Two Journeys

So a number of years ago, I had the opportunity to go with some of our young people and some others from this church to take care of the gulf port region that had been hit so hard by Hurricane Katrina, and it just so happened at that point, I was reading the book, "A Perfect Storm," by Sebastian Younger about another hurricane. So I was thinking about that this morning after Hurricane Irene went its more or less gentle way through our region. We're grateful for the protection as I prayed. There are certainly far worse hurricanes that have hit. But Sebastian Younger wrote these words. He said, "A mature hurricane is by far the most powerful event on Earth." Now sometimes you read things and it just arrests you and you look at that and that's a striking statement, isn't it? "By far the most powerful event on Earth." He goes on at that point and says, "The combined nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union," the former Soviet Union, "the combined power would not be able to keep a hurricane going for one day." When you stop and think about that, if you could somehow harness all of that power of a hurricane, it could provide enough energy for the United States for three or four days. That's incredible when you think about it. One billion cubic or one million cubic miles of atmosphere are affected by a mature hurricane.

Younger was talking about a hurricane that hit Providence in 1938, so powerful that it put Providence, Rhode Island under 10 feet of ocean. The waves that were stirred up in that 1938 hurricane literally shook the earth. Seismographs as far as away as Alaska, 5000 miles away, read the power of those waves. But here I am, I'm a pastor. I get to preach the word of God every week and I know that Sebastian Younger wasn't speaking theologically when he said that a mature hurricane is by far the most powerful event on Earth.

I tell you, there is no natural event that has eternal consequences. The Gospel is the most powerful event on Earth. Amen? And so I would say any individual person hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, repenting and believing, now that's the most powerful event on the face of the earth, because it says in Romans 1:16, "The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes," and that salvation is an eternal consequence of hearing and believing. That's an awesome thing. We are this morning under the hearing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's my privilege to kind of unleash the power of the Gospel today in your hearing. And even if you believed it for the first time you were regenerated years ago, it still has power for you today, the power for your ongoing salvation. It's an awesome thing, the Gospel.

And the reason I'm thinking about this today, not just because of Hurricane Irene, but also because the text uses the negated form of power in verse four, comes across in the English as "impossible."  The blood of bulls and goats have no power to remove sin. And so we're looking at something that has no power or is powerless compared to something that does have the power to make a sinner like you and me holy. That's an awesome thing. God does not throw that word around lightly. To call a sinner like me holy in the sight of God is an awesome thing. It takes infinite power to do that, and we are in the presence of that power, and the agent of that power is Jesus Christ. Literally, in this text, the body of Christ is what God used to make us holy.

And so we have pitted against each other here in this text the blood of bulls and goats, which are powerless, and the body of Christ, which has the power to make us holy. And so, we have here in these 10 verses very clearly laid out for us the end of animal sacrifice. And it's really an incredible thing when you think about it. It's something that God himself in his wisdom instituted. God wanted it done. It had been part for centuries, even for millennia, of human experience. I would argue from the Garden of Eden when naked Adam and Eve were clothed with the skin of an animal, certainly in the next chapter when Abel offered animal sacrifice and was looked on with favor by God, but Cain offered vegetables and different things and his offering was not accepted by God, through to the time when Noah got off the ark into a new world, now cleansed by the flood of human wickedness and sin, and he and his family were the only survivors. And the first thing he did was offer animal sacrifice, and it said that the aroma was well-pleasing to God. So it's somewhat of a mystery here, because in our text it says that he was not pleased with animals. He was not pleased with the blood of bulls and goats. That's why he prepared a body for Jesus.

And so as the scripture says that God is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the first and the last. He is the beginning and the end.  And the Lord instituted animal sacrifice for a very distinct purpose, and he ended it at the time of Christ. And so for us, we look today in these 10 verses at the end of animal sacrifice and even better at Christ as the final and perfect sacrifice for our sins, a sacrifice so powerful, it could take a sinner like you, a sinner like me, and make us holy in God's sight, holy forever in the presence of God.

So look at verses one through four as we dig in. There it talks very plainly about the powerlessness, the powerlessness of animal sacrifice. Says there, "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices, repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For then, the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sin and because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

The Entire System Was a Shadow

So the author begins with the concept of the law being only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the reality.

Now, the idea of a shadow as I meditated on that, how was the law, how was animal sacrifice a shadow? You know that in order to have a shadow, you have to have something that has reality, something with substance to it, and a light source, and then the shadow can come. You can see perhaps around the corner or against the wall, you can see the shadow of a person coming, or as I've done in the past, you get a flashlight when you're camping and you try to make... I'm not going to do it now, but you know those little hand things with the eagle and all that kind of stuff that you can do in the dark and all of those things that some of you are skillful at doing. The shadow has no substance to it. You can't grasp it. You can't take hold of it. It just testifies that there is something real that is making the shadow. So as I continued to meditate on this, I thought about what is the light source and where is it coming from? And as I look at it then, as I said last week, preaching against reincarnation, that history is linear. There's a beginning, a middle and an end. I think in my mind then, we go all the way to the end, even beyond the end of human history.

Let's go to the new heaven and the new earth, this perfect world, radiant, shining with the glory of God through Jesus Christ. And that world does not need the light of the sun or the moon or the stars to shine, doesn't need a lamp, no human light needed, just a radiantly beautiful and perfect place. And the perfection needed is right in this little section here. The animals could not make the worshipers perfect, so there is a need for perfection. So we go out in our minds by faith to that perfect world and the light shining from that world. There, human beings, redeemed sinners, are in perfect fellowship with God, all of their sins forgiven. They are dwelling in perfect resurrection bodies. All of their pains and death is done forever. They're in perfect relationship with one another, loving each other as the Father and the Son have loved them. They love each other perfectly. They're in a perfect world. The groaning of creation is done. All of that's finished. They're in a perfect city, the new Jerusalem, just come down as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, and there's a light shining down back through the corridors of time. And at the center of that is the cross of Jesus Christ, the work of Christ, necessary to get us there.

Christ is the Reality

And before the cross of Christ is the shadow. You see what I'm saying? The reality is Christ. The reality is where Christ is bringing us. Heavenly reality, Christ the reality, shadows in the Old Covenant, that's what the author's saying. And so, the prophet saw only a shadow. Every time animal sacrifices were made, you're only... It's only a shadow. Christ is the reality. And so in Colossians 2:17, it says, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ." And so it says the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming. Oh, how sweet are those good things. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father. The good things mentioned here are the good things of the Gospel, the good things that Jesus intends to give us. Again, full forgiveness of all of our sins, reconciliation with God, freedom from sin in every respect. The explosive, the destructive power of sin has been rectified. The universe is put back together. That's the whole problem with a hurricane. It can't harness its energy. It's destructive energy.

So in my neighborhood, there are leaves and branches and twigs everywhere, and we're thankful just for that. But you know the destructive power of a hurricane, you just have to go down to Gulfport after Katrina hit and see it. Okay, but this is a constructive power. The Gospel puts things back together, and so these are the good things that are coming. And we can look ahead. Oh, I think it's so sweet for us to meditate on this, that for you, all of your best things are in the future. They're all yet to come if you're a Christian. Your best days aren't behind you. I don't care how old you are and I don't care what's going on in your body. I don't care how broken down your body is. If you're a Christian, all of your best things are in the future. The good things are coming. And we'll get to that in Hebrews 11 where it talks about faith essentially forward-looking, looking ahead to what's coming. The law couldn't get us there. The law had no power to get us there. The law couldn't give us those good things. Only Christ could do that.

Endless Repetition of the Sacrifice Shows Impotence

And so the author says that the endless repetition of these animal sacrifices prove the impotence. Actually, there are two great evidences in this section here that the author's giving, that the animal sacrifices were never intended to make us perfect. They didn't have power to save us. The endless repetition is one of the evidences, and the fact that it left the worshipper is still feeling guilty for their sins. Their consciences weren't touched. And those two great evidences the author brings forward to show that the animal sacrifices themselves were impotent. And so he says, "For this reason, it can never, the law can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered?" And so the author is arguing from what we consider now, thoroughly instructed by the Gospel, a new covenant understanding of the purpose of sacrifice. The purpose of sacrifice was once for all to make us perfect. Anything that did not do that was merely a copy, a type of shadow. And so because they were endlessly repeated, they couldn't be the reality, the endless repetition.

So it was once a year, I think the author really having in mind here Yom Kippur, the day of covering, the day of atonement, that once a year. And the endless repetition year after year after year, they kept being done. And so it just proves, built in here proof that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. It's powerless to make us perfect. Now, that word perfect may rankle you a bit. I mean does God really expect us to be perfect? Well, yes, he does if you're going to live with him. You must be morally perfect to be in God's presence. If there's any stain or blemish in you, you cannot be with such a holy God. This is the one whose eyes are like blazing fire. He cannot look on evil in any way. This is the one who is holy, holy, holy, and you cannot be in his presence if you are not perfect. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." You must be morally perfect. The blood of bulls and goats couldn't get you there, had no power to make you perfect. And we must be perfect if we are going to be with God forever. Praise be to God by the end of this section, Verse 10, you're called holy.

And another word for that would be perfect, perfectly holy, perfect in morality, perfectly conformed to Christ. So, something has the power to do it. We already know what it is. It's the body of Christ. But the blood of bulls and goats couldn't do it, and so we needed a true cleansing, not a symbolic cleansing. We needed a cleansing that could actually reach down to our guilty consciences and purify them so that our consciences would not assail us any longer for the wicked things that we have done and for the things, good things, that we should have done that we left undone. Our conscience flails at us and accuses us and it cannot be quieted by the blood of bulls and goats. Conscience knows better, because in some way, the conscience with God knows that on Judgment Day, the blood of bulls and goats will not help you. And so the conscience could never be quieted by these animal sacrifices. I think you remember very plainly the testimony concerning this that David gives. Now David in Psalm 51, he said very, very plainly, "You do not desire a sacrifice or offering or I would give it. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise."

Do you remember the circumstances, how David committed adultery with Bathsheba? She was pregnant. He killed her husband to cover it up, great wickedness. And day and night, God's hand was heavy upon David, his conscience smiting him, and he knew that the blood of bulls and goats could not deal with that problem. And so he needed a true and genuine cleansing from guilt, and animals couldn't do it. And just as we saw in Isaiah 1 as the prophet speaks about the multitude of their sacrifices, all of these animals, this river of animal blood that they were bringing. "The multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me? ...I have more than enough of the blood of bulls and goats…. Who asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings." And so the testimony was clear in a number of places in the Old Testament how genuine believers in Christ knew that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins. We needed a genuine sacrifice, a genuine cleansing. Instead this machinery, this endless it seemed, machinery of Levitical sacrifices at the tabernacle first and then at the temple, all it did it is serve as an annual reminder of sin.

Sacrifice an Annual Reminder of Sin

There you are. You get your family together. You trudge up to Jerusalem again for Yom Kippur, for the day of atonement, and all it is just another reminder of another year of sin, another year in which you have not lived up to the Law of Moses, another year in which you have violated your conscience. And here you go for more animal blood and it's just an annual reminder. As I was thinking about this, I thought of an illustration. I don't know if it's a perfect one, but just from medical science, if somebody's kidneys stop functioning properly, they're no longer cleansing the blood stream of toxins that are threatening the life of the person. And so that person in many cases has to have dialysis and they have to go maybe several times a week to get hooked up to a machine and get their blood cleansed. And it's a constant reminder to them that they're not well. And so I think that's what these animal sacrifices were. They were just a constant reminder to the people that they were not well spiritually.

There was no actual remedy. The dialysis wasn't healing the problem. It just was a constant reminder that enabled them to keep going, but it didn't actually address the problem of sin because it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Now in meditating on this a number of years ago, this put the final piece of the puzzle together. As I was asking the question, and this is important, an important question hinted at by me earlier, but an important question: Why did God institute it? If it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, if later in Psalm 40, he's going to say he's not pleased with them, they're not pleasing to him, why did he do it? Why did he set it up? Well, he did it to teach the human race the virtue, the value, of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross among other things. But that's the centerpiece of it all, to teach us Christ, to teach us Jesus' death so that we can understand how the death of someone can help you or benefit you at all.

3 Lessons of the Animal Sacrificial System

And so he instituted this animal sacrificial system from the very beginning. And so, as I've said to you before, I drew out three lessons of the animal sacrificial system.

Lesson number one that all sin deserves the death penalty. The wages of sin is death. Do not eat from that tree. The day you eat it, you will surely die. And so Adam and Eve were under that death penalty, but they didn't die right away. An animal died. And so all sin deserves the death penalty, a constant reminder of the link between sin and death. You deserve to die.

The second lesson of the animal sacrificial system is that that death penalty can be paid, hallelujah, can be paid by a substitute. When the priest would put his hands on the head of the animal and confess onto it the sins of the people and in some mysterious way, symbolically there in the Old Covenant, there's a type and a shadow, but symbolically transfer the guilt to the head of the animal and then kill the animal. The transfer of guilt, the possibility that guilt can be transferred to a substitute is established by this animal sacrificial system. That's lesson number two.

Lesson number three is that substitute cannot be an animal. I get that right out of Hebrews 10:4. Do you see it? It's impossible for it to be an animal. The blood of bulls and goats cannot save us from our sins. It does not have the power to take away sins. Well, then, what was it for? Well, it was to enable those people to look ahead beyond it to something that would save them, beyond the type, beyond the shadow, to the reality, who is Christ. And it enables us who really never experienced animal sacrifice but who can read about it, because in the providence of God, we have this full record in the Bible. And I've personally never seen an animal actually killed, his blood poured out and the patterns laid out here, but I can imagine what it was like. I'm instructed by the Bible about it, so I look back on this type and shadow.

And whether you're looking ahead in the Old Testament era or you're looking back now in the New Testament era, we're looking back through the lens of this incredible teaching tool, animal sacrificial system, to understand Jesus and how has John the Baptist appointed him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." The son of God, who entered the world to die in our place. But it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to do this.

The second main point here is in verses 5-7,and that is that God prepared a body for Jesus for precisely this purpose. He prepared for Jesus a human body so that he could enter the world and die for our sins. How amazing are these verses. Look at verses 5-7, "Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice an offering you did not desire but a body you prepared for me with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.' Then I said, 'Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll: I have come to do your will, O God.'"

Now here we come to the mystery of Old Testament prophecy. It's a mysterious and a beautiful thing. And the author introduces this quotation of Psalm 40 with the word "therefore," so we just link verse 4 right up to verse 5 because it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Because of that, Christ, when he came into the world said, you see, because of the ineffectiveness of animals, Jesus came into the world and said these things. That's the link. And so Christ speaks here at the time of his incarnation. It says, "Therefore, when Christ came into the world he said... " And then what follows is a quote of Psalm 40. So again, the author does a wonderful thing here. He puts the words of Old Testament Scripture right in Jesus' mouth. Jesus is the word of God, and he speaks by the prophets.

This is his word. This is him speaking. I know that David wrote Psalm 40 a thousand years before Jesus was born, but these are words that the author tells us Christ spoke upon entering the world and he's speaking to his Heavenly Father. So there's the you-and-I kind of dynamic going here. "'Sacrifice and offering you, [O Father] did not desire, but a body you, [Heavenly Father] prepared for me, [me being Jesus] with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.' Then I said, 'Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, O God.'"

So the author is saying Jesus said those words to his Father upon entering the world. Now I think Jesus was born in the ordinary way as a human being, born of the Virgin Mary, when he was wrapped up in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, it was because he was physically helpless, like any other human baby, needed his mother to care for him in that way, his father to protect him and care for him etcetera, just a normal human baby. So this statement must have been made before the incarnation. Do you see? So just as Christ in a mysterious way, and you know circuit breakers in your minds are going to be tripping all over the place, so just before he enters as a holy embryo in Mary, and I would say this statement was made from all eternity past because Jesus... The plan was not a new one. It was before the foundation of the world that Jesus would die for us. But upon entering the world, he says this to his father, and he speaks and he says, Christ says to the father that God did not desire animal sacrifice. "Sacrifice and offering, you did not desire." "I'm not entering the world to be another Levitical priest."

We've already covered that. He was born in the tribe of Judah. He had no right. It was illegal for him to offer animal sacrifices, and that's not why he came. "Sacrifice and offering, you did not desire," he says. And he wasn't pleased with them. They were inadequate. He wanted a perfect people. He wanted sinners made perfect, and the blood of bulls and goats couldn't do it and he knew it. And so he had always planned to send his son. And so therefore, "Sacrifice and offering, you did not desire, but rather a body you prepared for me." This is a mysterious, a mystical Inter-Trinitarian conversation as Jesus speaks to his father about the body he's getting ready for him.

It's amazing. It's amazing. Stand in awe of the Scripture. Stand in awe of theology and of these deep things. God the Father prepared a human body for Jesus. It was God that did that. God the Father did that. And the Scripture tells us that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and this text in effect is saying that God the Father did that. He made the body inside Mary's womb. So, in Luke 1:35, the angel Gabriel spoke this to Mary when Mary said, "How will this be…since I am a virgin?"

 And the angel said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And so the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God." And so God through the Holy Spirit prepared a body for Jesus. I think Psalm 1:39 just comes alive at this point where it says, "You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

God the Father knit together a body for Jesus, an ordinary human body. It wasn't a super body. It wasn't like he was in some genetically higher order of humanity. He was a human in every way just as we are, yet was without sin. And so he had sinews and muscles and bones and nerves. And all of those bodily systems we need to stay alive, he needed those too. He was a real human being with a real body. He had a brain. He had a heart and lungs, liver and kidneys. But especially for our purposes, he had blood. And God made the blood of life course through Jesus' vein so that at the right time that blood could be spilled, could be shed for my sin and yours. And so, "A body you prepared for me." That's what Jesus said to his father. And so we see how the body was prepared and we also see beautifully in this Psalm Christ's mind or his attitude as well.

Some Textual Issues

Now here we come to some text problems. I never burden you guys with text issues. I think that's my job to burden myself with them, okay? So I'm not saying, "Well, you know, the Alexandrian text says this, but the Antiochian text says this other." So I'm not going to burden you with that. You just want to tell me, tell me the truth. There is no doctrine in the Bible that's hanging on a text problem. What do I mean by a text problem? Well, we don't have the original of Psalm 40. David wrote it at some point, sketched it out on some paper he had ready to hand, wrote it out under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit guarded from error, speaking with a prophetic voice here as Jesus would, not fully understanding what he was writing. And we don't have that original, thank God. 

And we don't have the original of the Book of Hebrews either for that matter. Now the New Testament writers, frequently when quoting the Old Testament, they would use a Greek translation of the Old Testament called The Septuagint. It was very, very popular among Jews at that time, after Alexander the Great swept through that area. Many of them were Greek-speaking. And so the Bible was translated before Jesus was born by 70 scholars that tradition has it, and they compared it and it was all amazing, a perfectly harmonized translation. Whether that ever happened, I don't know, but I do know there was a Greek translation of the Old Testament. And the Greek says, "A body you prepared for me."

If you were to read Psalm 40, though, in the Old Testament, the English editors are going to choose the Hebrew text and that's going to say, "My ear you have pierced," or perhaps, "My ears you have opened," depending on how you translate that. And I think with the idea of a piercing of an ear, it goes to right after the Ten Commandments in Exodus, I think Chapter 21, when it talks about male servants and female servants and all that, and if there should be a servant that so loved his master that he didn't want to be set free after the six years of service. He wanted to stay with the master. He said, "I like my life here. I want to stay with you." And that master will take that servant to a door and put his ear lobe against the door post and shove an awl through his ear and he will become his servant for life.

Christ’s Heart Presented to God

And what a beautiful picture of Jesus' servant attitude toward his father. It's not just a body that's in view here, but Christ's attitude toward his father. Look at verse seven: "Then I said, 'Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll: I have come to do your will, O God." The very reason he took on the very nature of a human being was to be a servant, "And having been found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to his father even to the point of death, even to death on a cross," Philippians 2. And so this is the mind of Christ, have this mind in you, which was also in Jesus, and we have Psalm 40 giving us Jesus' mind. "I am God's servant. I am a slave to command and whatever he does, my ears are open to listen to him. The body you have prepared for me is prepared to serve you. It's prepared to serve you even to the point of death."

Do you notice how I'm not deciding between any of the text options. I like them all. I don't get them all, but I'm going to kind of pretend. I'm like the kid in the candy shop. I want them all. I want the whole thing. And so we have a beautiful servant attitude of Jesus to the point of death, even death on a cross through the body that God prepared for him.

And so Jesus said so beautifully... Remember his disciples in John 4 came back from the Samaritan village with lunch, said, "Alright, we got food. Let's eat. Let's eat. I'm hungry. Jesus, what do you want?" Said, "I have food to eat you know nothing about." "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work." The finishing of the work was death on a cross. That's what Psalm 40 is giving us. "Here I am, he said, 'It is written about me in the scroll. I delight to do your will, O God. Your law is written in my heart,'" the very thing that's going to be ours when our salvation is finished, when we are conformed to Christ perfectly. His laws will be perfectly written, not just in our hearts but in everything we do, conformed in every way to the character of Christ. But Jesus lived like that, a perfect life of righteousness under the law of God. And so it was written about Jesus in the scroll. To me, that talks about the mystery of prophecy again, how every element of Jesus' life was written out in the scroll before one of those days came to be, how he would be born and what kind of life he would live, the nature of his ministry and specifically the events surrounding his death and his resurrection prophesied.

Remember when Peter wanted to rescue Jesus from dying? Remember that? What a key moment that was in redemptive history. "Peter put your sword away. I need to go to the cross." You remember what he said? "How then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" "It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, O God." And so after his resurrection, what does Jesus spend his time with his apostles doing? He opens up the Law of Moses, the Psalms, prophets, and showed them everything that was written about him in the scroll, everything that was there so that by the day of Pentecost and then from then on in the Book of Acts they're just flowing Old Testament all the time. These apostles were preaching because it was written about Jesus in the scroll that he would come and die for us.

And so in verses 8-10, the author makes it very clear. He drives the point home Christ is the end of animal sacrifice. "First he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings, you did not desire nor were you pleased with them (although the law required them to be made). And then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

So, the author is going back over Psalm 40 now carefully, and he says, "Okay, first he said sacrifice and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings, God you didn't desire and you weren't pleased with them." And then he himself brings up, "Yes, but you're the one that commanded them to be done." The law did command for them to be made, but their time is finished now. And Jesus said, "It is finished. It's done."

And God wasn't ultimately pleased with any of them. He was pleased with the faith of Job who would offer up sacrifices for his sons and daughters in case they might have cursed God in their heart, pleased with his faith. The animals didn't do anything for God. He says in Psalm 50, "Do I eat the flesh of bulls?" "Do I really like that I have a taste for meat?" It's got nothing to do with that. As it points to Christ, that's it. And so he was not pleased with them even though the law required them to be made. And so it would have been wrong for any Old Testament Jew to leave off the animal sacrifices. They weren't allowed to do that. As a matter of fact, the prophet Malachi was angry with them for bringing substandard animals, trying to cheat God.

But Christ is the end of it. In verse 9, he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." Jesus came to make, as it says in Isaiah 53, the will of God flourish or prosper in his hands. Isaiah 53 says that God's will flourishes in the hands of this suffering servant, and by his death, my righteous servant will justify many. And so he's here to make the will of God flourish, and by that second will, he sets aside the first will of God. The first will of God was animal sacrifice. Now by the will of God that is over. Its time is finished. And so here it is. It says very plainly, "He sets aside the first to establish the second." So in the context of Hebrews, the author is speaking to Jewish people who have made a profession of faith in Christ and are being tempted to go back to the Old Covenant worship. He is saying Jesus has set it aside. The time for it is done. No more animal sacrifice. And he did it to establish the second.

And by the will of God, it says in Verse 10, "By that will," by whose will? By the will of God the Father. By the will of Almighty God, you have been made holy. That's awesome. It brings goosebumps to me right now. We, actually the author includes himself, "By that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus once for all." I look on that word, "holy," that one word, "holy," like a pure ocean of water and you're just standing there covered with filth and grime and you just fall backward into it and you get cleansed. We're holy, friends. You're holy once for all. Now, you may struggle with your conscience. Even as a Christian, you may say, "Yeah, but I've done this. I've done that." Well you know that God has ordained to give you your salvation in stages. But he desired to declare you holy before he actually makes you holy through sanctification and glorification, and he puts a yearning for holiness in your heart. If you're a genuine Christian, you yearn for it, don't you?

You have hunger and thirst for righteousness. And this one verse declares you, if you're in Christ, holy right now. Isn't that beautiful? Now we're called on to live up to it day by day by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. Yes. But some day he is going to make it happen. At the moment when you see him face-to-face, you'll be transformed, you'll be made just like he is, you'll be spending eternity in a resurrection body, you'll be holy and blameless, and all of it because of the body of Jesus Christ given for you on the cross.

So application, friends, earlier Jim prayed for any precious person who is here outside of Christ. Why stay outside of Christ? Why not come in now and be made holy through faith in the blood of Jesus? Why not? Why not believe? Why not repent? Turn away from those things that are hurting you. Turn away from those things that are damaging you and come into Christ. Believe on him and you will be instantly right now, even as you're listening to me, made holy instantaneously by faith.

The righteous obedience of Jesus will be credited to you simply by faith. And if you're already Christian, you're struggling with sin, know this: God is simply calling on you to live up to what you already are. Isn't that beautiful? You are holy, so live holy. That's the way that the New Testament always teaches holy living, not that God's waiting to see how well you do and based on that, he will approve or disapprove. It's not that. He's already declared you holy. Now live up to it and marvel at the progression of redemptive history, how God instituted animal sacrifice, teaches us still by it, but then put it to an end forever when Jesus died. Marvel at that. This is an incredible plan of our salvation. And spend the rest of your day at least, I would say the rest of your life, thanking Jesus and worshipping him for being willing to take on a body to die for you. Just thank him.

Let that thankfulness flow through you. Let it drive out doubt and discouragement and despair and physical pain, emotional sorrow. Let it drive out all of these things. You have been as loved as you possibly can be loved in Jesus. He gave his body for you to make you holy. Close with me in prayer.

What a privilege I have week after week to stand before you and proclaim the word of God, how awesome is the scripture you heard What I just said from Hebrews four Word of God is living and active, it's an amazing thing that you hold in your laps and I'd urge you to get the Bible and just read along with me as I preach because really, that's all I'm doing. I'm really just taking Hebrews, and going, phrase by phrase. There's not a lot of artistry to it. My goal is, I just want you to understand Hebrews 9:23-28 in context today. That's my goal, but it's just an amazing work. The Scripture is it's a miracle and encounter with eternity, that we have with scripture. And let me give you a clear example of what I'm saying, why I'm even beginning the sermon this way. It has to do with Verse 27, Hebrews 9:27 is the first verse that I ever knew in the Book of Hebrews, early in my Christian life as I was learning how to be a witness and trying to share the gospel, someone told me Hebrews 9:7 was an important verse to memorize, and so I did memorize it. Just as a man is destined to die once and after that, to face judgment, that verse is a fountain of truth. And so many things come from it to refute some of the errors that Satan has sown in the hearts of human beings over time.

Let me take for an example, the issue of reincarnation. The idea of reincarnation, the idea that after we die, our souls are then in some sense born alive again in some other living being, could be an animal or some other living thing, and that you go through life again, and then you die and go through it again. So, life's a big cycle fundamental to Hinduism and Buddhism, these Eastern religions, but it has been infiltrating the west for centuries. It's not a new thing that people in the West have been interested in reincarnation, but it is distressing to me how much that this false idea of reincarnation has made its way into American culture as a whole. There's a lot of media elite people in Hollywood and other places that embrace the idea of reincarnation, make movies like Robin Williams made a movie, What Dreams May Come. It was about reincarnation, Sylvester Stallone holds to this false teaching, Oprah Winfrey has frequently people on who teach based on these kinds of things, Shirley MacLaine, the actress, of course, believes in this, she said "Life is just like showbiz. You do it again and again until you get it right." Well, that's just absolutely wrong.

In Hebrews 9:27, one verse, I tell you, one verse of Scripture is sufficient to explode that false teaching, if you embrace the idea that all scriptures God breathed and that the scripture is perfectly true, then this one text, this one verse is sufficient to destroy the doctrine of reincarnation. A recent poll in 2009 said 24% of American Christians believe in reincarnation, one out of four approximately. That is terrible. It's a false doctrine, it is not true. 31% of European Roman Catholics believe in reincarnation. It's just not true. So I tell you one verse of scripture is sufficient to explode that false doctrine. But it's not just that, there are other false ideas, for example, atheistic materialism, Darwinian evolution. The idea that all we are atoms and molecules. So what that means is that when you die, you're done, you're finished. Parasites eat whatever is left of you and you are gone. There's nothing else, because all you are is a chance assembly of those molecules and whatever it is you think is reality etcetera, is just an accident of time and chance and molecules and physical processes, that's atheistic materialism. That is completely destroyed by this one verse, because it says that it is appointed, we are destined to die once and after that, you see, to face judgment.

So what that means is, there is an after that when it comes to death, something will come for each one of us after death, and that is Judgment Day. So away with atheistic materialism, there is something after death. And it also destroys that false idea that wicked people have that they can escape the consequences of their wicked actions by suicide. I think about Adolf Hitler in that bunker as the Red Army was pressing in and about to capture him. He thought to escape the consequences of his dark crimes by going into a back room with his wife of one day, Eva Braun, and apparently it seems biting on a cyanide capsule. And the peace of death just kind of coursed through his veins, and he just lay on a bed somewhere, and he was gone. And he thought to escape. But Hebrews 9:27 won't let him escape. It's just like in Hamlet, when he said To be or not to be, he's contemplating suicide, he's thinking about ending it all, thinking that he's going to escape the pain of his life and the consequences of his sins and he's trying to escape, but he says to sleep per chance to dream. Aye, that's the rub. Yeah, that's the rub. It's more than just a rub. It's a certainty, There is something after death, and suicide is no escape.

So you cannot kill a bunch of kids at some camp and then kill yourself and think you're going to escape the consequences of your actions, for it is appointed to each one of us to die and after that, to face judgment, and so therefore this one single verse of the Bible is good for witnessing for evangelism. I think it's our job as evangelists, it's my job as a preacher, as a pastor to communicate a sense of urgency about time. This is an urgent matter here. We are all going to die. It is destined for us to die. And I'm going to talk more about this later, but all of us are going to die. And so Richard Baxter, the Puritan pastor, said I preached as a dying man to dying men. Well, I am a dying man. I don't know of any diagnosis against my health right now, but I'm just telling you, this verse tells me I am a dying man, and you may not know any diagnosis against yourself, but you are a dying man or a dying woman if you're listening to me today and I don't care how old you are, you may be young, but you are in the process of dying, and it is destined for you, it's appointed for you to die once, and after that to face judgment. Are you ready for that? Are you ready for judgment day? Are you ready to stand before your maker? Are you ready to stand before the judge of your actions of your motives are you ready for death?

This text stands in front of us and causes us, forces us to look at death, and say, "Am I ready for this?" So yesterday at the outreach and so grateful for Matthew and Zenaida and for all that labored to put on the summer sizzle outreach in the community, Matthew, brother, sweet work, praise God for you. Be patient, be faithful in what you're doing and God will bless what you do. We're sowing seeds in the community. When I see people come to faith in Christ… I was talking to a 14-year-old young African-American gentleman and his friend, maybe he didn't say how old he was, but he's 16, This 14-year-old told me that he was an atheist. I said, "You're too young to be an atheist. How can you be an atheist at age 14?" And so we talked for a while, as long as they would bear, and just the Lord and His grace brought up this verse Hebrews 9:27. Do you know it's appointed to you to die? And after that, to face judgment, whether you're an atheist or not, that's going to happen to you. And then I had the privilege of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and I don't know what effect it's going to have.

There was no obvious positive feedback but I think those are four different ways. This one single verse is powerful in application, but I have in doing that more or less taken it out of context. But we are told, we're always supposed to be interpreting verses in context, we're told as preachers, you have to get the main idea and preach the main thought in the text, and verse 27 isn't even a finished sentence, just as it is, as man is appointed to die once, and after that, to face judgment, dot dot dot, is there a finish to the thought? Is there something else that comes? Well, you have to read verse 28. So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. And there's more in verse 28, but there's the completed thought. And so the central idea here is not any of the things I've been discussing so far. The central idea is that Christ died once for all, the supremacy of the death of Christ never needs to be repeated once for all, for every one of God's people, that will end up in Heaven. It was one sacrifice that got him there, and it's Jesus. That's the meaning of the text.

And so, I'm going to do both, I've already done both. I've already given you the spin-off doctrines and all that, and I've given you the main idea and all of it is valid friends, this is what scripture does it's a river and ocean of truth that flows through your head, that's the beauty of scripture. It's a miracle to me. So we don't have as much time as I'd like to go through these verses, but how powerful is the word of God?

