The Acceptable Substitute

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Transcript:

Well, this morning we’re going to be in Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. And we’re going to talk about the idea of substitutes.

Now, when I started college, I left my very first job, which was checking groceries at homeland, and I decided to go and be a substitute teacher. At that point before I really was sure about what direction God was calling me in ministry, my career plans were to go be a junior high French teacher, make my millions there, and then run for governor of Oklahoma. And so I figured while I was in college studying to be a French teacher, going and being a substitute would be a good step along that direction.

And I’ll never forget sitting in my first substitute orientation meeting, and I’m thinking they’re going to talk to us about teaching strategies and how to control a classroom. The teachers in the room are already laughing. I thought they were going to talk to us about those things.

And the first thing that I remember really being drilled into us is do not touch the children. And I thought, do not worry about it. I come in every morning in a protective bubble of Lysol and Germ-X.

Anyway, I don’t want to touch anybody or anything. But don’t touch the children. Apparently that was a big problem.

And looking at the news lately, it seems to still be a problem. Do not touch the children. Then they went on to talk to us about don’t come to work drunk.

And I thought, well, isn’t that just common sense? Apparently not. Don’t let the children drink.

And I swear I thought I was on candid camera at one point as they told, you know, of course we, that should go without saying, but apparently they had had issues. It was a college town after all. And, you know, don’t leave campus with the children.

Again, no problem. You know, it’s sort of like the warning labels on products. It always makes me think, what did somebody do that they had to put that on the warning?

And it didn’t take me very long to figure out there’s a wide variety in the quality of substitutes. I think that’s why Kay gets called in to work all the time. because they know she’s going to be a good one.

But when you’re having to tell them, don’t leave campus with the children, don’t let the children leave campus, don’t let them do drugs in class. Okay, I thought we were here to teach something. Really, our job as a substitute was just to stand in for the teacher and make sure the children didn’t burn down the school until the real teacher came back.

And apparently some people couldn’t even handle that. There’s a wide variety in the quality of substitutes. There are good substitutes, and then there are substitutes that just don’t quite cut it.

And when I did finally end up as a teacher, teaching my junior high class in a private school in Moore, Charla worked in the office, and when I had to be out of the classroom, she was the one I wanted to come and cover my class, because I knew I could trust her to do the right thing. I knew that if the kids had especially English questions, she could answer them probably better than I could. If they had science or math or history questions, she could do a good job.

She knew my classroom rules. She was a good substitute. Now, when it came to time for French class, we’re just doing study hall because she doesn’t speak it.

There’s no substituting there. But I knew she was a good substitute. She would do exactly what was required.

and the Bible speaks to this idea of substitutes as well we get the idea of substitutes from being around school and being around teachers the idea of one person standing in for another but the Bible speaks to this idea of substitutes when it came time for sacrifices when it came time for dealing with our sins and unless you and I were going to pay for our sins unless the Jews in the old days with their sacrifices, unless they were going to pay for their sins themselves, they needed a substitute. They needed somebody to stand in for them with God and do what was required. But all the years that they went through and all the sacrifices they went through, there was one substitute who was able to do everything that was required, who was able to go above and beyond.

There was one acceptable substitute after thousands of years of substitutes that just weren’t quite up to snuff to deal with the problem of sin. And so we go to Hebrews chapter 9 in one of many places in the Bible, one of many places in the book of Hebrews, where the Bible talks about Jesus as being this substitute for sin. And starting in verse 7, there was really no great place to stop because it’s all really or to start because it’s all one continuous thought, but this is as good a place as any.

Verse 7 says, But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. And what they’re talking about is the offerings in the temple and the tabernacle. When the writer of Hebrews says, But into the second one went the high priest, the second one he’s talking about a second room.

Before this, he’s been talking about going into the first part of the tabernacle, but now he talks about going into the Holy of Holies. And if you know anything at all about the sacrifices in the tabernacle and the temple, there was the holy place, and then where they would go and they would offer their incense, and they would, well, some of the offerings were done out in the courtyard, but they would go and there would be the lampstands and the showbread, and it was the holy place. And only the priests were allowed to go in.

But inside that there was an even more secluded spot. Called the most holy place or the holy of holies. And that’s where the ark of the covenant was kept.

And that’s where God was said to come and sit on the mercy seat. With the nation of Israel coming by their high priest. To him one time every year. for the sins to be judged and to be forgiven because an offering was made at the mercy seat.

So the high priest would come in once a year with a blood offering from an animal that had been sacrificed. He would come in once a year with blood. The place was so holy that only the high priest could come in, only that one time per year.

