February 12, 2006
Scripture:
Ministry:
Can we go to Hebrews 9 to the end of verse 22: “without shedding of blood is no remission.” We know that the cup represents the blood of our Saviour, the blood that saved us from all our sins. We can go back to I Peter 1:18 & 19—“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”; redeemed by the blood of Christ. Do we realize how much the precious blood of our Saviour has accomplished for us? Ephesians 2:12–14—“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace …” By the blood of Christ we are brought nigh to God. Colossians 1:12–20—“having made peace through the blood of his cross.” We realize so little what the blood of Christ has done for us. It has brought us nigh to God and given us the right to become the sons of God. Precious Saviour!
EG Hymn 48–There is life in a look at the crucified One, Prayer • Leviticus 14:33–53—The following story is not true, but it could have happened very easily. In our story we have an Israelite family with three children: Reuben, Miriam, and Benjamin. They lived not far from Jerusalem. One morning at breakfast, Reuben said, “Dad, something is happening in my room. For the last few days, the walls have been getting red and green streaks.” “Well, I’d better come and check this out,” Dad remarked. He went up to Reuben’s room and looked at the walls. Then he took out his scroll of the law to see if it had anything to say about it. Finally he found in Leviticus 14 verses 33–35. “Well,” said Dad, “It might be leprosy. I guess we will have to go and get the priest.” So they went to the priest; he told them to empty the house and prepare, he would come the next day (v. 36). So our family had to move all their furniture out of the house and find a friend to stay with. So the next day the priest came and looked at the house. He looked at the house and then came out and locked the door (vv. 37 & 38). For seven days, the house stayed locked up. After seven days, the priest returned and found that the plague had spread (v. 39). So the family had to chisel out all the stones and plaster that had the streaks in them. Then they had to sweep and scrape up all the dust and dump it out in an unclean place. They replaced the stones with new ones and moved back in. Now they have to wait for a while to see if the leprosy will return (v. 44). If it did, they would have to destroy the house (v. 45); but thankfully, the plague did not return. Instead of destroying the house, they had to do something else. Dad said, “Reuben, take this farthing and go down to the market and buy us two sparrows. Miriam, please go and get us a bowl of water from the river. Benjamin, please go and find me some hyssop.” Then the priest came and killed one of the sparrows over the bowl of water and let the blood flow into the water. Next, he dipped the other sparrow and the hyssop and also some cedar wood and scarlet in the blood and water. With these, he sprinkled the house seven times. Then he let the living bird go into the fields (vv. 49–53). This is a picture of what the Lord did for us. “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Then to make this a more complete picture of the Lord, they needed two sparrows: one to show his death and one to show his resurrection. In the Bible, we have stories of people with leprosy, but the only house with leprosy is the house of Israel. In the New Testament at Pentecost, God put together the body of Christ, or the house of God. If you look at the house of God as a whole today, you will see it has leprosy, sin. Each assembly is to be a picture of the House of God, so we should do our best to keep sin out of the assembly or it will get leprosy.
Hebrews 10:5–14 • Last week we looked at the quotation from Psalm 40. It isn’t an exact quotation; instead of, “mine ears hast thou opened,” it says in Hebrew, “a body hast thou prepared me.” “Mine ears hast thou opened” can mean that the Lord was open to, or accepted, God’s way of providing redemption for mankind, which was for Him to come down to earth and die. This was the only way for God to make known his love to men. Before this, Jesus did not have a body; He was a spirit. When He came to earth, He took the body of one of his fallen creatures. We saw that all this was planned in an eternity past, shown in the example of a book (v. 7). In an eternity past, the Trinity had a book of what would happen throughout history. God was not surprised when man sinned; He knew what his Son would do. He knew sacrifices and offerings were just a temporal way for God to communicate with man. God didn’t take pleasure in them; He took pleasure in His Son’s sacrifice. This was for 2 reasons: (1) Jesus’ blood was perfect, and (2) Jesus’ obedience was perfect. The combined worth of all the blood of the millions of sacrifices did not compare to the blood of the Lord. And out of all the millions of Israelites, only One was perfectly obedient to God. That One, although he could have gone straight to Heaven, went on to be the perfect sacrifice. In all this we can see that God’s will went with His purpose. God’s purpose was not only to glorify Himself, not only to be able to give His Son acquired glories, but also for us to be with him in Heaven. It is amazing to see the life and pathway of those who follow the Lord’s example in delighting in His Father’s will. God appreciates and blesses people who will do this. Romans 12:2 is a challenging verse in this respect. The Lord proved the good and acceptable and perfect will of God by dying; it won’t mean that for everyone, but it will mean dealing with our sin nature. • Look at the Language used in verse 8. Those sacrifices were what God smelled a sweet-smelling savour in. This book was written to Hebrews who, no doubt, had religiously brought their sacrifices and offering before becoming Christians. They were learning that the law was just a shadow: a shadow of the work of Christ. We find the writer is bringing the cancellation of the whole law, solemnly given to Moses by God. He is taking away the law as a basis of living before God, not as standard of living. The writer does this so that he can establish “the second”, grace. In the law, Moses went up to Mt. Sinai to get it. With grace, The Lord went up Mt. Calvary to take the wrath of God for our sins. In contrasting Sinai with Calvary, think of what happened in Exodus: they corded off the mountain, so no one would get close to the fire, smoke, lightening, and so forth. If you went to close, you would die. At Calvary, there was the fire of God’s wrath and righteousness. Think of how close the ones who had nailed the Lord to the cross were, how close the mob was. Think of who deserved to get all the fire when it came down, but who didn’t. Then think that the Lord bore it all. That was grace. He did His Father’s will. This brings us to v. 10, which says that we are sanctified through the Lord’s will to do His Father’s will. We too should have that kind of will, “Not my will but thine be done.” EG Hymn 258– Many sons to glory bringing, Prayer