Now what is going on in verses 23-28, we're right in the middle of the doctrinal section of the Book of Hebrews, the author is talking about Christ as our great high priest, who offered the sacrifice of His own blood to God for us in our behalf, and in that way, put an end to all animal sacrifice forever, showed its ineffectiveness, really as anything but a symbolic tool, and ushered in in that way, the new covenant by which we are saved and so the author is going in detail and with some repetition through those concepts, teaching us the significance of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. And so he's been saying in verses 18-22, that everything in the tabernacle, everything associated with animal sacrifice had to be sprinkled with blood, it had to be cleansed with blood, the blood of the covenant. And it says, in fact the law required that everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. That's where we were last time.

And so the author picks up and says, in verse 23, "It was necessary then for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." So we're right in the middle of a flow of thought and what the author is saying he's in verse 23, he's giving us the absolute necessity of purification. There must be a purification here. That's what he's giving us, He says it's necessary. He uses a strong word in the original language, it is necessary, it is required, that there be this purification by blood. That's what he's saying, And you would say, "Well why is it necessary, why is it required?" Well simply put, in verse 22, the law requires it, God has commanded it, and therefore it must be done. Well, that's the simple answer, but let's go a little deeper. Why did God command it? What forces drove him to make this command? And it has to do with the twin truth of God's absolute perfect holiness, and our defilement in our sins, and if God is going to have a relationship with us, he must purify us we must be made clean from our sin.

And that purification has to happen with blood. That's what we're saying here. And so it is necessary, then this purification is necessary. I would say if there's nothing else, if there's a central teaching, if we could go to a central teaching, of the character of God, what is God like? We try to understand the main idea of who is God, there's so many things we could say, but I would put my finger on holiness above everything else, that the Scripture wants us to know that God is holy. So, in Isaiah 6:3, the seraphim are calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory." We've said before, say many times, again, there is no other attribute of God spoken of in that way three times. Holy, holy, holy, God is separate from us, and in every way, I think specifically here, I mean separate from wickedness and evil, and sin. He can have nothing to do with it, 1 John 1:5, "God is light, And in Him there is no darkness at all." God cannot dwell with darkness, he cannot be in the presence of wickedness and so there must be purification, that's what it's saying, and we... Apart from Christ, are wicked we are, defiled apart from Christ, cleansing, we are filthy.

In that exact same passage, Isaiah felt it, you remember that, he says, "Woe is me, I am ruined! I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. I'm unclean. And my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty." When you see God's Holiness, you feel your defilement that you're dirty, you're unclean, because of sin, and you needed cleansing, Just like Isaiah had said earlier, in Isaiah Chapter 1 and when God was saying, I don't want your prayers anymore, I don't want your religious actions. Your hands are filled with blood. Take your evil deeds out of my sight, wash and make yourselves clean. I can't be in the presence of filthy people. So there must be this purification you see, at the end of Romans Chapter 1, the apostle Paul just puts together a series of expressions talking about the wickedness of the human race apart from Christ, He says, that apart from Christ, we are "filled with envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice… Gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, inventors of evil, we disobedient parents, senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless…" That's unclean, God can't dwell with that. And so we must have a cleansing thanks be to Jesus that there is such a cleansing for a sinner like you and me that we can be clean through the blood of Jesus and so it is necessary, this cleansing is necessary.

Now, what's amazing to me is the copies of those heavenly things. It's necessary for them to be purified. You might say Why. What are the copies of the heavenly things? Well, the beginning of the chapter in Hebrews 9, he talks about a tabernacle, being set up a tent and it had artifacts and it had an Ark of the Covenant, had an altar table where there was a sacrifice made, it had a lamp stand, it had all of these things. Every one of them were crafted and made by human beings, a heavenly vision, of pattern was given, but they were executed by human beings, they were carried out by people, and therefore, defiled. That's what the author's saying even those things done by the direct command of God, because human beings made them, they had to be purified. And I find this quite fastening we're in Bible for Life, with Nathan Finn and we're looking at how the Spirit of God came on Bezalel.

And how the Spirit of God moved him to execute these designs and now Hebrews 9 tells us, once they're done, they have to be purified. That is staggering to me. You can be under the influence of the Spirit doing something God has directly commanded you to do and you need a cleansing and a purification by what you... Because of what you do. And it makes sense, the more you think about it.

Are there any of your good work? So you can say, Okay, I got this one alone, Jesus, I don't need your help on this one. This is a pure good work. I did all by myself. It just doesn't work friends, we are so sinful even our best, good works, even in the power of the Spirit still need a purifying force. We still need this purification so those copies of the heavenly things, the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant all of those things had to be purified with those sacrifice the animals. They were good for that. A symbolic cleansing, but nothing else. But the heavenly realities, with better sacrifices than these. Now, this is a deep and difficult phrase. It's my job. I've told you before, to bring you into difficulties that you didn't know you had. That's my gift. You didn't know you had a difficulty but you do because it's your text as much as it's mine. Why did the heavenly realities have to be purified?

And why is the word sacrifice, plural here when the authors are bound to tell us that only one sacrifice offered one time forever does it? Okay, on the second question, I give you a very simple and clear answer. I have no idea. I don't know. I have no better answer if you... Anyway, I don't know why the word is plural. Different commentators… I read them all, I don't know, nobody knows.

Amazingly: The Heavenly Things Needed to Be Purified

But the deeper question, why did the heavenly realities have to be purified? That's difficult for me. Some people say it's because the wrath of God against sin kind of, it's like God had a big wrath fit and once it's done, then you kind of have to clean up heaven. Does that sound good to you? Wrong.

God's wrath is pure and holy, and righteous, altogether. That's not it. Others say, "Well it's because Satan and his angels messed Heaven up as they rebelled and so Heaven needs to be cleaned up from Satan's rebellion." Does that sound good to you? Not to me either. We're not talking about Satan here, we're not talking about demons here, we're talking about human sin. And human sin, how did that get up there? Heaven's a pure place. How do we understand that? John Owen said that what's happening is that the Old Covenant, the animal sacrifices inaugurated or opened up the tabernacle for business, basically consecrated it and dedicated so it could be used. And in the same way, Jesus's blood opens up and consecrates Heaven for us. That would be good except that that's not what the Word says. It's purified. So, with all due respect to John Owen, I don't know, what to do with that one.

Someone else said, "We are ultimately, the Body of Christ is ultimately the heavenly tabernacle where God will dwell with us together." We are the Body of Christ. And we had to be purified. That's better, and maybe right. I think it may be that we are heading toward a perfect world, a new heaven and new earth, the home of righteousness that God intended to dwell with us forever. His throne in our midst, we looking at His face, that's a new world, and that had to be purified because of our sins. He couldn't dwell with us any other way. That's the best I can do with that one. If you want to keep thinking about it, do. That's what the Word of God does. It challenges us to think. But you see the need for purification. Now the rest of the text talks about the purification that was provided and how superior it is, how perfect it is, how effective it is.

And so we have the superiority of the sacrifice. Better sacrifices than these. What is that better sacrifice? It's none other than the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus shed His blood, and that's a better sacrifice than the animals. The blood of bulls and goats and all of those things could not purify from human sin, it's ineffective and so we had to have a better sacrifice and that sacrifice was offered. Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross for sins. And so it's so beautiful how it says in 1 Peter Chapter 1, "For you know, that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect, He was chosen before the creation of the world, but has been revealed in these last times now for your sake, through Him you believe in God who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him and so your faith and hope in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth…" and he goes on. Do you see the blood of Jesus purifies us from sin? 1 Peter 1:18-22.

That's what Peter is saying, that's the purification. We are purified by a better sacrifice and so Jesus's offerings is better than whatever the Levitical priests offer. They offered the blood of bulls and goats and sheep. Jesus offers His own blood and it's superior, it's better.

We see also it's better in terms of the location, the place. Where did Jesus offer that blood? Look at verse 24, "For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one, he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence." And so we've already seen the man-made sanctuary is the tabernacle. It was made by the command of God. There was nothing wrong with it. It had a purpose. It was made under the inspiration of leading of the Holy Spirit. Bezalel, was filled to the Spirit as he executed those designs.

So nothing wrong with it, but it was man-made. It was earthly. Jesus does His work as our great High Priest, in the heavenly sanctuary. The one not made by human hands. And so Jesus has entered heaven on our behalf, for us. Isn't that sweet? Look at those words, He has entered heaven for us. If you're a believer in Christ, He's entered heaven for you, on your behalf. How majestic is that position, that place? Just meditate. Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57:15, it says, "For this is what the high and lofty one says, He who lives forever and whose name is Holy 'I live in a high and holy place.'" Think about that. "I live in a high and holy place." "But also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit." Think about that, too. How did we get there? How do we get to go to the high and holy place? Because Jesus went before us, He entered on our behalf as our high priest, and no ironic, no Levitical priest would have ever been permitted to do so. It would have been physically impossible, for no one ever ascended into heaven except the one who came from Heaven, Jesus. And so no ironic priest could ever physically have gone up there and nor would they have been permitted spiritually because every one of them were sinners, offering sacrifices first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people.

But Jesus has entered heaven on our behalf, and there, He pleads the merit of His blood shed once for all. So look at the superiority of the place God in a high and a holy dwelling place, who looks down from Heaven. Isaiah 40, "He sits and throne above the circle of the Earth, and its people are before Him like grasshoppers." It says in 1 Timothy 6:16, He "Lives in unapproachable light." But Jesus boldly went into the presence of that unapproachable light, to plead the merits of His blood, and bring us there. And so the superiority of place is so clear, so plain. Now, the author is writing this to wean the Jewish believers in the first century, off of the temple. To wean them off. They were raised revering the temple.

In their day, in Jesus's day, it would have been Herod's temple, refurbished by a wicked man, a tyrant, really, but a magnificent building and God was still using it, in the Old Covenant way it was still a place where Anna was there and Simian was there. And there was a godly focus. There's nothing wrong with it in that sense, but they were too attached to it, in some way. Solomon knew the limitations when he made it, he said, "But will God really dwell on Earth?" Is that even possible? "Heaven, even the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this building, that I've made." Stephen quotes that in Acts 7, says, "But the Most High does not live in houses built by men." And they stoned Stephen for saying it. That he was speaking against the temple of the Lord. "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord," Jeremiah 7. Just speaking blasphemy against this holy place. Well, it's not blasphemy for Jesus to say, "It's finished, it's done. You don't need the temple anymore, we're finished with it." And so He actually spoke it directly as you remember to His apostles. In Mark 13, they're coming out and He says, they say to Him, "Look teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings." Jesus said, "Do you see all these things? Not one stone will be left on another." Every one will be thrown down. That's pretty plain to me. Do you get it? I mean that's very direct. "No more temple, it's going to be destroyed. You won't need it anymore after I'm done with my work."

So the superiority of the place. The author to Hebrew is trying to wean these first century Jewish Christians off of a focus on the temple on to the heavenly work of Jesus. Don't need the temple anymore. And so that's what he's doing.

And so we see also the superiority of time, which I think is the main idea here. Once for all. Isn't that beautiful? Just meditate on that. Once for all. Look at Verses 25 and 26, "Nor did he enter heaven to offer Himself again and again the way the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times, since the creation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself." So the author begins by talking about the superiority of what Christ is doing by way of contrast. He says what He didn't do, in verse 25. He did not enter heaven to offer Himself again and again. So again, speaking gently, but truthfully, I think the idea of the Roman Catholic dry sacrifice for Jesus, offered again and again is just un-Biblical.

He doesn't need to be offered again and again. Jesus when we use this language which skates it a little bit close to that of pleading the merit of His blood, just know He's not offering it again and again. It's been offered. And so what the pleading is the intercession is based on a finished work. It's based on an achieved work once for all. Does that makes sense? So He doesn't need to offer it again and again, He doesn't need to enter heaven again and again, it doesn't have to be done. And the author says if that were so then He would have had to suffer many times, since the creation of the world. You could argue that basically every generation He'd have to be incarnate and die on the cross. And in that sense he would be very little different than the animal sacrifices, ineffective. Like a surgeon who has to go in a second and third time on the same patient and you're like, "Alright do you know what you're doing?" It's ineffective. Or pain medication that wears off, and needs to be taken again. How about one pill that handles the whole thing? Amen.

One pill, infinitely greater one sacrifice that handles the whole thing. And see the power of that. If I told you there were a medication that could take care of the adverse pain in your life, the rest of your life. One pill would you take it? How much would you pay for it? How much infinitely greater than this one sacrifice, once for all, Jesus made? And so, He's greater than these animals that were offered again and again. We'll get into that topic more in Chapter 10, The repetition shows ineffectiveness. We'll get to that, I don't want to say it now, but once for all.

And what that means is that Jesus doesn't have to offer Himself in every generation. He doesn't have to reincarnate and die every generation for the sins of those people, who are at that time. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times, since the creation of the world. But He doesn't need to. Why? Because God has ordained that the cross of Jesus Christ stands in the center of time over all of it. Past, present, future and they're all here in this text. Past, from the creation of the world, until now. Now is right in the text, now is then, you know what I mean, when the author wrote it, the author is saying He doesn't need to suffer again now, He has already done that. And He will not need to suffer again until He returns, and when He returns He's not going to come back to bear sin. He's very clear about that. When He comes back there's no need to bear sin. Why? He's already done that.

Never again, and so the cross of Jesus stands over time, over all of time, this linear time, not like reincarnation, going round and round in a big circle. It's a line. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, He's the first and the last, the beginning and the end. That's what He is doing and His death is right in the center, and therefore you know what that means. All of the Old Covenant saints were cleansed the same way that we are, through the blood of Jesus. Isn't that magnificent? Moses's murder, and Noah's drunkenness, David's adultery, and murder, all of the sins of those Old Testament saints were covered by Jesus's blood. Paul makes the same point, in Romans Chapter 3, that God had passed over the sins committed beforehand left them unpunished, because He was going to handle it, at the cross.

Now, what the author is doing here, is he just extends it from that point forward, to the end of time. All sins of God's people, all of them handled by one sacrifice, once for all. And how powerful is that? How awesome is that? And so the author at the end in Verse 27 and 28, just is making this point, "Just as man is destined to die once," emphasis on once "and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once for the sense of many people." That's the point he's making. Doesn't ever need to be repeated again, it's therefore effective. And so this is the magnificence of the work of Christ.

Now, in the middle of all this, I want you to notice a word that popped up and has become very rich to me, and it's this word appearing or appeared that Christ has appeared, He appears to us. It's used three times, once in verse 24, once in verse 26 and one in verse 28.

And it's a powerful word. It has a sense that of hiddenness. And then He shows up. It's a dramatic word. Isn't it awesome? How many times do you want God to show up? Oh, Jesus, would You just show up here with Your power, with Your might, would You just show up? And He appears here, do you see? It's as though He's in some way hidden for long ages past, as it says in Colossians, and now revealed and made known. I get the picture. Just my mind working in illustrations analogies like cavalry over the hill, you're about to get wiped out, you're going to lose the battle. And the cavalry comes up over the hill with a mighty captain and wins the day, and you win the victory. Or perhaps a court trial, where the trial for an innocent person accused of murder is going very badly until the star witness appears in court. We actually use that word, their appearance in court, they appeared there, and it's dramatic. It turns the day. Save the innocent person or athletic analogy, MVP player injured in the first half, in the locker room, nobody expects to see that person again, then suddenly they show up and win the game. Very dramatic, and so it is also I think in Revelation Chapter 5, when the scroll is in the right hand of the one seated on the throne and it seems like no one is there who can take it and then behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, He appears. Isn't that awesome?

So I'm going to get out of the order that the author gives us, try to do it reverently but I'm going to reverse it and put it in redemptive historical order.

Incarnation Leading to Crucifixion (vs. 26)

First in Verse 26, the Incarnation leading to the crucifixion, "but now He has appeared once for all, at the end of the ages, to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Do you see that? He shows up in human form. He appears, born of a virgin, in the fullness of time, He appears. And His appearance goes right to the cross, He appears in front of Pilate, He appears going up the hill, he appears on the cross, He takes away sin, He has appeared for us, to take away sin at the end of the ages by the sacrifice of Himself. I love that phrase, end of the ages, as though this is the culmination of all of human history. The culmination of human history is Jesus appearing at the cross for us, taking away sins.

Ascension and Presentation to God in Heaven (vs. 24)

The second is in verse 24, Christ "entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence." So after Jesus died, after He rose from the dead, He ascended to Heaven, He then appears for us in the presence of God and just hug those words for us. Jesus is there for you, He's appearing for you in God's presence. Now God the Father expected Him. It's not like He was surprised. "Oh, here's Jesus. Do you have something to say?" Oh no, He knows exactly why the Son is appearing. He is there to open a new enlivening way for us into the very presence of God, and so He has appeared in heaven for us and opened up the way for you and I to go to heaven.

Second Coming Glory to Finish Our Salvation (vs. 28)

But there is one more appearing yet to come, Amen. Do you see it at the end? The second coming of Christ, Christ returning in glory Verse 28, "Christ will appear a second time, not to bear sin." That's done, "But to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him." That's the future appearing. Are you yearning for that today? Are you able to say "Maranatha come Lord Jesus." That's what John says at the end of the Book of Revelation. Oh, Jesus, come. Come and bring that kingdom come and bring that glory, we're weary of fighting sin and death and wicked people, just come and bring Your kingdom. And so He's going to come, He's going to come bring salvation to everyone who's waiting for Him. So He's not bringing salvation to everybody. Just to those who by faith, by hope are waiting for Jesus to come.

Is that you today? Are you waiting for Jesus to appear the second time? He's going to come. And so therefore, we are looking ahead as Christians, we are looking ahead, we'll talk much more about this in Hebrews 11.

Faith, the faith chapter is always about looking forward and looking ahead to what's coming. So "just as man is destined to die once and after that, to face judgment, so Christ also is sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him." So death is in your future, you are destined to die. No, I know, I know. There are some biblical exceptions. I love this church. You're a meticulous people. And I appreciate that, I appreciate careful Bible students. You're going to come and talk to me about Enoch. "He didn't die pastor." He walked with God and God took him for he was no more and he could not be found. And you're going to tell me about Elijah, how he went up to heaven in a chariot of fire. And how Elisha watched him go. Look, Enoch and Elijah are a clear exceptions and I still say there's a text that stands over both of them, and that is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. So at some point they left their flesh and blood, Amen. They were glad to do it by the way. So I don't know what you call that, but I might call it death but at any rate, it was clearly a different way of getting out of this world than any of us can hope to do. Now, God hasn't said He'll never do it again, and you can keep hoping if you'd like to be the next Enoch or the next Elijah. Go ahead and do it.

But you need to walk with God first, like they did and be faithful in your generation. And you might also tell me some of you sharper thinking ones. You can say, "Yeah, what about all those people that were raised from the dead, in the Bible." Elijah raise somebody from the dead, Elisha raised somebody from the dead, Jesus raised people from the dead, the apostles raised people from the dead. They didn't die once, now, did they pastor? They died twice. Friends, I know that.

This is just the norm here. It could be that you might be raised from the dead, and then die again, 12 years later, that might be in your future. God can do anything. And there is one grand and glorious exception. 1 Corinthians 15 says that the final generation of the human race will not die. "Brothers, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." And so, if you are, if we are among that final generation, as we hope to see Jesus come in our day, by the way, if you want to know what the price tag on that is, read about it in the Book of Revelation, if you want to be that final generation. I think a nice time in the ICU, might be better. It's up to you. But see, now I'm saying.

Pre-trib rapture and all that, on and on it goes. Let's debate it endlessly. But at any rate, the fact of the matter is, there is going to be a generation that will not die in the ordinary way. But friends if you're not the next Enoch and Elijah, and if we're not among the final generation, if the Lord wills to tear you for another two or three centuries, you are going to die. You're going to die and the next time you visit a dying friend in the hospital, think as you're ministering to him or her, some day this will be me. Some day I'm going to die. Are you ready? Because after death, comes judgment. Do you know what that means? It means that you are going to stand before God and He is going to call to account everything you have ever done, every careless word you have spoken, the court will be seated, the books will be open, everything will be read, there'll be nothing covered, there'll be nothing hidden, everything will be uncovered and laid bare. Everything exposed. And on that day, I want to ask you, are you going to be saved?

He comes to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. Will He save you on that day? Are you in Christ or not? And all you need to do is repent and believe and trust in Him, and you will be saved, on that day. Now, when I say He comes to bring salvation, I mean more than just you'll escape judgment day. I say, as I've said before, you're not done being saved. And He comes to bring the rest of your salvation, with Him. And you know what that entails? It entails a resurrection body, a glorified body and a resurrected world and you are going to live in perfect unity with brothers and sisters in Christ. And better with God Himself in a perfect, resurrected new heaven and new earth. How glorious is that? He is going to bring that salvation to you who are waiting for it. Are you ready? If you're not, then you're looking ahead only to judgment. And I'm not stealing the thunder of Chapter 10, but in 10 and 27, it says if you turn your backs on the Gospel and if you don't believe nothing remains for you accept "a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." That's what you have to look forward to, if you don't believe in Christ.

So what application can we take from this? Well, first and foremost, just understand the greatness of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, once for all, dying for sinners, never again, to be repeated. See the superiority of it and put your hope, your trust fully in that work. Trust in it again. You don't need to tell me, "Well Pastor, I've been Christian of for 22 years." Doesn't matter, trust in Him again, trust in Him now, put your trust in Him now. And set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Set your hope fully on that time, when He comes back to finish your salvation. In the meantime, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Let Him give you down payments through the Holy Spirit, make progress in Christ, get involved in the spread of the gospel, that's what we're here to do, to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, and to preach the gospel to lost people. So let's be faithful in doing that.

And if you are being faithful, if you feel like you've had a good day, there's nothing wrong with that. Praise God for it. Just understand that even those things done by the power of the Spirit and the command of God still need the purifying of Christ's blood. There's nothing we do that's independently pure, you know that, and just know that everything you do whether sin or righteous act stands under the blood of Jesus, that's His great grace to you. And if you are lost, my final word is to you. I speak as a dying man to a dying person, a man or woman, or child, don't leave this sanctuary Christ-less. Don't leave this place without Jesus as your advocate on that final day. Close with me in prayer.

I love history, I love stories from history, I like to study key moments in history, and obscure moments in history. And I want to bring your mind this morning to one of the more obscure moments in history, but still fascinating, at least to me, hope it will be to you as well. On November 12th, 1877, the scene was Manhattan, New York City, and it was the trial of the decade and didn't even involve a crime. It was a dispute over a last will and testament, the last will and testament of the wealthiest man America had ever seen up to that point, Cornelius Vanderbilt. And so, they were assembled that day, the courtroom was absolutely packed, couldn't get another person in, fascinated to try to find out more things, more of the secrets of the Vanderbilt family and of the Vanderbilt fortune. And a little before noon, William H. Vanderbilt, who was his son and his central heir, came in, confident, taking a seat with his legal team, he was pitted against his sister, Mary, who thought that it was unjust that their father had left 95% of the estate to the son.

And so she thought it was right, even though it was clearly the last will and testament of the Commodore, of Cornelius Vanderbilt, to contest this will and argue that the estate should be distributed equally among the 10 living descendants. Now, the sum that they were wrangling over was an astounding $100 million. And if you know anything about economics in the mith century you'd realize just what a fantastic sum that was. Basically, if the Commodore's full estate had been liquidated, everything sold at market value, which would have been impossible, but if everything could have been sold, he would have received, in effect, one out of every $20 in circulation in the United States of America. I mean, one twentieth of the wealth, of circulating money was the Commodore's. Incredible amount of money.

Well, the trial went on for two years, two months and four days. In the end, the Commodore's last will and testament was upheld. William H. Vanderbilt inherited 95%. He did, however, double the amount given to each of his siblings, and hoped that they would be happy with that. The money did them very little good. As a matter of fact, one of Vanderbilt's other sons committed suicide five years after receiving this vast sum, and I think it's so often the case that money doesn't actually solve problems in that way; it can actually create many problems. The idea of the reading of a last will and testament, of an inheritance coming from a wealthy relative, maybe one you didn't even know you had, captures the imagination, but the facts show that about 8% of Americans receive any kind of money at all from an inheritance. It's really a very small number, and the amount given is actually very small. Most of the sums are far less than $25,000 dollars.

But yet it captures our imagination, though it ought not to, because I'd like to just by the preaching of the word lift your eyes up, off of the mundane, off of mansions like the Biltmore and all that, that the money eventually went for that, and to other things. And lift your eyes to how fabulously wealthy Christ's heirs are through faith in him. That if you are an heir of God and heir of Christ Jesus, you are infinitely wealthy right now. And I want to, it's my desire as I preach to give you a sense of that, a sense of the cost of giving you that inheritance, the death, the bloody death of Jesus and to, in some way, I guess, beguile you away from anxiety, selfishness, worldliness so that you are free to walk as truly forgiven sons and daughters of the living God and to serve him selflessly, and not show any concern whatsoever for your own material support, to know that you are completely provided for. That's what I want to talk to you about today, and I basically want to organize my comments into two main headings.

Little by little, more and more insight has come to me in reference to this passage. It started in verse 22. For me, it's a rather famous statement, something that we understand, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." And that talks about this covenant, the blood of the covenant, a covenant that's been established through the blood of Jesus. But earlier in the text we're looking at, it talks about it a will or a testament. The confusing part for commentators is the same Greek word is used for both will, like last will and testament, and covenant and so commentators debate and are discussing all the time. Is it a will, is it a covenant? Friends, it's both, it's both. We're talking about an incredibly deep, an infinitely deep work of the Son of God on the cross. And no one analogy is going to exhaust all of the meaning, and so in this text we have both a last will and testament, and we have a new covenant established through the blood of Jesus.

And so has as I look at verse 22, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." Earlier, this teaching is given essentially without the death of the one bequeathing the goods, there is no inheritance. You've got to have the death of the one who makes the will, is what the author is telling us. So the two statements I want you to hang your hat on, so you can just understand Hebrews 9:15-22 is without the death of Christ, there is no inheritance, without the blood of Christ, there is no forgiveness. That's a summation of what this text is saying.

It is unbelievably hot in here this morning, isn't it? Just acknowledge that. We are working, the AC is out, our offices are hot, and so you are not permitted to get drowsy. So I'm going to modulate my voice. I'm going to look right at some of you from time to time. You're not permitted to get drowsy this morning, alright? But counter to what I just said, you have the outline right now, that's it. Without the death of Christ, we have no inheritance, without the blood of Christ, we have no forgiveness. But that's putting the negative language of verse 22. Let's turn it around and make it positive. Because Jesus died for you, you are an heir of God, you have a vast inheritance, and because Jesus shed his blood for you, you are completely forgiven of all your sins. There it is. So that's the two-part outline that we're working on, but we're just going to go verse by verse as we usually do to try to understand this more fully.

Look at verse 15. Christ is here presented, as we've already seen, the mediator of a new covenant. For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. So the author begins in this section for this reason. This is why Christ is the mediator of a new covenant. What is the reason? He answers the question why, what is the reason? So that we who are called may actually get our inheritance. That's the mentality, or the idea is without this new covenant, the covenant Jesus came to bring, we would not receive the inheritance, it would be intended for us, but it would never get to us.

And God wants this inheritance to be absolutely guaranteed, so he puts all of the work in the hands of his son, so that the job gets done. That's the mentality here. And so God wants this inheritance absolutely guaranteed. We get the same idea here in Romans 4:16. There the Apostle Paul writes, "Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring." Same kind of idea, God entrusts these issues of promise, faith, grace equals guarantee. The bottom line here is if we are involved in any significant way here, we will fail, we will not receive the promised eternal inheritance. It must be of grace alone, it must be by faith alone, it must be by Christ alone, or else we won't get it. And so God really wanted this inheritance to be guaranteed, and so Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, this is why he is.

Now, a covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties. The mediator of the covenant is a go-between who takes care of the details of the covenant, communicates the stipulations, the blessings of that covenant, etcetera. The Old Covenant was mediated to us through angels by a mediator. It says in Galatians 3 that mediator was Moses, Moses was the human mediator of the Old Covenant. But we need a mediator between us and God. Job cried out for this in Job 9. He says, "God is not a man like me, that I might answer him, or that we might confront each other in court." We can't do that. "If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay a hand upon us both, someone to remove God's rod from me so that his terror would frighten me no more." Job is yearning for Jesus, isn't he? He's yearning for what it says in 1 Timothy 2, "There is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." And so Jesus is the mediator, the go-between, who brings to us this new covenant.

And this new covenant we've already described, we've looked at the aspects of it in Hebrews chapter 8, from the words of Jeremiah 31, this new covenant that Jeremiah, that God promised through Jeremiah. "The time is coming," said the Lord, when he would make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It would not be like the first covenant he made with their forefathers, because they didn't keep it. God's wrath had to break out against them. "But this is the covenant I'll make after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, for I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more." Those are the stipulations of the new covenant, that the Lord Jesus has come to bring, and the author makes it very plain at the end of Hebrews 8, in verse 13, "By calling this covenant new, he's made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete and aging will soon pass away." This is a new covenant. Now, I believe that when it comes to personal salvation, when it comes to individual salvation, there has only ever been one covenant.

At the end of Hebrews in Hebrews 13 it talks about God who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep. The blood of the eternal covenant. Friends, we get saved the exact same way that Abraham got saved, by faith in Christ. There's only ever been this one covenant; therefore, the new covenant really equals the eternal covenant. The blood of the eternal covenant is the blood of the new covenant, they are one of the same, and that is the covenant that saves us. What's new is that through the work of Christ, it is clearer now who Jesus is, the fulfillment of the promise has happened. We can look back on history, not look ahead to prophecy, and we can see this has already been achieved, but it's the same covenant. God and eternity passed before the creation of the world will give to his elect total and complete salvation. He knew who they were, he knew them by name, and he made a covenant with his son, that if his son would shed his blood for them that he, God, would forgive them of all their sins, and that God would exhibit grace to them through the sovereign spirit. At the right time, he would call them into fellowship with himself, through repentance and faith in that gospel message, they would be saved.

That's the covenant, that's the eternal covenant made in the council of the trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, now revealed in time by what we call the new covenant, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. This is this covenant that Jesus has come to bring, complete and total salvation from all of our sins. And so for this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive this promised eternal inheritance, those who are called are the elect, the chosen ones, the ones we have discussed before, and they are sovereignly called by the grace of God. God is at work drawing the elect, he's at work, drawing them to himself. Throughout their lives, they're hearing scripture, they're bumping into aspects of the Gospel, but they're still in some mysterious way dead in their transgressions and sins. But they're hearing the message, they're hearing the message. And then at the right time when the day of salvation comes with the call, they hear the sound of a person's voice, or they might read it in scripture.

But they hear the Gospel, they hear of Christ crucified, the Son of God sinless shed his blood on the cross. They hear this message, and suddenly it makes sense. Suddenly, they can see the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ, in the work of Christ, and they're saved, they're called by the sovereign spirit, they're called out of darkness, into his marvelous light. And God wanted those called people to get the eternal inheritance, and so he entrusted the mediating work to Jesus, so that they can most certainly get what he intends to give them.

Now, what is this promised eternal inheritance? Well, God has willed to give us stuff. He's willed to give us valuables, he wants to give us immense valuables for all eternity. From the very beginning, God wanted to entrust the world to the human race, and so the world was their inheritance, Adam and Eve's inheritance. The problem is they sinned their way out of it. You remember how God had said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth," and they sinned, they violated God's laws and they were evicted from the garden of Eden and God put a flaming cherubim to guard the way back into the Garden of Eden back so that they could not eat from the tree of life and live forever. So they lost it, they lost their inheritance, and then in the right time then God called Abraham, and he made certain promises to him, Abraham, promises of the land, promises of fellowship with himself. In Genesis 13, after Lot separated from him and went down to Sodom and Gomorrah, God said, "Go through the land, look around. I'm going to give you this land to you and to your descendants as your possession forever." So there's the aspect of the land.

And then after the War of the Kings in Genesis 14 and the Melchizedek chapter that we've looked at in the past, then, in Genesis 15, when Abraham said, "I'm not going to take anything of their loot lest they say, that they made Abraham wealthy," God appears to him and says, "I'm going to make you wealthy, I'm going to make you infinitely wealthy, I'm going to give you myself. Do not fear, Abraham, I am your shield, I am your very great reward, I am what you get." And so those are the two aspects of the inheritance: Goods, property in some sense and God himself. And so, it says it is the "promised eternal inheritance." Promised because God has pledged it to us, he has sworn his fealty to it, he will most certainly keep this promise. God in effect the covenant cutting ceremony with Abraham, said, "May I cease to exist as God, if I don't keep this promise."

