it is a picture of satisfaction, acceptance. That is redemption and propitiation. Reconciliation is now the nation is reconciled toward God so that the nation can go on for another year. 

Then they are forgiven. That is pictured with the scapegoat that one goat was killed. The other goat is taken way out into the desert and turned lose never to return. It is that complete obliteration of the sin problem for the nation. That doesn't mean everybody can just come waltzing back into the Tabernacle whenever they wanted to, right? Just because God's propitiated, the nation is reconciled, redeemed, forgiven; that doesn't the priest can walk in anytime he wants to. He still had to go through the cleansing of the laver. When he was initially ordained he had to be washed from head to toe. All of those things still took place. That pictures the first kind of forgiveness. 

Then when a person believes in Jesus, then Christ's righteousness is imputed to him. He is declared justified; he is regenerated and he receives forgiveness #2, which is our positional forgiveness in Christ and initially forgiveness #3. But then to go out of fellowship you have to confess your sins to get back into fellowship. That is directed toward mankind. 

Any questions? Anybody lost? Anybody confused? This is different. I've explained this to several pastors several times. They keep coming back. They love it. It's tied up a lot of lose ends in their thinking; but trying to get control of this is not always that easy. 

In John 13, we've gone through John 13 showing that the foot washing was designed to picture ongoing confession and forgiveness of sin in the believer's life. 

As Jesus told Peter, "Once you're washed, you don't need to be washed from head to foot again. You just need to have your feet washed." 

That's a picture of confession. 

Remember I pointed out in John 13 at the beginning Jesus said:

^NKJ John 13:1 … having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Now the next time we hear the mention of love is when we come to the end of the chapter in John 13:34-5 when Jesus said:

^NKJ John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

^NKJ John 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Now I want you to think about this. You've got a framing of the event of the foot washing by two statements about love. You'll hear a lot of sermons. You'll go to Baptist churches or Methodist churches, even doctrinal churches you'll hear somebody who looks at it and says, "Not only is this teaching about confession, but it's also teaching Christ is a servant." So they go to that passage to show that Jesus functions as a servant and so should we. There's an element of truth there but it is usually left too vague.

In Mark (the Gospel of Mark), Jesus says, " I did not come to be served but to serve."

How? 

"To give My life as a random for many." 

So it's not some broad category of how we can serve one another. It's not this sort of ambiguous any-way-which-you-think-you-can-serve-another-believer kind of idea. That's not what's in John 13. Jesus defined how He is serving us, by giving His life as a ransom for many. 

Now what's the Greek word translated ransom? What does it mean?  It takes us right back up to this chart. It's redemption, that payment of a price. So Jesus is saying, "I gave My life as a ransom. I am paying the redemption price for many". What's He talking about? He's talking about forgiveness #1. 

What is Jesus demonstrating in the Upper Room? He's demonstrating forgiveness #3 and then He applies it to forgiveness #4. See, He's talking about at the cross, "I'm going to wipe out and cancel the sin of the world." It's going to be wiped out. The payment is going to be made.

Now as believer's you're still going to sin and there needs to be experiential forgiveness, whenever you sin. But then Ephesians 4:32:

^NKJ Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.

That's how we serve one another and that's how we love one another in the context that John 13 is forgiving one another in that same sense of wiping out, cancelling the debt. That's why it's so hard. You can't do that on your own. You can only do that if God the Holy Spirit is transforming your soul so that you become grace oriented. That's what's connected there because the Greek word that's used there in Ephesians 4:17 is charizomai which is the word meaning to be gracious. But it also was used as a synonym for forgiveness. And it's used as a synonym for economic forgiveness and forgiving a debt in a couple of places in the gospels. 

So that ties all of those different dimensions of forgiveness together. Now the important thing for that in our study of Hebrews is that the whole concept undergirds the discussion that the writer of Hebrews is going through to these Jewish former priests who have believed that Jesus is the Messiah because he's showing the finality and the totality of what Jesus did on the cross in contrast to the temporary affect of the sacrifices – that Jesus Christ's sacrifice is superior to the sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats. 

Now I don't know how many times I've heard people talk about this when I was in seminary and I was sitting in class or other places where I've heard other people teach on Hebrews and think, "Well, I understand that. Of course Jesus is superior." 

We've been in this for a long time. I know that. We went through a lot of important details. I learned personally a tremendous amount of things that I was able to put together when we went back through all the types, all the sacrifices, all the aspects of the Tabernacle just phenomenal material there that is not taught, put together in many situations today at all. The way the writer of Hebrews is writing, he just keeps weaving theses different threads together. He makes points and he comes back and picks up conclusions he's made earlier, weaves them together. So you really have to follow. 

