Well, I'm very grateful to be
invited back to be with you. I always look forward to coming
down here. I want you to open your Bibles
to the book of Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. And just leave your Bibles open
there for a few moments. There were four special days,
really four religious days, observed during this last week. I know Monday we call Halloween,
but it was originally All Hallows' Eve. It was a religious holiday,
special day for those who are Catholic. That was the 31st of
October. And that was originally, they
would fast and go to the church and pray, view religious relics
in order to get them ready for All Saints Day, which was November
the 1st. They had All Hallows' Eve on
the 31st of October. Then you had All Saints Day on
November the 1st. We know all of the people of
God are saints in Christ Jesus. We know that. We're sanctified
by God the Father in old eternity, sanctified in Christ Jesus when
he died for us, when he redeemed us, when he answered every demand
of God's justice against us. when he suffered, bled, and died
in our stead, and we're sanctified by the Spirit of God when he
separates us from the world. I was running with the religious
world, had no knowledge of the gospel, no knowledge of who God
was. I was just running with the crowd. God separated me. He set me apart. 1 Peter 1 talks about the sanctification
of the Spirit. He sets us apart, doesn't he?
He separates us. I'm so thankful that God, in
his grace, by his gospel, came to me in great, awesome, effectual
power. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
That's what effectual grace is. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
I wrapped up in free willism, Arminianism, works religion.
And I found out who God was. Who's God? I found out how God
could be a just God and a savior through the blessed savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. I was brought to believe this
gospel, love this gospel. I was telling my brother a while
ago, I know that passage there in Romans 1, we're certainly
not apostles, but you know where Paul said, I'm separated under
the gospel of God? We all are. All of God's, we're
separated by the gospel to love the gospel, aren't we? Separated
from the religious world. brought effectually to love the
message of sacrificial atonement, of righteousness brought in and
established. Found out how God can be both
a just God, always a just God, never less than a just God and
a savior. through the doing and the dying
of that glorious, most glorious of all persons, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And therefore we're saints. Really,
that's one of the Bibles, if I could put it this way, kind
of a favorite word for God's people, we're saints. Don't let
me shock you, but you're looking at St. James. I'm St. James and you're saints. Our beauty, our righteousness, our holiness,
set yonder on the throne of grace. He got there by way of bloody
tree. And we are absolutely complete
in Jesus Christ, aren't we? We don't lack for anything. He
is our all and all. So all of the Lord's people are
saints. It's a heretical thing to say,
well, you know, we heard on, let's listen, some
program yesterday, they had some kind of calendar of all 12 months
of the year. I don't know what program it
was on. Nancy had television on. I heard them say, they got
a saint for every single day of the year. But you know why
they invented All Saints Day was for those that weren't honored
to have a special day in their names. They honor all the saints.
That's somebody that's been canonized by the Pope. And that's a bunch
of heresy, we know that, because God's people are saints. But
anyway, it's All Hallows' Eve. They pray and fast and go to
church and get ready for All Saints Day. which is November
the 1st. Then November the 2nd is All
Souls Day. That was All Souls Day, as celebrated
by the Roman Catholic Church. That's when you pray for the
dead. Pray for the dead. And then, to back up to October
the 31st, there's Reformation Day. which is actually celebrated
in a lot of churches today. It's celebrated on the first
Sunday of November. You've heard of Martin Luther.
Martin Luther was disturbed over the sale of forgiveness by the
Pope and by the church. You know, if you give more money,
you could pray more and get your loved ones out of purgatory faster.
I read one of the little poems that were written back then about
that. As soon as the coin into the
coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs. And Luther came out
against that. So on October the 31st, 1517,
he nailed 95 statements to the castle door. At the castle, I
should say, castle church door, in Wittenberg, Germany. That was kind of like a public
bulletin board there. And he knew that on the 31st,
that All Hallows' Eve, he knew there'd be a lot of people coming
in to church that night. And that church in Wittenberg,
it had more religious relics than any other church in Europe.