God cannot lie, and he's promised us this in Jesus, and it's a promised eternal inheritance. It means he's not going to give it and take it away later, it's going to be ours forever. You're going to be wealthy forever and ever, and this inheritance will come to you in good time, at the right time. So in Romans 4:13, it says, "It's not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world." Meditate on that phrase. Where did that come from? Heir of the world. I thought it was heir of Palestine. No, no, no, heir of the world. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth." We're going to get it all, friends. Why fight over it now? It's really wrecked right now, anyway, it's under a curse. It's going to be refurbished in a huge way, the new heavens and the new earth will be, it will be magnificent.

And best of all, we get God. There is your eternal inheritance, the promised eternal inheritance. And so I think one verse kind of sums all of that up. It's Revelation 21:7, and there it says, "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God, and he will be my son." Isn't that beautiful? So you get, you'll inherit all this. What's that? The New Jerusalem new heaven, new earth, all of it, you get it all and I will be your father, and you'll be my son. How beautiful is that? So, that's what Christ, that's the inheritance. Christ came to give.

My question now is how is it Christ's to give? We're gonna be talking in a moment about the last will and testament of Jesus Christ. How did it come to him to even give it to us?  Well, if you go way back to Hebrews chapter 1, "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things."  Christ is appointed as heir of all things, the universe is Christ's to give. God the father gave it to him to give.

 And so he says in Matthew 11:27, "All things have been committed to me by my father." How about that? "It's all mine to give." Isn't it pathetic when Satan tried to tempt him with the world and said, "Hey, I'll give it all to if you'll just bow down and worship." "It's already mine and there's no way I'm going to worship you." The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And so it's all Jesus, and I think this is really the whole point of Revelation chapter 5, as God the father sits on the throne with the scroll sealed with seven seals with writing on both sides and a mighty angel proclaiming, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" and no one was found who is worthy. Heaven, earth, or under the earth, all creation, unworthy.

But then the lion of the tribe of Judah, the lamb who was slain for us, comes and takes that scroll from the one who's glad to give it to him, God the Father gives to God the Son the rights, the title deed, really, to the universe, it's all his. And so Christ has the right to give it. And so it says in Romans 8:17, "Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

But Christ's death is required for us to come into our inheritance. That's what the author is telling us here in verses 15-17, look at it. "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."

Now, the first covenant was Sinai, the Old Covenant, the first covenant, the covenant of Moses. That covenant defined what sin was, exhorted the people under that first covenant not to sin, and then turned around and condemned them for the sins that were committed under that covenant, that's what that covenant did. Do you hear listed in that list there salvation at all? Any forgiveness in there? There is none. The first covenant did not have stipulations for forgiveness, it was not entrusted to the covenant of Moses to forgive sins, but merely to give a shadowy picture of the actual forgiveness of sins. And so there were sins committed under the first covenant. You think about the Ten Commandments, the people, the Israelites, they violated every one of them, continually violated them.

Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said you shall not murder, but I tell you that if you're even angry with your brother, you're in danger of the fire of hell." "You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but if you even look at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery with her in your heart." The Ten Commandments commanded us not to covet anything that belonged to our neighbor.

It's a heart issue. God looking at the heart, we violate that. The people under that covenant violated that covenant, they did not keep it, they committed sins. Jesus summed it all up in two great commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind." The second commandment like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." We don't keep that. We have sinned.

And so the Jews back then in the Old Covenant era sinned and the blood of Jesus is availed to cleanse them, the Old Covenant sinners, of their sins, and we, who were never under the stipulation of that covenant, yet, when you read the Ten Commandments, you know this is the moral will of God. We know that we have sinned too and deserve to be condemned for the exact same sins. And so Jesus, it says, has died to release us from the sins committed under the first covenant so that we can receive the inheritance.

Imagine a wealthy man, who has got kind of a ne'er-do-well son, gets into trouble all the time. This man's worth millions and millions of dollars, but the son gets into some huge legal trouble. He commits murder, is arrested, convicted, and condemned to death, but he is this man's heir. Will he receive the inheritance? Now, I don't know what happens while he's on death row, but I know this: After he's executed it's not going to do him any good. We cannot receive the promised eternal inheritance guilty of sins before Almighty God. We can't. The only way we can come into our inheritance is to have our guilt dealt with, and the only way it can be dealt with is through the death of Jesus, and so in order for us to come into our promised eternal inheritance, we must have Christ's death as a ransom to set us free. The word "ransom" could also be translated "redemption," there's a sense of the payment of a price, to buy us out of guilt, to buy us out of slavery, of bondage to sin.

And so Jesus has died to set us free so that we can be heirs. And so, it says here in verses 16-17, the logic of the last will and testament. In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died. It never takes effect while the one who made it is living.

And so, we have here, I think, very much a last will and testament analogy. It's a picture, it's an illustration, and it's only analogy, there is no perfect analogy for the cross of Christ. There are many different kinds of pictures of the work of Christ on the cross, there's a battlefield analogy in which Christ is the victor over Satan and crushes him. There's the marketplace images where Christ pays a price to buy us out of slavery, there's the judicial image where Christ's blood is the propitiation for our sins and we're declared not guilty by the judge. All of these are true. None of them is perfect, they all have to be taken together, until we get the full picture. And so, in this text, we have both the last will and testament plus the blood of the covenant, both, don't pick and choose. I know it's confusing that it's the same Greek word that goes with both, but I think that the author's actually using that to his advantage. Both of these things are going on.

So we have the last will and testament of Jesus. That's the analogy. And what the author is saying here is that somebody who makes a will, if they want to actually give the goods to the loved ones, that person has to die. And so, this analogy comes.

Now, there are some similarities and some differences of the ordinary last will and testament. Let's talk about some of the similarities. First of all, the will is enacted only upon the death of the one who made it. Christ died, we get the stuff, that's the logic.

Secondly, the will actually disperses goods to the heirs. Goods come to the heirs, good things come as a result of the will.

Thirdly, the will legally disperses those to the heirs. They legally belong to the heirs, so you get the key to the mansion or the key to the antique Rolls Royce or whatever it is you're getting. It's yours. That heirloom jewelry was grandma's; now it's legally yours. You're not a thief, it has been transferred over to you legally.

And then the will, fourth, chooses the time and circumstances when the heirs get it. If, for example, the heirs are children and can't really handle the full inheritance, then it's put in trust for them until they become adults. Meanwhile, provision is made in the will for money coming out of the estate to support them until they become adults.

And so it says in Ephesians 1 that the Holy Spirit is the deposit guaranteeing our full inheritance, and so we get little down payments coming out of our heavenly inheritance through the Holy Spirit. Every time the Spirit whispers to you that you're a child of God, that's part of your down payment. That's part of your payment, your stipend to keep you going until you see Jesus face-to-face. Isn't that sweet? That's the power of the will. You're getting some of that heavenly inheritance coming early here on earth.

So those are four points of comparison, but there are some significant differences, too. And the differences are glorious. I want to focus on two differences. First of all, in a normal human will, when the guy dies, he's done. You know what I'm saying? This stuff will never be his again, he's finished. That would be just flat out creepy. You finally get the house, and there she is, or there he is, that's called a haunting. And I don't think that really even happens; it's in plenty of stories, but the person's dead, and so they have relinquished the goods to the heirs.

It's just, you can't take it with you, friends, I hope you know that. And so the one who makes the will, when he dies, he relinquishes it. However, Christ rose from the dead on the third day and he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. This stuff is all still his and he will have it forever. He hasn't relinquished enjoyment of any of it, it's all still his. What he's inviting you to do, in the language of Romans 8:17, is to be an heir of God, and a co-heir with Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? So, the goods are all still Jesus's.

Second of all, as seen by my opening illustration, and it's a tragic thing when it happens, these wills come and divide loved ones, people squabble, they fight over it, and it's just a basic logic that two people can't share the same item. If there's a rare painting, you can't have two owners of it, you're not want to Solomon-style cut it down the middle and each of you have half. It has to be given to one or the other. And so, it's very tragic when families are divided by squabbling over money and over wills and things like that. It should never happen to a Christian.

I already told you're going to get it all anyway, at the end, right? Well, that's my whole point here. Each heir gets the full inheritance. The amount you get isn't in any way diminished when 100 new people come to Christ. Isn't that awesome? We could have another 10,000 people come to Christ, and you get the same inheritance, you get God as your Father, you get to sit at table with Almighty God, you get to be in the new Jerusalem, and you get to walk on the new heaven, the new earth and look at its beauty and live there, and you're not in any way diminished at all by more and more and more heirs. Even a multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation.

I told you there's two differences, they're both glorious, but this is the last will and testament of Jesus Christ. Then the author just moves, amazingly, into covenant language.

Look at verses 18-22. "This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood." You see in one verse, he's shifted over and now he's talking about covenant. This is why commentators tend to be forcing a choice between the two. I'm telling you, don't choose, it's both. The covenant was not put into effect without blood, the first covenant. "When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool, branches of hyssop, sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, 'This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep.' In the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."

So the focus here is on the first covenant as an analogy for the second, the final covenant, and the necessity of blood. You've got to have blood. Now, in this first covenant, the blood served as both purifier and pardoner. Sin defiles us, it makes us dirty and everything we touch becomes defiled. We are defiled, people, and the stuff we deal with becomes defiled, it must be cleansed. And the blood is given to purify that defilement. Also, there's the issue of pardon. The blood is given that we might have pardon or forgiveness.

Now, this text has some difficulties. Basically, as you read this, it's like, when did this happen? You read about this, it says that after all of the law had been proclaimed Moses said the following things to the people, etcetera. "He took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool, branches of hyssop, sprinkled the scroll." The scroll is the law. He sprinkled the actual Bible with blood and he sprinkled all the people, and he spoke these words. "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep." And he sprinkled the tabernacle with blood and sprinkled everything else.

Well, friends, you'll read the Old Covenant, you will not find this, it's not there. Now, you read it and think, "Oh, it makes sense," but just focus on the scroll. Do you know of any time that a scroll, though, the writing was sprinkled with blood? I don't. So we have a bit of a difficulty here. You didn't know you had a difficulty. That's part of my job is to come in here and say, "There's difficulties here," but what I'm trying to do is to get you to think a little bit deeper and say, "Okay, what's going on?" First of all, we know the Book of Hebrews is not in some way flawed. The author of Hebrews didn't make a mistake here, these things happened, but I believe they were not recorded in the Pentateuch.

See what I'm saying? The author is giving us new information. Wait a minute, is he allowed to do that? Yes, he's a New Testament writer of scripture. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he can do all kinds of things you and I can't do. And so sometimes the New Testament gives us information we did not have any other way. Let me give you... A plain example is in the Book of James, the very next book. In the Book of James, it talks about Elijah, saying he was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three and a half years. Stop. When did that happen in the Old Testament? I know the drought, I'm talking about the prayer.

It's not there. Was James wrong? No, Elijah actually did pray that it wouldn't rain, Elijah prayed for drought. Where is it recorded? It's not recorded in the Bible, it's recorded in the Old Testament, it's recorded in the New Testament. James has given us new information. That's what the author is doing here.

Now, let's get to the main point. The issue is, yeah, there's all these difficulties, but we get it. The idea is blood was huge in the Old Covenant, we needed blood sprinkling everything used by the priests, the Levites, everything used in the Old Testament, the sacrificial system. And why is that? Because we as sinners defile everything we touch. And so even the scroll that was written with the Word of God was in some way needing to be purified because it had been touched by human hands. So that's what the author is giving us here. And so, this final principle is without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness. Why not? Why not? Why is it that without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness?

A last will and testament doesn't require a bloody death on the part of the one who made the will, that's not required, just a death. But the covenant requires blood, that's why it's both last will and testament and covenant. The covenant required blood, there had to be a bloody death. Why? Well, because God linked together from the very beginning sin and death, and he told us in Leviticus, "The life of the creature is in the blood." And so he required the blood of the sinner to be poured out, the soul whose sins will die, the wages of sin is death. And so, the bloody death is a picture of God's wrath, his anger for us against our sin, we deserve to die, we deserve to be condemned forever in hell. That's what the picture is. So it's not just like the giving of blood like at a Red Cross blood drive, it's blood poured completely out to death.

God required it, and that's the simple answer. You say why is it true that without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness? Because God says so, that's why. And God requires the shedding of blood so that there may be forgiveness, and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, but the glorious good news of the gospel is there has been a shedding of the blood. Though the verse is negative, yet the truth is positive. Jesus shed his blood for sinners like you and me, and because of the shedding of blood, because of the shedding of blood, we are completely forgiven of all of our sins, and because the one who made the will has died, we can receive our promised eternal inheritance.

So what application can we take from this? Well, first and foremost, as I've said so many times before, come to Christ, trust in Christ, believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Earlier verses, we talked about the plague of a guilty conscience. Maybe a guilty conscience assaulted you, even as you walked in the sanctuary today. Maybe you're very well aware of your sins and you've never trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. There is no other savior, there's no other way to come into this eternal inheritance. Come to Jesus. Believe in him. All you do, you just look to him and you say, "Jesus, I'm a sinner, I've violated your laws. I've been a murderer in my heart, although I haven't done it with my hands, maybe. I've been an adulterer in my heart, though maybe I haven't actually committed the act, but I've done it. I've been a covetous man or woman. I've yearned for things that you've given to others. I've not loved you with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. I've not poured myself out for my neighbor. I'm a selfish person and I need Jesus, I need forgiveness, won't you please be my savior?"

Anyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. Trust in him. And for you who have already trusted in Christ, just understand the text. Remember I gave you a two-part outline? Because Jesus died we have come into our inheritance. Because Jesus shed his blood, we are completely forgiven of all of our sins. There's your two-part outline. Understand it, and then praise God for it, give him thanks. Don't fail to do it, actually stop and in your hearts, say, "Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me, that was costly. You shed your blood so that I could come into my inheritance, that my sins will be forgiven. Praise you, O Lord."

And then can you please live as wealthy people? Just live as rich heirs, as you are. Don't be anxious any more about your life, about your body, about your health, about your job, about your money. God has already given you the greatest, namely his own son dead on the cross, how would he not also along with him graciously give you everything you need for life and godliness, and then heaven at the end? So live like a wealthy person, your treasure is kept in heaven for you. Moth and rust can't destroy; thieves can't break in and steal. Free yourself up from yourself and start serving God and serving others, and don't complain anymore. Let's just make that a simple application. You're rich, so why are you complaining?

A number of years ago, I heard a biography on John Newton by John Piper. He's talking about how Newton was an incredible preacher and he used beautiful illustrations and he talked about this one illustration, I'm going to close with it. And he says, "Suppose a man is going to New York City to receive a fabulous inheritance, but on the way, middle of a rainstorm, the man's carriage wheel breaks. He gets out and he trudges in the rain to receive his million pounds or whatever it is he's going to receive, and the whole time he's muttering, 'My carriage wheel is broken, the carriage, it's broken, my carriage is... ' And you're walking with this guy. What do you want to do, other than smack him? 'What's the matter with you? I was hoping to get some crumbs that fell from the master's table, and look at you and you're complaining over a carriage wheel breaking?'"

That's a powerful illustration. And once I heard it I never forgot it. How many days do we spend muttering, "My carriage is broken, my carriage is broken." Stop doing it. You are an heir of God, and a co-heir of Christ. Jesus shed his blood for you, your sins are forgiven, he is giving you everything that has been entrusted to him so you can be a co-heir with him. Rejoice and be glad for ever more. Close with me in prayer.

All week long I've been looking forward to this moment, looking forward to the joy of preaching the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse a guilty conscience. What an incredible gift we have in the Gospel. And I think if we really have the ability spiritually to perceive the burdens, the pressures of the people around us, we would realize that the issue of a guilty conscience is one of the biggest issues of human life and experience. We have a sense inwardly that we are guilty and it presses on us; it's an affliction. And it comes up throughout culture and music and literature. Some of you perhaps can remember in high school when you were reading Shakespeare's plays and Macbeth, one of the darker plays, but Lady Macbeth urges her vacillating husband to kill Duncan, so that he can seize the throne for himself. And she assures her husband, just a little water will clear us of the deed. But it's not so easy after the man's murder. Lady Macbeth herself afflicted with a guilty conscience, sleep walking at night, having nightmares, rubbing her hands, rubbing them, rubbing them, as if to clean them of some substance and says very famously, "Out, out damn spot, out I say." And she can't get rid of it. Who knew that the man had so much blood in him. She's actually thinking about the actual shedding of the blood, and the murder, and she just can't get it out of her mind. She is absolutely afflicted by a guilty conscience and in the end, she commits suicide.

Or again, Edgar Allen Poe's story, the dark tale, The Tell-Tale Heart, a man murders another man and the neighbors hear some noises, and a policeman comes and he had hid the body under the floorboards of the very room that the policeman and he are talking. And as they're having this discussion, this murderer hears louder and louder and louder the beating of this dead man's heart until, finally, he can't stand it anymore and just rips up the floor boards and shows the policeman where the body is hidden. Well, those are literature tales. I think that I'm preaching today to people who know very well, intimately well, the power of a guilty conscience. And it's my joy and privilege as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to proclaim liberty or freedom for the captives today, in the name of Jesus Christ. And so, what better work could there be of any preacher of the Gospel as we come to Hebrews Chapters nine and 10, I think we really come to the glowing center of this magnificent epistle. This is the theological, the weighty center of the Book of Hebrews.

Now we've already seen the supremacy of Christ. Christ is superior to all of the Old Testament prophets. He's superior to the angels, who were the mediators of the Old Covenant. He's superior to Moses, who was the human mediator, who was just a servant in all God's house, but Christ the Son over God's house. He's superior to Joshua who brought the people into a physical promised land but could not ensure that they stay there. He's superior to Aaron and to Levi and that Levitical priestly system that was set up under the law of Moses, which had no actual power for the cleansing and the forgiveness of sins. He's even superior to Abraham who in some mysterious way, paid a tithe, or Levi paid a tithe through Abraham. And so, therefore, Abraham is seen to be in some way inferior to Melchizedek who represents Christ. So we see the supremacy, the superiority of Christ. But what is the point of all that? It's that this superior Christ brings us a superior covenant by which we are saved.

And the nature of that priestly work of Christ is the focus in Hebrews 9 and 10. And so in this text today, we're going to see the superiority of Christ and His priestly work, superior in it's location as He offers His sacrifice in heaven, not on earth. That the blood itself that He offers is superior. It's the precious blood of Christ, superior to the blood of bulls and goats, and calves. We're going to see the achievement and the effectiveness of Christ's priestly ministry and how it results ultimately in us serving the living God with clear consciences. And so that is the delight that's in front of us today.

Look at Verse 11, as the author gives us this. He says, "When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say not a part of this creation."

 So the author is dealing here with the perfect place of Christ's mediating work as our high priest. It is heavenly and not earthly. The author gives us this title "Christ." The word Christ is the Greek word for Anointed One or Messiah. And Christ was anointed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, the eternal Spirit is going to come up later in this morning's message, but in every case, the Old Testament offices, prophet, priest, and king were anointed offices.

King Saul, King David, King Solomon, were anointed with oil for their office. Elijah anointed Elisha with the oil as prophet in his place, and so the prophet was an anointed office. Aaron was anointed with a special anointing oil as priest. These were anointed offices and the anointing, I think, in every case refers to the ministry of the Holy Spirit through these offices. And so Christ now, specifically His office as priest, is in focus here and it is an anointed office. When Christ came, it says, as high priest, our anointed high priest. And the word came here, implies in the Greek a certain appearance, when He appeared when He showed up or presented Himself as high priest. A sense almost of a majestic fanfare like trumpets, "Here at last is the high priest, and He is appearing for us." Now, it could refer to His incarnation, when He was born, of the Virgin Mary, but I don't think so. It could refer to the day in which He presented Himself to Israel or John the Baptist spoke and said "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But I don't think so.

I think here is Christ presenting Himself to our Holy Father. Our Heavenly Father, on our behalf, is our high priest in heaven when Christ appeared in the heavenly realms, and it speaks here of the good things that are already here. Christ the mediator of a new covenant, who has come to bring us as it says in Ephesians, "Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms." Oh, those are good things. Are they not? And they are already here, now that Christ has come. Jesus is the mediator of this New Covenant, which brings us rich blessings. A treasure trove of spiritual things, these good things that are already here. And they've been here now for 2000 years, we are in the new covenant era and Christ came as the mediator of this new covenant. It says He went through a greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made man made. Now, we've already looked at the beginning of this chapter, at the physical tabernacle. The Old Covenant tabernacle. It was a tent made of linen and animal skins and acacia wood poles, and precious metals and different things, but it was earthly it was man made; it was a shadow and a type of the perfect tabernacle that is in heaven.

And so I think it represents the heavenly throne room of God. The true Holy of Holies, the true Holy Place or most Holy Place, where Jesus has now appeared for us on our behalf, this greater and more perfect tabernacle. And it says, He went through this. There's a sense of the movement of Jesus. And so I picture here in some amazing and powerful spiritual way Jesus moving through the heavenly realms. He has passed through the heavens, it says in Hebrews 4:12, He is exalted above the heavens, it says in Hebrews 7:26, Jesus went through this greater and more perfect tabernacle, the heavenly one that which is not part of this creation. So we see the superiority of the work of Christ in the location. He is ministering for us in the heavenly realms before the very presence of God.

Secondly, we see the perfect sacrifice of Jesus in verse 12, it says there that "He did not enter by means of the blood of bulls and goats or goats and calves, but He entered the most holy place, once for all, by His own blood." So the question here is this issue of entrance, the entrance of the high priest into the most holy place, definitely picking up on the echoes of that day of atonement, that one day a year in which the high priest was enabled, empowered, permitted to go into the most holy place where the presence of God was. The Ark of the Covenant, the cherubim of glory, sends the picture of the presence of God amongst his people. That one day a year, he was able to enter to go in into the presence of God. By what right did he enter? Well, he brought in the blood of animals under the Mosaic Law, but this high priest, our perfect high priest, did not so enter. He entered by means of His own blood. What right did he have? By what means did he enter? That's the question in front of us. And so the issue there is the perfect holiness of God and the wickedness and sinfulness of man. What right did we have to stand in the presence of God? And this mediator, what right does he have to bring us sinful as we are into the very presence of Almighty God?

Our God is holy. As we saw last week, He is a consuming fire, he sits on a throne, that's all ablaze, it's wheels are all ablaze, Daniel Chapter seven, a river of fire flowing from that throne representing the judgement and the righteousness the holiness of God and what right did this high priest have to enter into His presence? And so there's a sense of the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man and the requirement of blood sacrifice. Blood sacrifice is essential for this high priest to enter, as it was essential for the Levitical priest to enter. And so we must have the blood. And so, the contrast here is the blood of animals versus the blood of Jesus Christ. "He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves. But He entered the most holy place, once for all, by His own blood." And so we come at last to this issue, the necessity, the absolute necessity of blood sacrifice. Now, historically in science, it was Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century who first started studying blood itself, biologically. Blood cells, the movement of blood and capillaries. And up to that point, the microscope had been somewhat of a toy, but he used it for scientific advancement. He was studying blood and trying to understand the connection between blood and life. But it's not the biology of blood that's of interest to us here; it's the theology of blood.

Blood Necessary for Atonement

And it's very, very plain here in the Book of Hebrews that "without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness" of sins. And it goes all the way back to Leviticus 17:11, and there in the Law of Moses, says very plainly, "The life of the creature is in the blood. And I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." And so God set up this principle of the connection between the shedding of blood and atonement or forgiveness. There's an absolute connection between the two. And so it is by the means of Christ's own blood that He enters. And what is this connection? Well, it's the death penalty for sin from the very beginning, God commanded forbad Adam from eating of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and He put the death penalty in connection with that, with that prohibition. Said, "You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die." And so it says in Ezekiel 18, "The soul who sins will die." "The wages of sin is death." And so, it isn't just blood per se, but it's the pouring out of blood, it's the death of the substitute that's in view here.

And only by the shedding of this blood can forgiveness be worked, but Christ blood, His own blood is what He had to offer not the blood of animals, the infinite superiority, I say the preciousness of the blood of Christ is what's in front of us in the text. The Apostle Peter puts it this way. "You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but it was with the precious blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish or defect." What is it that makes something precious? I tell you that the blood of Jesus Christ is the most precious substance there has ever been. The most valuable substance. What makes something valuable? I think it's rarity combined with a certain usefulness to the human race or a certain beauty or attractiveness. Gold is precious because it's both rare and beautiful, attractive for jewelry and for other purposes, and so it's precious. So also diamonds are considered precious because they're rare and they're beautiful. And can be used for jewelry or for other scientific purposes. Oil is not beautiful, it doesn't smell good, but it is precious because it's somewhat rare and it's the most efficient energy supply that the human race has ever found. It's tremendously efficient fuel and so it's incredibly valuable. And so we see the preciousness.

Sometimes medications can be incredibly precious if they're difficult to manufacture and they're in demand. I read some time ago about not just the discovery of penicillin, but how it was mass-produced and what a journey it was from when Alexander Flemming first discovered that penicillin could kill these bacteria in the dish. From that observation to when it was actually available as a medicine was a long journey, was very, very difficult; it was extremely expensive to make penicillin. As a matter of fact, the first patient that ever received penicillin was a British man, who cut himself shaving and then got infected and he was dying from the infection, and so they gave him what penicillin they had available, and it was remarkably effective for a while. But they ran out of the supply and in the end, the infection resumed even more powerfully and the man died. And so the big press at that point was to manufacture more and more penicillin. But I tell you in the final hours of that man's life, the most precious substance in the world for him would have been penicillin.

Well, how much more than the blood of Jesus Christ. There not only our physical lives hang in the balance but our eternity as well. It is by the precious blood of Christ that we sinners can stand blameless and unafraid with clear consciences before Almighty God, how precious is that? It is the most precious substance there has ever been on Earth and so it is by faith in the blood of Jesus that we are cleansed of our sins. And Romans 3:25, says it quite directly, God presented Christ, "presented him as a propitiation through Faith in His blood." The word propitiation means, a sacrifice that removes the wrath of God, and it is by faith, by simple faith in the blood of Jesus, that all of your sins are forgiven, that you're not any longer under the wrath of God. And so there is this complete link between the blood and our forgiveness. Now, modern sensibilities recoil from that. The picture of a bloody Jesus on the cross is repulsive. And some churches have chosen to kind of hide that a bit. I was reading once of a church that was trying to do everything they could to make the gospel comfortable to the non-Christians that were invited and so they were trying to take away any offensive images any offensive language.

Well, there was a new worship leader there, and he did a set of songs that all focused on the blood of Christ and this Pastor, this lead pastor actually got up and apologized for all the blood images has said it wouldn't happen again. Dear friends, I will never apologize for the blood of Jesus, it will always happen again in this pulpit because it is only by faith and the blood of Jesus, that we can be forgiven. The picture of Jesus bloody on the cross has never been appealing or attractive. It wasn't meant to be. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him. Nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. It says in Isaiah 52 that he was so disfigured and marred beyond human likeness. King shut their mouths and were appalled at His appearance, and "so will He sprinkle many nations." It has never been attractive, the bloody Jesus, but it is by faith in this blood that we are made whole. It is by faith His blood that we are forgiven of all of our sins. And by that perfect means, Jesus enters once for all that most holy place. He doesn't need to enter again and again, the work is done. He has entered and he stands there in our presence, pleading the merits of his blood.

And so we see the perfect achievement of this in Verse 12, and that is our eternal redemption. "He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the most holy place, once for all, by his own blood having obtained eternal redemption." That is the perfect achievement of the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. He has achieved or attained for us eternal redemption. Now, what does that mean, what is redemption? Well, the idea of redemption is a huge issue in the Bible in the old covenant. The idea is the rescue of a captive by the payment of a price. So in our understanding, you could think about someone that's been kidnapped and being held for ransom, and that person's in captivity, they're in danger, and the price has to be paid to deliver them. Or in the old testament world, there's the issue of slavery, bondage, and so the idea of redemption is of buying someone out of that bondage so that that individual can either be free or serve another master. And so that is the image of redemption. When the Jews were delivered from Egypt.

When God, by His mighty hand and His outstretched arm delivered them, he did it by means of 10 supernatural plagues on the whole land of Egypt and the final plague was the most dreadful, the most terrifying one. God had said to Pharaoh, I told you to let Israel, as my first-born son, I told you let my first-born son go. But since you won't then I will kill your first born son. And so the plague on the first born, all the first born of Egypt, of man and of animals, were plagued. And the implication was clear that the first born among the Jews also deserved to die, but a plan was made whereby the first born could be redeemed, by the blood of the Passover lamb. And so the Passover lamb was sacrificed and they were redeemed from the judgment of God. So that's another issue of redemption, not just gotten out of being kidnapped, or being a slave, but under the judgment of God, to be redeemed from the judgment of God. And so God made it plain from that point on, effectively saying, "I want you to know all of the first born are mine, and they have to be redeemed." And so they would be redeemed either by animal sacrifice or by the payment of a price.

So what is our redemption? It is the blood of Jesus Christ. The valuable blood of Jesus is the price that was paid to redeem us from slavery to sin and death, to free us from guilt, to free us from wrath and judgment. So it says in Ephesians 1:7, "In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." And there in Ephesians 1:7, there's a direct connection between redemption and forgiveness and the cost is His blood. The perfect consistency of the Bible on this topic, we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and we are forgiven. And as a result of that, now having been delivered from bondage to sin and death, we are now free to serve another master. We are not our own master.

No, it says in 1 Corinthians 6, "You are not your own, you were bought at a price, therefore honor God with your body." God is our master now. Sin used to be our master, death used to be our master. Now we've been delivered, redeemed from that so that we can serve the living God. He is our new master, and will be for all eternity. It says in Revelation that his servants will serve Him. And so we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

But there is one extra word that I don't want to skip. "Having obtained eternal redemption." Eternal redemption. We are eternally redeemed. If you were forgiven yesterday, you're forgiven today. If you're forgiven today, you will be forgiven tomorrow and for all eternity. God doesn't change his mind on this. You are completely free from all guilt if you are free indeed. And if you have come to Christ, if you have believed in Him, you were free 10 years ago, you're free five years ago, you're free today, and you'll be free for a millennia, yet to come. It is an eternal redemption that Christ has bought for us.

How valuable is that and see, therefore, the perfect effectiveness of the work of Christ in verses 13 and 14, says there "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctify them so they are 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 we have here the effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice before us and the author is using a "How much more" argument, he's comparing the effectiveness of Old Covenant sacrifices in their time to the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus Christ now, and he's using a how much more argument. So how effective were those old covenant sacrifices?

Well, in order to understand this, you have to understand the issue of ceremonial unclean-ness. Back in the old covenant, there was such a thing as ceremonial unclean-ness. If something happened to you in everyday life, or something in some way had defiled you through sin, could be an accidental thing or it could be a volitional thing, you would be considered unclean and you had to become ceremonially clean in order to enter into the assembly of the people of God and continue to worship with them. You were excluded from the assembly of the worshippers while you were unclean, and so it could be you had an emission of blood or other bodily fluid that would make you unclean, you could have a sore that wasn't healing, and so lepers were continually unclean, they couldn't come into the presence of God. It could be that you touched a carcass that day, a dead body and you were ceremonially unclean. I think there are over 125 uses of the word unclean.

In the Book of Leviticus, Book of Leviticus is about holiness and about unclean-ness. And so if you are priest, you might actually spend a lot of time dealing with the issue of unclean-ness looking at wounds and sores and bleeding things and all that to determine if the person was clean or not and could enter into the assembly of the righteous, and continue to worship. And so what the author says here is that the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer when sprinkled on those who, up to that point had been ceremonially unclean, when that happened, when that ritual happened they were now considered clean and they could actually, in real life, enter the assembly of the righteous, and continue to worship; it was effective. It actually cleans them and enable them to worship the living God. So the author then says, "Well if that's true, and you can see when you've got goats, bulls and ashes, something so low something so earthy compared to the blood of the eternal Son of God," and we can see the argument that he's making. "How much more then will the blood of Jesus cleanse our consciences?" Now, look at this phrase he gives right in the middle here. How much more will Jesus, the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself unblemished to God?

What an incredible statement this is. First, just the idea of the Spirit's ministry through Jesus the spirit anointed Jesus he is the Christ anointed by the Spirit and covered him all the way through his ministry from beginning to end, and so it was by the power of the Spirit and He is called here the eternal Spirit. And so we have the doctrine I think of the Trinity here, God the Father is eternally Father God the son is eternally son, and here we have the eternal Spirit, the eternity of God, and so through this eternal spirit, Jesus offered Himself unblemished and so the Spirit is on Jesus from beginning to end, it was by the power of the Spirit that the Virgin Mary conceived, it was by the Spirit that Jesus was baptized when he was baptized by John the Baptist, the spirit was there, and descended as a dove.

