A Sacrafice Elsewhere

Trinkets

I think most of us would look at a superstition like hearing around a rabbits foot for good luck as something that is, just, silly. That would be true for the number of things in our culture like it. There are very few people that genuinely believe that hanging a horseshoe over a doorway is really a source of good luck.

That said there are definitely people that are very superstitious. They allow some of these traditions and folklores common to our society to be guiding principles in their lives.

Rationale

I can understand the rationale. So much of life is unpredictable and uncontrollable and if we can find some sort of way to sway things in our favor, someway to gain power over those things for which we are truly powerless, then a good luck charm to that purpose can be appealing.

What is amazing to me is how these superstitions managed to push their way into the lives of Christians. There is an odd superstition that yo may have heard of while trying to sell your house:

St. Joseph

There are variations, but the idea goes that you buy a statue of St. Joseph and bury him upside down in your yard. Once the house sells, the statue is to be removed and placed in a prominent place, on the mantel of your new home. Why upside down? Well, the tradition goes, that if St. Joseph is upside down, then he is going to work extra hard to get dug up and placed right side up inside the new house. — What is really interesting to me about this is how contemporary the superstition is. Something like the rabbits foot or a horseshoe has origins that potentially go back thousands of years — The St. Joseph Statue is traced back to the late 1970’s in America, with it’s popularity peaking in 1990.

Miss-Placed Trust

These examples I have given, are all examples of places where people misplace trust. I will grant you that these are somewhat silly examples, but we put our trust in the wrong things. On a much more serious note, we can run the risk of putting our trust in wrong things as well, even with the best of intentions.

Illustrated

If you have your Bibles and turn them over to Hebrews 9, we are going to be looking at verses 18-24 this morning. You many not see on first reading how this relates to what I have just said, but I hope that as we progress this morning it will become clear.

Hebrews 9:18–24 KJV 1900

18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Our message this morning is entitled A Sacrifice Elsewhere and is the 5th message in our sermon series Better Things.

Let’s Pray

Made With Hands

Idols

God through the prophet Jeremiah warns Israel of the ways of foolishness of the heathen when he writes:

Jeremiah 10:2–6 KJV 1900

2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, And be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; For the heathen are dismayed at them. 3 For the customs of the people are vain: For one cutteth a tree out of the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; They fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: They must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, Neither also is it in them to do good. 6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

This definitely speaks to the absurdity of idol worship and to the expecting of the miraculous out of an inanimate object — made by hands. — This is a lucky charm, like a rabbits foot on a much grander scale

And make no mistake, practices like this continue today, you just don’t see it as often because you live in the country you live in. — 90% of this country either identifies as Christian, Jewish or Unafilliated with any religion — But the millions who practice Hinduism and Buddhism, absolutely believe that having idols around their hones and even praying to them, are a means of grace from their false god.

Israel

If you recall, there was instance of Israel's complaining in the desert which was punished by God with poisonous snakes being sent among them. But God provided a cure. He had Moses make a brass snake and place it upon a pole, anyone who looked upon the pole would be saved. You may well know that this was a picture of Christ to come and is referenced in John 3:14 — but what I want you to see happens much earlier than this. — In the book of 2 Kings Chapter 18. Hezekiah had become King, and Hezekiah was a righteous king who set out to put things right before God.

But look what he did in 2 Kings 18:4

2 Kings 18:4 KJV 1900

4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

He broke in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses was commanded of God to make. — Why? — because the people gave it a name and had begun to worship it. You would think after the golden calf incident in the wilderness, that they would have learned their lesson. — but apparently not.

The Temple

Warren Wiersby wrote in his Bible Commentary on Hebrews 9:

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Eight: The Superior Sanctuary (Hebrews 9)

Beware of trusting anything for your spiritual life that is “made with hands”

And this is exactly what the Jewish people had done. They put their trust in the wrong place. Look at Hebrews 9. Versus 18-22 talk about the picture.

I've said this over and over again during this series and probably throughout the book of Hebrews so far, that the temple was a picture, — on earth, —of the heavenly reality. The sacrifices that were made, they're served to point to the work that Christ would eventually accomplish. They layout of the temple and the furniture in the temple was all there to point to something beyond the physical.

Preceding Covenant

But look at v18

Hebrews 9:18 KJV 1900

18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

Even the first testament, — (first here meaning preceding) — testament meaning covenant — the preceding covenant — was put into effect with a blood sacrifice.

And the next verses give us the details:

The commandments were given

The sacrifice of calves and goats was made

dyed scarlet wool and hyssop was offered

The book containing the law of God were sprinkled with blood and so were the people.

And then in vs 21-22 we find he blood sprinkled on the tent of the tabernacle and and on all of the vessels to ceremonially clean them.