I've always heard my whole life Hebrews is one of the toughest books to exegete, to teach. And it is, because you have to concentrate. You really have to pay attention and you really need a very solid understanding of Old Testament theology, types, ritual, sacrifices or you're not going to catch what is going on here.

So let's go back now in the time we have remaining to wrap up chapter 9 and start chapter 10. It should be pretty simple to understand this because we've got all this background now. 

In verse 25 the writer says:

^NKJ Hebrews 9:25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another --

See Jesus didn't have to offer Himself often because it's the final sacrifice. He only has to do it once, for all. The high priest had to go in on the Day of Atonement year after year after year. The blood that he's offering isn't his own, it is the blood of the bulls and the goats. 

Then verse 26:

^NKJ Hebrews 9:26 He then would have had to suffer

That is He, Jesus.

often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared

Or he has appeared. That is the word there for revelation.

to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

The word that is translated to put away sin is the Greek word athetesis which means to remove, to abrogate or to annul. That's another word for to cancel or to wipe out. Again, it's emphasizing that category #1 of forgiveness, the cancellation of the sin, the wiping out of the sin that occurred at the cross. It is a real payment that took care of things. The emphasis here is that Jesus was able to completely put away the sin problem by sacrificing Himself. That could never happen with an animal. 

Of course somebody is going to say, "Well, why not?"

That is what chapter 10 begins with. 

So verse 27 he says:

^NKJ Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed

This is almost like a throw away sentence. It is a transition between 27 and 28. But it's a verse that is packed with implication and we go to it a lot for different things. The point of the verse is judgment. We don't go to the verse for that part last so much anymore, in our time. We go to it for the first part. 

for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

That's what he's warning them about. All through this book there is a forward look to the fact that we're accountable as believers at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Don't give up. Don't fade out in the stretch in your spiritual life now because there's going to be accountability at the Judgment Seat of Christ. You will be evaluated and the issue is going to be how much you have fulfilled your spiritual life in preparation, building capacity so that you can become a ruler with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Millennial Kingdom. So we're in that training now. 

So the focus of verse 27 is on judgment. But he says:

for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

Not twice to die. There's no recycling of reincarnation. There is just resurrection. They don't keep coming back trying to get it better. 

That's a problem that you have if you're trying to communicate the gospel to somebody from an eastern religious background (Hinduism, Buddhism, something of that nature) and you talk to them about eternal life; you have to define the term for them because in eastern religions eternal life is an eternal trap. They are trying to get out of that trap and they're stuck in that trap with karma. They keep getting recycled over and over and over again. If they're Asian or Indian, they understand that you don't just come back as a human being. See all these things get sanitized when they get brought into the West. 

Everybody thinks, "Well if I don't do well, I'll come back. I'll be a farmer or a maid. If I do well, I'll come back and be a rich CEO."  

No, if you don't do well you come back as a toad in Hinduism and Buddhism. You come back as lower life forms. You're an amoeba for a while or protozoa or whatever. But you don't come back as a human being. You come back as a toad or a snake or a rat or something like that. 

But the Bible says no, you have one life to live and that's it. And you're judged on the basis of what you actually do. God's not going to sit up there in omniscience and say, "I know you died young. You died when you were 30. You could have lived another 30 years. I know what you would have done if you'd lived another 30 years so I'm going to reward you on that basis." God doesn't do that. That's "what if" rewarding. He in His omniscience knows every factor and He evaluates us on the basis of what we did with what we had in the lifetime that we were given. And that's it. It's real time rewarding. 

^NKJ Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

Now this is a generic statement. This is what's called a gnomic or universal principle. If the man is an unbeliever, then the judgment is the Great White Throne judgment. If you are a believer in the Church Age, then the judgment is the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

Then in verse 28 he says:

^NKJ Hebrews 9:28 so Christ also

See we appear a second time in judgment. 

was offered once to bear the sins of many.

The term many in these contexts indicates all. We'll look at the word there for "bear." Bear has the idea of carry. It comes from the Greek word anaphero. It has that idea of carrying or lifting something. It was a word that was used in sacrifices - as you carried a sacrifice to the altar. So this word that he uses here, he uses in two forms of it - prosphero in the next verse and anaphero here. This is a word that indicates, that brings to mind putting a sacrifice on the altar.