They said they had even some of the milk from Mary, and some
of the straw from Jesus' manger. If you came in and viewed those
relics, you'd have less time to spend in purgatory when you
died. Martin Luther knew there'd be
a lot of people, a lot of traffic coming in and out of the castle
church there in Wittenberg, so he nailed those 95 statements
to the church door denouncing many of the beliefs and actions
of the Church of Rome. Well, of course, a copy of Luther's
paper made its way to Rome, and great efforts were made to get
him to renounce what he had written, but he refused. So in 1521, Pope
Leo X formally excommunicated Luther from the Church of Rome
and declared him to be an outlaw. and a heretic. And the emperor
of Rome actually gave permission to anybody who wanted to, you
kill Martin Luther without any fear of being arrested. Of course, they didn't do that. He died of natural causes in
1546. But his revolutionary ideas,
some of them, on the basis of what is generally
said to be the Protestant Reformation. My subject today is the time
of Reformation. The time of Reformation. But,
I don't want to talk to you about October the 31st, 1517, although
I will say this. I'm thankful for some of the
things that happened. I must say this, I don't believe
everything Luther believed, nor everything John Calvin believed,
or Ulrich Zwingli, or those men. There's some things I differ
with them greatly on. But since all things are of God,
and they are, I am thankful for that time because There were
some very vital issues that kind of rose to the surface. Issues like the scriptures alone.
That is an issue. As an issue back then, that's
still an issue today. What is our authority? Is it
what the church writes? The traditions of the elders?
See, in our Lord's day, That's what the Pharisees, they said,
the traditions of the elders say this. Our Lord said, why
do you go by the traditions of the elders? The traditions of
the fathers? It's the word of God. The Lord
Jesus always went back to the word of God. This is the only
source we've got right here is the scriptures. We take the scriptures
in the context, not lifting out a verse here and there and somewhere.
Well, you can get any kind of belief in if you do that. Talking
about taking the scriptures in its setting, in its context.
This is the only basis for faith and practice right here. The
scriptures alone. And then grace alone. However
sinners say, by grace. By grace alone. Electing grace. I'm not ashamed
of electing grace. By faith, I see my name written
down in the Lamb's Book of Life according to God's election of
grace. Of grace. If the Lord hadn't
chosen me, I wouldn't have chosen Him. The Lord picked me out. That God who said, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy, I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious, According to His eternal purpose of grace, He
was gracious to me. I've got no argument with election.
Listen to me, election is not the sinner's enemy. It's the
sinner's friend. Isn't that right? It's the sinner's
friend. Only people who would have a
problem with divine election are people who are proud and
arrogant and self-righteous. People who don't understand what
happened in the fall like we were talking about a while ago.
People who don't understand our condition in Adam. If you ever
see what you are by nature, you'll be thankful for what God did
for you in grace when He set you apart and gave you to Jesus
Christ who is all of our, like I said a while ago, wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Be thankful He
set you apart unto salvation. He lets you go with everybody
else. I had no claims on His grace, neither did you. I had
no claims on His mercy. Our Lord Jesus said there in
Matthew chapter 11, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth. You've hidden these things from
the wise and the prudent. It's a lot of people a whole
lot smarter than I am, a whole lot more intelligent than I am,
a whole lot greater IQ than I've got, and they hear this gospel
and they say, I don't believe that. The Lord says, I've hidden
it from them. I've revealed it unto babes.
It's been revealed unto babes. People who are helpless. What's
more helpless than a baby? You haven't been brought to see
how helpless you are, how hopeless you are. You can't even lift
one little finger toward God, toward your salvation. You've
hidden these things from the wise and the prudent. You've
revealed them unto babes. Why? Even so, Father, for so
it seemed good in thy sight. Oh, what a humbling doctrine.