This all points to the truth we read in v22. And verses 22 & 23 represent a change between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Take a look at this in v22

Hebrews 9:22 KJV 1900

22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

This was the yearly and daily reality of the Old Testament, but lets continue to v23

Hebrews 9:23 KJV 1900

23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Verse 22 is the picture of what was to come and v23 tells us that those were patterns, a picture — Other than telling us about our spiritual reality, they didn’t accomplish anything. — But the heavenly sacrifice — the true sacrifice — needed to be better than the picture.

John MacArthur

In 1986 John MacArthur came under fire for allegedly denying the blood atonement of Christ. None other than Bob Jones Junior in an article written for Bob Jones University cited something that MacArthur had written 10 years prior. What MacArthur said was this: “It is not his bleeding that saved me, It’s his dying”

This was a quote from 1976 in an article from 1986 and I still hear this at least once a year today, in 2022.

Let me give you the full quote. In context:

Peter calls His blood "precious" and I agree . . . but Peter's reference there is to the sacrificial nature of His death. . . . The phrase "Christ died for our sin" (Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3) expresses the truth that death was the penalty, not blood. . . I Peter 2:24 is not saying we are saved by his wounds. . . . If we say that it is the blood that saves . . . what are we saying? His actual blood, physically, saves us? Or perhaps we are stuck with the Roman Catholic Church "perpetual offering" view that some hold. This view says that Christ perpetually sacrifices Himself. He took His blood into heaven and keeps offering it. Hebrews 10:12-14 forbids such a view. Clearly it was His death . . . once for all. His shed blood was part of the violence of it, and speaks of it as sacrifice, but we are saved by His substitutionary death for us, not by the chemicals in His blood.

What have we been talking about for weeks now? What have we been talking about this message? — The physical temple on earth was just a picture — Christ made an offering in the heavenly tabernacle — If we haven’t gotten that much by now then we need to start over way back at the beginning of chapter 8.

If we can understand that much, is MacArthur’s point not understandable? It’s not the physical.

The Cross

This coming week, on Friday, — Good Friday — most of Christianity is going to be thinking about the cross.

Make no mistake, the cross was the cruelest device of execution that the Romans could come up with. In addition to having someone slowly suffocating under their own weight, it was humiliating. They were stripped naked and severely beaten.

In a prophecy given through the prophet Isaiah over 700 years prior, this was said of Jesus:

Isaiah 52:14 KJV 1900

14 As many were astonied at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, And his form more than the sons of men:

The beating were so bad that what this is implying is that he was barely recognizable as a human. And that was before the crucifixion began.

Then, on the cross. After 6 hours of agony. Jesus died.

What we see with our eyes is a Roman cross. For years anti-semites in Europe labeled the Jews as Christ killers. It was after all the insistence of the Jewish leadership that forced the hand of the Romans. But some, have laid the blame at the feet of the Romans. It was their legal system, their soldiers, and their cross that killed Jesus.

I want you to see something though a little further down in Isaiah. Take a look at v53:10

Isaiah 53:10 KJV 1900

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

This is continuing to talk about the Messiah and is a prophecy of the cross, but who do we read that it pleaded to bruise him? The Lord. Yahweh.

Just as the temple was a picture of a heavenly reality, so also was the cross. Because remember what we read in Hebrews 9:23-24

Hebrews 9:23–24 KJV 1900

23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

The cross was made by hands wasn’t it. It was human hands who executed the body of our savior, wasn’t it. — But what we see is just a picture of the heavenly reality.

When we see the cross, we should see the heavenly alter of sacrifice. And we should see our High priest laying himself upon that alter. — We should see our sins placed upon him — And the wrath of God being poured out upon the sacrifice in our place.

And we should see an offering that was acceptable to the Father, because it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

Blood?

So what of MacArthur’s comment. Was the blood necessary? Well, only again in the picture we have explained in Lev 17:14

Leviticus 17:14 (KJV 1900)

14 … the life of all flesh is the blood thereof ...

What we see pictured is the life of the Second Person of the God Head being laid down for our sins, and our iniquities. And while the beatings and the agony of the cross is a powerful picture of the length that God would for our salvation — Remember that it is a picture. What Christ really did for us on that cross, the offering that made on the heavenly alter was greater, and far beyond our ability to comprehend.

This morning we are going to close in prayer. And I want to end where I began. There are a many religions, and many good luck charms that we could grab hold of in hopes of securing a better tomorrow. But I want to go back to that quote from Wiersby. Beware of trusting anything for your spiritual life that is “made with hands” — This morning, if you aren’t trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice that he made for your sins, that you not leave today without getting that settled. Please, turn away from your sins and put your faith and trust in the sacrifice of Christ for your eternity. After we pray I am available and i would love to talk to you more about our Lord and answer any questions that you might have.

Let’s Pray