And if my understanding of it is correct, he had to have been so meticulous in following the law and so blameless under the law in that moment that if there was any unconfessed sin, if there was anything that had not been dealt with, if God found any impurity in him at all, he would be killed. And so my understanding is that they would go in and they would have a rope tied to one of their legs or possibly to their belt. I don’t really know where, but they would have a rope tied to them so that the other priests could drag their body out if they fell in God’s service in there.

And they would go in and they would go in offering for the sins of the people where this animal had been the substitute. This animal had shed its blood. This animal had given its life on the altar outside the tabernacle, outside the temple, and then the priest brought the blood offering.

Because from the earliest pages of Genesis, this idea of a substitute is given to us. When the animal died to make the covering of skins for God to put on Adam and Eve. It set the precedent that the innocent die for the sins of the guilty.

And that had gone on all throughout biblical history, this idea of a substitute. And through the shedding of blood was found the remission of sins. So the high priest would go in once a year and do this.

Verse 8 says, the Holy Ghost, this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him, excuse me, that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. And so the writer of Hebrews here tells us that there is this thing that was revealed to them, this truth that was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit, that the first tabernacle, the tabernacle that was built by human hands was merely a picture. It was merely a foreshadowing of something else that was to come.

And everything that was done in the tabernacle could not perfect man, meaning could complete him, could not make man stand whole before God. It could not deal with the problems in the conscience. It was really a poor substitute in contrast to what was to come.

Now, God told them to set up the tabernacle. He explained to them in excruciating detail how they were to set up the tabernacle. But still the tabernacle was only a substitute for the substitute.

The tabernacle merely stood there as a poor substitute until the perfect substitute was to come. Verse 10 tells us which stood, talking about the tabernacle, which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. So they were, the sacrifices that were in the tabernacle dealt with their sins and their errors when it came to the breaking of the law, when it came to issues of whether they kept the Sabbath, whether they had eaten something they weren’t supposed to, whether they had performed all the washings and all the prayers exactly the way they were supposed to.

It dealt with these things, yet the sacrifices in the tabernacle, the sacrifices in the temple even, could never really deal with the problem of man’s conscience. And if you’ve been here on Wednesday nights as we’re studying through the Sermon on the Mount, I think I said this last Sunday too, I remind you every Wednesday night as we’re going through that, that if anything in the Sermon on the Mount seems to not make sense, if it seems like it’s off kilter, what did God mean by that? Go back to the phrase that he, or go back to the understanding that Jesus is dealing with the issues of the heart.

And everything he’s doing is contrasting what the Pharisees were looking at with outward righteousness. And I’m doing things outwardly the right way, but inside their hearts were just dead and cold before God. And Jesus is saying there’s this outward righteousness and we’re going to contrast it.

We’re going to show the difference here between that and the heart of righteousness before God, the heart that is right before God. Because we know very well, anyone who’s ever had a mother tell them they had to do something, knows that we can do the right thing outwardly and not be right in our hearts. Every time my mama told me to clean my room, and I cleaned my room, but I wasn’t happy about it.

I did the right thing outwardly, but my heart wasn’t right. When I was 16 and was told I couldn’t drive on certain streets in Moore or the interstate. And every time I had to snake through the back roads to try to avoid certain streets, I did the right thing outwardly, but I wasn’t happy about it in my heart.

My heart was not right. And the Pharisees were doing the same thing. They were keeping the law outwardly and trying to outwardly be righteous, but the hearts were wrong.

And what he’s saying here, the writer of Hebrews, in talking about the foods and the drinks and the washings and the ordinances and all these things is that these substitutes, these poor substitutes, these animals that shed their blood, these offerings that were made in the tabernacle, they could possibly deal with the issues of keeping the outward law, but they could never, ever, ever deal with the problem of our hearts not being right with God. They could never deal with the underlying sin, which was the problem. verse 11 though everything changes he says but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Where these animals were just a poor substitute that really couldn’t get the job accomplished. They really couldn’t do everything that the law demanded. They really couldn’t do everything that was required for us to stand whole before God.

What thousands of years of offerings could not accomplish, Jesus came in and dealt with in one fell swoop. Once for all. And it’s amazing to me that all of this throughout the Old Testament was a picture to prepare people for the coming of Christ as we talked about last week.

And then Jesus comes in not only as the sacrifice, but as the high priest who offers it and now stands in between us and God. See, and that’s where we as Baptists stand on the principle of priesthood of the believer. And the Bible does teach that we are priests before God, that we have access to God.