electing grace, redeeming grace, redeeming grace. Who bought me
from the claims of divine justice? Who paid my debt? I owed a debt
I could never pay. He paid a debt that he didn't
owe except by imputation. A debt which was laid upon him
even in the covenant of grace. And he bore responsibility for
me. I see my savior standing for
me yonder, back yonder at the bar of justice said, I accept
him as a gift, father. And you can count on me, hold
me accountable. I rejoice in his suretyship and in his life of obedience,
a life which showed his great qualification to be the sacrificial
lamb. He was without spot and without
blemish. I rejoice that he took my place and he died my death
and all the wrath of God that My sins deserved fell on him. My guilt charged to him. My sins
charged to him. All my liabilities. You see,
he's our bridegroom. He's the bridegroom of the church. You know, when man and woman
get married, the husband assumes responsibility for all the liabilities
of the bride. We were betrothed to the Savior
in eternity past. And I tell you, we didn't bring
anything into this marriage relationship but liabilities. That's all we
brought. That's all we got. And he said, well, they're mine
now. They're mine. And when he came into this world,
he came to do something about them. And he answered to a holy
God for them. And all the hell that our sins deserved, our Savior
bore there on the cross. All the wrath of God. Scripture
says he took the cup, cup of God's vengeance. He turned it
up, he drank it dry, right down to the last bit of dregs. Brother,
that's redeeming grace. That is grace. for the innocent
to die for the guilty. I deserve to die and he pushes
me out of the way, says take me instead. Those soldiers came to arrest
him that night, a whole bunch of them, got their staffs and
spears, bows and arrows, coming after one man. He said, who are you looking
for? Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. Knocked them all
down. Boy, a man not too smart when
he gets knocked down by the very word of a man who's the God man. Get knocked right back on your
bottom. And then you get back up to try to arrest him again.
That's not too smart, is it? I tell you, they couldn't have
taken it. They couldn't have laid a hand on him except by
his will. He said, no man takes my life from me. I got the power
to lay it down, and I got the power to take it again. He said,
who you looking for? Jesus of Nazareth. I am. Knocked
them all down. They got up. He said, who you
looking for? Looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He said, you take
me, but you can't have these. You can't have my people. You
let these go. Right there is substituting grace. And our Lord Jesus says to the
justice of God, to the righteous demands of God, you can't have
me and have my people. You take me, you let these go
their way. And we go free. We go free. That's redeeming grace, brother. And there's regenerating grace.
dead in trespasses and sin. I was in Bible college, you know,
we had one professor, he talked about what the sinner could do
that you can still, you got the power to believe or reject, and
that's all in your hands. I thought sinners were dead in
trespasses and sins. He said, well, we're not that
dead. What does dead mean? Death means the absence of life.
If we're not dead, then we're alive. I'm smart enough to know
that. Maybe in a coma. But if you're
not dead, you're alive. Were we alive or were we dead?
Did we die at Adam or did we not? Wherefore is by one man
sin entered into this world. Romans 5, 12. Sin entered into
this world and death by sin. Death passed upon all men for
that all have sinned. All sinned in Adam. We're dead.
Dead and trespassing sin. God sends the gospel to us. You
may be reading a sermon. You may be listening to a CD.
Maybe watching a DVD of a preacher of the gospel. You may be in
a congregation like this. and you're just going along merrily
in life, or maybe you have a little passing interest, but you know,
well, I'm glad these other people are interested in it, and you
know, it's a nice message, and then all of a sudden, you find
yourself listening, and you find yourself interested, and then you're kind of sitting
on the edge of your seat, and you find yourself believing,
and rejoicing in this gospel of grace, this gospel of Jesus
Christ, His righteousness imputed to me, forgiven of all my sins. All this based upon the work
of somebody else. He did it for me graciously,
lovingly. You find yourself believing.
Well, what has happened? Well, you've been raised from
the dead. That's regenerating grace. And we got preserving.
We're kept by the power of God. Who keeps you? The Lord keeps
you. And we all know if the Spirit
of God were to desert us right now, that'd be it for us. Isn't
that right? That'd be it for us. Now He never
will. He never will. The Lord said, I'll never leave
you and I'll never forsake you. But if He were to, He's our life. We'd be dead again. He preserves
us. He keeps us alive. I don't believe in progressive
sanctification, but I believe in continual sanctification.
He keeps us set apart. He keeps us looking to him. He
keeps us believing. He keeps me trusting. I say,
Lord, don't let me go. Don't let me go. If you let me
go, I'll fall. I know I will. And then there's
glorifying grace. I tell you, this issue, it was
pushed to the forefront in what's called the Protestant Reformation.
Grace alone, and then Christ alone. Nobody else but Christ. It's not Christ in you. It's
not Christ in your work. It's not Christ plus your obedience.
It's not Christ plus your repentance. Not Christ plus your tears. Christ
plus your faith. Christ alone. Christ Jesus in
His glorious person as God and man. His work. His work, not yours. His obedience,
not yours. His righteousness, not yours.