It was by the Spirit that Jesus was driven out into the desert to be tempted by the Devil for 40 days and the implication of this phrase, it is by the Spirit that Jesus continued unblemished through his life and so he returned in the power of the spirit after the 40 days, sinless and holy, and it's by the Spirit that He stood up in that synagogue in Nazareth and the scroll of Isaiah was unrolled and by the Spirit, He proclaimed the good news to the captives, so it was by the spirit that Jesus said all of his teaching, it was by the holy spirit that Jesus did all of his miracles, the miracles of Jesus, were by the Holy Spirit of God. But especially in view here, it is by the Spirit that Jesus died on the cross, and by the Spirit, he presents that blood un-blemished presents that blood to God on our behalf, this is a Spirit saturated ministry of Jesus, there is a perfect unity between the Father, the Son and the Spirit and the work of redemption isn't that beautiful, magnificent expression is by the Spirit that He offered Himself unblemished to God. And so how much more will the blood of Jesus cleanse our guilty consciences.

Now, we come at last to this beautiful phrase. "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 what is the conscience? What are we talking about when we come to the issue of conscience? Well, I think the conscience is hardwired into us as part of our human nature. It's part of what it means to be a human being. And so every human being on the face of the earth has a conscience, and what the conscience does is it learns some system of morality, it takes that system of morality and applies it to your life and it urges you to do what's right and to avoid doing what's wrong.

It's true all over the world. And then judges your behavior after the fact. And so after it's done, then the conscience testifies to you that you're either guilty or not guilty in what you did as far as you understand based on that system of morality you learned. Now, the conscience isn't a perfect guide because if the system of morality that feeds into it is faulty then the conscience will accuse people wrongly for something they shouldn't have been doing anyway. Like a Pagan who fails to offer a ritual sacrifice at a certain time may feel guilty but not before God; God didn't command that. But the issue of conscience is there all the time. Pressing on us, telling us to do what's right and to avoid doing what's wrong or saying you did right or you did wrong. It's right there. Now, of course, also if we continue to sin in a certain way, you can sear the conscience, so it doesn't really speak that much anymore. You don't listen to it. And that can happen, but it's still an issue.

And all over the world, people are struggling with guilty consciences. And I tell you there is only one remedy. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's got to involve the guilty conscience. How can I be whole again and feel happy again and be healed, in reference to sin? Only the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fountain I know nothing but the blood of Jesus and so only by the blood of Jesus can our guilty consciences be cleansed. It's an issue throughout Scripture. It was a guilty conscience that made Adam and Eve run from the sound of God, remember, as they're hiding behind the trees. It was a guilty conscience that may Cain lie about what he'd done with Able; he knew what he did was wrong.

It was a guilty conscience that made David to cover up the sin, by killing Uriah the Hittite, he laid with another man's wife, she conceived and became pregnant and then he tried to cover it up by killing Uriah and then, I believe for probably as much as a year, he hardened his heart and would not listen to God. And so in Psalm 32, it says. "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." That's that the plague of a guilty conscience. It was a guilty conscience that made Martin Luther flee after a lightning storm in Germany and join a monastery and try to work off the guilt of his conscience by good works in the medieval Catholic style. But nothing worked, nothing worked.

And so the guilty conscience... And I say that I'm not speaking just about biblical history or church history, I'm probably speaking about your history. It could be I'm talking to somebody right now who has come in here today with a guilty conscience and you're struggling, and you feel the pressure of it, and the weight of it. And this text says very, very plainly that the blood of Jesus is effective to clear, to clean your guilty conscience. It is a powerful force for the cleansing of a guilty conscience.

So the result of this is service to the living God. Look at verse 14. It says, "The blood of Christ… cleanses our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God." The word serve here means worship I think, literally. It's an issue of worship. So it's literal. It means worship. So that we can basically... Now that we're cleansed, enter into the assembly of the righteous, and worship God.

And so I don't think it's just the issue of corporate worship here, but it's your whole life given over to worshipping God, and serving Him, and how much more than when you die, to enter the assembly of the holy in heaven, the spirits of righteous men made perfect and join in the worship there. And so the blood of Jesus is powerful to cleanse our guilty consciences from acts that lead to death from those sinful, wicked things so that we may serve the living God.

So let me ask you directly, how is it with your conscience today? Let me speak first to a non-Christian. It could be that God brought you here today, specifically, to hear this message and to hear the freedom that the blood of Jesus can give you. The text mentions acts that lead to death; those are sins where you violate the laws of God. And perhaps it's something in your past, something you know that is wicked and sinful. You haven't even told people about it, nobody knows, but it's submerged in your life and you feel guilty and you can't get rid of that guilt. You've come to the right place. Come to the cross, come to Jesus. The shedding of Christ's blood is sufficient to free a guilty person from sin.

And so all you need to do is just trust in Jesus through faith in the blood of Christ your sins are forgiven. Well, what about for a Christian? Is it possible for a Christian to have a guilty conscience? And how does the conscience connect to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin? Well, as I said, the conscience is hardwired in. It's part of what it means to be a human being. You don't lose that when you become a Christian. What happens is the conscience begins a new education and a new moral system, a system of God's holy laws, and now it's pressing you to do what's right as it understands the laws of God, and it stands over you and judges you.

But I think in this way, sometimes the conscience needs to be educated. Hey, conscience, I'm free. Hey, conscience, I'm sinless and holy now, you don't need to accuse me anymore, I've already come to the cross. Sometimes you just have to preach to yourself and tell your conscience that you're out from under the guilt and you've come at last you received eternal redemption, not just seven-week redemption or seven-year redemption, you're already redeemed you've been redeem and you're going to keep being redeemed. But does that mean the conscience doesn't have something still the say to us now it does, because Christian still do sin, and when you sin, your conscience will do its work. It'll speak up and say that was wrong and the Spirit will use that. The question is what to do. Do you wallow and guilt? Or do you come quickly to the cross and do you first John 1:9, Confess your sins to God If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so with this work of the conscience, we also resolve, as Paul says, "I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man." He's speaking as a redeemed Christian. He's not speaking as someone who needs to be educated on the atonement; he knows. And he says, because of what Christ has done for me, I strive every day to keep my conscience clear before God of man. In another place, he says, "My conscience is clear but that doesn't make me innocent," so he's not trusting the conscience, but he's striving every day to not do defiling acts, those acts that lead to death, but instead to lead a godly and an upright life.

And so it could be you're sitting here today and you know exactly what's making you feel guilty. Maybe you had an argument with your spouse or a family member. Maybe this week, you've defiled yourself on the internet. Looked at internet pornography. Maybe you have been prideful or angry or selfish maybe you've been unforgiving. Maybe you've bickered. It could even be something that you really have never dealt with years ago and you starting get convicted by the spirit about it and you feel guilty about it; it doesn't mean you do nothing. We bring those things right to God, we bring them in confession to Christ and we say, "Lord, I've done this thing, I'm guilty, I've sinned against you, please forgive me."

And you receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit and assuring you that you are a child of God, that all of your sins are forgiven, the blood of Jesus is sufficient for you. And then by the power of the Spirit you resolve to walk in holy obedience to His commands and the pattern of the New Testament teach you. You're not going to continue to do that same thing. You're going to actually bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. You're going to fight the good fight of faith and not defile your conscience. Oh, the freedom that this text offers us, how sweet it is to stand today as children of the living God, the joy in our hearts, the accusations of a guilty conscience are addressed through the ministry of the blood of Jesus. Jesus is at the right hand of God and are seating for you, your faith is strengthened by the Word of God. And now we even get to partake in the Lord's Supper.

And when you hold that little cup of grape juice, when you look into that purple fluid, it's supposed to remind you of the blood of Jesus. You're supposed to think about the blood that was shed for you. You're supposed to think, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness; it's just juice. It doesn't magically change into the blood of Christ. But by the Spirit's ministry, by the ministry of the word, as you're looking at that, you can think, powerfully, "Jesus shed His blood for me, the precious blood of Christ, and I am clean." And if you have some work to do with your conscience, do it before you partake. Please don't partake if you're not born again, if you've never come to faith in Christ and testified to it by water baptism, just refrain. But, instead believe the Gospel, trust in Jesus while you're while you're watching others partake and then next opportunity you'll have a chance to partake. But let's praise God now for the joy that we have in Christ of full redemption through the blood of Jesus. Please close this portion with me in prayer.

Well, I'll never forget one particular morning, I know I've mentioned it before from this pulpit, when Christi and I were serving as missionaries in Japan, Tuesday, January 17th, 1995, the earth, literally, shook beneath my feet. 5:46 AM, I was getting ready to go for breakfast and prayer time with my Japanese pastor and his wife, and the great Kobe earthquake shook the ground. Over 5,000 people were killed in that city. No great tragedies like that in Tokushima where we were, but unbelievable power and strength to that earthquake, lasted 46 seconds. I remember the curtains swaying back and forth as though it was a windy day. I remember the floor shaking so much that the toilet water slashed out of the bowl, it was just an unbelievable time. The kind of thing... I don't even think I was terrified, I just didn't know what was happening. It was so amazing and astonishing, and then it hit me, we'd been in an earthquake, and how incredible that was.

And I remember also after that, in the weeks that followed, the after shocks. I remember seeing the kids' pool in the back and you could see ripples in the pool when those after shocks would come. Some of them are very weak, some are stronger, but it's a very unsettling thing to think that the ground beneath your feet, the very Earth under your feet can move. It leads you to wonder what is eternal, what is unshakable, what is that that we can hold on to that will never change, that will never move? And I think this is a question that's in front of us. Change itself is a difficult thing. For myself, as I look at my own life, I think about my own... The changes that have happened to me. You grow up, you get stronger, you get older, you gain certain capabilities, you reach your peak, but you didn't know at that time that was your peak. And then you kind of plateau for a while and then you get into regression, and you age. And thank you elderly saints for reminding me just what that's like, alright? And giving us vivid testimony to that.

Meanwhile, you see your own children then following in your footsteps. And again, acquiring capabilities, the ability to stand and then to walk and to talk, and then little by little, they just are able to do more and more, but then they're grown and gone. And so, change itself starts to feel a bit like an enemy. In that hymn, "Be still my soul when it talks about when change is passed." I say Amen when we sing it, we don't see that hymn very often, but there's something powerfully painful sometimes about change. And so, we look for stability and we think if there's one place that we can find it, it's in our religion. We come to church every week and we celebrate timeless unchanging truths about almighty God and we find security and stability in that. It just never changes and we love that, but then there are certain aspects of our church experience that do change. The songs that we maybe enjoyed in a certain way that we enjoyed them when we're growing up. Other people that come along later, younger people don't enjoy it in the same way. And so certain patterns of worship change around us and it begins to get a bit unstable, and we wonder what we can really hold onto? Is there anything really permanent, anything that we can grab onto?

And then a valid question, and as we come to this text here in Hebrews 12, 25-29, we look at two categories of things that are mentioned here, those things which can be shaken, and those things which cannot be shaken. So I'm jumping out of order. In my sermons in Hebrews to look at this passage in particular, more on that in a moment. But there are two categories of things here. Those things that can't be shaking our eternal, they're timeless, they never move. And then there are those things that can be shaken which the author tells us are created things, those physical things around us that can be shaken. And you may ask, "Why are you jumping a out of order?" First of all, I am. If you've been away and you came back, I didn't just hit the overdrive and we just zoomed through chapters 9, 10 and 11 of all things. Hebrews 11, when did that... I was looking forward to Hebrews 11 and now here we are, what happened?

Well, I jumped ahead, and we did it for a reason, because today the elders want to communicate to the church, and we want to speak about something that's been on our heart for a couple of years now, and it just has to do with patterns of corporate worship that we feel it's time to change. And those patterns are significant enough to mention it and to talk about it, and we'll give more details this evening, but my role this morning is to talk about these two categories of things and to give us a sense of those things that can never change, must never change, will never change by God's grace here in this church. And those things that must change. Our desires as elders at First Baptist Church is to conduct worship services every week that are faithful to those things that can never change, the unshakable things, the unshakable truths of God's word, but to do that in a temporary culture, in a temporary time, in a temporary building, with temporary musical instruments and temporary patterns, to marry those two together in a way that honors God.

And as we do that, to constantly in a winsome, delightful, God honoring way, connect with the generation that we're called on to reach with the gospel, the generation that we're called on to disciple and train up in the faith. And so that's the challenge that's in front of us. And as for me, as I look at this, I tend to see a lot of times visually, and I see us traveling on a narrow road with steep slippery slopes on either side. Recently I watched the YouTube video of a guy called 'The Swiss machine', and this guy is a free soloist rock climber, who climbed the Eiger North Face. Usually takes about two days to do it, climbed it without any equipment just these two picks, almost ran up the side of this mountain, vertical mountain, in two hours and 37 minutes. Just about freaked me out watching this thing. It was scary to watch, there's helicopters videoing this guy, etcetera. No ropes, nothing, just him in the mountain side and a tremendous amount of skill, and an awful lot of foolishness, in my opinion.

But the worst part of all for me visually, was when he got to the top of the Eiger, and it's just a knife edge and it's just as steep on the other side. And he was running to get the quickest time he could, running along the ridge to the summit. And I'm just, "Wow!" I just had a hard time watching it, especially because he stumbled a little bit. The crampon stumbled a little bit. I'm like, "I don't want to watch this guy die." Well, I knew he didn't die, but it was just... Now, for us elders, it's not so dramatic, alright? Not so spectacular, but still there is that sense of kind of a slope on the left and on the right. What are those slopes? Well, on one side you have the danger of theological compromise, a biblical compromise, that we would give in on certain aspects of the Gospel to please our surrounding culture and to satisfy itching ears, to compromise aspects of the Gospel to make people happy and comfortable in their rebellion against God. That we must never do, it's a danger though.

But there is an opposite danger, and that's something that's been growing in my mind and the mind of the elders. And I don't even know, I guess, how to describe it, but I've seen it and I've been to certain churches, that it just seems that they're frozen in time, just the world moved on. The music, the visual sense, the way that the people are, the way that they carry themselves, it just seems disconnected from the world that surrounds us. And so, as I think about that, as I look at that, I trace it back to what I think is probably a cowardly lack of following the Holy Spirit when the spirit said it was time to move out of certain patterns and keep moving. And as I look at it, I don't think that the reason that that church, and is characterized by a constant aging process, few and fewer younger people are involved, few and few younger families, not many baptisms. The babies that are celebrated being born are grandchildren and great grandchildren, they're not born in that church, born in other churches and in other states.

And as I try to diagnose what's going on there, I don't think it's primarily an issue that that church didn't keep with it in terms of corporate worship, it's not so much that. I think, a far bigger issue is a cowardly and faithless retreat from evangelism, from encountering lost people and seeking to bring them to faith in Christ. Why do we do it? Because it's not comfortable. A close cousin or maybe even a brother of that same mentality is we don't want any trouble in church either, we don't want to offend people, we don't want to have difficulties with church people, we don't want to ruffle any feathers. Let's just keep everything the same. And so, as a result of those things, the far greater being a lack of engagement with the outside world in the Evangelism, both of them trace to our own levels of comfort, what we feel good about, what makes us feel comfortable, because life is difficult and it's painful, and I just like a place of peace and security and comfort where I can be happy, and I just want to make it through and go to heaven.

Look, I understand that, I know that, but God hasn't called us to step back and retreat, but to engage and to hurt and to suffer and to allow the Lord to bind up our wounds and to keep going and serving him until we at last get to the place where there's no more death or mourning, or crying or pain and I would say no more change. We're not there yet. And so, I have a picture of myself in a kind of a shady arbor, with a nice stream going by and fruit you can just reach and grab off the bush, and it's just comfortable, and it's like the Lord's standing and saying, "Get up and move. We can't stay here. So if we do, I'll move on and you'll be left behind." So that's the opposite danger.

And so I want to communicate from the book of Hebrews what... Just some preliminary thematic concepts, the details will be tonight, of those things that can never change about corporate worship and those things that must be constantly changed. I don't mean constantly, like every week, but certainly every decade or two, so that we don't get wrapped up into traditionalism in certain patterns that can never change to become idols really, that are frozen in time. And I think there's no better book in the Bible to deal with this than the Book of Hebrews. And I think we've already laid enough groundwork for me to make that claim.

I tell you that no generation of Christians in history and Church history has ever had to make such significant changes in the area of corporate worship as did these Jewish Christians of the first century. It's astonishing when you think about what God was asking them to leave behind more or less instantly, within their own generation, immediately leave it behind. Everything was changing. The Levitical priesthood was obsolete, the temple was obsolete, the animal sacrificial system was obsolete, the thrice annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem were obsolete, the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles beginning at the circumcision were obsolete, the dietary regulations were obsolete. It was all changing.

And what is more, the author to Hebrews, and we haven't gotten there yet, in Hebrews 10, but the author of Hebrews in effect says, "If you don't by faith, move on into the promised land of a new form of new covenant worship, of spiritual worship. If you don't move on embracing an invisible high priest who is at the right hand of God and is ministering in an invisible way by the power of the Spirit and we no longer have a shrine that we're going to, and we no longer have all of these old covenant patterns. If you do not move on into the promised land of new covenant worship, you're really no better than that generation in the time of Moses that refused to enter the Promised Land, but shrank back through unbelief." You can't do it, the old covenant is over. And you need to move on. And so, the author at the end of Chapter 10, right before the faith chapter, he says this, "But my righteous one will live by faith." You live by faith "and if He shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."

That is a dynamic Christian life right there in those verses. We are going to live by faith, walk by faith, we're going to move by faith, we're not going to be shrinking back people. And then he immediately gives us Hebrews 11 to give us encouragement of what a life of faith looks like. God Himself instituted those very patterns of worship that were now obsolete, and God Himself was telling them to move on. Now, Jesus Christ in a beautiful and a powerful way, had prepared the people of his own generation for precisely these changes. I remember the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, and she's talking about the place of worship, this mountain or that mountain and Jesus says, "Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. There's a whole new kind of worship coming. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." More on that passage this evening.

But also very powerfully for me is Matthew 9-17, where Jesus again talking about a pattern of worship, in that case, fasting, gives this analogy of the Wine-skins. He said, "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved." Now, there's a way to take that either individually or nationally corporately, I think both are fair enough. But here's the thing, the new covenant that the Lord was coming and bring the new thing that Jesus was doing, the new wine was not going to be static, it was going to be dynamic, there was going to be moving, it was like wine, new wine still fermenting, giving off gases, and if that old wine skin can't handle it, it's going to rupture. And so you must be made flexible, you must yield to what the Spirit is doing or you will rupture.

And so I think any local church that isn't submissive to the Holy Spirit as He moves, as He goes out in that direction, runs the risk of rupturing and that's the warning I think that the wineskins gives us. So Jesus was preparing, and as I said, I think the book of Hebrews just does an admirable job addressing this, also because it talks about worshipping God acceptably. And so, it's a good passage to address the issue of corporate worship.

Let's look a little more carefully at Hebrews 12 and verse 25. And at the beginning, the central call this text is do not refuse the Lord who is speaking to us. Verse 25, "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven." The context of the statement, ordinarily, I would have already preached through this, so now I have to just go back and tell you what the author is doing here.

And in this section of Hebrews 12, he's already contrasted this earthly mountain Mount Sinai with this heavenly Mount Zion, he's drawn a contrast between the two. Mount Sinai represents earth and the earthly covenant of Moses, Mosaic covenant, and Mount Zion represents that heavenly future that we have in Christ. And so the contrast is very striking. I'm not going to go verse by verse, line by line, but Mount Sinai shook with the voice of God. It was a terrifying place with darkness and gloom and storm, and terrifying sounds like a trumpet blast in such a voice, speaking words at those who heard, begged that no further word be spoken because they couldn't bear what was commanded. If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. And Moses' reaction, he said, "I'm trembling with fear."

The author says, "You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: 'If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.' The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, 'I am trembling with fear.' But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

You've come to a superior place that cannot be touched. So what is the author doing? He's saying Mount Sinai can be touched, physical. We knew that stuff. Its type, its shadow, it's finished, it's done. Do not come to that. Now, we've come to a spiritual kind of worship and is meant for here and now, okay? Because he's speaking. "You have now come to this mountain by faith you've come here now." And we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We haven't finished receiving so it's here now. We have in a very mysterious, powerful, spiritual way, come to this heavenly worship place, this Mount Zion and it's so much better. It's infinitely better in every way.

And so the author is saying, "We can't refuse the one who's speaking. The same one who spoke then is speaking now, the one who spoke the old covenant is now speaking the new covenant and we cannot refuse, because if we refuse we will be destroyed." There's a threat here the author is giving. And really the issue is coming to faith in Christ, believing in Jesus and not rejecting Christ as Savior, clearly, and if you turn away from that he says you will not escape, you will be destroyed. The first covenant people day they destroyed it, how much less could we, if we turn away from Christ, that's what the author's saying here. The same God is now speaking the new covenant.

And then he talks about these things that can be shaken, those things that are temporary. Look at Verses 26 and 27, "At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, once more, I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." Verse 27, "The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken. So that what cannot be shaken may remain." So the shaking of the earth represents those things that are transitory. They're temporary, they're created things and they're only here temporarily. When I felt the earth moving under my feet, there in January of 95, I had a clear testimony that this earth is temporary, it's not here permanently, it's terrifying really, but it's true.

And so the physical things of this world are merely temporary, and many passages teach us this, this passage does, we've already had one in Hebrews Chapter 1, Verse 10-12. You can go back there and look but in Hebrews 1:10-12, the author says, "In the beginning oh Lord, you laid the foundations of the Earth and the heavens of the work of your hands. They will perish, but You remain. They will all wear out like a garment, You will roll them up like a robe. Like a garment, they will be changed, but you remain the same and your years will never end." Do you see the same thing? Things they can be shaken, and that which cannot be shaken. And so the universe itself is going to get rolled up like a robe and thrown away. Many passages testified of this truth. 2 Corinthians 4:18, says, that we walk by faith and not by sight, we trust in those things that cannot be seen not those things that can be seen, because those things that can be seen are temporary, but those things that cannot be seen are eternal. And so also in 2 Peter 3:10, we're told that every physical element around us will be destroyed, melted in the heat, and the Earth and everything in it will be laid bare, everything is going to be destroyed. It's all going to go.

What does that mean for our Sunday morning experience? Well, here we are at 414 Cleveland Street, in Durham, North Carolina. In case you didn't know where you were. 414 is temporary friends. Cleveland Street is temporary. Durham is temporary and so is North Carolina. This building that was built here was built in 1927, it's built in a new kind of classical neo-classical style, with the pillars out front, we've been told it looks like the post office. We have all kinds of interesting comments. There's no steeple. I guess people think it looks like the post office or some of the governmental building, but a very magnificent structure with the steps in front. In 1927 it was established. It was built, the interior with a balcony with wings that reached to the left and the right, all the way to these walls.

Those were removed in the 1970s, amidst a very rancorous debate, I'm told, I wasn't here, wasn't even a Christian at the time, was alive, but didn't care much about the balconies at First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina, I can assure you. Cared a lot about the Red Sox at that point, not much about the balconies. Still care about the Red Sox. Moving on. Balconies left and right. Lots of debate. Finally, they got taken down. I can't imagine what this room was a look like when those balconies were being ripped down, but they say it's just much lighter in here as a result, there's much more light that streams in through the windows, but a lot of debate. Everything here's temporary friends, if you don't know, then just walk through the hall back here. Have you been through the hall recently? Don't you love what we've done with it? Don't you love the lime green paint that we have uncovered? It's kind of growing on us. Like a mold, something like that. I don't know what it is, but there it is, it's temporary. Temporary, everything here, it's all temporary. The pipe organ is gone, completely gone. You didn't know that, did you?

I know you hear the sounds of a pipe organ, but there are no pipes. The pipe organ was removed in the 1990s. Again, amidst quite a debate and discussion, some purists wanted a real pipe-organ, but others say, "Look, the electronic versions are just as accurate." Not one person in a million can tell the difference, and a lot more inexpensive. It's temporary, the electronic one right here, temporary. We have this Steinway piano, beautiful instrument, it's beautiful to hear the sounds that come from it, friends, it's temporary. The carpet under your feet, it's temporary, the pews that you're sitting on are temporary, certain patterns of worship are temporary. When I first got here, the choir wore robes, maybe some of you remember that. They're gone. Lots of changes have happened in the worship since I've been here, lots of changes that Eric has moved in. Some of them a little more subtle, some more significant. These chairs here are temporary, everything around you. So that's what can be shaken.

Okay, what cannot be shaken? Well, look again in verses 27-20, "The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful." Well, what cannot be shaken is already listed above this text in Hebrews 12. Mount Zion cannot be shaken. It is established and firm, in the heavenly realms, it cannot be shaken, it's eternal, it's permanent, God Himself and His throne cannot be shaken. Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, cannot be shaken. His blood has established forever a new covenant, it is permanent, timeless, it cannot be shaken. The Kingdom itself, I'll talk more about this in a moment, it cannot be shaken. The countless worshippers that are up there, the spirits of righteous men made perfect, they cannot be shaken, they're done with being shaken by the things of this world. All of these things cannot... And the scripture reveals other things than just in Hebrews 12 that cannot be shaken. The Word of God cannot be shaken. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but God's word will never pass away. God Himself will never change, His characters His traits will never change. I, the Lord, do not change. So, you O Israel are not consumed, Malachi 3:6. He never changes.

He will not improve neither will Jesus ever change His nature. These things are timeless. They're permanent and there are practical aspects of our worship that are not going to be done in Heaven, but are timeless and cross-cultural and are just going to be there and are such all over the world. They're just parts of our present worship that cannot, will not change. God-centered worship. When we come together, we will celebrate God, we will celebrate Him, as He's revealed in Scripture, His attributes and His actions, His accomplishments, we're going to celebrate God, we're going to celebrate Jesus Christ and His achievement at the cross. We're going to keep preaching the same Gospel, we're going to keep preaching Christ crucified and resurrected. That's never going to change, and every word that we say and sing, and the comments, we're going to keep testing it by the grit of truth, the scripture is going to be the truth test, always. And so whatever lyrics we're singing it must be true, or we're not going to sing it. Prayer, and the public reading of scripture will not change. The consistent exposition of the Word, the proclamation of the Word is not going to change. We're going to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's right in the New Testament, we're going to do it, it's not going to change. We're going to be physically assembling together in a place of worship, and not forsaking that, because Hebrews 10 says that we must not forsake it. We're going to give ourselves faithfully to the administration of the ordinances that we saw of baptism, this week and I believe next week, is it Lord's Supper? Next week, Lord's Supper, prepare your heart for that. We are going to continue to faithfully Minister these two ordinances. We're going to continue to collect money, tithes and offerings for the ongoing support of this church, of the evangelization, of the lost and the relief of the poor. Those things are timeless features. And if I worked at, I could tell you some others besides, and they come up out of the text's scripture. For those of you that know what the regulator principle is, that's what it means to me, is these patterns, these structures come from the scripture. That's what it means to me.

What then does it mean to worship God acceptably? Now, that's the key question, isn't it? Look at Verses 28-29. "Therefore, since we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. And so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

What does that mean? Well, first, what I get out of these verses, is that there is such a thing as acceptable worship as and there is by contrast such a thing as unacceptable worship. We want, the elders at FBC want to do acceptable worship, we don't want to worship God in a way that He does not accept. We believe that the word of God defines what that is in the New Covenant, we want to understand that. And so just looking carefully at these verses, the first thing the author gives us as the ground of our corporate worship, is the fact that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Because, therefore, since we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us worship God. So the foundation of our worship is what we are receiving in Christ. Oh, praise God for that. That is never going to change. And what does it mean that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken? Well, to receive a kingdom means that you're an heir. We're going to talk more about this another place in Hebrews, but we are heirs of a kingdom, we are sons and daughters standing ready to inherit a kingdom.

We are receiving this kingdom, and it is a kingdom, therefore, that means that there's a king, we will celebrate forever King Jesus, seated on His throne the exalted mighty one, that is Jesus, He is our king forever. We're going to keep celebrating that, and because we are entering His kingdom, we will be subject to Him, every knee will bow and every tongue will swear that Jesus is Lord. We're going to be on our faces before that mighty king, we're receiving this kingdom, that cannot be shaken. And I've already talked about that, to say a little bit more, what could there ever be that could get Jesus off the throne of that kingdom? There is no power in heaven or earth or under the earth that can get Jesus off His throne. It is a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and because we are drawn in by faith, by repentance, by faith in the Gospel, we can't be shaken either. But look at the kind of present progressive, I already mentioned this, but we are in the process of receiving this kingdom. We haven't fully come into our inheritance yet, and because we are in the process of receiving this kingdom that cannot be shaken. And so that process has to do with internal journey and external journey, internal journey, sanctification, growing, becoming more like Jesus, as we kneel to Jesus more and more in every area of our lives, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

And as we serve Him, and as we obey Him, and follow His precepts by the power of the Spirit, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. But also as we take the gospel to the ends of the earth, we are seeing lost people come in, we yearn to see more baptisms. We want two grand tributaries into the baptismal area, we want the fruit of godly families, that we've seen this morning, where they raise up their children in the training and nurture of the Lord, and we want those that weren't raised in godly families. That didn't know anything about Jesus and then they meet someone from FBC and hear the gospel and they're brought to faith, brought to the fun, to the baptismal area, They are baptized and then they are discipled, that's what we want. We want both of those things. Don't you? I yearn for that. And so we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and because of that, what should we do, what does the text say? "Let us be thankful." One translation says, "Let us have grace." But most of the commentators say, this is clearly about thankfulness. It's about gratitude, it's about joy and celebration when we come together to worship, there should be strong themes of joy and celebration and happiness.

Our worship services should have the power to reach down into pits of discouragement and idolatry and other things that get us down and pull us out onto a solid rock of joy. And if the services are disconnecting and they're not doing that and then we are not serving you well. If there's a disconnect, a sameness, a blandness, and it's just, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just is not rescuing you and bringing you into thankfulness for the kingdom, we're not serving you well. So we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, so we should be thankful. There should be just praise to God the Father for choosing you before the foundation of the world, the plan of God the Father, there should be thankfulness to Jesus for paying the price for you and me to be heirs. Shedding His blood, and thankfulness to Jesus for His mighty resurrection that gives us hope. And there should be thankfulness to the Spirit that He redeemed you, By His sovereign power. Let's thank, let's be thankful to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in that way, worship God acceptably. But then it says with reverence and awe, reverence and awe.

The fear of the Lord must characterize our worship. A sense of the grandeur, the majesty, the glory of this thrice Holy God, we should have an encounter with this God, we should be on our faces, all the holy men and women of God, when they encounter God in Scripture, they tremble in His presence. And this text says, for our God is a consuming fire. He was a consuming fire then, He is a consuming fire now, He will never change. And so in some mysterious way, we elders have to put on worship services that celebrate joyfully and reverence our God is a consuming fire all together. How do we do that? How do we kind of curl up into the lap of "Abba Father" and say, "Daddy, I'm hurting, will you help me?" And you feel the eminence of God, that immediacy of a Emmanuel, of Jesus right with us, and at the same time, fear and awe and our God is a consuming fire, but we must, and that's what we yearn to do. And so we have to find a way to celebrate, and not in some trite, trendy, entertainment-driven sort of way, for the fun. Everybody's having a good time and all that. It's like where is the holiness? Where is the majesty? It's too flipping, too trite, too easy. But so also are simple assessments that say, If you use a certain guitar pattern or a certain way of doing rhythm that that is of necessity of that same worldly mindset, that is not necessarily the case. Stop judging by mere parents, but judge with right judgment, Jesus said.

So, our desire is to celebrate in an honorable way that worships God, that's what we're trying to do, for our God is a consuming fire.

So what applications can we take from this? Well, first and foremost, above all and forever, we yearn to preach the gospel here. And it could be that you came today and you don't even know what the worship style at FBC is. It doesn't mean anything to you at all, but you know this, you're guilty of sin, and you know that you're going to die someday, and you have no savior, there is no way you can stand before such a holy God on your own. I stand here today with brothers and sisters around me saying there is a Savior and His name is Jesus. Come to Christ, you can't worship Him acceptably unless you come to Christ first. So trust in Him, be justified, that means forgiven of all of your sins by simple faith in Jesus, trust in Him, come to Christ. That's the first application forever, friends.

But secondly, if you're an FBC member, don't be a stiff old wine skin, don't be set in your ways. All of us are like this. We have to be ready for change. We have to realize that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, except we're not there yet, friends, we have a journey to travel, we have work to do. And I don't want this church to become obsolete, friends, and don't think it can't happen. There are obsolete, local churches around. Some of them don't know they're obsolete, they still meet every week, but they are, and you've probably maybe even been there on a Sunday morning. I don't want that ever happening here. And so I guess I'm asking you to be ready for some changes. Some of them we may embrace, some of them would be like, "At last, Hallelujah!" Some of you're saying that, and others are like, "Oh no." I was saying to somebody about this sermon, it's kind of like a good friend of yours saying "I need to talk to you about something really important." "Well, what is it?" "I can't tell you, but let's set up a time to do that." Huh. Looking forward to that meeting, should be good.