But the reason that we have access to God is because of the mediator who stands between us and God. We don’t need a human priest to go and make offerings on our behalf. Jesus Christ has already done that.

We don’t need human priests or saints to make intercession on our behalf before God. Jesus Christ stands as our high priest and mediator. He stands as the one who sits on the right hand of God the Father making intercession for us.

He was both the sacrifice and the priest who offers the sacrifice. And he was able to accomplish what could never be accomplished by any other means. He was our substitute.

Again, I said at the beginning of the message that unless you and I were to pay for our sins, and we have that option, we have that option of spending eternity separated from God after death in a place called hell. And that is payment for our sins. There never comes a point where that sin debt is paid off because eternity is the penalty.

Sometimes we hear about criminals with their time served. You know, they’re sentenced to this many years and a required minimum of this many years. Say they’re sentenced to 30 years and a minimum of 10.

And once they’ve done 10, it can be considered that they’ve paid their debt to society. depending on their behavior in prison. Okay, eternity for us is the minimum.

When we’ve accomplished eternity, at that point, the sin debt’s paid for, but we never accomplish eternity. So you and I can spend the rest of eternity suffering for our sins, or Jesus can be our substitute. Jesus in one act of offering a perfect sacrifice Himself on the cross can stand in our place and pay for our sins.

You and I could never ever ever ever wipe our sins from our record. And yet He did it. He was the perfect substitute.

Neither by the blood of goats and calves but by His own blood. He entered in once into the holy place. He went into the holy of holies once And he offered his blood.

And because it was different, because it was of superior value to that which was offered of the bulls and goats, that was all it took. He doesn’t have to go in there once a year and make another offering for our sins. And folks, I don’t mean to demean anybody else’s religion, except I’m going to.

But he doesn’t have to be offered every week either. There are churches in our community who teach that he is, and all across our state, our country, our world, who teach that he is offered every week. His body, his literal body and blood are offered in the bread and wine of the Mass every week as a sacrifice for our sins.

Folks, I love my Catholic friends, but they’re absolutely wrong on this issue. He was offered once, and that’s all it took. I cannot out sin the sacrifice that he made there’s no point where God looks at it and says oh Jared blew it just a little too much this week I think that’s all that was in the blood tank no his offering was once for all once and for all and he obtained eternal redemption for us through that one act the forgiveness that he purchased us, purchased for us.

The redemption that He offers us is eternal. You can’t lose it. He doesn’t have to go out and get it for us again. For some people, eternity just doesn’t last as long as it used to.

But eternity, eternal, means eternal. Folks, when He paid for your sins, He did it one time for all of them. He says in verse 13, for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh. Here he is again talking about the outward keeping of the law and the sacrifices.

And he said, you know, if the blood of the bulls and the goats or the sprinkling of a heifer, he’s talking here about how they would offer a heifer as a burnt offering and they would take the ashes and mix them with water and sprinkle them on the people as an offering. He said, if those things could purify the flesh, in other words, if they could deal with our outward law breaking, if those animals, I mean, that’s what they were, if those animals by their death could deal with these outward penalties, how much more, verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? In other words, if the blood of these animals was used to deal with these outward consequences and this outward uncleanness, how much more powerful is the blood of Jesus Christ?

How much more could the blood of Jesus Christ accomplish for you? And it’s a question of how precious that blood is. And we know there’s a difference.

I know some of us love our pets like they’re our children. I’m guilty of that. my kids have learned that when I refer to my firstborn I’m talking about Max they also know if they’re not nice Max gets everything in the wheel I mean that’s just that’s just how this is but honestly you have the opportunity to save one and only one your child or your animal which one are you going to save one of them is going to die.

One of them is going to die. One of them, their blood is going to be spilled. Which one is more precious to you?

I’m saving my children every time. Because we know that life is more precious. So you take, we realize that a human life is more precious and more valuable than an animal. Now take instead the life of someone who’s fully man and fully God.

Take the life of the only begotten Son of God. And down here you’ve got animal’s blood. The blood of Jesus Christ is worth so much more.

So much more precious, so much more valuable, so much more effective. The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God. He was a perfect sacrifice offered to God to purge our conscience from dead works and to serve the living God.

See, the blood of Jesus Christ not only deals with our external consequences, our outside behavior, what everybody sees, but the shedding of the blood of Christ as a substitute for our sins also deals with our hearts. There’s something that takes place in our hearts. And those of you who’ve experienced this know exactly what I’m talking about.

