MPC 14th August 2005.Hebrews 8-10 - "Conscience Problems"
Phil Campbell MPC 14th August 2005.
Some of you might have met the English friends staying with us the last week or so. And something that's attracted the attention of their teenage boys, is the technology in our Australian cars. And particularly, the alarm sound that seems to often go off in our Commodore.
If you've got a Commodore yourself, you'll be familiar with the over speed alarm.
Set it to go off at the speed limit. And it will. It dings... every time you go over the limit. It sounds a bit like this... [play] [MP3, 10KB].
George, who's 14, made an interesting observation. He said, it doesn't do the slightest bit of good. Because you just ignore it. He said, once you've gone over the speed limit, it stops. What you need, he said, is an over-speed alarm that keeps ringing for as long as you're over the limit. That keeps nagging at you til you slow down again. Instead of just dinging once when you cross the line.
I said to him, I don't need that. I've got a wife!
Of course, the thing with the over-speed alarm, you can set it to ring at whatever speed you like. Mine goes off right on the limit. 60 km an hour. You can set it a bit higher, to cut you some slack. You can set it way higher... so it only bugs you in the most exceptional circumstances. Like the P-plate driver in the news on Friday morning who was clocked doing twice the speed limit. Or, of course, you can turn your alarm off completely.
In some ways, the Holden Commodore over-speed alarm is quite like a conscience. Which can also ring the alarm in a number of different ways. And let you know when you're doing something you shouldn't be. Or that you've done something you shouldn't have.
I know some people, the way life's panned out, the regrets they've got, the sense of disappointment with themselves, it's like the alarm is always going off. Non-stop. And your conscience won't give you a moment's rest.
Most people these days, though, if you look around the Australian community, most people have either upped the limit so far that the conscience alarm rarely goes off... or else they've switched it off completely. And the sort of stuff that would have made a previous generation blush... is now just laughed about. And excused. And treated as normal.
I don't know how it is with you. Your conscience. Maybe you're thinking this morning, if only I could get some relief from the feelings of guilt. That keep me awake late into the night. That wake me in the early hours. That gnaw at the pit of my gut.
On the other hand, you might think conscience is just a relic of superstition. That guilt feelings are just a social construct and a hangover from an antique morality. All you need is a bit of counselling or therapy to help you get over it. Or the more common option, the 21st century Australian option. Entertain yourself with so much other stuff, drink yourself so drunk that you don't have time to think about it. And any sense of guilt you've got will just disappear into the blur.
If you were an ancient Israelite, things were slightly different. And you didn't have quite the same opportunities to avoid the reality of your conscience. Because the entire Jewish religious system had just one goal. The whole system of rituals handed down from God to Moses, it seemed like it had just one purpose. And that was, to keep reminding the people of Israel of their guilt before God. To keep reminding the people of Israel that in the face of a holy God, sin and guilt really mattered.
The section of Hebrews we're looking at today looks back at two major features of Israel's Old Testament religion. Which it calls the first covenant. There's a focus on the tabernacle; the temple tent that symbolised the presence of god. And there's a focus on the sacrifices. And the blood that had to be sprinkled by the priests. Two of the major features of Israel's old covenant religion. And the funny thing was, all they could do was highlight the problem. No matter how often you went through the rituals, no matter how precisely you followed the rules... there was nothing you could actually do to fix a guilty conscience.
So let's take a closer look first of all at the tabernacle.
The tabernacle was a beautiful tent. Back in the book of Exodus, God gives Moses the instructions for building it. Right down to the last detail. It's ornate. It's golden. It's made from lush purple cloth and the finest of linen, it's embroidered in ornate designs. And it's the symbol of God's presence with his people.
But you know the weird thing about the tabernacle? All it was, was a beautifully ornate keep out sign. The tabernacle was a symbol of inaccessibility. Pick up the description in chapter 9 verse 2.
A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the holy place.
Then there's a curtain. And you'll see in verse 3,
"Behind the second curtain was a room called the most holy place;" it's getting more holy the further you go. And it's got the golden altar of incense, verse 4, and the gold covered ark of the covenant. The golden box. And inside it, the gold jar of manna, the bread God gave in the wilderness. And Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
I'm not sure if you'd call it a holiday highlight, but this time last year when Lou and I were in America, our host took us to a local tourist attraction. Here in Queensland we've got the Big Pineapple. Well, just outside Philadelphia some guy has built a full size replica of the Tabernacle. All laid out exactly like the bible describes it. Except that instead of gold, he's used gold spray paint. Which doesn't quite have the same effect. The tabernacle is spectacular.