His. Christ alone. No other Savior. He's the sovereign. He's the
Savior. He's the substitute. He's the
sacrifice. He's the surety. He's our all. We look to no other. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, the sweetest thing I've ever done, because it's polluted
by sin. It's contaminated with guilt.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame. I wholly lean on Jesus'
name. Do you? Do you? And faith alone, God-given faith
alone. He gives us grace to believe
on His name. But I want to focus on the time
of Reformation. We're not talking about Martin
Luther's day now. We're talking about the time
of Reformation, Hebrews 9 verse 10. Talk about these things about
the tabernacle, the ordinances, so forth. Hebrews 9 verse 10. These things stood only in meats
and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed,
that means laid upon, laid upon them unto the time of reformation. Unto the time of reformation. What does the word Reformation
mean? Straightening out. You look up the word. It means
unto the time of straightening out. It means unto the time when
things are made right. Let me tell you something. October the 31st, 1517 did not
straighten things out. I know people, I know churches,
Lutheran churches, Other Protestant churches, and I'm not a Protestant,
but other Protestant churches, they own today, this is Reformation
Sunday, but nothing was straightened out then. Nothing was made right
then. You gotta go back further than
1517 to find out when things were straightened out. You gotta
go back a whole lot further than that. to the time of straightening
things out. You see, through the fall everything
perverted and twisted and crooked. But something happened. And notice
it doesn't say until the day of reformation, but the time
of reformation. And this is the entirety of our
Lord's obedience. which includes his life and that
obedience culminated with this, his death, his death. That's when things were straightened
out. That's when things were made
right at the cross when our Lord Jesus
suffered, bled and died. Now let me tell you this. Those
who read the Bible carefully and studiously, and that's the
way we ought to read it, those who read it prayerfully and who
understand it correctly are going to face a couple of realities
that will just fill you full of soberness and awe. Number
one, the reality of God. We know the gods of the heathens
are idols, born in the vain imaginations of men. But the Lord is real. Deuteronomy 6, 4 says, Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. They asked David, said,
David, where's your God? We have our gods. Got them on the shelves. We bring
him out, we let him do what we want him to do. We polish him
up, shine him, dust him off, carry him around, then we put
him back. But we don't see your God. Where's your God, David?
David said, our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever
he's pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
he set in another place. That did he in heaven, earth,
under the earth, and all deep places. Our God's pure, righteous,
set apart, separate. He's holy. He can't even look
on him. When he sees sin, he strikes
out against it with his anger and his righteous indignation.
He will by no means clear the guilty. The Bible says the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. God's powerful enough to back
up his threats too. He demands perfection. Be ye
holy. I'm holy and he will not and
cannot accept anything less than any action or any person who
is less than perfect. And he'll never lower his standards. God will never lessen his requirements. And if you're a serious student
of the scriptures, the reality of God And his attributes will
fill you with awe and solemnness. And there's another thing that'll
fill you with awe and solemnness if you really thoughtfully and
carefully read the Bible. The reality of our sinfulness.