There’s something that takes place in our hearts. When we realize that Jesus Christ died for our sins, when we feel that conviction that we are sinners, and we, for the very first time, cry out to God in faith that He would forgive us, and we realize we don’t deserve that forgiveness, but we know that because Jesus Christ died for it, we can be forgiven. And because of that, we put our faith in Jesus for the first time and ask God’s forgiveness.

At that moment of conversion, those in this room who’ve experienced that, we realize there’s something that changes in the heart. And it doesn’t mean everything about us changes. It doesn’t mean everything about us changes immediately.

But there’s something that begins to take place in the heart. There’s something where God begins to change us and deals with the sin in our hearts. There’s something where God begins to put more of himself.

I don’t know how to explain it. But there’s something about that blood that changed my heart. There’s something about what he did for me that reminds me every day of how unworthy I am when I stand before God.

See, he dealt with the problem of sin.

and he still deals with the conscience and every time because he died for us and God now dwells us with his spirit he deals with our conscience and every time we step out of line and feel like we’ve disappointed God and feel sorry over that and feel that desire to do better next time every time we hear the voice of God telling us this is the direction you need to go every time God smooths off and sands off those rough edges from us it’s because the blood of Christ opened the door for that relationship with God and because of that relationship because Jesus has been our substitute and paid for our sins and opened the door for peace with God torn down the veil of the holy of holies that separated man from God God deals with our conscience and changes our hearts and purges us from dead works, from this idea that this dead idea and this deadly idea that we can get to heaven on our own or that we don’t need God.

To realize that it’s not about our works, it’s about His works and having a relationship with Him. To purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this cause, He is the mediator of the New Testament.

That by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. There’s an eternal inheritance that is there for us because Jesus Christ is the mediator. Because he’s the substitute.

Because he’s the one who stood in for us when it came time for sin to be judged. folks I’m going to ignore my notes this morning I’ve given you blanks to fill in and I haven’t touched any of them but as we’ve been talking about as I’ve been talking to you on Sunday mornings about some of these basic Christian teachings we can’t ignore this one and especially as we prepare next week to observe Easter and observe the commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ which by the way we do every Sunday when we meet together on the day that he rose from the dead but as we prepare to talk about his resurrection next week we’d miss out if we didn’t talk about the reason why he died in the first place. Folks, he died to be our substitute.

And not just a substitute. As I started off at the beginning, there are excellent substitutes, and then there are some that just not. .

. Whether it’s in school, whether we’re talking about sugar substitutes, there are some that, man, that works. And there are others that you use that in your sweet tea.

I’m not going there. There are butter substitutes. You know what?

I can believe it’s not butter. Do they still make that? We know we get the idea that there are substitutes that are excellent and there are some that just don’t do the job.

And the point that’s being made here in the book of Hebrews is that when it comes to paying for our sins, you and I need a substitute. and all throughout human history they were offering bulls and goats they were going in and they were doing things and they were working trying to deal with the problem of sin trying to offer these substitutes and they just didn’t cut it there’s only one substitute that can do the job and this morning you can either trust in that one substitute to do the job for you or you can trust in something that’s just not quite going to cut it. Jesus Christ died in your place.

You could deal with the consequences of your sin but Jesus died as your substitute. He died to pay for everything you’ve ever done wrong. For every sinful thought you’ve ever had.

For every attitude you’ve ever had that was not pleasing to God. For all the hundreds and thousands of ways every day that we fall short of God’s standards and expectations, Jesus Christ died to pay for that. Not only so that that sin could be forgiven and that slate wiped clean, but so that we could have peace with God and fellowship with Him, and so that God could and would change us and our hearts from the inside out.

This morning, if you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior before, I invite you to stop trying to deal with God on your own terms. Stop trying to deal with Him and stop trying to deal with your own sin. You need a substitute. And Jesus is the only one who could accomplish it.

He took every bit of your sin. He took every bit of your sin and He took responsibility for it and went to the cross and He was nailed there by His hands and His feet. And He was mocked and He was whipped and He was scourged and beaten and shed his blood.

And every drop of blood that he shed was for our sins. Every bit of agony he endured was punishment for our sins. The life that he gave up on that cross was the payment for your sins.

And you can spend the rest of your life trying to deal with your sin and try to deal with God on your terms. Or this morning you can trust Jesus Christ to be the substitute. there’s nothing left for you to do there’s nothing you can do that will accomplish anything the only thing God asks is for you to believe that you’ve sinned and that those sins need to be paid for to believe that Jesus Christ was the one and only substitute and based on that belief ask God to forgive you because of what Jesus Christ did