Someone said, even worse, it's like a doctor saying, "We got your test results, you need to come in, I want to talk to you." And it's like, "Okay", well, it's not like that second one, maybe not even like the first, but you'll find out the details tonight, so come tonight. Some said we're going to have really good attendance at Sunday evening worship tonight. That's what the whole point. We're trying to bump up our Sunday evening attendance and want more people to come on Sunday evening, so we're just dangling suspense and turns out we're introducing a new Keith and Christian Getty song tonight, and that's it, that's the whole thing. Well, no it isn't, friends.

No. I would urge you, if you think you maybe in the category of those that might be reluctant to see any changes here. I guess I would urge you to educate yourself, in two senses, and maybe you can't do this, but in your mind at least, or ask and find out, go around the world on the mission field, and find out, if you had the next year, 52 weeks. And were in a different country, a different local church, a different culture, every week. And then you came back, you'd be a different person, and you would know what I said in an Acts class a few years ago. God loves more worship styles than you do. So just go around the world now and find out that there are people in every tribe and language, and people, almost every tribe and language, people and nations that are worshiping in lots of different ways, but doing the same kinds of things I've listed out this morning. Scripture, songs and spiritual songs, celebrating Christ, etcetera. They're doing it.

Secondly, go back in time, go across history. Friends, are you excited about us bringing Gregorian chants back here as our main style of worship? Would you love that? Look, I love chant music, I'll listen to it from time to time, I don't love it. I like it. Kind of. I mean I listen to it, I do, I love church history, and so, I listen and I kind of like it, I listen to it for a while and that's it. I also have some medieval and Renaissance dance music I listen to from time to time, some of it's worship music, sing it, you're going to hear the word Hallelujah in there. Friends, worship has changed, you know that, you know it's true. And so therefore the church must be changing. I do not say constantly, it's not different every week, but definitely in quanta you can't stay in one frozen place. Have to be willing to move on. And so for us to be eager to celebrate that, to look at certain patterns of worship, to say has traditionalism crept in here are some ways that we can reach across and grab hearts better than we've been doing, we want to look at that. So pray for the elders, ask God to open your heart. Part of the problem is that we need to consider others more important than ourselves in this. When you're hearing a song, this may be your favorite song done in your favorite way, amen and joy, but the next song may not be. And while you were enjoying your favorite songs, someone else is reaching out to you and loving you and letting you have that song. And so we need to love each other enough to be a body of Christ in this, so I ask God to open your heart, pray for the elders to have wisdom. This is not easy.

It's hard for us to assess patterns of worship, because yes, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Yes, but what's the tune? What's the rhythm, what are the instruments? Doesn't say. And so there has to be some wise judgment given in those areas. And come tonight to find out more details. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time we've had to study your word. Just pray in Jesus' name, that you would guide this church, Lord, to offer up sacrifice, that's pleasing and honorable to you, that is a joyful celebration and that also has a sense of the fear and trembling because our God is a consuming fire. God, give us a way to continue to grow and to be flexible and yielded to the Spirit and have our worship be very effective, both for Christians and then for outsiders who come in, that they may be drawn into faith in Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

In the summer of 2001, I had the privilege of going to China and visit some friends that were serving the Lord there. Then we had a little bit of time in Beijing, and like so many tens of thousands of tourists that visit Beijing, I also wanted to go to the Great Wall of China. So, we made that trek in a taxicab, and went up there with thousands of people to walk for a little stretch on the Great Wall of China. It's really an impressive structure, an amazing feat of human engineering, 5,500 miles long. If you think about it, over 5,000 miles long built over three centuries, mostly over three centuries, in the 14th to the 17th century, built with the blood of slave labor of people just who are crushed by the effort under the lash of the whip of these emperors who had one desire, and that was to keep the Mongol warriors out. They wanted to keep the Mongols out. The problem with that was that there were gaps in the wall and it didn't reach to the end. And so these folks just rode around it. But there it stands. No, it cannot be seen from the moon. They say it's the only human built structure... It cannot be seen from the moon. It can barely be seen from a shallow orbit, but it's still impressive.

And I got to thinking, as I was meditating on this text today, of the efforts that human beings have made to build walls to keep people from moving where they want to go. That's the purpose of a lot of walls that are built. The Great Wall of China was built for that purpose. Hadrian's Wall, in the northern part of England, built to keep the savage northern Scots warriors, the Picts and others, from coming down and made a line of demarcation, this is where the Roman Empire ends right here. Think about the Berlin Wall, built in 1961 by the East German authorities around the circumference of West Berlin to keep East Germans from fleeing to freedom. And what an incredible time that was, as I'm sure you remember, 1989, when the wall finally came down.

But all of those walls were really ineffective because as ingenious as the wall builders are, the people who want to get in are even more ingenious and more determined, and they're just going to do it. Over 5,000 people escaped past that wall, the Berlin Wall, into West Berlin for freedom, relentless drive to get where they want to go. But I say to you, the most imposing wall that has ever been built was made of fabric and it enclosed the holy of holies, it was established by God, it was hanging from flimsy acacia wood poles, it was completely movable. And it was a message from Almighty God, saying to us, as a sinful human race, we are not welcome in His holy presence. This fabric could have been cut with a knife or moved aside with the motion of the hand, but the reality could not so easily be moved aside. We are not welcome in the presence of a holy God, apart from the ministry of Jesus Christ. We are not welcome.

And again, and again, in the Book of Exodus, the Lord was giving that message, an amazing kind of rhythm in some of these passages how the Lord will lay out some things. They were powerfully attractive to human beings, saying, "Come here, come here, come here, come here." And then as soon as we start to move, saying, "No more, you can't come any closer." You look at the burning bush, God does that with Moses, he puts out that flame, and the bush is not consumed and it's a miracle. And Moses, just wandering there, in the back side of the desert with his father-in-law's sheep, just another day in the desert looking after daddy's sheep, and there's this bush as though God didn't know what magnetic effect it would have on Moses. And Moses saw, and he said, "I will go over and see this strange sight, why the bush does not burn up." And the text says, "When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' Moses said, 'here I am.' [And then the next words were] 'Do not come any closer.'"

Same thing in Exodus 19, where God put limits around the mountain, as we've talked about before, and then descends with such a display of divine presence and power and majesty that God knew very, very well that the people would be attracted to the mountain, not running away from it, they want to be near God. That's in your heart. We are designed, we are built for God. We are built for fellowship with God. And so God, showing such a clear display of His majesty, of His greatness and His power, even though terrifying signs, still commanded that some limits, some wall of some sort, don't know much about it, but be put at the base of the mountain and a command be given that the Israelites must not force their way up the mountain unless they be put to death.

Same thing in Exodus 24, when God commanded Moses with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, and the 70 elders of Israel, to come up the mountain now. Now they're invited to come up, you can read about it in Exodus 24, but Aaron and the others must not come up, only Moses may approach. And the command to the rest of the elders of Israel was, "You are to worship at a distance." "Worship at a distance," that's the old covenant. The attraction, the compulsion to get near God laid out there. And in Exodus 24, God showed those elders a vision of the God of Israel above an expanse, like sapphire, God showed Himself, He revealed Himself to them. But the command was still hanging over them, "Don't come any closer." "You must worship at a distance."

And so in the fullness of time, God, in Exodus, commanded that this tabernacle be built. We've talked about it. We'll go into some details again today to remind ourselves what we're talking about. But there is this place, a focal point, a place of worship, where the Israelites were to worship, that's where they were to go, that's where they were to make their sacrifices. It was a focal point, a place of worship. And God graced that tabernacle, that simple tent, with a magnificent display of His presence. The glory of God filled that tabernacle. A glory cloud filled it, and right there at the end, in Exodus 40, the text says very plainly that Moses could not enter because of the glory of the Lord. It's the same message, do you not see it? God is saying by the glory, "Come, come closer. You want to see this. This is very attractive to you, isn't it?" Very attractive, very interesting, a passion to get near God. And then that command, "You must not get any closer. You may not come."

Same thing happened when Solomon built the temple. You remember that, how he built the temple. And the Glory of God filled that temple, and the priest could not enter. It's the same thing again and again. And so we have this attraction, this yearning to be near God, but we are told by this tabernacle, the lesson of the tabernacle in our text today, the Holy Spirit was teaching by this tabernacle, "You may not come into My presence."

Now, the joy for me, as I preach this text, is to know that that's old news, friends. It's old. That's what the Holy Spirit was teaching back then. He's no longer saying that to us now. Now he's saying, "Come near to me. I am the way, and the truth, and the life," said Jesus. "No one comes to the Father except through Me." But if you turn it around, "you may absolutely come to the Father through Me." Hebrews 10, we'll get to it, maybe, but at any rate, eventually, that Jesus is for us a new and living way into the very presence of God.

So, as we come now to Hebrews 9 and 10, we're looking at aspects of the covenant, the overall message of the Book of Hebrews, the superiority of Jesus Christ and of the new covenant that He brings. A specific focal point of this lesson was that these first century Jewish believers in Christ were going to have a very, very hard time giving up their traditions of worship. And so again, in our text, this lesson is for the present time, He says, to especially help first century Jewish believers in Christ to give up on the trappings the physical aspects of old covenant worship because their time is done now. And so the supremacy of Jesus Christ, the supremacy of the new covenant, all of these things.

But now as we come to be Hebrews, this section, Hebrews 7, 8, 9, 10, especially Hebrews 9 and 10, we're looking at specific details of the old covenant sacrificial system that are now fulfilled, that are superseded by what Christ has done in a marvelous way.

 And as I was trying to organize this in my mind this morning, I had this thought that came to me. Recently, we were on a mission trip to Nepal, and we had one very, very long day in which we were sitting on an unmoving bus for, on and off, a total of seven plus hours. That was tough. You just run out of things to do. I was sitting next to Jenny and we were playing 20 Questions, which I don't actually love. It's okay for a little while. And 20 Questions always begins the same way, you have to decide if it's a person, a place, or a thing. Remember that game? And so that's the first few questions that you ask, is to ascertain that. And I think that that's a good kind of three-part summary of what we're looking at here, superior person, superior place, superior thing. How is that? That came to me this morning. Isn't that exciting, 20 questions used in homiletics. All right?

But Christ is superior as our great high priest. He is holy. He is the Son of God. He is sinless, pure, blameless, does not need to offer sacrifices for His own sins. He will never die, but the supremacy of Christ has been the unifying theme all the way through. We've begun to look at now this superior place, this tabernacle that Jesus ministers to the true genuine tabernacle in heaven, not merely an earthly one, looking at the details of that last time, we'll look at it some more today, but again Christ ministering in a superior place. And then the actual blood that is offered is superior. The sacrifice itself is a superior sacrifice, once for all time the blood of Jesus, because the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. And so that's kind of a summary of what we're looking at now.

The last time, as we looked at the tabernacle, Hebrews 9:1 through 5, the actual tent, remember I mentioned the temple was never even mentioned in the Book of Hebrews. I think the author really wants to get at what God directly clearly established through the law of Moses, the old covenant, and the tabernacle was it. It was a tent, it was set up in a certain pattern, look at verses 1 and 2, Hebrews 9:1 and 2, "Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up." A tabernacle is just a tent. And so this tabernacle, this is one of the key ideas in the Book of Hebrews, the things that are superseded were glorious. They weren't bad. There was nothing wrong with them. We're not going to denigrate them. We're not going to talk down about them or insult them. They had a purpose. They were glorious in their own time and in their own way. God set up that tabernacle.

It was an earthly sanctuary, it was man-made and temporary, but it was made at the command of God. The Israelites didn't do anything wrong in making it. They were obeying God and doing exactly what he wanted done. It was a divided sanctuary. There was the Holy Place and there was the Most Holy Place. The author gives us that two-part division of the tabernacle. There were three symbols in the holy place, as you remember, Verse 2. "In the first room, the Holy Place, where the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread, this was called the Holy Place." And so we talked about the symbolic aspects of those things.

And then in the Most Holy Place, the author gives us seven symbols, in Verses 3 through 5. "Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense, the gold-covered ark of the covenant, and this ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded the stone tablets of the covenant. And above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover." So these are the seven symbols of the Most Holy Place, or what we have in the King James Version, the Holy of Holies. Holy of Holies was a 10 x 10 x 10 cube made up of fabric, as we've said, a symbol of God's throne room, a symbol of God's dwelling place. That's what it signified.

So, now we get into the actual priestly ministry. God intended that this tabernacle be used. It wasn't to be a museum where you would walk through and look at artifacts and walk out, but it was to be a kind of a living parable, something that was going on day after day. And so when everything was arranged like this, when everything had been set up according to the commands that God had given Moses, the priests entered and got busy. They carried on their priestly ministry. And so in Verse 6, "The priest entered regularly into the outer room to carry on this ministry." And so there they were, and it was a busy place, day after day after day, these priests were offering up a variety of sacrifices and offerings, peace offerings, fellowship offerings, and there were sin offerings, and there were drink offerings and grain offerings, and all these kinds of things that the Lord had prescribed. And so it was a busy place, and the priests were constantly active and ministering.

But the focus of our text here is not that outer room, that busy place where the priests were carrying on that daily morning and evening-type ministry. The focus here, the weighty focus here is the inner room, the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, and the message of these verses is that no one was welcome there except the high priest, and that only once a year. This is all about restriction. Do you see it? It's all about what was not permitted. Restricted access. Look at Verse 7, "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." And so there was that restricted access.

Now, all of Israel was restricted. If you weren't a Levite, you were even getting into the tabernacle, that part of the tabernacle at all. But I would have to say that no one but the Levites had such an intense, if we can even say, in-your-face reminder that they were not welcome in the presence of God because, there it was, that curtain, day after day after day, they got to look at it all the time and know that they were not allowed, on penalty of death, to go into that place. Constant reminder, "You are not welcome here. You are sinful and I am holy, and you may not come here."

And so they carried on their ministry. But one day a year, one special day a year, one man, designated by the law of Moses, a descendant of Aaron, wearing magnificent priestly robes ordinarily, but then just, in Leviticus 16, a simple white garment, linen garment would go into the Most Holy Place. Leviticus 16 describes this very powerfully. It's well worth reading, if you want to take some afternoon time and read about it. All of the strictures or requirements for that, very, very powerful. But he entered, and the first thing he did was offer the blood of a bull for his own sins, and then he went back out and offered a goat and brought the blood of the goat in for the sins of the people. And he offered this blood for, it says, sins which he and the people had committed in ignorance.

Now, some, in church history, the Socinians are their name and others have stated that this phrase in particular shows that in the old covenant there was no provision made for willful sins. None. Only provision made for sins committed in ignorance. Friends, that is completely false. In the old covenant, there is no provision made for the forgiveness of sins at all. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away any sin, willful or an un-willful. So, don't go with the Socinians on this one. I know you were tempted in the Socinians direction. But the fact of the matter is that sins, whether willful or done in ignorance, is still sin. The ignorance mentioned here in Verse 7 really has to do with the ignorance all of us have of Almighty God Himself. Isn't that the problem? Righteous Father... John 17, in Verse 25, "Righteous Father, though the world has not known you, I have known you."

Earlier in that same priestly prayer, in John 17, "now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." All of us ignorant of God at some level. Oh, I'm yearning for a full education. Aren't you? Yearning to know God and see Him face-to-face, and know Him as He has known us, as beautifully and completely as we have been known. But because we do not know God, because we do not know His holiness, because we do not know His word, that's why we sin. Jesus said, "You're an error because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God." So, these are sins that we commit in ignorance. And that was what was symbolically offered with the blood of animals in the Holy of Holies on that one day of atonement.

But what is the lesson of all of this? Well, look at Verse 8, the Holy Spirit had a very clear lesson in all of this. "The Holy Spirit was showing by this," it says, "that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing." Now, first, it's just beautiful, isn't it, how the author in Verse 8 ascribes the teaching ministry here to the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, all of the laws of Moses, the regulations for worship, all of that, according to this verse, were coming from the Holy Spirit. The Holy spirit communicated the will of God to man through the prophets, through Moses. And the Holy Spirit had a lesson with the tabernacle. The Holy Spirit was intending Israel to learn something. And what was the Holy Spirit teaching by the tabernacle? Well, the author tells us in Verse 8, "that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed." Very, very powerful.

What does this mean, "the way into the Most Holy Place"? Well, the tabernacle itself is just a symbol, an earthly symbol of the heavenly reality. The Most Holy Place represents the place where God dwells, where His throne is, where all of that hundred million angels are encircling Him, and worshipping Him, and praising Him. It's the presence of Almighty God, the Most Holy Place, that's what the tabernacle symbolizes. When God came down with that glory cloud, He was saying that "This is a symbol of My dwelling place. It's where I live." And what the Holy Spirit was teaching is that the way in had not yet been disclosed as long as we're under the old covenant.

Now, if you knew what to look for, the lesson was still hopeful, wasn't it? God wasn't rubbing our face in it. God wasn't saying, "I am holy, you're wicked, and you will never be allowed into My presence." Just by setting the tabernacle up, in effect, He's saying, "Some day, dear friends, some day there will be a way into My presence, just not yet." And so the words "yet," "not yet disclosed," imply that at some point the fulfillment would come and the restriction would end. But it didn't come in the old covenant. The ministry of the tabernacle, the ministry of the sinful priests, the endless repetition of animal blood, all of it testified to the absolute ineffectiveness of the old covenant to deal with sin. We are not welcome under the ministrations of the old covenant into the presence of a Holy God. It's not effective. It's not good enough.

And so the endless repetition testifies to this, the fact that the priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins first testifies to all this, but for the average rank and file Israelite, there was a far deeper proof than that. Far deeper. It had to do with their own guilty conscience. Deep in their hearts, they knew that they were sinful. In their hearts, they knew that they could not come as they were. With the blood of bulls and goats, they could not come into the presence of such a terrifying and Holy God. These ministrations, the work of the old covenant was unable to clear the conscience of the worshipper.

Look at Verses 9 and 10, "This is an illustration," it says, "for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper." Verse 10, "They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings, external regulations applying until the time of the new order." And so the author says that the tabernacle was an illustration, really a living parable. It was a type, it was a symbol, it was teaching us something. So, the tabernacle is an illustration. And he says, it is "for this present time."

I already touched on this a few moments ago, but let me reiterate what I said. I think these first century Jewish Christians had a tremendous burden that very few succeeding generations would ever have, the burden of letting go of all of their traditions and worshipping in a whole new way. And so this is an illustration for the present time, meaning the time when the author himself was writing in the days immediately after the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. But I don't think that's enough. I think that's true, but isn't it for us, too, 20 centuries later? Aren't we still in the final days? Aren't we in the same era of redemptive history that our brothers and sisters of the first century where we are? So, it's an illustration for us, too, for the present time, for us today. An illustration that the accusations of a guilty conscience cannot be dealt with any other way than by the blood of Jesus.

And we're going to talk more, not today, but... Next time, preach on Hebrews 9, we're going to talk about the power of Jesus to cleanse a guilty conscience. And how sweet is that? How many times, how often, how many days have you labored burdened under a guilty conscience even as a Christian? And so this is an illustration for now, for the present time, to know how you can escape a guilty conscience.

David knew all about that when he committed that terrible sin with Bathsheba. And then he had Uriah killed to cover up his sin, and how for a year, it seems, as you read between the lines in Psalm 32, the baby was born and all that, that he fought the convicting work of the Spirit, he fought, he hardened his heart. He had many sleepless nights, he had physical ramifications, physical illnesses perhaps. And at core, it was all about a guilty conscience. And in Psalm 51, he rejects forever, for the old covenant people, the effectiveness of animals in dealing with that. I would offer a thousand bulls if it could get rid of my guilt, but it can't. Sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart, that's what you will not despise, but it's not going to be animals. David knew offering some sacrifices would not cleanse his guilty conscience.

And so the Holy Spirit was teaching that there is a different, a new and living way that does address a guilty conscience and addresses actual spiritual guilt before such a holy God, and welcomes us right into the presence of God, there is going to be a way. That's what he was saying in the Old Covenant. And so these things were only set up temporarily, a matter of food and drink, and ceremonial washings, and external regulations. Temporary, just temporary. Until when? We look at Verse 10, "until the time of the reformation." Isn't that beautiful?

Friends, we are living in that now. This is the real reformation. I'm not in any way denigrating church history and what Martin Luther did. Praise God for it. Keep calling it the reformation. I will. At any rate, this is the genuine reformation. The word here in the Greek implies something like a law that was established but did not achieve the end for which it was established, and you need to revoke it and write a new one. That's how the word is used. Or of a building that's ramshackle and falling down and needs to be renovated. That's what the old covenant was. It wasn't working, it was ineffective. It could not make us holy in the sight of God. And so God had to set it aside and establish a new order. And that new order, friends, is the new covenant in the blood of Jesus.

That's the lesson of the tabernacle. And that's the glorious good news for us today, the way in to the Holy of Holies has been revealed now in Jesus. Jesus has shown us the way, He's proclaimed the way. He is the way in to the very presence of Almighty God. The old tabernacle has been replaced by the body of Christ, by the heavenly reality that it symbolized. The Most Holy Place is no longer a 10 x 10 x 10 cube of linen curtains and acacia wood polls. It's not that anymore. It's the actual presence of God in heaven. And there are spirits of righteous men and women made perfect in the presence of God now, that's the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus.

The way in has been revealed. The blood of the sacrifice, the blood shed on the cross by Jesus Christ is sufficient for you and me to draw near to God. And that is the glorious good news that I have the privilege of proclaiming today. God isn't saying what he used to say anymore. He's not laying out all of these attractions, and then as we start to move toward Him puts up a wall and says, "Stop, this far you may come and no further." He's not doing that anymore.

Now, neither is he opening up 50 different ways into His presence. No, no, no. There is one and only one way. We just got to minister to Tibetan Buddhists. Tibetan Buddhism offers no way in to the presence of God. Just works religion, really like animism, it's not much different than some of the things you see in tribal regions in other places. It's no way in. Neither is Islam any way in to the presence of Almighty God. Neither is our good works or moralism, or Judaism. Christless Judaism is no way in to the presence of God. There is one way in and only one way, and His name is Jesus.

And so it says very plainly, and you can turn over if you want in Hebrews 10:19-22, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God," what does it say in Verse 22, "let us draw near to God." Now, the word of God is actually commanding you to come. He is actually commanding you to come into the very presence of Almighty God. Don't stay distant anymore because of a guilty conscience. Talk more about that next time, because it says, "Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."

So, what applications can we take from these marvelous verses? First, just marvel at the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Amen? What a great teacher the Holy Spirit is. And how majestic and how perfect it is that He set all of this up, all the old covenant regulation for worship, the tabernacle, all that, it was the Holy Spirit's teaching ministry to us. And not only did he actually do it in space and time, but he moved Moses at the right time to write about it so that we can read centuries later what the Lord wanted us to learn. Marvel at the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Friends, He's still teaching you today, right now. Holy Spirit is active in this room, He's moving through the ministry of the Word, and He is teaching us still. And so marvel at that.

Secondly, learn the various symbolic lessons of the tabernacle. If you didn't hear the sermon that I preached on the symbolism of the outer and inner room and all that, go back and look at that. There are some things that the author doesn't even cover, like the priestly vestments, the way that he carried the plate on his plate, the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, the way he had a gold plate that said "holy to the Lord" on his turban. All of these things, symbols and pictures of Christ, go and study and learn these things.

And why would we do it? It's obsolete. Yes, it's obsolete, but it's a beautiful picture of Christ's finished work on the cross, of His ongoing priestly ministry for us at the right hand of God. Study and learn so that your heart can be strengthened by these things. Celebrate the powerful fulfillment of Jesus Chris. Celebrate Jesus. It's my deepest desire when we come here, that we would have an encounter with a holy and awesome God, and be moved deeply by the holiness and the power and majesty of God, and tremble at that. And along with that, joyfully celebrate what Jesus has done to bring us in and qualify us to be in the presence of such a holy God. Celebrate. I mean, smile. I mean, be joyful. I mean, go out of your field with energy and joy and serve the Lord. Let's celebrate what Christ has done. And let's, in an ongoing forever way, trust, trust, trust the finished work of Christ.

By faith, we are justified. By faith, we will be sanctified. And I've already prayed for you, but if you're here today and you've never trusted in Christ, if you are in a Christless state but you don't want to be anymore, you're feeling a pull in your heart, it's marvelous. We're in the new covenant, gospel grace era now. That pull in your heart can be consummated, you can come all the way right in the presence of God. Trust in Jesus. Turn away from your sins, they're killing you. And if you do not trust Christ, they will destroy you forever in hell. Turn away from them, I plea. Turn away from wickedness and sin, away from lust, away from idolatry, the idolatry of possessions and money and all those things, ambitions, worldly ambitions. They lead to nothing. Turn away from these things. And I plead with you, trust in Jesus, see Him in your minds crucified on the cross, His blood shed, He said the words, "It is finished," the curtain in the temple torn in two from top to bottom, physical evidence that God is saying, "You're welcome to come." Picture him in your mind's eye, go ahead three days, picture him resurrected, walking in a resurrected body, showing his wounds to Thomas, proving that He had risen from the dead, trust in Him, Jesus, for the salvation of your souls.

And I don't want to talk anymore about a guilty conscience, but maybe you can't wait until I preach on that, so let me say right now, if you came in here today as a Christian with a defiled conscience, the blood of Jesus is the only remedy. It's the only one there's ever been. It's an ocean of grace for you. Receive forgiveness, full forgiveness, at the cross, and allow that grace to come and teach you the lesson of the cross, which is this is what it costs to save you from such sins as that, so you grow to hate those sins and turn away from them and do them no longer, walking in repentance and newness of life. Full forgiveness, full cleansing of a guilty conscience.

And finally, just draw near to God every day. What can hinder you? Cleanse from a guilty conscience, commanded by God to draw near, then let's draw near. Amen? Let's come right in the presence of God. Don't stay distant anymore, but come right in to the presence of God. Close with me in prayer.

Hebrews 11, one of the great and glorious chapters of the Bible. We haven't gotten to it yet, but God willing, we'll get there in time. But it celebrates a life of faith, and that is very, very much what we must do in the new covenant religion, we are called on to walk by faith and not by sight. These things that we are dealing with are invisible things. We cannot see them, we can't handle them, we have to accept them by faith based on the word of God. But in that glorious chapter, in Hebrews chapter 11, it talks about the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and how they live by faith in the promised land. Not having received any of those things that were promised, but seeing them and welcoming them only at a distance, they lived their lives that way.

And one of the evidences that the author to Hebrews gives of that life of faith, is that they lived in tents in the promised land. Now, a tent is a temporary dwelling. It's something that you can move easily, it's light weight. And you can pull up the stakes and you can move that very day, and be in another place later that day or tomorrow. And what's fascinating to me, as we come to Hebrews 9:1-5, a contemplation of the Tabernacle, it's amazing me that God chose for a time to dwell in one sense spiritually, in a tent, with the people of Israel. Why did He do it, what was He choosing to communicate to us by dwelling in a tent, and that is that the permanent dwelling place of Almighty God with His people has not yet come. That God is moving from place to place, and that only in the final salvation, that Christ brings will set up with His people and permanent face-to-face fellowship. And so for a time, God chose to dwell in a tent.

And our purpose today as we come to Hebrews 9:1-5, is to understand that tent that holy place, that sanctuary, that tabernacle, to try to understand why God established it as He did, what were His reasons, to give honor to those reasons. And to understand based on Hebrews 8:13, I'll mention that again in just a moment, but that it's obsolete, it's time has passed the time for the tent, the Tabernacle is over, it has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, all of the truth that's wrapped up in the symbolic elements of that tabernacle, have come to pass, in Jesus they are fulfilled.

And so we're going to try to understand that. Now let's get a running start in terms of our context here, remember that the Book of Hebrews was written to some Jewish people in the first century, who had made an outward profession of faith in Christ, perhaps, I think, certainly I think had testified to it by water baptism, were in the process of worshipping with the people of God week-by-week. But they were under attack by the surrounding Jewish culture, by Jewish authorities perhaps, political authorities, by religious authorities. By their neighbors, they're unsaved family members, friends, co-workers, under intense pressure, to forsake Christ, to turn their backs on Jesus and go back to old covenant worship, and the animal sacrificial system, that was first established through the tabernacle. All of those things that would be at the center of what they were being tempted to go back to. And so the author's strategy in the Book of Hebrews is to give us Jesus, to give us the glories and the majesty and the greatness of the person of Jesus Christ. And I think we've seen no book does that in quite the way and with quite the glory that the book of Hebrews does.

I mean, we could study this for years and never quite see all of the glory of Jesus that we need to see it. But he has been comparing Jesus across these eight chapters now into the ninth chapter, with elements of the Old Covenant. Trying to show that the Old Covenant has been fulfilled, has been superseded, in the new covenant that Jesus came to bring. So we see the superiority of Jesus Christ, the supremacy of Christ, superior to the Old Testament prophets, superior to the angels, who mediated the old covenant, to Moses. Superior to Moses who was a servant in God's house, but Jesus a Son over God's house. Superior to Joshua who brought them into the physical promised land, where they stayed temporarily until their sins evicted them under the stipulations of the old covenant, which they could not keep did not keep. Jesus is superior to Aaron and to the Levitical priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, Jesus superior to all of this. We've been looking at that.

And we've turned the corner a bit now in Chapter 8, and we've seen the new covenant that Jesus comes to bring. The marvelous elements of the New Covenant. How God said he will write His laws on our minds and on our hearts, and He will be our God and we will be His people. No longer will a man need anyone to teach him saying know the Lord. For we will all know the Lord from the least of us to the greatest, for He will forgive our wickedness, and He will remember our sins no more. Those are the beautiful elements of the old covenant that we studied last time.

And then he makes a transition in verse 13 of chapter 8. He's saying, "By calling this covenant new, He has made the first one, obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear."  And now we go immediately from that into chapter 9, verse 1-5, to talk about the tabernacle. So he's discussing something that is now in his mind, obsolete. It's aging, it must soon pass away. That's the transition. So I've given you some context now. But I want to just stop and just make a point. That's a point of lasting value and contact to us, and that is we need to remember what God was seeking to do with these first century professors of faith in Christ, these Jews, is one of the most difficult things that God has ever asked any generation. He's asking them by faith to turn away from the religion they have known since they were children, just about every aspect of it. To just turn really almost on a dime. The moment that Jesus said, "It is finished," the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Their religion was obsolete. And to just learn a whole new way of worship in spirit and in truth, very, very difficult. So he wants them to know that whenever God asks them to give something up, He gives them something infinitely better in return, and that is just a lasting principle, isn't it?

Think about how Jesus began to assemble His disciples on how he walked by the Sea of Galilee, and there He sees two sets of brothers, four people, Peter, John, James, and Andrew and they're fishing by the side of the lake there, and He says to them very boldly and clearly, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And immediately they left the boat and their nets and their father, and followed Jesus. And the same thing with Matthew, sitting at the tax collector's booth, and Jesus passes by, He's moving on, the kingdom of heaven is moving. And He says to Matthew "follow me," and immediately Matthew gets up and leaves that lucrative though somewhat shady and corrupt business of being a tax collector, and he follows Jesus, leaves it all behind.

Whenever Jesus calls on you to leave something behind the thing that He's going to give you in its place is infinitely superior. We were talking, my kids and I, as were driving in about the word obsolete, so I asked one of them, I said, "Do you know what the word obsolete means?" "Kind of." I said, "Well let's take the type writer, for example. I mean, have you ever seen me on a typewriter?" "No, I've never seen you on it." "I used a typewriter in college." Alright, I did. I hate to admit that I know it dates me. Or the phone that you dial. You remember dialing those long numbers and things, etcetera, like that. Those days are over although we still have hold over terminology. You still hang up with your cell phone, I don't know where you hang your cell phone, maybe on your belt, I suppose, but we still use this old terminology but it's obsolete language.

So I say, "What does it mean obsolete? It's when something is replaced by something better, and that's what's going on here. Whenever the Lord calls on us to give something up He replaces it with something infinitely better. But if you don't follow Him by faith, you're going to be the losers, spiritually. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." And so these first century Jews were called on to release their old conceptions of religion, to give it up and follow Jesus into the new covenant, and wholeheartedly by faith follow Him. "For What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul, and what would a man give in exchange for his soul." "For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory and all the angels with Him, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done." So when He calls on you to give up something, you're not really the loser, you are going to find your life, you're going to find Christ.

Conversely with the rich young ruler, remember? Called on him to sell everything he had, give to the poor, he would have treasure in heaven and come follow me, but the man went away sad because he had great wealth. Really, these Hebrew Christians, these professors of faith in Christ. They were at the fork in the road and they had to decide to follow Jesus on into the promised land, and so do we. So we come down to this contemplation of the Tabernacle, and it's a symbolic thing. Look at verses one and two in Hebrews nine, now the first covenant. The one that's obsolete now, the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. And so we have this symbolic Tabernacle, this picture of Christ redeeming work. So he's referring to this tent. Would have been well familiar to them, they would have understood what it was.