So he says:

was offered once

And there is another word there for important word there for - all through this passage. Wait a minute. I've got my words mixed up. This is prosphero which means to offer, to make the offering –not the bearing. That's a different word. Prosphero is the word for offering. It's used 20 times in the book of Hebrews. That ought to tell you something. Any word that's used 20 times in the book of Hebrews means it's important. It's used 20 times in the book of Hebrews between chapter 8 and chapter 10. It's used a couple of times in chapter 5. In chapter 9 it's used 5 times and in chapter 10 it's used 5 times. So whenever a word is used that frequently in that close of context, that's what we're talking about. It's the offering of a sacrifice. 

to bear the sins of many.  To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

This is the idea of carrying or the idea of lifting something. It's the same word that we have over in 1 Peter 2 which is anaphero. See, they're very close. The offering is prosphero. The bearing or carrying the sins of many is anaphero. It has the idea that they carried the sins and that He received the imputation of those sins of mankind. So the point in verse 28 is:

^NKJ Hebrews 9:28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time

That's at the judgment. 

apart from sin, for salvation.

Without reference to sin

That is using the word salvation again not in the sense of phase #1 justified when we believe in Jesus; but here it's used for phase 3 glorification when we are face-to-face with the Lord in heaven. So the point is He appears a second time. This is the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Sin isn't the issue at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We've studied this many times. At the Judgment Seat of Christ all of our works, our production in life is stacked up and lit on fire. What burns up and disappears is the wood, hay and straw. That's what's done outside the production of the Holy Spirit. What's left is what is done in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what's revealed there. The idea of dokimos, the word that's used there is the idea of exposing what's good, not exposing what's bad. 

Jesus isn't going to sit up there. "See you sinned here and you shouldn't have."

The sin was taken care of at the cross.

To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time

Now that's not saying He's not going to appear for those who didn't. It's not a partial rapture verse. That's the point. All believers are expected to be those who eagerly await Him. It's like that passage over in1 John. It says:

^NKJ 1 John 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

People get all confused about that. They say, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I'm saved. I'm regenerate. I've trusted in Christ, but I've sinned. That verse says I don't sin." 

Well the best way to understand that is, this is what you are supposed to be like. It's like when you were little and you did something that embarrassed your daddy. 

He said, "Children of mine don't do that."

He's not saying you're not his child. He's saying that it's not the kind of behavior that's acceptable for his child. That's what that verse is saying that those who are born again don't sin. It's not saying you can't sin or you're not really saved. It's saying that that's not acceptable behavior for someone who is in the royal family of God. So this is the same thing here. The same idea is that if you're a member of God's family, the behavior that's expected of you is to eagerly wait for the coming of Jesus Christ. 

Then we get into the next verse. It automatically shifts right forward into verse 1 of chapter 10. Try to look at this without a chapter division. It goes right into saying:

^NKJ Hebrews 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

So it starts off with this explanation for the Law: that is, the ritual under the Mosaic Law can never make perfect. That's the main idea. You might want to underline those phrases in your Bible. 

The Law can never make perfect. That's the thrust. The Law can never make prefect. That word for making perfect is a verb indicating maturity. The Law cannot do that. The explanation is because it's only a shadow. It's one of those words I looked at last week for typology. It's the word skia. It's only a shadow. It's only a pale reflection of the ultimate reality that would come at the cross. That's the good things to come. It's not the very form of thing. You weren't saved and sin wasn't dealt with by those sacrifices. That's what that verse is saying. 

So the Law can never by these same sacrifices year after year after year on the Day of Atonement on Yom Kippur cannot bring about spiritual maturity because it can't solve the problem. If you look back to the previous chapter, it talked about this same problem. He's going back. He's picking up this thread about how the sacrifices from the Old Testament (the ritual) could not cleanse the conscience. That's back in about 9:14. It couldn't cleanse. It was impossible for it to do that.

So now he picking up that same thread and he's saying not only could it not cleanse the conscience, it couldn't do anything for spiritual maturity because the sin problem isn't actually dealt with by those sacrifices.

Then verse 2 explains that. He says:

^NKJ Hebrews 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered?

If they really dealt with sin, they would have only done it once. But every year they have to keep coming back and coming back and coming back because it doesn't really deal with the problem.

then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers if it really truly cleansed them in reality; they would no longer had this consciousness of sin. That's picking up that idea of the awareness of consciousness of sin that goes back to Hebrews 9. 

Why doesn't sin become the issue/? Because for us, for everyone; it's paid for. Sin isn't the issue in explaining the gospel. People have to understand why they're spiritually dead, but the issue isn't what they've done. The issue isn't their sin.

You don't have come out and say, "See all these things that you did. See, that's why you're under condemnation." 

That's not the issue. The sin is paid for. It's wiped out. In the Old Testament they still had a consciousness of sin because there is nothing that deals with it. But in the New Testament we realize a true forgiveness. Sin isn't the issue. 

So next time we'll come back and finish this up because he has to explain why this is finalized with Jesus as a superior sacrifice. So we'll get to that next Thursday night. 

Illustrations