Not just the wrongs that we do. Most everybody will admit that
they've done wrong. Sin's not just the wrong that
you do. It's what you are. It's what
we are. It's our nature. Our nature. We came into this world alienated,
cut off from God. There's such a thing as a federal
headship of Adam. We fell in Adam. We're just not
fit for the presence of God. I wish they'd soak into us. We're
not fit for God's presence. God is light. We're darkness. We're darkness. God is life. We're death. God is purity. We're evil. Now, when you consider these
two realities, who God is and what we are, Then the issue rises, this issue
rises to the surface that how can I, a sinner, ever draw near
to such a holy God, such a righteous God, such a pure God? How would he ever accept me,
receive me, welcome me? Hebrews chapter 9 gives you the
answer to that. Now understand this, in the book
of Hebrews, the Spirit of God is showing us that access to
the Lord, drawing near to the Lord, is impossible except in,
through, and by the Lord Jesus and his work of redemption, righteousness,
and reconciliation. And the inspired writer, the
Spirit of God, if you will, He shows to us and He shows to the
Jews, after all the title of the book is the Hebrews, He shows
to the Jews that all of the old economy, now watch it, all of
the old priesthood and all of the old sacrifices and the old
covenant could not make men acceptable before God. He shows the failures
of the Old Testament priesthood And the sacrifices, Hebrews chapter
10 talks about the blood of bulls and goats which can never take
away sins. And then he shows the failures
of the old covenant, that is the covenant of Sinai. These could not provide or accomplish
salvation or access to God. and full access to the Lord according
to the Scriptures, according to the Spirit of God, writing
in the book of Hebrews, is by the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we find in the book
of Hebrews is His priesthood is better. He is not a priest after the
order of Aaron, those men who died, Those men who first of
all had to offer a sacrifice for themselves, for their own
sins, and then a sacrifice for the sins of others. He's not
a priest after the order of Aaron. He's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek, who has an everlasting priesthood. And then in the book
of Hebrews, we find not only that he sets forth the perfect
priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ, but his perfect sacrifice. I've already quoted from Hebrews
chapter 10, those sacrifices could never put away sins. But
this man, by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. By one offering, he removed the
sin. He washed it away. Our sins were
drowned, the sins of all of God's elect, the sins of all of God's
people. The sins of the sheep. When the
Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep, our sins were drowned
in His blood. Separated from us as far as the
East is from the West. Listen, He took our sins upon
Himself, bearing the responsibility for our guilt and then standing
between us and the divine justice of a holy God. And it fell on
Him. He was answerable. If He took our load of sin upon
Himself, we don't bear them. Now the issue is, does He bear
them? He bore them away. He bore them away by His sacrifice.
So His is a better sacrifice. He has a better priesthood. He's
a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He didn't have any sins that
He had to offer a sacrifice for, for Himself. He had no sins of
His own. Those sins that he had were imputed to him, the sins
of his people, and he has a better sacrifice, which actually put
away our sin, and he is a high priest of a better covenant,
the covenant of grace. The writer of the book of Hebrews
then is showing the superiority of our Savior's priesthood, our
Savior's sacrifice, based upon a better covenant. better covenant. This covenant. You remember the
old covenant? Moses had gone up in the mountain,
you know, and he got the law from the Lord and he came down
and of course they were dancing around a golden calf and he threw
the law down and broke it and that was, there's a lot of symbolism
in that because that's what the Israelites had done. They've
broken God's law. Then God, God wrote the law again
in his on tablets of stone, a law that is binding. But before that,
the Lord had entered into this covenant with Israel. And the
Lord spoke to Moses and said, now you go and talk to Israel.
Here's the covenant, here's the agreement that I make with them. I'll bless them conditioned upon
their obedience. That's kind of, in a simple summary,
the old covenant. Blessings conditioned upon the
obedience of Israel. This was a covenant between God
and Israel. So Moses goes to the elders of
Israel and he says, this is what God says. God says, we'll be
his people and we'll have the land and the temporal blessings,
all of these things, conditioned upon this, if we obey Him. Well, what do you elders say?
And they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do. It's just like they had shaken
hands with the Lord, so to speak, and entered into a covenant.
Now that covenant, it is bound by God fulfilling
His word, His promises in the covenant, and Israel keeping
their word. Is that correct? That's correct. It's conditioned upon that. The blessings, those temporal
blessings of Sinai's covenant were conditioned upon God doing
what He said He was going to do, and Israel saying that Israel
doing what they said they were going to do. Didn't take long
for them to break it. That's the old covenant. We gotta
have a better covenant than that. And that's one of the things
that he shows us in the book of Hebrews. There's a better
priesthood, a superior priesthood, a better sacrifice, a superior
sacrifice, and a superior covenant. Now what do you think about this
covenant? Let me tell you about another covenant. This is a covenant
formed and fashioned, written up, drawn up, entered into before
any of us were ever created, okay? Before the world ever was.