There's only one problem. If you were a normal Israelite, you'd never see inside it. If you were a normal Israelite, the closest you could get was to stand outside.
Keep reading. Verse 6. "When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry." You can wait outside.
And when it came to the most holy place, only the high priest goes in. And only once a year. On the day of atonement.
Verse 7 spells it out. "But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance."
You can go up to the tabernacle, you can watch while the priests go in; you can be there on the day of atonement when the high priest goes into the inside room. And just for being there, you'll be counted as ceremonially clean. But you can't go in. And no matter how much you long for it, it can't clear your conscience.
Look at verse 8 and 9. And this is the whole point of it. The whole reason the tabernacle exists in the first place. Is that the holy spirit is saying, there's no entry.
The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing.
The way to God was still closed. And worse. Verse 9.
This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.
The sacrifices. There's more detail in the next few verses.
I don't know about you, but I'm the type who gets squeamish at the sight of blood. I don't even like catching mice in mouse traps. Poor little guys. We put chocolate on our mouse traps so at least they die happy. But it's kind of confronting, isn't it? Knowing you're causing the death of this cute little mouse.
Or in the case of the sacrifices, a calf. Or a goat. Playing around in the fields one minute, the next minute you've got a rope round it's neck and you're leading it down to the tabernacle. On it's last journey.
Because in the symbol of Israel's religion, your sacrifice is going to stand in where you should be. And the blood of the animal is going to be splashed around as a kind of a symbol that it's dead when you should have been. So you get to start again. Clean.
Except it didn't actually work.
And so day after day, week after week, there'd be sacrifices at the Tabernacle. Later on when they built the temple, sacrifices at the temple. One long non-stop abattoir. And on the one special day of the year, the day of atonement, the High Priest, with all his courage... stepped through the inner curtain with the blood. Into the most holy place. Year in. Year out.
And yet it never worked. It never took the guilt away. Which is what it says in verse 1 of Hebrews Chapter 10. The law of Moses said to do it. And the priests did it. Day after day after day. But verse 1 in chapter 10 says it was only ever a shadow. And never the reality.
For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
I mean, if it could, if it worked, surely they could have stopped doing it? Verse 2:
If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleaned once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
But they had to keep doing it. Over and over and over again. An annual statement of account. A yearly reminder of sins... because it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The stain runs way deeper than that, doesn't it? I mean, do you really think going into a tent with some blood from a bull can fix a conscience? You think a ritual like that can undo a wrong? Can unlose a virginity in a one night stand? Can untell a lie? Can uncheat a marriage partner?
Remember, we've seen the last few weeks that this part of the Bible was aimed originally at a group of Jewish Christians, who are tempted to turn back. Who are on the verge of dumping their faith in Jesus and going back to what they were before. Maybe it's because in the Roman empire, Christians are being persecuted. And Jews aren't. And these Jewish Christians are starting to do the sums in their heads. Stay Christian: get a hard time. Drop out and go back to being Jewish: easy time. Whatever the reason, they're being pulled back to the law of Moses. And the tabernacle that shuts you out. And the sacrifices that remind you of your guilt. But never resolve it.
The point is, though, the Old Testament always pointed to better days ahead. The Old Testament, the Old covenant, it always promised a new covenant up ahead.
Which is the point made back in chapter 8. Flip back for a moment and take a look. Chapter 8 from verse 7. Which leads into a quote direct from the Old Testament. Jeremiah 31. Just out of interest, it's the longest direct quote from the Old Testament in the New Testament. So it's gotta be important.
And it's a passage that says, a time is coming when I'm going to make a whole new deal. Because you need a change of heart.
"The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel." Which won't be like the old one with their forefathers. Pick up in verse 10. This time, "I'll put my laws in their minds. And write them on their hearts."
And verse 12, "I'll forgive their wickedness. And remember their sins no more."
No more shadows. This time I'm going to change hearts. And wipe away sins for ever. Which makes the old covenant obsolete.