Now, we have to pause and say, that I don't think any of them had seen the tabernacle either, because it has long since been replaced by the temple in the time of David. David thought it was time to replace the movable tent. And so the focus from that point on was on the temple. But in a fascinating way here, the author to the book of Hebrews never mentioned the temple. Never once. Ten times, he talks about the Tabernacle, never once the temple. I think the reason is, he's looking specifically at the elements of that Old Covenant that were established on Mount Sinai through Moses. He's zeroing in on that, and he's talking specifically about this symbolic tabernacle, which is a picture of Christ's redeeming work. Now the author is saying, and he begins in chapters 9 and 10, having considered the greatness of Christ in His person, he's going to zero in here, in chapters 9 and 10 on the blood sacrifice, that Jesus gives. And say that the blood sacrifice of Jesus is superior to that of the Old Covenant. So he begins by talking about the tabernacle. He's going to say that the Ministry of blood that Jesus offers is superior because of the place in which He offers it, that place was earthly, Jesus offers in a heavenly tabernacle. Of which the earthly was just a pattern and a picture, a type and a shadow.

He's going to say, secondly, in Hebrews 9 and 10. That the blood itself is superior, because it's the blood of the Son of the living God, that was just blood, the blood of bulls and lambs sheep and goats, animal blood. So the blood itself is superior.

And thirdly, the blood sacrifice is superior because it was offered once for all, never again to be repeated, whereas the animal sacrifices repeated endlessly. So the place is superior heaven versus earth, the blood is superior, the Son of God versus the blood of animals, and the time is super once for all, verses endlessly repeated. That's where he's going.

But we begin by looking at the place, this sanctuary. Now look what He says, He gives us two descriptions here, the earthly sanctuary. An earthly sanctuary was set up in the first covenant. Now, the first thing we have to realize is, it was the covenant that God made with Moses that gave the stipulations for this tent.

Now, I've been saying that God gives us something infinitely or vastly superior in every case, but notice with what respects and what dignity the author to Hebrews deals with these elements that have now been superseded. They were established by God, and so Jesus is superior to the prophets, but that doesn't mean the prophets were of no value, they were godly men who spoke the word of God in their time at various times and in various ways. But Jesus speaks a better and final word, that's all. And Jesus is superior to Moses, He is just a servant in God's house and Jesus is a Son over God's house, but Moses is still a man of honor. Called by God, a godly man, worthy of honor. So also Joshua, a godly man led them into the Promised Land, Jesus is superior but we're not denigrating any of these things, we're not denigrating the Aaronic priesthood. Aaron priestly ministry was established by God. And so it is with this tent that was set up, we're not denigrating it. It was set up by the covenant of God, God wanted it done.

But we still need to understand its limitations and that it has been superseded by the New Covenant, that's all. And so he gives us these two terms; an earthly sanctuary. Alright, let's take the second word, the word sanctuary, the word sanctuary literally refers to a sacred place, a sacred place. So my mind immediately goes to that time when God first called Moses into his service. You remember how he's up there on the mountain of God, and how he saw the Bush, the burning bush, and he heard God calling him, Moses, Moses. And he came over to look at this bush and he heard Him say, "Do not come any closer, Take off your sandals, for the ground on what your standing is holy ground." So that's what a sanctuary is, it's a place here on earth that set apart unto God as sacred and holy. And specifically in the history, it's where God would in a marvelous way meet with His people.

It was holy because God would be there. So it was a sanctuary place set apart, where God would meet with the people, but it's also called an earthly sanctuary, an earthly sanctuary. What do we mean by that? With the Greek word is cosmocone. It relates to the cosmos or the created physical universe, it has to do with the physical stuff of this world, of this life. This tabernacle is made up of earthly stuff. You could interact with it with your five senses. It was Earthy. We don't mean worldly in the sense of wicked, or evil, not at all, but it was made up of earthly stuff. Primarily, there were these linen curtains of blue and Scarlet and purple, and so they were just woven up out of linen. Now linen it grows up out of the ground. It's something that was living and it's harvested and made into yarn and then ultimately into these curtains, it's earthly. And so also the tabernacle itself was covered with ram skins, dyed red, and then over that, where the skins of sea cows or the dugong, anyone ever heard of dugong? Have you ever seen a picture of a dugong? Maybe you have, I don't know what it is, but some kind of an aquatic creature whose skin would presumably be water repellent.

And I covered it over, but I'm telling you what, all of these formerly living things begin to decay as soon as they are made, and so, whether it's moisture or heat or ultraviolet light or something, they're just going to age, they're going to wear out. As Jesus said, "Where moth and rust destroy, and so moth and rust can come in and destroy these things, though they are made of the highest quality of materials. There's still earthly. Jesus serves in the heavenly sanctuary not built by human hands, not made by humanity. And so we're talking about an earthly sanctuary. Therefore it is man-made and it is temporary. That's what the author is giving us.

Now, the structure of it, if you can imagine your mind, it's a long rectangle. 30 cubits by 10 cubits, now a cubits about 18 inches. So, half again, so it's about 45 feet long, and about 15 feet wide, and a long rectangle. But even that's divided up into two sections you've got a two-part kind of compartment. You've got an outer area called the Holy place, completely enshrouded with these curtains and then you have an inner area called the most holy place, or famously in the KJV, the Holy of Holies, don't you love that expression, the holy of holies, the most holy place. So we've got this two-part sanctuary. Now, the author describes symbols in each of them, three symbols in the holy place, and then seven physical symbols that he describes In the most holy place. Let's look first at the symbols in the holy place. The holy place was the place where the priests would carry on their daily ministry. Only the priest could go in there and they went on every single day, offering their sacrifices day after day without end. That's the Holy Place.

The inner area, the most holy places, as we'll discuss in a moment, only the high priest could enter, and that only once a year and never without blood, the Book of Hebrews is telling us. So that's the two part distinction. Now again, the lesson of this is clear, we've spoken about it in the past. I don't think we can say it too often. It's just like God said to Moses, at the account of the burning bush, "Don't come any closer." That's it. It's just amazing what God does, He's got this burning bush burning, fascinating. Never seen anything like it. That's attraction. You want to be there to find out what's going on. God is there. But as soon as you start moving in that direction, you get a prohibition from the Holy God saying, "Don't come any closer." And that's what this Holy Place, Most Holy Place, is saying to the human race. You may not come any closer. You are on the outside and you are looking in. And so that's what we've got to deal with here.

Now, these elements in the first room, the outer room where the priest went on constantly to carry on their ministry. We have a lamp stand, a table, and the consecrated bread. This is in the most holy place. Let's look at the each of them briefly. The lamp stand, had seven lamps made up of hammered gold, beautiful thing, and it was there simply practically to give light. You can imagine with these heavy curtains and the coverings and all that, it would have been pitch black, even on the brightest day, and so there is no light in there, except that given by the lamp stand. Now, this is a marvelous thing. I want you to know what we're doing is we're seeing symbolic significance to each of these things. Verse 9, which is not in our text today, but in Hebrews 9:9, it says that this whole tabernacle was a in the Greek, parabolē, a parable, a type or symbol or representation. It was somehow speaking symbolically about Jesus. And so it's not wrong for us to go through as over-somehow allegorizing or something, to find how each of these elements does speak about Jesus.

Do you have to work very hard to wonder how the lamp stand speaks of Jesus? I think not. Jesus says, "I am the light of the world, whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Jesus is the light of God speaking truth to us, illuminating us, communicating to us. Without Him we are in total darkness. Now, what's so amazing about this and this thought hit me this very morning, I'd never had this thought before. But you go into this holy place, and it's pitch black, without that lamp, you go into the most holy place, it's pitch black, but the Bible says that God dwells in unapproachable light. How do you put those two together? Pitch black, God dwelling in unapproachable light? Well, the way I put them together is you know what it is that makes that be pitch black, are the curtains that God commanded be built. God is forbidding us to come any closer. And then is luring us in through Christ, and when Christ then comes in, the prohibitions are removed and we step into a world of unapproachable light. And so it says in 1 John 1, "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin."

And so, what is it that made it black? It was the prohibitions of God saying, "You may not come any closer," and if we're not with God, what are we, but in total darkness. And so God sets up this lamp stand, it points to Christ, Christ shines. The oil is given every day by the Israelites. They were commanded to give pressed oil for the lamp to keep it burning, and it was to be burning constantly to give light. And so it represents Christ.

Secondly, we have the table. Now the table was golden, beautiful made, magnificent. What does it represent? Well, I think throughout scripture, table represents food. And we'll get to that in just a moment, but it also it's symbolic for fellowship. It's symbolic for relationship. So if you're sitting at someone's table, you have a relationship together, you have friendship together, to eat at someone's table. Think about what David said in Psalm 23, speaking to God, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." In other words, "God I can have good fellowship with you in the middle of my... I can be surrounded by enemies and I can have just a feast with God." Isn't that marvelous? So God prepares a table for us, and we have fellowship with Him. And to me, that's beautiful.

Or again David, from the life of David, remember how he wanted to show kindness to the house of Jonathan, Jonathan was deceased at this point. Died at the same time as his father, but David had a covenant and a friendship and he wanted to express that love and that friendship he had for Jonathan. There's someone left, and yes there was this son Mephibosheth one of Andy's favorite people. Mephibosheth. It's hard to say. I practice that this morning. Mephibosheth. But Mephibosheth sat at table, at the King's table with the King every day, and that represents the fellowship that we have with God. God wants face-to-face fellowship with us.

And then on the table, we have this consecrated bread, the bread of the presence it's called. Literally in the Hebrew, the bread of faces. And so, face-to-face fellowship over the bread. Or the show bread in the KJV, you have this consecrated bread. 12 loaves, one for each tribe was baked freshly every Sabbath.

And again, with the manna that we'll talk about in a moment, but it represents God's desire to feed us nourishment, to enable us to feed, and I'm going to cluster it together with the manna, and say Jesus is clearly the fulfillment of this. "It is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it's my Father that gives you the true bread from heaven." "And the bread that he gives for the life of the world is His flesh." And so through this, through His death, we have fellowship with God, we have nourishment, sustenance. Jesus is the bread of life. Fulfillment. So that's the outer place where the priest were constantly working in the holy place.

Then we have behind the second veil or second curtain, verses 3-5, a room called the most holy place, which had the golden altar of incense, the gold-covered Ark of the Covenant. And this Ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had butted and the stone tablets of the covenant, and above the ark where the cherubim of the glory overshadowing the atonement cover. So these are seven elements in the most holy place.

Now again, the most holy place was a perfect cube. 10 x 10 x 10 cubit wise. 10 cubits, by 10 cubits by 10 cubits. Perfect cube. Just like the new Jerusalem by the way. Read about it and Book of Revelation. We won't go there we won't talk about it, but it's just a perfect cube. And it represented the place where Almighty God dwelt Himself. And the laws were very clear, that no one was allowed to go in there, ever except one day. And so every day, but one even the high priest knew he was forbidden from going in there. What kind of sense of the fear of the Lord would you have as you enter in there? And the fact that he had to offer sacrifice for his own sins, so that he would not die. A sense of the terror of the Lord, that's what the most holy place was all about. And on the day of atonement, he would enter in Leviticus 16 describes us very plainly, but there's all these rules about what must happen in order to enter the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place.

 Now, the first element mentioned here is the golden altar of incense. Now we don't know exactly or literally whether this is an altar itself or a golden sensor. There's a translation issue, but in any case, incense filled the most holy place when the priest was in there. And if you read about it in Leviticus 16:12-13. I not going to quote it in detail, but basically, the incense, the cloud of incense, finely ground incense was burned and a cloud filled the most holy place to cover the Ark so that the priest would not die. That's literally what it says. I find this interesting. Now in the book of Revelation, and in other places, this cloud of incense represents prayer, intercessory prayer. And so what I get out of this is that this represents the intercessory ministry of Jesus, how He pleads the merit of His blood. And in some ways puts a barrier between the eyes of a holy God and our sinfulness, so that we will not die. And so Jesus is praying for you. Perhaps you've committed sin, this week as a believer in Christ, but you didn't die. And why is that? Because of the value, the merit of Christ's blood and the efficacy of Christ's prayer, have in some way hidden God's holy eyes from your sin, He is no less omniscient, He knows what you did. But the cloud gets between God, His holy eyes and your sinfulness. And you do not die. Golden altar of incense.

Secondly, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant was the most significant physical artifact, more time is spent in Exodus 25-40, which gives instructions about all of this on the ark than any other physical item. It was the focal point, their God would meet with His people. It was a little more than a chest a box made of acacia wood covered inside and out, with pure gold. It was just a box, but that box represented the dwelling of God with His people. And so when the Ark of the Covenant was captured in 1 Samuel, the wife of Phinehas cried out, "Ichabod the glory has departed from Israel," it represented the glory, the glorious dwelling of God with His people. And friends that can only happen in the heavenly realms through the ministry of Jesus Christ, our great high priest, God will not deal with us on account of any other thing.

Based on Jesus' intercessory ministry, His blood shed on the cross, God can and will dwell with His people forever. The Ark of the Covenant is fulfilled in Christ. And there above the Ark, between the cherubim God said, "I will meet with you," and it's fascinating how Moses heard God speaking from between the cherubim. Amazing. And how God localized His voice there above the mercy seat between the cherubim, there in a cloud of Shekinah the dwelling glory of God, their God met with His people. That was the significance of the Ark of the Covenant.

We have also the golden jar of manna. It's unclear whether it's actually inside the ark, it seems like, in Hebrews, it is. Other verses said there was nothing in the ark but the tablets, it could be that the golden jar of manna, you remember the manna was the bread that God provided every day while they were sojourning in the wilderness, was in the actual ark in the days of Moses. And then by the time that the ark was brought into the temple in Solomon's day, there was nothing at that point in the ark but the tablets of the testimony. But anyway, the golden jar of manna, as I've already said, represents God feeding His people supernaturally through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven.

We have also Aaron staff that butted, what was that? Well, it turned out that the Jews were jealous of Moses' and Aaron. And a man named Korah led a rebellion in number 16, led a rebellion against Moses and against Aaron, specifically against Aaron and his right to be priest. What right does he have? And so, Korah led this rebellion. Well, you remember what happened, how Moses said... I'll tell you what, Moses actually had a temper, from time to time. But you sense a sense a bit of heat here, as Korah is leading this rebellion. And he says, "I'll tell you what, if you die in an ordinary way, then you know that we've not been chosen by God for this role. But if the earth should open up and swallow you, then you'll know who God has chosen to be His priest." And as soon as he got done saying that, that's exactly what happened. The Earth opened up and swallowed Korah and all those that followed in his rebellion. But amazingly the next day the Israelites still murmured against Aaron. Isn't that incredible, the intractable nature of our sin. How deep is the stain and how difficult to remove?

And so Moses commanded that each tribe bring forward a staff, just a stick cut from a tree. And laid it down. 12 of them, one of them represented Levi, the tribe of Levi, and on this stick representing Levi, Aaron's name was written, and the next day, miraculously this one staff, this dead thing, had in some amazing way come to life. As though it had some beautiful root system and it was a well watered tree, and it flowered it butted, and actually even produced almonds that could be eaten. And I wonder if anyone actually did eat the almonds? I don't have any idea, but it's just flourished and though it was dead. And to me, this represents the resurrection of Christ. Jesus is our high priest, he has been chosen and identified to Israel as our high priest, by His resurrection from the dead, the flowering that comes from Jesus' ministry. For 2000 years fruit has come from Jesus. And Jesus is in that way identified as our high priest, in a way far superior to Aaron staff that had butted.

And then we have the stone tablets of the Covenant, these represent the law of God. On the basis of that law, God relates to us His sinful people. These two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, you remember how God had carved out these two stone tablets and had written on them, in the finger of God, these Ten Commandments that he'd already proclaimed to the people. But the people were already disobeying by making a golden calf, and so, when Moses carried those two stone tablets down the mountain, he was enraged at their rebellion and threw them down and they were shattered. Symbolic of the fact that we can't keep this covenant. We are sinful. We cannot keep the stipulations of the Covenant.

But two more tablets were made. The law of God can't disappear. And so the Ten Commandments were written again, with the finger of God and they were in the box, they were in the Ark of the Covenant. And this clearly represents Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the law of God, Jesus Christ said, "Do not suppose that I came to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." As it says in Psalm 40, "Here I am, Oh Lord. It is written about me in your scroll, I have come to do Your will. Oh God, Your law is written in my heart." Who is that speaking about who Jesus? Doesn't say in Galatians Chapter 4, "In the fullness of time, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were cursed by the law by becoming a curse for us." And so Jesus died in obedience to the law. Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many are made righteous, because Jesus obeyed the law even to death. We are counted righteous based on the testimony of God.

We have the cherub of glory, their actual angels. Did you ever wonder how the artist could do pictures of cherubim? I think they saw them. Moses saw it all up on the mountain. And so, maybe Moses did a sketch of what a cherub looks like. But at any rate, they were right there. Physical representations of these cherubs with wings extending and touching. And there between the cherub, these angels, which are surrounding the throne. Many psalms talk about this, Ezekiel 1, the cherub are there. You've got it in the Book of Revelation, chapter 4:6-8, you got these cherub, these angels around the throne. Their God meets with us. Such a beautiful, beautiful fulfillment of this IC in John chapter 20, when Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. Remember that, and Mary's outside crying, and she's thinking she's talking to the gardener. You remember that whole thing? But before that she's looking into the empty tomb, she looks into that empty tomb, and she sees the grave clothes wholly undisturbed in their original position like a, almost like a cocoon, that's how I picture them.

Jesus just came right up out of that sticky, tarry, kind of thing, right up out of that and he's gone, but the grave clothes are right there. She's looking in and there were two holy angels there, one at the head and the other at the foot. And just sitting there, in testimony of the fact that this is the new mercy seat, this is the new place where God will meet with His people. It's been fulfilled, in the resurrection of Christ, the cherub of glory.

And then finally, we have the atonement cover, which is to cover the ark and there the blood of the sacrifice was to be poured, the priest, the High Priest would get the blood out, out in the outer area and bring it in that one time a year and pour it out the blood right on the gold cover. And that's where it was to be offered, is called the atonement cover or the mercy seat, the place of propitiation, the place where God deals with our sin. And this clearly fulfilled in the cross of Christ, how it says, in Romans chapter 3:23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, through Jesus shedding His blood. Our sins are atoned for the wrath of God is dealt with."

Now, in verse 5, you may be wondering about verse 5, but we cannot discuss these things in detail. Now, you may be wondering "Well Pastor, why are you then discussing these things in detail now? You know what, I struggle with that. I remember saying to Eric, I think all we're supposed to do, is just read the verses and not preach on them. Well, let's just skip them. I feel bound by Verse 5, but I obviously got over that, didn't I? And I went ahead and preached on it, like we preached the rest. What the author is saying is, "Look, I could say a lot more about these details than I'm doing." There is one central point I want to make. All of these things pointed ahead to Christ. They didn't achieve anything in and of themselves, they were types and symbols and shadows. The reality, the fulfillment is only in Christ, as we'll talk about next time in Hebrews 9, 6-10. They had no power to remove sin, or cleanse the guilty conscience of the worshipper. They had no power for that. They had only symbolic power to point ahead to Christ. That's the point of what we're saying today.

Now, what application can we take from all of these? First, just marvel at the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. In verses 6-10, I'll talk about the Holy Spirit showing by these things. The Spirit has been instructing us today, as He did for hundreds and hundreds of years through the tabernacle, instructing us about Christ. Christ is a difficult lesson, it's not easy to understand Jesus and what He came to do. And so the Lord set up this tabernacle to teach us who Jesus is and what He came to do. So marvel at that. And secondly, just learn the various lessons of these symbols, study them. Isn't it amazing how God created heaven and earth in six days? And the account is just one chapter, Genesis Chapter 1. But the Tabernacle, the instructions were given for 40 days. It took 40 days to describe this thing. And then, however long it took to make it. And why is that? It's because God gets more glory from redemption than He got from creation. And how beautiful is it that since the days of the New Covenant being established, the Lord has been working on His final dwelling place, for two millennia now.

For 2000 years, Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." And we are the place where God will dwell, we are the temple of the living God, and He's been getting us ready now for 2000 years. How much glory will God get from that? Just meditate on these things, they will greatly encourage you. Celebrate the powerful fulfillment in Christ, just celebrate that Jesus Has done it all paid it all, lived it all His righteousness is yours. And if I can just urge you tenderly, I prayed for it but now I urge you, if you have never come to Christ, come now, come today. You don't know how long you have to live, there is no other salvation. There's no other propitiation, there's no other way that sin can be paid for. I plead with you to turn from your sin, to repent and have your guilty conscience completely cleansed through the blood of Jesus. And if you are a believer in Christ, you need to keep going to the cross and have your own guilty conscience cleansed through confession of sin and appropriating again through faith what Jesus has already done for you. And take this Gospel message out to a world that needs it, take this Gospel to people who need to hear it this week, share the Gospel of someone this week, invite them to church. Strike up a conversation and say that there is no other way that a guilty conscience can be dealt with than the blood of Jesus. Close with me in prayer.

Do you realize as Christians just how wealthy you are? How rich you are? That's my goal today, that you would as a believer in Christ, that you would go away having a sense of great wealth of treasure of riches specifically in the New Covenant, today. So often, the blessings of the Gospel are portrayed as hidden treasure. You think about Jesus in his parable saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy, went off and sold everything he had and bought that field."

So, I wonder what it's like after that to open up the treasure and really rummage through it and find out just what you have now. Now that you sold everything, to get it just how valuable, how precious are the treasures inside that box, that treasure box. Or another place in Colossians, it says that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and so you get the same idea of opening Christ up and finding out how much wisdom and knowledge, how much rich blessing there is in Jesus. And the meditation that comes in Christ. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Or in Proverbs Chapter 2, we're told the search for wisdom and insight as for silver, and hidden treasure. And so I had the picture this morning of a family being called to the reading of the last will and testament of a wealthy relative and perhaps the grief over the loss of the relative has gone, but now there's time of the reading of the will. And how excited, you would be if you knew that this aunt or uncle or grandparent, was really quite wealthy and you might wonder, perhaps in a very carnal, sense, "What's in it for me? What am I getting etcetera?" Well, I think that this may be a reading of the last will and testament of Jesus Christ.

We are looking at what Jesus has bequeathed on us by His blood, what he paid for in blood for us to have. That's what we're looking at today. The elements of the New Covenant, which were not there in the Old Covenant. The night before Jesus died, after the supper, he took the cup in his hands and he gave thanks, and he said, "Drink from it all of you. This is the my blood of the Covenant, which is given for many for the forgiveness of sins." The blood of the New Covenant is the blood of Jesus and this New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant. We've seen that as a uniting theme in the book of Hebrews. The superiority of Jesus Christ in every way to all of the elements of the Old Covenant, and Jesus is superior in every way and recently we've been contemplating the superiority of Jesus Christ as our great high priest. But now we have a transition to the second main aspect of the book of Hebrews, the superior covenant that He comes to bring.

So, a superior mediator, brings a superior covenant, resulting in a superior life. That's my general three point outline for the whole book of Hebrews. And so we have a transition going on now, and we're going to focus now on the specific elements of this New Covenant that Jesus came to bring. That He died to give us. And so we have in Hebrews 8:6, a transition. We've been looking at the elements of the Old Covenant priesthood and how the Levitical priest did this and that and this tabernacle that was just a shadow and a copy of the Heavenly one and all that. And then in Verse 6 it says, "But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the Covenant of which He is mediator is superior to the old one." And listen to this, "it is founded on better promises." And today we have the privilege of studying in detail what those promises are.

We get to understand the superior promises of the New Covenant.

Now I begin this passage by talking about the need for a New Covenant, the need for the New Covenant. Look at Verse 7, it says, "If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant no place would have been sought for another." So there is established here in Verse 7 the need for a New Covenant. Now this is something we've already seen in Hebrew 7. We've already been through it as we contemplated the change of the priesthood. And so in Hebrews 7:12, we saw where there is a change of the priesthood there must be a change of the law. You've got to have a new law. Jesus is our great high priest, but he was of the tribe of Judah, and concerning that tribe nothing was ever said of the priesthood in the Old Covenant, in the old law. And so, if Jesus is going to serve as our great high priest, we must have a change of the law. So we've already looked at all that. And so the author is going to argue that now in the same way we must have a New Covenant.

He makes a parallel argument. The way it works is we have an Old Testament prophecy or prediction of the establishment of a new ministry. And then he reasons from that saying that the existing ministry was insufficient. It was inadequate or else there wouldn't be any need for a new one. We've already seen this with Psalm 110 and Verse 4, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek." The promise given. And then he reasons from that saying, "Look, if the Levitical priesthood were sufficient that promise wouldn't have been made, but it was inadequate. It was insufficient. And so we need to have a new priesthood, one in the order of Melchizedek." Well he's going to do the same thing here. It's the same kind of logic. We have a prediction we have a prophecy, Jeremiah 31:31-34. The prediction is of a New Covenant, and he's going to argue in the same way. If there'd been nothing wrong with that, first covenant, why would we be seeking a new one? And so just the existence in the Old Testament of these promises says something new and something better. Something more glorious must come. And so now we're looking at exactly what that is.

The Inadequacies of the First Covenant

Now, he says that there's something wrong with that first covenant. If there'd been nothing wrong with it, no place would have been sought for another. So there's something wrong. There's something to some degree blame worthy with that first covenant. Now, we have to be careful here. We know that the author has already said concerning that first covenant, "the former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless." Those are very strong terms being made here, but that first covenant was weak and useless in achieving for the people of God the final end of salvation. That we should be made holy and blameless in God's sight. That we sinners should be made perfect in the sight of a Holy God. The first covenant couldn't do it.

It was ineffectual. It was weak and ineffective for accomplishing that, and so a better covenant had to come. We should not imagine that God tried to establish the covenant, it didn't work, it kept not working, and so he went to from the prototype to the final version. Just like companies put out a product and they do a narrow market run for a while and then they find out some flaws with it and they perfect it and they improve it and then, the better product is released nationally.

Well that's not what's going on here at all. There's nothing wrong in one sense with the first covenant. Everything God does is perfect. Frankly, it achieved exactly what God wanted it to achieve, which is to expose the flaws of human nature. And so he actually goes in verse 8 saying that the problem was with the people, not with the covenant for "God found fault with the people." And so it's very, very plain. As Paul puts it in Romans Chapter 7, "The law is holy and righteous and good." Or in in Romans 7:14, "We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual. I am sold as a slave to sin." There's nothing wrong with the law, there's something wrong with me.

And that's what's being established here by this covenant. Again, we have the same thing in Romans 8:3, "For what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." The law was weakened by our flesh. So that's where the flaw lies. And so, there must be a New Covenant. The need for the New Covenant is clearly established in Verse 7.

Now, here we have in verses 8-9, the actual promise of a New Covenant. We have the words of Jeremiah here. You see the sovereignty of God, God is going to establish this New Covenant. He makes this clear prediction here, "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them. Declares the Lord." So the sovereignty of God is the absolute focus here. Now, when we speak of the covenant here, what do we mean by a covenant? A covenant is simply an agreement, a binding agreement, between two or more parties. That's all it is. Just a binding agreement. And God has significantly acted throughout history with covenants. God has made binding agreements between Himself and His creation, His created ones.

And so we're talking about the establishment of a New Covenant. Now, which covenant is he talking about here that has to be replaced? Now in the Old Testament and the Old Testament readings there are a number of significant covenants. For example, in the time of Noah, a covenant was made. God made a covenant with Noah, and with every living thing on earth that He would never again inundate, or flood, the world with water. Destroy the world by flood as He had done. He also makes a covenant with Abraham saying through Abraham's, seed, all peoples on Earth will be blessed and he makes a covenant with David, saying that He would raise up one of David's sons to sit on His throne forever.

Well, these are three very significant covenants, but that's not the Old Covenant that the author is talking about here. The Old Covenant that the author has in mind here is the covenant made during the time of the Exodus under Moses, the Mosaic Covenant. The covenant made with Israel at Sinai. It's very clear because he said, "It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt." That's the covenant that is now superseded. That's the covenant that was weak and useless for saving us in the end. That was the covenant that is now obsolete, the Mosaic Covenant. On that day, you remember God assembled all of the people at Mount Sinai, and how God descended in a cloud and fire and the top of the mountain, and how the ground beneath their feet shook.

How it trembled and how God spoke the words of the 10 Commandments to the people, and the people actually heard the voice of the living God speaking to them out of fire and they were all of them, including Moses absolutely terrified. And how the people trembled. The essence of this covenant was the moral law of God written in tablets of stone external to the people. They could study them, inscribed in tablets of stone, coupled with the animal sacrificial system. The Levitical priesthood with the tabernacle, and the animal sacrifices and so the Old Covenant and said, "This is God's moral standard. Do this and you will live."

And if there was any sin there was this symbolic or shadowy atonement set up. This is the Old Covenant, the essence of the Old Covenant. Problem was with the people and the history of the peoples forsaking of that covenant, hinted at here in the prediction by Jeremiah. How God carried out or related all of their history. "They did not remain faithful to my covenant." That's a summary statement of centuries of rebellion and the part of the people of God. A tragic turning away. The people turned away from that Mosaic Covenant. They would not keep it. Despite the fact that they trembled, the ground shook under their feet. Despite the fact that they had heard the voice of God speaking in their own ears and lived. And they heard God say, "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below."

Despite all of that, while Moses was still up on the mountain receiving the rest of God's words, Aaron the first high priest, led them into grave sin as they made a golden calf. He said, "Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." And they bowed down and they worshiped. And it led them into a riot is orgy and great wickedness. And from that very beginning, once they entered into the Promised Land, they soon prostituted themselves with the gods of the peoples that lived in that land before them. And they made idols and they bowed down and worshipped. Bowed down to and worshipped what their hands had made. And God sent them warnings, again and again he sent them prophets to warn them. He sent them gentile armies who would come and plunder them. Again and again, God warned them, but they would not listen.

And the darkest moment of all of that history of rebellion, I think came in Jeremiah's Day. God raised up Jeremiah, sent Him as a prophet of doom. Really the quintessential prophet of doom. And he went and stood at the gates of the temple, and he proclaimed the doom of Jerusalem as Babylon was coming. The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar were coming and Jeremiah day after day after day, warned them that wrath was coming on them because of their sins. And he was universally hated by the people there and persecuted. They would not listen. And they sought to kill him, but they could not. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, one who is there when Jerusalem was finally destroyed by the Babylonians. The temple completely destroyed and Jeremiah, I imagine him sitting on the hillside, looking down over the smoldering ruins of what used to be the daughter of Zion, the city of Jerusalem. This weeping prophet saying, "How desolate lies the city once so full of people." Jeremiah had I think the hardest ministry in the Old Testament era. Very, very difficult ministry, but in the middle of that dark, dark hour, he speaks this promise to Jeremiah, the promise of a New Covenant that is going to come and fix the very root of the problem. And that is the hearts of the people.

And so he gives Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:31-34, this incredible prophecy, and it's brought over word for word here into Hebrews 8, this is the longest New Testament quotation of an Old Testament passage in the Bible. The longest one, and it's actually repeated again in Hebrews 10, so it's incredibly vital that we study this and we understand this. And God said, "It would not be like that first covenant I made." And why is that? "'Because they did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them,' declares the Lord." How dreadful are those words? How God turned away from them. He turned His back on them. He would not listen to their cries as they were being slaughtered by their enemies. God was bringing that slaughter on them as a punishment for their sins. God had turned away from them, declares the Lord. But know he's going to establish a New Covenant that would be unlike it. And how would it be different?

The Difference of the New Covenant

I tell you it is the era, it is the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the essence of the New Covenant. The blood of Jesus paid for it and the Holy Spirit administers that blood to us individually. It is the encounter that each believer from the least of us to the greatest has with God through the Holy Spirit. That's the difference. That is how this covenant is not like the first one. Now, with whom is this covenant made? Well he says...

He talks about in Verse 8, The House of Israel and the House of Judah, and then again in Verse 10, the House of Israel again, So he's using language of Jeremiah's day, speaking of God's people, the descendants of Abraham, the sons and daughters of Abraham. But we have learned in the New Testament, that God through Jesus has abolished in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and gentile, we who are at one point, aliens and strangers, we gentiles who are on the outside are now welcomed in through faith in Jesus. And we have now become sons and daughters of Abraham by faith. Abraham's our father in faith. And we stand under the blessings of this covenant. We are through faith in Jesus, the House of Israel and the House of Judah, and so were the Jews who repent and believe in Jesus as well.

Anyone who believes in Jesus is the house of Israel and the House of Judah. That's who he's making this new covenant with. Oh, how rich you are, gentile believers in Jesus. We were at one point, aliens and strangers. We were foreigners to the covenants of the promise, but now we have been brought in through the blood of Jesus. And that's who He makes this covenant with and it's universal, Verse 11, "They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest." That's this table setting. Now, let's get into the riches. Let's try to understand the superior elements of the New Covenant. Things we never had in the old covenant, and there are three. This is the center of the sermon. This is, to me, the most exciting part of the Book of Hebrews. What do we get in the new covenant?