We're going back into eternity now and we can't comprehend that. I know that. But let our minds
drift if we can back to as best we can to when there was not
God the Father, Son and Spirit. And see a covenant entered into
by the Father and the Son. Wherein the Father makes promises
to the Son. I'll give you a people in grace. I'll entrust them to
you and see the Son accepting full responsibility for the salvation
of those people. Our salvation then is conditioned
upon The father keeping his word, doing what he said he would do,
right? It's conditioned upon the father
doing what he said he would do, and the son doing what he said
he would do. Well, preacher, but what's our
part? We don't have a part. That's
why it's called a covenant of grace. You see, if we had a representative
in that covenant, Christ was our representative. He was our
spokesman. He stood for us. He represented
our interests. I had somebody standing there
before God for me. Christ Jesus the Lord. Now the
issue is, did He fulfill all the conditions for my salvation. You know, when he came into this
world, or when he was coming into this
world, I should say, the messenger from the Lord said to Mary and
then said to Joseph, in Matthew 1.21, Thou shalt call his name
Jesus, the Savior, for, because, He shall save His people from
their sins. He will fulfill all the conditions
of the covenant of grace, everything required in the covenant of grace,
He will fulfill and thereby save His people from their sins. Listen, I preach to you the gospel
that is fully conditioned upon The obedience, the blood, the
righteousness, the work, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
the Lord. That's the only covenant I'm
interested in. And David said in 2 Samuel chapter 23 concerning
this covenant, he said, this is all my salvation right there.
He said, and it's all my desire. Randy, it's all I want. That's
all I want. That's the only salvation I need.
Don't talk to me about some other kind of salvation. Because there
is no other kind of salvation. Don't lay heavy burdens upon
me that I can't possibly fulfill. Don't give me legal requirements
that I must obey. I can't do it. It's an impossibility. Because I've been made to understand
something of the reality of God. and the reality of my own sinfulness. So don't tell me what I've got
to do. I can't do anything. How can
I come to God? How can I have access to God?
Me, a sinner, I drink iniquity like water. My thoughts are impure
and polluted. My motives are not pure. There's
enough sin in this sermon to damn me to hell forever. Don't lay heavy burdens upon
me. I can't handle them and neither
can you. I tell you, any salvation that
is proclaimed, that is dependent upon the center, that lays conditions
upon the center, is a salvation that is no salvation at all. Stay away from it. The Apostle Paul, in Galatians
chapter 1, he called it another gospel. People talk about, oh the Lord
Jesus Christ and His life and His death and His blood and all
you got to do is just that, stay away from that. Any salvation conditioned upon
you will be a failure. Because we have ruined every
single thing we have touched. Salvation is of the Lord, you
can't touch it. It's been accomplished and made
real to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me hear what he says. Hebrews chapter 9, look at verse
1. That first covenant, it had ordinances of divine service
and a worldly sanctuary. And by the way, In the earlier
message, I talked about holy, are you holy, talked about the
word sanctified. This word sanctuary, the same
root word. There was something set apart,
separated, just an ordinary tent. But it is set apart for God. Verse 2, there was a tabernacle.
And everything about the tabernacle speaks of Jesus Christ and his
work of redemption, we know that. God tabernacled among men. There
was a tabernacle made, the first, that is the holy place wherein
was the candlestick, the table, the showbread, which is called
the sanctuary. After the second veil, the tabernacle,
which is called the holiest of all. and had the golden censer
which the priest used, the high priest, on the day of atonement,
the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold wherein
was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded the
tables of the covenant over the cherubims of glory, shadowing
the mercy seat, the propitiatory. That mercy seat, propitiation. What does the word propitiation
mean? Preacher, you throw out that big word. What does propitiation
mean? Satisfaction of divine justice. Christ is our propitiation. Of which we cannot now speak
particularly. He said, I'm not going to pause
to dwell on these things right now. Verse 6, Now when these
things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God, but into
the second, when the high priest alone, once every year on the
day of atonement. Read about it in Leviticus chapter
16. Not without blood, which he offered
for himself and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost,
this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing,
which was a figure, the word figure. You know what another
word for that is? Parable. It's the same word as
parable. All of those things was a parable,
teaching us a spiritual lesson. On the Day of Atonement, let
me just give you this. On the Day of Atonement, that's the
only day of the year that one man, the high priest, went into
the holiest of all, right? We know that. Early in the morning,
Aaron got up. He put on his glorious garments. the miter, the turban that had
in solid gold, holiness to the Lord on it. It wasn't a fish
head like the Pope wears. That comes from Dagon, the fish
god of the Philistines. That's where the Pope's hat,
that design comes from. That wasn't the miter that the
high priest wore that was in the shape of a fish head. It
was a turban with gold, pure gold, holiness to
the Lord. And the ephod and the breastplate
with blue and purple and scarlet, just glorious. And the breastplate
and the girdle or the tunic, the robe, the broidered coat,
all fancy garb, beautiful garb, speaks of the glory of Christ. And it's said that on that Day
of Atonement, that high priest, before he actually went into
the Holy of Holies, he offered 22 sacrifices. 22 sacrifices. In those holy garments. And then you know what he did?