And the point is, that new covenant... has come in Christ.
The high priest who doesn't go through the symbolic holy place in the tabernacle with the blood of a calf. But goes into the presence of God on our behalf having sacrificed himself.
Which means if you've got something on your conscience and you have this sinking feeling it deserves to be punished... if you keep beating yourself up for it, if you're fearing the heat of God's disapproval... Jesus is there ahead of you. And he's paid for it in full.
It's there in chapter 9 verses 11 to 14. The sacrifices and the blood and the ashes, they could make you ceremonially clean. But what good was that?
But Jesus has done for real what the Jewish sacrifices could only ever do in shadows. Jesus has done for real what the priests with their sacrifices and their tabernacle could only ever act out in symbols.
Read what it says:
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so they're outwardly clean. How much more then... will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God... cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death... so that we may serve the living God.
Why would you ever, if you were those Jewish Christians back then... turn back to the shadows? Why go back to the play acting?
The futility of it. Jump ahead to chapter 10 verse 11. Can you see it? Day after day, time after time, those priests, standing and performing their religious duties, offering the sacrifices, sprinkling the blood. Again and again, offering the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time... one sacrifice for sins, he sat down. Finished. At the right hand of God. Waiting for his enemies to be brought down. Because by one sacrifice, verse 14, he has made perfect those who are being made Holy.
Which is what the Holy Spirit was talking about in the scriptures, verse 15, which is what the Holy Spirit was talking about through Jeremiah... I'll put my laws in their hearts...and write them in their minds. Their sins and lawless acts... I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven... there's no longer any sacrifice for sin required. So why go back to the temple?
I mean, what are you going back to? As a Jew, you were shut outside and couldn't even come in to the place that symbolised of the presence of God. Chapter 10 verse 19. But now... you've got confidence to enter the most holy place... by the blood of Jesus. Why give it up? You've been invited in... a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body. Don't stand outside.
So use it. Draw near to God, verse 22. With a sincere heart. In full assurance of faith. Sure that what Jesus has done is enough. "Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." The clean conscience that the Tabernacle and the blood could never achieve.
So hold unswervingly, verse 23, to the hope we profess. And keep working out how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
And don't stop meeting together as Christians, verse 25, as some are. Keep at it. Keep encouraging each other... in these great benefits you've got in Christ. That being Jewish could never provide.
Now as usual, the issues for us are kind of different. We're not by and large tempted to be Jewish. But maybe when it comes to the conscience problem that's universal, maybe you've got your own ideas of how it works. Or how to solve it.
I don't know how you're traveling with the over speed alarm in your life. Maybe you've just switched it off? Totally insensitive to your conscience, and you've lived that way so long you've stopped even thinking about it.
If that's the case, you've got a problem. Because conscience is there for a reason. And the fact is, it's been trying to tell you you've been ignoring God. And you haven't been listening. And so now when there's news of a way to be clean before God, you're not aware of a problem.
But maybe your conscience just won't switch off. And you wonder how on earth to deal with the feeling of guilt. And I know I've talked to people who struggle with that. Sometimes even feelings of guilt that are completely inappropriate. Maybe you've dragged your conscience through so much dirt in your teenage years, or in your business life, or in your sexual life, you can't believe a clean conscience is even possible.
And so you go through life beating yourself up and punishing yourself and every time a bad thing happens to you, you think you deserve it. And you never quite come to terms with the fact that Jesus has paid the price once for all. And that "all"... includes you.
And God wants to put your heart to rest.
You need to hear the words of verses 19 to 25 again. And you need to take them in.
You know, sometimes there are Christians who over-promise. Become a Christian, you won't get sick any more. Become a Christian and your business will prosper. Become a Christian and your fruit trees will bloom and your canary will sing and... well, whatever else. But in John Howard's famous words, these are the core promises. That are rock solid.
That you can actually live your life confident before God. Not in a glib way. But confident before God. With a sincere heart. An assured faith. And a clean conscience. Not because your great track record. Because it hasn't been. And not because of some repeated religious ritual or mantra or denying yourself so you make yourself miserable. But simply because of what Jesus has done. The one who's in heaven on your side. In God's presence, having made the only sacrifice you've ever needed. Holding open the curtain and saying to you, come on in. And welcome home.