First, you get a transformed nature from inside your heart. You get a transformed nature. Secondly, you get in an eternal intimate relationship with Almighty God. Third, you get complete forgiveness of sins, actual forgiveness of sins. That's what the New Covenant gives you. And let me tell you something, if through faith in Jesus, you have those three things, you don't need anything else in order to be happy in life. Whatever it is that you don't have that's causing you misery. Set it aside today and say, if I have these three things I am a wealthy son or daughter of the living God. Conversely if you don't have these three things, and by the way, they go together, you don't get one or two of the three, you get all three together. So if I don't have those three things, it doesn't matter how wealthy I am, it doesn't matter what my power or my position doesn't matter how healthier I am, it doesn't matter any of the earthly blessings I am destitute. I am poverty-stricken if I don't have a transformed, heart that loves the law of God and an intimate relationship with God, where he is my God and I am part of his people and my sins, my wickedness is forgiven, and all of my transgressions. If I don't have that, then I have nothing. And so those are the elements of the New Covenant.

1) God’s Laws Implanted in Hearts

Let's look at it in detail. First God's laws, implanted in our hearts verse 10, I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts. This is again the work of the Holy Spirit of God as the apostle Paul put it, not on tablets of stone, but in hearts written by the living God and so God takes his laws, and he writes them on your own heart. It's a transformation of the nature from within. Tablets of stone, could not transform hearts of stone. But the Holy Spirit can and so in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit has come and he has transformed our hearts, he has written God's laws in our mind, and worked them into our hearts. Now, how do I understand that, the mind, I think, has to do with understanding.

God enables us through the spirit to understand God's laws, to understand what God means by these laws. To understand the Word of God and its richness and fullness to have full understanding, to have the mind of Christ and to see God's ways. But then that God writes His laws on our heart means that we delight in those laws we yearn for them to be fulfilled, not just in our lives, but in the lives of all of our brothers and sisters and in the world generally and so we understand and we yearn for the laws of God. That's the promise of the New Covenant that's a transformed nature.

And you may say, what laws are we referring to here? Well, I don't think we can do any better than Jesus Christ summary of the law when he says the first and greatest commandment is this: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, this is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. That's what the Holy Spirit takes and writes into your heart and your mind. That's what he does and that's everything, that's all that you need. A transformed nature. Apostle Paul said in Romans 13, whatever commandments there may be, you shall not murder, shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one law. Love your neighbor as yourself.

And so these are the laws that the Holy Spirit writes inside our hearts. How powerful is that. It's very much like the promise that God made through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36:26 and 27, "I will give you a new heart and I'll put a new spirit within you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh." Listen to this, "I will put my Spirit in you and I will move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." That's the exact same thing that's what the Lord is promising us here in the New Covenant the Old Covenant did not do this, it just stood on the outside and saying this is the law do this and you will live and then it condemned you, if you didn't do it. But this new covenant transforms you from within, it will not be like the first covenant I made with them at that time, because they didn't keep. But this is the covenant. "I will put my laws in your minds and I will write them on your hearts" as the Apostle Paul says the end result of that in Romans 8:4, "in order that the righteous requirements of the law. It might be fully met in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." It is by the Spirit that we fulfill these laws of God that he's written in our hearts.

2) Intimate Knowledge of God

Secondly, intimate knowledge of God in a covenant relationship, an intimate covenant relationship with God. I will be their God, he says in verse 10, "I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man turned to his neighbor, teaches neighbor or a man his brothers, saying, Know the Lord because they will all know me. From the least of them to the greatest." This is promising an intimacy with God, a perfect intimate relationship with God.

Now, again, I said that The Old Covenant, testified to these things again and again. But couldn't produce them. How many times in the Old Testament, you see God saying this, I will be their God and they will be my people. It's the yearning of God. Frankly, it's what you were created for, you were created for fellowship with Almighty God. You were created for a perfect intimate relationship with God. The Old Covenant couldn't produce it, it just testified to it. You were made for God, you were made to stand before God and for God to look at you and say you are one of my people and for you to say to him, "You are my God." The intimate relationship, which only Jesus could produce that is what the New Covenant gives us. I will be their God and they will be my people, and it speaks of knowledge. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or man, his brother saying Know the Lord. Because the essence of this knowledge is eternal life, this is what eternal life is.

Jesus Christ said in John 17:3, "Now, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." The perfect intimate knowledge, like if I can say in a holy way and when Adam knew Eve and she conceived and gave birth to her son. You see, there's an intimate connection there and there are two beautiful pictures of this intimate relationship. One is of a father with adopted children adopted sons and daughters and so God puts the spirit of adoption in us crying Abba, Father, and we are his children, his sons and daughters. The other beautiful pictures of Christ, the bridegroom and we, the bride and a consummation of that together in that great wedding banquet and we are His and He is ours, these intimate relationship terms that the Lord has given and they're promised, here in the new covenant, the new covenant, can produce it.

It's the joy of the new covenant, you will have, you do have in the new covenant, an eternal and intimate relationship with Almighty God, think about the whole bent and direction of the Apostle Paul's life. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, he was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, He was a persecutor of the church, he was all of these things until something happened. And you know what happened? He saw Jesus in His resurrection glory and he never got over it and never wanted to get over it. And he earned he burned inside his heart to see it again, and all he could say in Philippians 3:7-11he said,

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Take all of those words and you ask Paul, Paul, what do you want more than anything he said, "I want to know Christ. Said the drive of my life to know Jesus, to be with him forever. That's the second blessing of the New Covenant.

3) Actual Forgiveness of Sins

The third blessing is actual forgiveness of sins only testify to in the old covenant, but not actually produced. You know why, because the blood of bulls and goats can never take away human sin. Hebrews 10:4 cannot do it. The Tabernacle was just a shadow it was just a type, it was just a prophecy. The reality is Christ, and so by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. We have full forgiveness of sins, he says in verse 12 "For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more." This only comes to us through the new covenant. It's the only way it comes and without it, none of the other blessings are possible, God will not give us the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit nor will he be our God and we his people if we are filthy rebellious sinners and so therefore, he must deal with our sin.

Now the NIV says, "I will forgive." I think a better translation might be something like, "I will be merciful to..." That's literally what it says. "I will be merciful to their wickedness and will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more…" and so God shows us mercy. What does I mean, he alleviates the suffering of our wickedness and what is the suffering of our wickedness. Well, there's suffering here on earth that comes from sin, we suffer in wickedness and He is merciful to us, but the greatest mercy is that we don't go to hell, He lifts us out of the fires of hell. Which we deserve for our wickedness and our transgressions and He says this will not happen to you and He is merciful to us and does not give us the justice that we deserve but rather he poured it out on his own Son. He shows us mercy. I will be merciful and notice what he says their wickedness and their sins. Wickedness is the root, and sins are the fruit.

You see, and so we have a wicked nature that produces actual transgressions of God's law, and he says, I'm going to deal with that. I'm going to give you a new nature, and I will be merciful to you in your wickedness and I will transform you and I will not hold it against you, your wickedness and I will forget your sins. I will remember them no more. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Micah 7:19, says  that he takes our inequities, and rolls them into the depths of the sea. He forgives our wickedness, and remember our sins no more, now don't misunderstand that God's still omniscient. I guess you knew that. Oh, he could tell you all the details of all the sins of all the elect, that are up there in heaven. He knows it all, he has all the information.

How can God not remember our sin?

What is he saying when he says, "I'll remember your sins no more"? What he's saying is it will not come between us, I'll not bring it up to separate us again we are reconciled. It is as though you had never done it, you're not at any relational disadvantage. I delight in you, as much as if you had been as pure as my son Jesus because I actually see you that way.

In that way, he will not bring up our sins to separate us. These are the blessings of the New Covenant, friends, is that not enough to make you happy? A transformed inner nature in which God's laws are written in your mind and your heart. An intimate perfect and eternal relationship with God in which he claims you as His own people. I will be your people and you'll be my God and actual real forgiveness of sins. Our wickedness and sin is not held against us.

These are the blessings that Jesus wrote in blood and died for and because of that, friends the first Covenant is obsolete, amen. It's gone. It's obsolete we don't need it anymore. It's finished. Look at Verse 13 "by calling this covenant new, He has made the first one, obsolete." That is a strong word, we already saw it earlier in Hebrew seven weak and useless was said of it. Here the word is obsolete. You know what that means? I used my imagination here, at the moment that Jesus said it is finished, and died.

And the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. At that very moment the priests in the temple could have stopped what every animal sacrifice as they were doing washed their hands and walked out, shut the door and never come back again. And God would have seen that as an act of faith and righteousness on their part. It's finished, it's done. We don't need it anymore. And you know who I think saw it, Stephen, saw it said that the Most High doesn't live in temples built by human hands. He's done with this place. It's no special place, unless there's some Christians, here that'll pray. Alright, it's done, it's finished. And you know what it says here this was incendiary, to the people, so they dragged Steven in front of the Sanhedrin, but some of the priests believed and became obedient to the faith. Read it in Acts 6:7. What does that mean? I think they stopped doing animal sacrifice. I said I'm done, I quit. It's obsolete, we don't need this anymore.

The second part of the statement of verse 13, it says, "what is obsolete and aging will" what? "Soon disappear." You know what that tells me it tells me that the temple and all the sacrifice was still running like a machine. When the author wrote this letter. It was still going on and you know what he's saying he said just you wait just watch, it's coming. It's soon going to disappear from the pages of history, you will not see it anymore. When did that happen? AD 70, when the Romans came and destroyed the temple, and it has never been rebuilt. And animal sacrifice was shut down by the providence of God. He said This is finished, it's obsolete, it's gone. When my son said it is finished when I tore the curtain top to bottom, I told you it's done. Now I'm telling you, by the Roman army, it's done. What is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

Now this new covenant, we have it already. If you're a believer in Jesus you're already in the new covenant. It's already fulfilled in you but it's not yet fulfilled in you by that I mean, it's not perfected. So already, God's laws are implanted in your minds and they are written in your hearts, but that doesn't mean you love God's word, like you should. It doesn't mean that there's not another law at work in the members of your body, waging war against the law of your mind which delights in the word of God and making you a prisoner of the law of sin at work within your members, Romans 7, that's still going on, that warfare.

Yes, we are adopted children of the living God. But that doesn't mean we value that adoption like we should. It doesn't mean we fully understand what it means that we can cry out, by the spirit Abba father. It doesn't mean that we have come into the fullness of the perfection of that relationship. We see through a glass what darkly, then we'll see face-to-face, we don't fully know God. You need to come and listen to the ministry of a pastor teacher.

Now, the text says "no longer will you need a man to teach your neighbor and a man his brothers, saying, 'Know the Lord.'" But now, God's given gifts of the Spirit to help interpret passages the Bible. Because we see through a glass darkly, now, then we will see face-to-face. And so the perfection of this knowledge of God yet, waits for us to see him face-to-face. And yes, it's true, all of our sins are forgiven absolutely. You can't be more forgiven that you are if you're justified. And yet we still sin, our conscience still testifies against us that we've sinned even this very day, we defile our conscience every day, the world the flesh and the devil assault us we still are mucking around in it, we still have to go and with brokenness and grieving morning and whaling get down on our knees, and ask God to forgive us for sins, all of that is still there and God does in the New Covenant keep for giving us.

Oh, for the day when we're done with that. And so there is an already aspect and then there's a not yet aspect, of each of these three. And so in heaven, you will be totally transformed and you will love God's law, as much as Jesus does. How is that for you? You're going to be so totally transformed you will love righteousness and hate wickedness. As much as Jesus does and that's the end of your transformation and our intimate knowledge of God will be perfect in heaven listen to these passages from Revelation. Revelation 21:3, "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them, and they will be his people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God." What's the emphasis of the word now? Now at last, the fulfillment of this has come. And then again in Revelation 22:3-4, "the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him, and they will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads." That's the perfection of this promise of the New Covenant but it's the same covenant that's going to get you there friends.

And finally your sins and lawless acts will be gone forever, you won't commit anymore. You'll have committed your last sin. You will be holy and blameless and pure as light, when you're in heaven.

What application can we take from this first? I just speak to you if you have never trusted in Christ, by the providence of God, you are invited to come here, and you know that you're on the outside, you're not under this covenant. I invite you now, as though God Himself were making His appeal come into the blessings of this governance let God transform your heart from inside, so you understand the gospel for the first time, you see in Jesus and His bloodshed everything you need for your forgiveness, trust in Christ, and you'll walk out of your rich man or woman, boy, or girl, trust in Christ. Secondly if you've already trusted in Christ, can I just ask you to take each of these three elements up in your mind and meditate on them, and thank God for each one and do it until you stop being a sad or miserable and negative as you've been this week, some of you.

Some of you have celebrated this week and you've been filled with the joy of the Lord, but if I could just urge you to take up these three elements and use them to drive away the darkness that Satan wants to put over your hearts, it is no part of a child of God. Tell Him Be gone, because I'm a rich man, I'm a rich woman, I'm a son, I'm a daughter of the living God. Look how rich I am, I have a transformed nature, I love God's Word, and I yearn to fulfill it in my life every day by the Spirit and I have God is my father, and I am part of his people, I'm an adopted member of his family and my sins are forgiven. You can't accuse me they're forgiven, it is God who justifies, who is he that condemns I'm forgiven. Do that until you're happy and then do it some more and then make a brother or sister happy with these same three things. These are the blessings of the new covenant, and if I could urge you to meditate on the cost of these blesses the blood of Jesus. May it forever shut our mouths against boasting.

Forbid it Lord that I should boast except in the blood of Christ my God. Jesus shed his blood to buy you these three things. They were costly and he's bought them for you. Honor Him for the blood he shed for you and if I could urge you to improve on these new covenant blessings through sanctification. Alright, you already have God's laws in your minds written in our hearts, then study God's word more than you ever have before. Say I have the ability, the capacity to understand all of God's word. I want to study it more than I ever have before, by the power of the Spirit. And secondly, I want to pray more like a son or daughter of the living God, than ever before. I want to say Abba father by the Spirit more than ever before, I want to lean on that adopted relationship and know and cherish it more than I ever have before and I want to live like my father. The Father is holy. Since I am calling on a father who is holy, I also need to be holy Peter tells us, I want to be like my father, I want to be holy, I want to put all sin to death, and so yes, all of my sins are forgiven, but I don't want to sin anymore. I hate my sin, and I want it gone, I want to fight it more than I ever had before.

And finally just if we're this forgiven. So we also ought to forgive one another; husbands and wise forgive each other; parents, children forgive one another church members, forgive let's love each other as God has loved us. Close with me in prayer.

Forty days after Jesus's resurrection, he led his apostles out about a Sabbath-day walk from the City of Jerusalem, led them out into the Mount of Olives, and there he lifted up his hands and he blessed them. And after he had blessed them, he was taken up before their eyes, taken right up off the ground. He ascended higher and higher, and they stood there amazed at this. The 11 apostles as they were looking up, they saw him ascending and they stood there in wonder and amazement until finally, a cloud hid Jesus from their sight. And that began in a very significant and formal way, the church's era of faith, of trusting the ministry of Jesus by faith and not by sight. We need to believe that Jesus is our great High Priest, and the only support we have for that is the Word of God. We cannot see him ministering at the right hand of Almighty God. We walk by faith and not by sight.

Later in this Book of Hebrews, we are going to have a whole chapter extolling the virtues of faith because that really is why the Lord wanted the book written, that the faith of every generation of Christian will be strengthened, centered around the priestly ministry of Jesus, that we would see his excellence, his superiority, his perfection. That we would have a sense of the greatness of this Savior, this great High Priest, Jesus, that we would believe in him and trust in him. And so we have in Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen." And we learn later by faith, Moses persevered as seeing him who is invisible, and that is Christ. And so it is that you, whatever your circumstances, whatever it is you are going through, whatever your trials, you will do the same as a Christian. You will persevere as seeing him who is invisible.

And so today, I want to proclaim again to you, the priestly ministry of Jesus from Hebrews 8:1-6. This is a profound theme that the author has been drawing us through now. Begin in Hebrews chapter 5, where we have the first mention of Melchizedek, how Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, and he told us at that time that he had a lot to say about this theme, and he has said it now. And this theme, he told us, was meat and not milk. It could not be accepted, it could not be absorbed by lazy listeners, he said. And he rebukes them for being such. For being lazy listeners, he rebukes them. And so we have seen the author's unfolding of this glorious theme, and today, it comes to a culmination. He will continue with elements of Jesus's priestly ministry. He'll talk more in depth about the sacrifice he offered.

And we'll get to that in chapters 9 and 10. But in terms of a concentrated meditation on Jesus as our great High Priest, it ends today. And we have here a summary, a summation of the things that he has been telling us. And I think it's very important for a good teacher of the Word of God to do this, to use illustrations, to use repetition and to use summations so that we can get the lesson. And that's what Hebrews 8:1-6 is. Now he does advance the argument. He does begin to turn a corner. And he begins in verse 6 to contemplate the New Covenant that Jesus is bringing. And the rest of Hebrews 8, it's absolutely one of my favorite sections of Hebrews 8, in which using a quotation from the Old Testament, from Jeremiah, he unfolds the greatness of the New Covenant that Jesus brings. And so, that will be next time.

But here we have a repetition and a summation of these themes of Jesus, our great High Priest. Now, for me, as a verse by verse expositor, I want to be faithful to this. I don't want to over-tax your patience with this theme, but I tell you this, I don't know that I will ever preach on this again. Specifically, this theme of Jesus as our great High Priest. It's a great theme, but it's concentrated here in Hebrews 5-7.

And now we have one more summation here in Hebrews 8:1-6. And the author takes it up by, I think, addressing an accusation that can be made against our religion. Specifically, that we have no high priest. And he asserts the point of what we were saying, the head, literally the head or the summation of what we are saying, is this. We do have such a High Priest.

The Priests and Temples of Pagan Religions and Judaism

Now the opponents of Christianity, unbelieving Jews, pagans, gentiles, they could make this accusation against our faith. You have no religion. You have no temple. You have no sacrifices. You have no idol, or a physical representation of God. You have no priest. You have nothing. Where is it, this faith of yours? I think about the pagans, for example, pagan religions. They were sensual. They assaulted the senses. You could see something, you could hear something, you could taste something. They were frequently orgies of meat that was eaten and all kinds of sensual pleasures involved. There was definitely a locus, a place of worship where you could go. Think about the Egyptians and their priests, and the way that the priest would be decked out in their priestly garb, and how their religion centered on an array of gods and goddesses.

And it was very sensual and very visual in particular. You could see it. Think about the Greeks. Think about in Ephesus, there was this incredible temple there. The Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a magnificent structure. And people came from miles around to go worship at the Shrine of Artemis. Remember how in the Book of Acts, they're chanting for two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." And there was in that chapter some indication that there was an image of Artemis that had fallen down from the heavens. Maybe some meteorite that looked like a person. And so they said, "This is Artemis," and they put it up as an idol. But everyone could see it. You could taste the meats that were being sacrificed. You could sensually get involved in the worship.

So it was with the Mayans and the Aztecs and religions all over the world assault the senses. They sapped the senses with input. Even that revealed religion of the Old Covenant was far more essentially appealing than the New Covenant religion. God had established a pattern of worship. And you could see the tabernacle, the tent established by the laws of Moses. Later, there was The Great Temple of Solomon, and then in Jesus's day, Herod's temple. And it was majestic and it was something to see. You remember how the apostles were just in awe of the gigantic stones that made up Herod's temple. "Look Teacher!" they said. "What massive stones, what magnificent buildings!" Jesus said, "Not one stone here will be left on another." But that Old Covenant religion did most certainly address the senses. And you could see the high priest, the ironic high priest, the Levitical priest. He was wearing robes that gave him glory and majesty. And he was doing physical sacrifices. He was offering up animals.

And that physical worship was plain to see. But what about the Christians? What about you Christians? Where is your place of worship? Where is your High Priest? Where are the sacrifices? You have none. You have no High Priest, you have no temple, you have no religion.

Even the pagans, you remember, if you've read church history, the Martyrdom of Polycarp in Smyrna, an incredible story. I commend it to you. You need to find it. Eusebius, the church historian, records it. One of the great and heroic stories in the 2nd century. Here's this godly man, Polycarp, I believe 86 years old when he was there, and he was on trial for being a Christian. He's there in the Amphitheater of Smyrna.

And they're accusing him of atheism. They called Christians the godless because they had no gods. They said that man-made gods were no gods at all, so they had no gods. And so at the pinnacle, the climax of the trial, he had to denounce Christians by saying the well-known slogan, "Away with the godless." And so what he did was, he waved his hand at all those who are persecuting and said of them, "Away with the godless." You are the true atheist. We have a High Priest. We have a God. He's in the heavens. By faith, we see Him, by faith, we receive Him. And so we sang this morning, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you." I want to know by faith that you are ministering. Well, this sermon is for you. That's what the Word of God is for, to give you the eyes of faith so that you can see the truth of this statement.

A Personal High Priest

And I want you to personalize it. We Christians have such a great High Priest. I want you to get even more personal in that based on Galatians 2:20. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live as a Christian, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." So you want to say, though the text doesn't say it, but Scripture allows it. I have a great High Priest. I have such a High Priest who's gone through the heavens and He is ministering for me. The ironic high priest, the Levitical priest, wore a breast plate with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. And they were close to his heart, and he carried their names with them into the Holy of Holies. We have even better. Jesus speaks your name personally to the Father.

 He knows his sheep by name. He knows exactly what you're going through, and He is praying for you, by name. So, we have such a great High Priest, one who's priestly ministry as we've learned from Hebrews 7 has nothing to do with his genealogy, has nothing to do with who his parents were, humanly speaking. His ministry as great High Priest is in some amazing way, without beginning and without end. He is the Lamb slain from before the creation of the world. He is the one whose ministry is based on the power of an indestructible life, who ever lives to intercede for us. The one who has gone through the heavens and is now higher than the heavens, at the right hand of God, and who is ministering for us, the only begotten Son of God. This is our great High Priest. So if you take nothing away from the sermon, say this, "I have a great High Priest, and he is ministering for me."

But he goes on and by way of repetition, some themes that we've seen before, to tell us that our High Priest is seated at the right hand of God. This is his position. He is at the right hand of God. From Hebrews 4, we learned he has passed through the heavenlies, and now he is at the right hand of God. Five times in the Book of Hebrews, we are told this. Now, in Hebrews 1:3, it's interesting the different phrases, the different combinations of phrases the author uses to say he's at the right hand of God. In Hebrews 1:3, it says, "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven."

So there's majesty but no throne. In Hebrews 12, it says that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So, there is a throne mentioned there, but no majesty. But here in Hebrews 8 and verse 1, we have everything, all of it combined. "The point of what we are saying is this, we have such a High Priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven." This is the superiority of our great High Priest, his position at the right hand of omnipotence. We cannot even begin to imagine how much power just emanates from, exudes from this throne of Almighty God. He is able to do immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine.

He is infinitely more powerful than your mind can conceive. Daniel had a vision Of God's throne in Daniel 7:9-10. "And as I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, the hair of His head was white like wool, and his eyes were like blazing fires, throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, 10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him." That is the throne of God, the throne of the majesty of heaven, and that's where Jesus is, at the right hand of all of that power. And he's there for you and for me.

And it is fitting and it's appropriate for him to be there after having been rejected by our race, rejected by humanity. Scorned, spat upon, crown of thorns, put on his head, a mocking robe put on his shoulders, beaten 'til his back was in tatters, blood flowing. Spat upon, mocked up the streets of Jerusalem, rejected by his own people. Outside the city gates, there he was crucified, he shed His blood under the wrath and curse of God, and rejected by humanity, Jew and gentile alike. He died. Philippians 2 tells us that because of this, because of his obedience, because of His godly submission to His heavenly Father, because of that, "God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father."

That's where he is, that's where your great High Priest is, at the right hand of that kind of power. That's his position. Look at his posture. He's seated there. We've mentioned this before, but this is a clear and significant point. Jesus is seated there because the offering that he made is acceptable to God, and He does not need to offer another. Once for all time he has offered that offering, and so he is seated. And he has offered that offering to God and it is acceptable, and so we have a picture of Jesus having entered into that position and is seated at the right hand of God, and so that's a beautiful thing when we consider it. And we contemplated it last time, but there is an aspect of Jesus's work that is perfect and complete. It cannot be improved on. And that is His blood shed on the cross for you and me.

When Jesus died, he said in John 19, "It is finished." It is perfect, it is complete. Everything is done now, and nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken from it. It is perfect, and so he went through the heavens, having obtained our purification, he went through the heavens and presented it to God once for all time. And it is a perfect picture of his priestly ministry.

We learned also, and we're going to talk about now, his ministry is also ongoing. There's a sense in which it's perfected and complete, and so He is seated at the right hand of God. But if you look at the next section in verse 2, it says that he is serving, you see, in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. Our High Priest serves in a superior tabernacle, so he is a minister.

The Greek word is leiturgos, it's from which we get liturgy. It has to do with a religious work or religious service. And so here, he is a minister. He is ministering in an ongoing sense. He is working for you and me. He is not again and again offering his blood. That doesn't need to be done, that's been done. He doesn't need to be sacrificed again and again. Once for all means once for all. He's finished, but he is ever living to intercede for you. He is ministering. And look at the location of that ministry. It says that he serves in a sanctuary, a tabernacle.

So we have two words here, sanctuary and tabernacle. The first word sanctuary in the English comes from the Latin word sanctus, which means holy. And so it's coming right up out of the Greek. He serves in the holy places, both the Holy Place and in the Most Holy Place. And so this is a picture, I think, going back to the tabernacle, which had the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, the place where the Levitical priests worked where they offered the blood of animals, the blood of bulls and goats. And then they would go into the Most Holy Place once a year, the high priest would, and presented it. But Jesus, we are told, serves in the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

So he serves in a tabernacle. Now, the word tabernacle literally means tent. That's literally what it is here in the Greek. Some English translations bring it over as tent. He serves in the true tent. Or I think it's best to keep it as tabernacle. But what do we mean by the word true? Well, we have to dispense with the idea of it's true versus false. The Old Covenant tabernacle was not a false tabernacle. It wasn't set up by false pretenses. It wasn't set up as a pattern of false religion, from false motives, worshipping a false God. That's not the contrast here. Rather the contrast is that which is eternal and perfect in the heavenly realms, versus that which was mere copy and shadow in the earthly realms.

I think you get the same thing in John chapter 6, when Jesus after the feeding of the 5000, you remember they come across the lake. They want to be there, and they're looking for another meal. Now friends, there's nothing wrong with looking for another meal. Some of you are going to be doing it very soon. Looking for another meal is fine, but that was not the time to be going and seeking another meal from Jesus. "Do not labor for the food that spoils but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you" and that is salvation. So they're having a discussion, and they wanted Jesus to do a sign, a wonder for them, and to give them bread from heaven like Moses did. And Jesus said this, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Now again, the same idea. It's not like the manna wasn't nourishing. It was. It's not like it wasn't a miraculous gift of God. It was. It's not like it didn't have a benefit. It did. But in terms of redemptive history, it was a copy and a shadow of the true bread that comes down from heaven, and that is Jesus. And so Jesus serves in the true tabernacle, the one set up by the Lord and not by men.

Now, the Old Covenant tabernacle was set up by the hands of men. The commands were given in Exodus 26, that the curtains of the tabernacle were to be made of finally twisted linen of various colors and skilled craftsman were to weave pictures of cherubim in and so, it was hand-made. It was a man-made by the command of God, but it's not the true tabernacle. That was set up by men and not by the Lord. Jesus serves in the true tent that was made and not by men, but by God. Now, what is that? What is this true tabernacle? The contrast in verse 5, it says, "They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven." This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle, see to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. And so this is how it work. Moses was up there on the mountain of God, and God commanded this man-made tent to be made and he showed him a vision of a heavenly reality, and that gave him a pattern that he was supposed to follow with the tabernacle. And He was commanded by God to be sure that he made it according to the pattern that God revealed to him on the mountain of God.

Parenthetically, I believe the same kind of thing happened with David when he had it in his heart to build the temple, which is not a movable tent but a more permanent building. Notice I said more permanent. There's nothing you can see in this life that's permanent. But that temple was meant to last longer, and he wanted to build it but God forbade him through Nathan. But God did give David a pattern or a plan for the temple revealed by the Spirit of God, which he wrote down and handed to his son, Solomon. Same kind of thing. But in Moses's case, he was shown a pattern on the mountain of God, some kind of vision of a heavenly reality. And the tabernacle is going to be a shadow or a copy, or a shadowy copy. We could put it together. That's all that the tabernacle was. The Levitical priests serve in a shadowy copy. The true tabernacle was not made by man but by God. So what is it?

What is the True Tabernacle?

What is this true tabernacle? Well, some people, some commentators have said, it's the whole universe. It's the heavens and the earth combined. That's so ethereal, I don't even know what that means. I'm just telling you what some commentators say. Others say it's the church. The church of Christ is the true tabernacle in which Jesus serves and ministers. It's getting closer, but I still don't think that's it. Some people think it's a section of heaven, like there's some kind of a heavenly tabernacle or place where Jesus as our Priest goes, a section like, I don't know, what it's cordoned off in heaven, where he goes there to plead for us and pray for us, etcetera. But I don't think that's it, either. Then what is it?

You know what I think it is? I think it is his resurrected glorified body. That's the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. It says in John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [tabernacled] among us." Literally pitched his tent with us. He took up a tent and dwelt with us. Now that earthly tabernacle is a symbol of God's dwelling with His people, dwelling in the midst, dwelling with his people. Jesus taking on a body, becoming our Immanuel, our "God with us," tabernacled with us. He pitched his tent by taking on a human body, and God raised him from the dead by the power of the Spirit. And He is in that glorified resurrected body and is ascended now, and in that true tabernacle, he ministers forever.

Jesus in John chapter 2, when his Jewish opponents were challenging him and questioning him, asking what sign he could do to prove his authority to do all these things. Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." They thought he was talking about Herod's temple. And they said to Jesus, "It took 46 years to build this temple. And can you raise it up in three days?" Parenthetically, do you think he could? If they turned it to rubble, do you think he could rebuild Herod's temple? Yes. Not in three days, but in three instants. Whatever he wanted to do, there's nothing he cannot do. But why would he do that? It was a shadow and a copy. The real temple was his body. And John 2:21 tells us very plainly that his body is the temple. And so it says in Revelation chapter 21, "I did not see a temple…" I didn't see one up there in the new Jerusalem, "For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple." That's the place and so in that Jesus ministers. And so we have in Hebrews 10, a summation of all of his priestly language, etcetera.

It says, "Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body..." Now, I know it's a little complicated, this sentence, but I'm going to read it this way. "His body is the new and living way." He is the way in, and his body is that, the resurrected body. And so Jesus serves in a better tabernacle, amen? A superior tabernacle, a perfect one, his resurrected body. And by the way, if you're confused about this and the theology of it, Jesus has his body still. There's no confusion about this. He's still in that resurrection body, and will be forever. I'm amazed how frequently Christians stumble over this. Could you shake Jesus's hand? Could he still eat broiled fish? Could you touch him on the back? Could you put your fingers in the nail marks? Could all of that still happened? Yes, yes and yes. He's still in his resurrected body. He's still human.

He is still the Son of Man, and will be forever. And that is the true tabernacle in which he ministers as our great High Priest. And our High Priest offers a superior sacrifice. But then you already knew that, didn't you? You're here because of the blood of Jesus. And we'll talk much more about it in chapters 9 and 10, but we'll touch on it here just in verses 3-4. "Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law." And so the necessity of a high priest to offer a gift and sacrifice is brought up. If you're going to be a priest, you have to offer gifts and sacrifices. Why?

Well, first, just for us as created beings who have received so much from God, so many blessings from God, even if we were not sinful, it would be appropriate for us to render to God thanks and praise for all that He's done. And so the holy angels do, and it's appropriate for there to be gifts and offerings. When God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, He appointed that there be three times a year that the Jews would appear before God. Three times a year, and He commanded very plainly, "Not one of you is to appear before me empty-handed." Have you come here today empty-handed? I hope not. Our offerings are spiritual now, but I sure hope you brought an offering, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God for all of his goodness to you. None of us should appear before him empty-handed, just because of his goodness to us.

In Deuteronomy 16:16, He said essentially, "When the first fruits comes in the land, I want you to bring that first fruits and offer it to me. I have brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey, and you're going to eat crops you didn't plant, and you're going to live in houses you didn't build, and when that first fruit come, you come and offer that first fruit to me. Let no Israelite appear before me empty-handed." So, just because we are created and He is Creator, we should appear with gifts and sacrifices all the more in that we are sinful. We must have a sacrifice offered because of our sins. And so it is necessary for a high praise to offer a gift and sacrifice for sin. But their sacrifices are inferior. Though commanded by God they are inferior, and I say to you, they are long obsolete.