He went and took off those holy garments. Laid them aside, took a bath. And then he put on just white
garments. That's all. No adornment. Just white garments. Speaks of
purity. He laid aside the glorious garments,
put on just white garments. He's going into the Holy of Holies.
See our savior. adding his glory as it were from
old eternity. He didn't lay aside his deity,
but in some way his glory. He humbled himself then and came
into this world. White linen garments to offer
thee sacrifice for sin. That's his purity. That's his
faultlessness. That's his whole life. He's the
pure one. Even in his death, he was the
pure one. Notice down here in verse 14,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself, watch this, without spotting the God. There's those fine white linen
garments. He still had them on. Oh, His
glory, He somehow, some way or other laid that aside, but He
never laid aside His holiness. His exaltation, He laid that
aside, but He never laid aside His purity. You see, this was His great qualification. He was the lamb without spot
and without blemish. That's those white garments.
The whole time the high priest is offering the sacrifice and
going back and sprinkling the mercy seat with blood seven times,
burning the incense back there, he's got on those white garments. And then you know what Aaron
did after he finished that? Took off those linen garments,
took another bath, put on his glorious garments again. The
work is done. Listen to our Savior in John
17. I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. Now that
glory I had with thee from before the world was, I'll
take it again." And the God-man, after his death
and his resurrection, 40 days later his ascension, he was the
coronated king, robed in his royal apparel. When our Savior died, he straightened
things out. He made things right. And I know
he did because he's been glorified. He'd been taken back to glory,
seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. Yeah, this was all a figure.
These things, that Old Testament priesthood, those Old Testament
sacrifices, that old covenant, they couldn't make men acceptable. Thank God for a better covenant. and a better sacrifice, and a
better high priest. We're made perfect in him. We're
made the very righteousness of God in him. Look at verse 11. but Christ being common high
priest, excuse me, of good things to come by greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption. That word obtained, what a rich
word. It means to look for and to find
and secure. He went to the cross to do something. He obtained eternal redemption. He went looking for this, He
found it, He seized it, He obtained it, and He won't let it go. Right
there is all my hope. Right there. Eternal redemption. For if the
blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works. All those dead works. in false religion, thinking I
was doing God a service. Dead works. You know what Paul says, Philippians,
he looked back on all that stuff, he said, he's just dung. I think about one of my days
in false religion, soul winning, passing out tracts, leading people
down the Roman road, ABC, and one, two, three. Breaks my heart what I did lying
to people. But all those dead works, into the blood. Aren't you thankful? You can't ruin the purpose of
God. Not even in your failures. I'm so thankful. All my blunders
and mistakes and sins and foolishness, it can't interfere with God's
eternal purpose of grace. God will send his word forth.
It'll accomplish his purpose. Even in spite of us. Our Lord
obtained eternal redemption. He straightened things out. He
made things right. I have great admiration for firefighters,
don't you? They'll risk entering into a
burning building if they know there's somebody inside. If they think there's somebody
trapped in there, they'll go in and get that person. And if they think there's somebody
else in there, they'll go in again and again and again to
rescue them until everybody's out, until everybody's rescued. Our Savior came down here to
rescue us. He didn't have to come down but
one time. One sacrifice, Jimmy rescued us. The work is done. And by the spirit of grace, we're
brought to rejoice in that one who did the work. And then we'll
say, I've been rescued. Thank God for the time of reformation. Thank God for that time of straightening
things out. When everything was made right, And I tell you what, if the Lord
Jesus made everything right, it's right indeed. You rest in Him. You trust Him. You cease from your labors. Cast yourself upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a glorious Savior. Amen.