For two thousand years, they've been obsolete. Since that curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, they are obsolete. They offer the blood of bulls and goats, endlessly repeated animal sacrifices, which have no efficacy to cleanse or purify the conscience. More on that later.

Christ Offered Himself Once for All Time

But Jesus offered for all time one sacrifice, his own blood shed on the cross, and by that sacrifice, he has the power to cleanse your guilty conscience in mind. And that is the once for all perfect sacrifice. And so it is necessary for this one to have something to offer. What a grand understatement. This one, this Jesus, have something to offer, namely, his blood. And so he does offer. It is necessary for him, but is necessary for him not to offer it on Earth. Why? Because he's forbidden to do so by the law of Moses. He is of the tribe of Judah.

There were men set up by the law of Moses, Levites, who were required by law to offer those sacrifices. And so it is necessary for him not to present the blood on Earth. How beautiful is it the typology, the symbology here, the Levitical priest sacrificed the animal in one place and brought the blood to the Most Holy Place. There was a transportation of the blood, and so the altar is out there, the Most Holy Place, Holy of Holies, is in here. And so Jesus was crucified outside the city gates, under position of rejection and condemnation, and there he obtained the blood that he then moves through the heavenly realms to present to God once for all. What a perfectly fulfilled. It was necessary for that symbology to be fulfilled, and so Jesus offered the gifts, the gift and sacrifice once for all for us, a superior sacrifice.

And then finally, our High Priest mediates a superior covenant. I can't wait for the next part of this sermon series. I can't wait for Hebrews 8:7-13. What a majestic unfolding of what you get as a New Covenant believer, and how beautiful is this. But look at verse 6. "The ministry Jesus has received is as far excellent," I love the word excellent in one of the translations. Superior is fine, but just excellent. "It's much more excellent than theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator, is superior to the old one and it's founded on better promises." So we have a more excellent Priest who brings a more excellent covenant. Their covenant is obsolete. It's done, it's finished, it's been fulfilled. It's done all that it needed to do in pointing ahead to Jesus. Now, its time is finished.

But now, the author gives us a kind of a calculation, a comparison. Jesus's ministry is as superior to theirs as the covenant He brings is superior to theirs and founded on better promises. There's the calculation. And what are those better promises? Would you be offended if I told you what they were? I'll give you a foretaste. They are three.

First and foremost, "I will be their God and they will be my people." "They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest." That is the final end, the ultimate end of what he is seeking to achieve. To reconcile us to himself, and bring us into intimate knowledge of himself. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God. "They will all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest." In order to achieve that, He must take out the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh. And so He says, "I'll put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts." And that's how they will be my people and I will be their God. And so He transforms our character so that we can actually obey his laws and love them and follow them. "For I'll forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more."

That's the third one. These are the three things, the Old Covenant could not do. They could not bring us into a reconciled relationship with God. The blood of bulls and goats couldn't do it. It could not change our nature from stony-hearted rebels to submissive noble-hearted children, sons and daughters of the Living God. It had no power to do that. And it could not take away your sins, but only pointed ahead to someone who could. Those are the better promises. So based on that, I plead with you to trust in those promises. If you have never trusted in those promises before today, trust in them now. You have heard the Gospel today. God sent His Son, who died on the cross. His blood was shed for sinners like you and me. If you simply repent, do nothing, just in that pew seated there, look to Jesus by faith into the invisible world, look and see him ministering there, by faith, you will be saved.

Trust in Him, apart from works. Trust in Him. And if you did that years and years ago, do it again and again and again. Trust in him, trust in him, feed on Him, look to him. You have no independent salvation. You don't have any independent days. You are dependent on the ministry of your great High Priest. He is at the right hand of God and is praying for you. Feel your dependency. Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. Trust in Him now. And celebrate the blood of the New Covenant that saves you. The night before Jesus was died, the night before Jesus died, he took the cup and he said, "This cup is the blood of the New Covenant in my blood." We're about to partake of the Lord's Supper. We're going to celebrate this New Covenant. We're going to celebrate the superior ministry of Jesus as our great High Priest. I'm going to urge you if you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have publicly testified to that by water baptism, you are welcome at the table.

If you have not, we ask you to refrain. But rather just to be made right with God by simple faith. And I say this to you, and I say it to my children, you may be growing up in a Christian home, you haven't been baptized yet, but you have come to a genuine saving faith. It's just too early to recognize it yet, but you know the Lord. You can derive benefit from the Lord Supper without eating and drinking today. Look in your heart to the blood that was shed for you. Trust in that. Feed on Him by faith. I'm not saying that the eating and drinking has no value. We do it, but it's just an emblem. The real issue is your faith. So as you sit there on the pew, believe, trust. But if you are partaking, do so looking to Jesus. If you have any sin in your life, this is a great time to resolve, to dedicate yourself before God to getting rid of it. To putting it to death by the power of the Spirit. Let's pray.

How would you feel, how valuable would it be to you, if the most renowned the most powerful prayer warrior on earth were a personal friend of yours and contacted you in some way, and said, "I want you to know that I'm going to be praying for no one but you, over the next week. I'm just going to be praying for you, I'm going to concentrate on you, I'm going to do nothing, I'm not going to eat, I'm not going to sleep, I'm not going to do anything but pray for you for a week." You'd probably be worried wouldn't you probably be anxious to say what is going to happen this week, that I need such prayer coverage. You might be tempted to do that, but at the same time, if you had any sense of the value and worth of spiritual things, you think it was a great blessing. That someone, a man or a woman who is such a renown prayer warrior would devote him or herself, fully to you in prayer.

I think about what I have been like to live back in the days of Martin Luther, during the early part of the 16th century, if he were such a one, if he were a personal friend of yours and said, "I'm going to give my full attention to praying for you this week." How valuable would that be? Or if you lived in the days of David Brainerd, that great missionary to the Indians who was such a man of God, a man of vision, of scripture. If he were to tell you, "I am going to pray for you at that level. Give myself fully to praying for you on Tuesday I'm going to do nothing but pray for you."

Or if it were George Muller, the man who saw 50,000 answer specific answers to prayer, to have George Muller be your personal intercessor, how valuable would that be for you? Within the last two years, I had the privilege of doing a funeral for Louise, and she was a woman of God, who gave herself to prayer for those that she knew and loved, people connected with the church. And I had the privilege of looking through her Bible and seeing physical evidence of the faithfulness and the detailed nature of her prayer ministry. I remember her daughter telling me with tears, "I think the thing I'm going to miss the most is just knowing that my mother is praying for us all." And there's so much of a value to that, but what I want you to do now is take these thoughts and lift them up to the heavenly realms, and I want you to know that you have a perfect prior warrior interceding continually for you already. You cannot be more prayed for, or more perfectly prayed for, than you already are.

Jesus, your great high priest, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for you And it doesn't matter what your circumstances are, it doesn't matter what you're going through, does not matter how great the grief. You heard me just pray for Larry. Larry is completely covered in prayer, right now, in no way does that lessen our responsibility to pray for him, and minister to him, we should. But just know he's prayed for, he's completely covered in prayer, we talk about a prayer covering it's there. And it does not matter how great the grief, it doesn't matter what you're going through, how great or how small it has been thoroughly analyzed, it's been thoroughly assessed according to the plan of God, and it's being thoroughly prayed for by Jesus. You may be going through a trial of a small nature maybe concerning your physical health, So small, you probably don't even want to bother somebody with it, it's being prayed for. It maybe greater than that, it maybe even life-threatening, it's being completely prayed for by Jesus. Jesus is at the right hand of God and is praying for you.

You may be struggling, wrestling with sin, there may be a particular lust. Or habit, sin pattern that's taken root in your habits over the last year or two, and it's causing you great grief, it's causing you great trouble, it is completely saturated in prayer if you are a redeemed child of God. If you are a child of God, you are as prayed for, as you could possibly be. You have a perfect prayer warrior, standing at the right hand of God, and it's right in the text, that we're looking at today is the focus of our attention. I'm giving myself fully to this one concept, into one verse really. Look at Hebrews 7:24-25, "Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. And therefore he is able to save completely or save to the utter most those who come to God through Him, because he always lives to intercede for them." And what I'm going to say is this is exactly the kind of high priest that we need. Verse 26, "Such a high priest meets our need." We have a need for this kind of prayer, and we're going to talk about that, but I want our minds to be focused, as perhaps never before on the Intercessory Prayer Ministry of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

The Context of Hebrews

Now, let's set this thing in context, the Book of Hebrews a magnificent work. Many Christians tend to underestimate it, until they start to study it, and if you're spiritually minded and you start to see the glories of Jesus Christ just radiate out of the pages of the epistle it's just a magnificent work, isn't it? And the author is writing to people in a particular circumstance, a particular setting, they are Jews who had made some kind of outward profession of faith in Jesus Christ. But they were under pressure from their neighbors and co-workers and relatives, political leaders, religious leaders to forsake that confession of Christ to give up on Jesus, turn their backs on Jesus, trample Him under foot and come back to Old Covenant worship, to come back to the Levitical priesthood, to animal sacrifice, to the temple worship, to the synagogue system, to come back to what they have always known and give up on Jesus. And so the author is writing to them to plead with them, to write a word of exhortation, that they should not do this.

And his strategy is so glorious, it's to present the glories of Jesus, the supremacy of Christ in every way that Jesus is superior in every way to every element of the old covenant. And now as the argument has moved ahead, we're in Hebrews seven where he focuses in in a marvelous way on the priestly ministry of Jesus, Jesus as our high priest. The beginning of the chapter in the order of Melchizedek, we've understood something about this mysterious historical figure Melchizedek, who gives us a pattern of Jesus' ministry, not based on a genealogy he is a priest, king, both a king and a priest together. Without beginning of days or end of life, a picture of Jesus. And so we now move on beyond considering Melchizedek, to understand how Jesus was established as great high priest, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever.

And so the author is showing the superiority of Christ priesthood, its superior in every way to that Levitical priesthood. We've been analyzing that and I'm not going to go into those details again. But Jesus is a superior high priest for many reasons, and he's begun to hint and we're going to get to this in the next chapter that with the change of the priesthood comes a change in the covenant. And we're going to have a new covenant we'll talk about that in the next chapter, but now we're zeroing in on Jesus as a high priest and we're focusing today on His intercessory work as high priest.

And I want to begin by establishing the facts of Christ's intercession. Look at Verse 25. "He always lives to intercede for them." Text says it very plainly, Jesus intercedes for us. The word intercede, and the Greek means to plead or beg someone's case before someone in authority, someone who has a power to do something about it.

And so Jesus takes up our cause, he pleads our cause for us, he intercedes for us. Two other key texts in the Bible established this fact, the fact of Christ intercessory ministry we have it in Romans 8:3334 there it says, "Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that, was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us." Now the context there in Romans 8 is of a court room. A sense of the judge, the holy judge and of an accuser. Who is there to accuse us and the sense presumably, Satan, I would think, and the sense is, what success could any of those accusations ever have? The work of redemption is so perfect, it's so complete. They will have no traction with God, God himself is the one who has justified. How could anyone condemn us? Who would have the courage to stand before almighty God, when it is God who justifies.

"And more than that, Christ Jesus who died more than that was raised to life, he is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us." So we have the intercessory ministry of Jesus, established there in Romans 8. We have it also in 1 John 2:1-2. Another key passage on this, there John writes, "My dear children. I write these things to you…" the things in the first chapter of First John, "I write these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. One who speaks in our defense to the Father, Jesus the righteous one, and he is our propitiation and not only ours, but for the sins of the whole world…" Propitiation means one who shed His blood, gave Himself up to avert the wrath of God. And so there again, Jesus is our advocate, the context again, is of a people who are sinful, who could be open to accusation, open to a charge being laid to us, but we have an advocate with the Father, one who is pleading with the Father on our behalf. And so the fact of Jesus' intercession is established.

Secondly the recipient of Christ's intercession. Who receives Christ's prayers? Well, who could it be but Almighty God, God is the right receiver of every prayer, the God of the universe, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every good and perfect gift comes and especially we should understand that the gifts necessary for our salvation, the gifts of grace are given by Almighty God, and so this meditation on the intercessory work of Christ on our behalf, should have the impact of making us radically God-centered. Because Jesus is radically God-centered. Every blessing comes from the Father. Everything that we need comes from God. Jesus is no independent source of blessings, he gets the blessings from the father and mediates them to us. And so God the Father is the recipient of Jesus' requests on our behalf. Every grace needed to bring us close to God is given by Almighty God. So it has always been. Saving grace comes from God. Doesn't it?

Regeneration, the taking out of the heart of stone and the giving of the heart of flesh that comes from God, God alone can do it. He's the one that grants repentance, leading to life. God is the one who can grant repentance, it's God that gives saving faith and it's God that nourishes saving faith more on that later. But God is the giver of all of these things, it is God, who adopted us as His sons and daughters, it is God who sent forth the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the father inside us crying out, "Abba Father." God is the source, the river of all of these things comes from God and Jesus knows it. And so he is intensely God-centered, and he goes to God for every blessing. Everything that we need comes from Almighty God, it says, in Psalm 145:16, "You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." And how much more then for us as believers. God opens his hand, and gives us the graces that we need. And so Jesus is radically God-centered in his intercessions Almighty God.

Thirdly, let's look at the position of Christ as intercessor and I want to do this in two senses, first of all, who is he who intercedes for us? And secondly, where is He, as he does this intercession.

Who is Jesus Christ?

First of all, who is He? Well, from the very beginning, we have known that Jesus is God in the flesh, he is God the son, or the son of God, he is the radiance of God's glory, he is the exact representation of His being, he is the one who sustains all things by His powerful word, this is who he is, he is God. The Son of God. He is perfect in every way, he has all power, it says he is able to save to the uttermost. He has power. He is filled with wisdom, he is omniscient, he knows every aspect of the Father's plan, the Father and the Son together crafted the plan. The Father made the plan, the Son executes the plan. And so Jesus, our intercessor knows and understands the mind of God completely. He knows the plan, of God completely. He knows everything that God is intending to do, and he is holy. And he is pure, he is set apart from sinners holy and blameless in every way. That's who is praying for us. The perfection of the person of Christ and the intimacy between the Father and the Son is foundational to our security here. The Father loves the Son, Jesus said and shows Him everything he does.

Think about the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James and John up on the mountain with Jesus, you remember how he went up with them. And suddenly, His clothes were transformed and they radiated with an unearthly light, a supernatural light, he was shining the glory of God, not the full glory, mind you, because God dwells in unapproachable light. And he wasn't meaning to kill Peter, James and John, but to bless them. And so here is this radiant glory shining. And what an incredible moment that was on the sacred mountain as Peter wrote later, "We ourselves saw His glory on the sacred mountain." And then a cloud came, a bright cloud it says, and a voice came from the cloud. "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him." Oh, how magnificent is that? How magnificent is that? But what's so amazing as I meditated on this is that the command that he gives to Peter, James, and John, listen to Jesus, he does Himself, he listens to His son all the time. He hears everything that the son says. He delights in every word that comes from the Son's mouth. And so he is ready to listen to the son and so the position of Jesus in His God head, makes his intercession powerful and effective for us.

Where is Jesus Christ

But also His position in his locality. Where is he? And again and again in the Book of Hebrews it's established that Jesus is at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high. Says it right from the beginning in that same verse in Hebrews 1:3, "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High." There he is, at the right hand of God. At the end of that same chapter, Hebrews 1:13, God the Father says, "Sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet." So there God the father invites them to sit right there. And three other times in the Book of Hebrews, we have the same teaching. We're going to unfold it a little bit more in in Hebrews 8:1. But Jesus is there at the right hand of God. And what does that mean? It means he has complete access to omnipotence.

God the Father is ready to listen to Jesus and Jesus is right there. A position of honor and glory and access. He can get right to God. And God welcomes Him there. I think about Revelation 5, you remember when John in the spirit was there, in the heavenly realms, and there in the right hand of God, the one who sat on the throne, was a scroll sealed with seven seals, you remember? And a loud angel is calling out, "'Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?' But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it." Remember how John said, "I wept and wept, because no one was found who was worthy." And then the angel said, "Do not weep. Watch, watch what happens." And then he saw the lion of the tribe of Judah coming who has triumphed and he looked and he saw it, and he looked as if he was a lamb who had been slain. The Lion and the Lamb, comes forward, boldly and takes from the right hand of God that scroll, which I think represents the title deed of the universe, it's His, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me," said Jesus in Matthew 28.

And he takes from the right hand, that scroll. And it's interesting because later in the vision, he looks again and Jesus isn't at the right hand of the throne he is standing at the center of the throne. So that's kind of meant to trip the circuit breakers, is he at the right hand or is he at the center? Both. In some mysterious way. He is God, he has all power, but He's at the right hand of God and he is interceding for us. And so the position of Christ our intercessor.

Fourthly, the people for whom Christ intercedes. Who is he praying for? Well look at the text, it says that he always lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him. So that's who He's praying for, He's praying for those who come to God through Him. Now, what does that mean to come to God through Him? I think first and foremost, it means to believe in Jesus, "All that the Father gives me... " Will what? "Come to me." And so to come to Jesus is to come to Him in faith. To come to God is to come to Him in belief and in faith, trusting in Jesus, so He's praying for them, the Bible, the fuller revelation of Scripture reveals that these are the elect, the chosen ones.

The very ones that we're in Romans Chapter 8, as we talked about, "Who will bring any charge against God's elect?" These are the ones that Jesus prays for. He prays for the elect, and only the elect. Now, I don't mean to shock you, by that, but it's right there in John 17. He is praying for those whom the father had given me out of the world. "They were yours; and you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word…I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they were yours." Well, there it's very plain, who He's praying for, isn't it? He's very clear about it.

So he prays for the elect, and I think he specifically prays for the elect who are in danger, who are alive and on Earth. I don't want to push this too far, I don't know that he needs to pray for those that are in glory, but I'm going to say at least this much is clear. He's definitely praying for the elect who're in danger here, on Earth, and He's praying for the elect who have not yet come to faith in Christ, that they might come to faith and they will. We'll get to success at the end. But I just couldn't help and put that in. I'm just, This is all about success friends. This is all about the prosperity of Jesus' prayers, he gets everything he asked for not 99% of it, he gets a 100% of what he asks for, but he also prays for the elect, who have come to faith, who are justified, but who are in danger. And I want to talk more about that danger in a minute, but I'm just being very clear about those for whom he is praying, he is praying for those who come to God through him.

And what do we mean by through him? Jesus is the door of the sheep he says in John chapter 10, In John 14:6 he says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He is in Hebrews 10, that "new and living way" by which we come into the holy of holies. And so we come to God through him, these are his sheep, he knows them by name, I love that hymn, we sang, earlier, our names are graving on his hands, Written on his heart, he knows them by name, and he prays for them. And how powerfully does he display His love? he cannot forget them.

He will never forget them, And he ever lives to intercede for them. Those are the ones that he's praying for the people for whom Christ intercedes.

Fifth, what is the basis of His intercession for them? Again, I'm going to break this into two parts. His death and His life. This is the basis of Jesus intercession. It's on this basis, that he stands before God, on our behalf. We are sinners, we are covered in sin. He, God is holy. On what basis then can he bring us near to God? And so, he comes as our high priest, on the basis of His death and His life and then this is the mystery and the beauty of Christ High priestly ministry.

There's a sense of it that's complete and perfect. Nothing can be added to it, it's finished, forever. And there's an aspect of it that's ongoing in perpetual continual. And this is the glory of the priestly ministry for Jesus. I've thought about this much recently. And how In the words of Isaiah, it is too small a thing for you. There he was applying it to just being the savior of the Jews. That's too small for you, Jesus. You must also be a light for the Gentiles, it may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Well, I'm going to take the same mentality and say it's too small a thing for Jesus to have a once for all finished ministry and that's the end of his priestly ministry.

It is much to the glory of God that he continues to minister on our behalf, through his prayers and so it is glorious, and marvelous that he has both a completed and perfect aspect and a continual and needed aspect so that he is even more glorified as our high priest.

Blood: the Perfect Sacrifice of Himself on the Cross

So it is on the basis of his death, first. And if you look at later in Hebrews 7, it talks about how Christ in verse 27, unlike the other high priest, he does not need to offer sacrifices, day after day, first for His own sins, then for the sins of the people, he sacrificed for their sins. And here's this incredible phrase, once for all, and here's what he offered when he offered himself and so there is the finished sacrifice of Jesus, His blood shed on the cross, once for all. God had prophesied, I will remove the sinners land in a single day.

And in that one day, once for all, Jesus shed His blood. Four times in the Book of Hebrews we have that expression. We're going to unfold it more in the succeeding chapters twice in chapter 9, and then in chapter 12, it's going to come again. So I don't want to plunder that now, but just there's a finished work, a once for all sacrifice. Jesus shed His blood and without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness. But Jesus shed His blood and that blood is shed, forever. Once for all, Jesus said, "It is finished." And one translation could almost be it is perfect, there's nothing that could be added to it. It's finished, It's done. And so he sat down at the right hand of God in that sense, the sense of the finished perfection of the work of Christ. Our sins are totally atoned for he is our propitiation, the wrath of God is averted, we are free, we will never be condemned for our sins. The blood has been shed. And on the basis of that finished work, he appears before God for us, That's his death but he also appears on the basis of his life. It says in our text, he ever lives to intercede for us.

He cannot die. Death has no mastery over Him. He lives forever. And so, I think the home base of that concept here, in this verse, is, that he's not going to stop doing this. Death can't stop him, it can't interrupt him, he can't be doing very, very well. And then suddenly, tragically, he died and then the next high priest wasn't quite as good. That will not happen. You have the best possible high priest, he is perfect and he will handle your case right to the end. So I think that's right, I think that's true Because Jesus can't die, he won't stop praying for you. And that's enough, isn't it? But I actually want to go a little further. I think that his life is also the basis of what he pleads. In effect like this, I live and therefore they must live."

You see, that's what I'm thinking. "Because I live, you also will live." We are bound together with him now by faith. We died with him and now we live with him, and because he is alive and will be alive for ever more, we cannot die. And so therefore there's just so much power in this meditation. Paul picks up on it in Romans 5:9-10, and there it says, "Since we have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of his Son, how much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life?" It's a powerful argument. In effect an argument from the lesser to the greater, or I think I'm a little more accurately from the more surprising to the less surprising, it is more surprising for a dead Jesus to reconcile wretched sinners like us than it is for a living Jesus to finish our salvation now that we're adopted children.

a lesser thing, that's the argument of Romans 5:9-10. The greater work's been done the lesser work still has to be done but it will be. You will be saved from God's wrath through the living Savior. And so we had a dead Jesus on the cross sins atoned for. We now have a living Savior at the right hand of God and we will most certainly be saved from God's wrath through him. How powerful is that? And also notice the link between the death and the life. Those for whom he died and these are those for whom he lives. There was a link between the two. He died for the elect only, he prays for the elect only. Those two go together. His intercessory prayer ministry and His shedding of blood is for the same group of people. He's not sloppy about this, friends. He doesn't die, her every single solitary one and pray for only some of them. That makes no sense to me.

And so these two are linked together and they're linked in all the verses that I've quoted. They are linked together in that Romans 8 passage. "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen. It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemn? Christ Jesus who died more than that, was raised to life. He's at the right hand of God and he's interceding for us." His death and his life and his intercessory prayer ministry are together in a golden chain that can't be broken. And I love that more than that. Oh, he died but more than that, he was raised to life. Isn't it amazing how bold Scripture can be? Oh, more than just Jesus' death, also he was raised to life. To me I always think of them together. The Cross and the empty tomb, they just go together. Absolutely they go together.

And on the basis of His death and His life, he intercedes for us. Same thing in 1 John 2, his intercessory prayer ministry linked to his propitiation. The two of them go together those for whom he died. He prays and out of that dear friends comes the success. We'll get to that. I just have to keep mentioning The success, the success of Christ prayer ministry, he gets everything he asks for, and so that is the basis of Christ's intercession. Are we on schedule? Probably not, doesn't matter. Let's just keep going.

How about the necessity of Christ's intercession? And here in we come to great mystery. Why is it necessary that Christ should pray for us? First at one level, Why does the father make the son ask? I may understand why he'd make me ask, I've got some growing to do. I need to trust God more, I need to be bolder, I need to be stronger, I need to care more. I've got lots of needs. And prayer is a powerful tool on me that as I pray I get heated up and care more. Jesus needs no such help, he's fine, he's perfect as a matter of fact. He doesn't need to grow and develop in his prayer life. Why then does the father make the son ask? Is it that the son is a little off-message, he's not always sure what to pray for? Absolutely not. He's praying for the exact same thing the father yearns for. Why does the father make the son ask for what the father yearns to give? What a mystery. Moving on to the next part. It's just a mystery, but perhaps part of it is for us to teach us to Pray, I don't know. To teach us to be radically God-centered the way he is.

Remember before Lazarus' tomb? John 11, Prays His prayer, take the stone away. So they take the stone away, and then he prays: "Father, I thank you that you heard me. I know that you always hear Me, but I pray for the benefit of those standing here that they may believe that you sent me." So he has us in mind. And so that could be part of it. Beyond that you developed the mystery as you see fit. Another aspect of this mystery is in effect isn't it saying somewhat that Christ's work on the cross is insufficient? No, it's not, but think of it. You could imagine someone could say What more could he do for us? Here, he became incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit, he lived a sinless life, he did all of these incredible miracles, he put God on display but more than that.

He went to the cross, on our behalf, and he was our substitute, all of our wickedness and our sin was taken off of us by faith put on Jesus, and he died in our place. But more than that, he was raised to life on the third day. More than that, he ascended to heaven, and the cloud hid Him from their sight. You could say, isn't that enough that sounds like a perfect ministry to me. Couldn't he at that point, say "I've done all of this, I now turn it over to you, finish your own salvation"? Oh, it's unthinkable. And he says in John 14:18, concerning his leaving, "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." We are infinitely needy even now, even after all of these things that Jesus has done for us, we continue to be needy, we must have this intercessory prayer ministry, we must have it.

Right within the text. Look at it again, it says "because he lives forever, he is able to save completely…" Another translation gives us, "save to the uttermost." The idea here is that our salvation is incomplete, we're not done being saved. If you've been here any like the time you've heard me say that before, Our salvation comes to us in the stages, we don't have it all now. If you are listening to me rather than in glory, then you can know your salvation isn't finished yet. It comes in stages, justification, sanctification, glorification. And we are still here on Earth and we are in grave danger. And we must have an ongoing ministry by Jesus on our behalf, Or we will not finish this salvation race. Later in this book, we're going to be urged to Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith and to run with endurance the race marked out before us, we've not yet entered our Sabbath rest, we are in danger from the world, the flesh, and the devil, we are in grave danger and we must have this prayer ministry, we must be saved, to the uttermost. We're not done yet.

And to say to God, I'll take it from here. It means you don't really know yourself, you will not take it from here, not unaided you won't. And you have got to have your great high priest, praying for you. You need this to be saved, to the uttermost saved completely to be saved to the end. And so, this must happen. Not all of the elect that are alive today are justified. Some of them are lost. They are the focal point of our evangelism and missions. We're trying to go find them. Paul said That I suffer everything, I endure everything for the sake of the elect. So that they could obtain their salvation. But we who have already been justified, we are redeemed we have indwelling spirit, we are still in grave danger we have an enemy, the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. You have a personal enemy.

And even worse than that, you have an enemy within the walls, your own flesh, your restless seething lusts and flesh constantly pushing on you to forsake Christ and go toward wickedness. It's just relentless, and you know what I'm talking about. Romans 7 describes it very plainly, "in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body…making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." That's your need for the Intercessory Prayer Ministry right there.

Romans 7. And then there's that world constantly alluring you with it's temptations? With money and power and privilege and prestige possessions and pleasures, alluring you all the time to turn your back on Jesus and follow the way of sin. You are needy, the necessity of Christ's intercession.

What then is the goal of Christ intercession? Well, there are many things, there is ultimately the Glory of God, a special kind of glory of God, the glory of God in the salvation, the final salvation of all the elect, that's the goal of the prayer ministry. Father, I want those whom you have given me, to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you gave me because you love me before the creation of the world.

That's it. He wants all of the elect to see His glory. Do you want that? Do you want that? Do you want to see Jesus' glory? Do you want to see him up on His throne in glory? Do you want to see him radiating? Do you want to be there in the new Jerusalem? Do you want to see a city radiating with the glory of God through Jesus? I yearn for that more than ever before. And you should yearn for it too. Jesus yearns for it. That's why He's praying for you, at a lesser level, though, but still very significant in order to make it there, you need to keep believing in Jesus. Let me say that again. You have to keep believing, you need to believe in Jesus if you're alive 10 years from now you need to that day, you need to be believing in Jesus that day. So you have to keep trusting in Jesus, keep believing in Jesus, God set it up that way. And so your faith must not fail. And your faith is the focus of Satan's attacks. I think he's a free willer, I think he thinks he can get the elect to fall. So he's going after them. Alright, he's going after to see if he can get the elect to fall. And so he's focus zeros in his attacks on your faith, so that you'll stop believing in Jesus. What is Jesus' answer?

Read about it in Luke 22:31-32, "Simon Simon, Satan has asked to sift you…" It's plural, in the Greek to sift all of you "like wheat." Friends, that sifting is still going on today, you are being sifted by Satan. Sifting you. Trying to see who is going to fall out, who is wheat and who is chaff. Sifting sifting sifting all the time. "Simon Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon… There he gets very personal. I prayed for you. He didn't say I prayed for all. "I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Oh, That is powerful and if you take nothing away from this sermon, it's like Jesus is at the right hand of God and is praying for my faith that it won't fail. That's the point of the sermon. Well, and to add one more thing, And it won't. How was that?

That is the whole point. It won't, but it won't because he is nourishing it. God the Father is sustaining it. He gave it to you to begin with, he is continually nourishing and supplying it and sustaining it, and that fire will not go out. In 10 years from now, if you're still alive in this sin cursed world, you'll still be believing in Jesus, if you genuinely believe in him today. And that's the power of the intercessory ministry of Jesus, he is praying that your faith will not fail.

And what is the manner of His intercession? Well, in Hebrews 5:7, it says, "During the days of Jesus' life on earth he offered prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death and he was heard because of his reverent submission."

Well, that I believe, ultimately, at that moment is talking about Gethsemane in Gethsemane, He's pouring out prayer, blood flowing down and runs face, crying out to the one who could save Him from death okay, he doesn't pray like that anymore. He's not praying to the one who could save from death. Death is past now. But I think we can take some elements from it. He is praying with knowledge, he's praying according to the will of God. It says, in Romans 8:27, "The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance to the will of God." So, does the Son. The son Knows how to pray for us, He's praying according to the plan of God and we know that if we ask anything according to His will, what he hears us and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him.

Jesus knows exactly what the father wants to give and he prays with wisdom, with omniscience, with perfect knowledge, he prays for the elect. And he plays with passion. It's not cold. You See him in Gethsemane to sweat like blood coming down his face and you get a sense of the intensity with what Jesus is praying for you, how much he loves you, how dear you are to Him, how precious you are to Him, there's an intensity in his prayer life for you, a passion that's how he prays.

And what then is the outcome? Well, I already told you three or four times. Success prosperity Wealth and riches simply put every single thing he asked the Father for, he gets 100%. He never ask and miss. Of course, there's mystery here, of course he lays out good works for you to do and you don't do them. Of course, he doesn't want you, to do the sins you're doing and you do them.

Of course, that goes on. I'm just telling you, everything that the son asked the Father for he gets. And he is able to cause all things to work together for your final good, he knows how to pray for you. And so it could be your patterns of sin right now contrary to his will, bringing him shame and disgrace in some sense because his name is attached to yours, He's praying for you specifically, about that and everything he asked for concerning that he will get. It might be your discipline. It might be the he'll discipline you. Lay the rod on you until you give up the sin, whatever it takes, but he is praying wisely for you based on what you need at every moment and it's just mind-boggling. Think about it.

Think about it. What are the daily needs, Spiritual needs of one Christian in this world? How much is going on in a 24-hour period. With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years. Wow, one Christian is, it's just overwhelming the needs of one Christian. Well, how many-elect people, you think there are on earth today? I have no idea. Tens of millions, Multiply that out, that is the brain of Jesus, that is the mind of the Lord and of the father. They are in perfect sync with each other. The son thinking in detail about you and about all of your brothers and sisters in Christ powerful. And he gets everything and in the end, what's going to happen?

All of those that the Father gave him will be with him and will see His glory in heaven. They'll all be there, none of them will be missing, he will not lose one of them, he will pray you up into heaven, having already died for you, he will pray you up into heaven until you're finally there. "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.' All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: 'Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!'" Close with me in prayer.