Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Let's read verses 11 to 14, and
we'll ask our Lord's blessing on His Word. But Christ, being come and high
priest, of good things to come by a 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 for us. For if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of an 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 to serve the
living God? Our Father, We thank You. Thank You again
for this blessed time to be able to assemble ourselves together. Thank You, Lord, for giving all
of us a heart to be here tonight. Lord, I pray for Christ's sake,
would You bless Your Word tonight to the salvation of your people,
calling sinners out of darkness into the marvelous light of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Comfort us. Help us. Lord, we pray for those in our
midst that are hurting, that are sick, afflicted, Riley, Betty,
Linda, Pray, Lord, that you would have mercy according to your
eternal purpose. Lord, we realize that all these
things that come our way are for your glory and our good.
Blessed tonight I ask you for Christ's sake. Amen. Having considered this tabernacle
in the wilderness and the tides and shadows of our Lord's eternal
work in redemption, keeping his people. Let's consider again
tonight, as we continue in this book, the revelation of the pictures,
the understanding of the shadows that which sets forth our glorious
Savior." Now, just remember, the Scripture sets forth concerning
that worship in the Old Testament there in the wilderness. Verse
9 says, which was a figure for the time then present in which
were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make Him that
did the service perfect. as pertaining to the conscience. That system could not, because
of the frailty of the flesh, the types and pictures that were
set forth, could not make the conscience of a sinner to be
settled, to be at peace before God Almighty. Continual pictures,
continual shadows, continual types, but there was no settling
truly by the Spirit of God to the heart. It just couldn't happen. A sinner needs a Savior. One that can do exactly what
Almighty God has demanded for righteousness. and has ordained
to be done for the good of His people, the salvation of His
people. We struggle. We struggle. We pray, Lord, I
believe. Help mine unbelief. The more
a believer grows in grace, the more you're going to find them
struggling. That's the lot. The more they
grow in grace, the more they perceive of the presence of sin. The more they see of the presence
of sin, the more thankful they are for God's grace and God's
mercy to keep them. God's people are struggling people,
sojourners in this wilderness. And there's only one thing that
will settle the heart, and that's the Spirit of God teaching under
the continual hearing of the gospel. Faith cometh. It cometh. It cometh by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. That's
why we talk so often. Tell me one more time how the
Lord has put away my guilt. Tell me one more time. Just let
me hear that glorious truth one more time, that salvation is
by grace. Through faith, meaning known
by, perceived by, taught by, it's believed by, faith. And that not of ourselves, it's
the gift of God. Tell me how the Lord has saved
me, and that Almighty God keeps me, and in that day shall reveal
Himself to be the one only who is deserving of all honor and
glory and praise. A believer loves to hear that
story, that old story of redemption. Well, in verse 11 and 12, let's
read those again, then we'll start. being come, and high priest,
of good things to come, by a 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 for us." Christ being come. The anointed of Jehovah
Himself, the one that this tabernacle, the one that these pictures kept
saying, there's one coming, Messiah's coming, the Savior, God's anointed,
God's Lamb, Christ being come, God in the flesh, the promised
one, God who is our prophet, God who is our King, Absolutely,
but here the Spirit of God is going to set forth in particular
in this passage His office as the High Priest, Christ being
come and High Priest. Before our great High Priest
could enter once into the holy place, having obtained redemption
for us, He had to actually come into this world. The Lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world, God Almighty who saw
it, God Almighty who justified His people based on what He knew
His Son would do, eternally justified us freely by grace. This is what He saw. Christ having
come, came into this world, and actually made atonement for the
sins of his people. As our high priest, the Father
gave him the responsibility to officiate in the name and in
the stead of God's elect according to the Father's, the Son's and
the Holy Spirit's everlasting covenant of grace. In God's counsel,
Christ was come into this world to make atonement, that is, to
restore to a friendly relationship all that the Father had everlastingly
loved, all that He had chosen in Christ. Christ would come
into this world, God's Lamb, holy, harmless, spotless,
made sin, made what we are. And the Lord
would deal with him in absolute justice, in absolute wrath, and
spew out on him what was everlastingly deserving of his people. Thanks be unto God. He said,
I found a ransom. Deliver them from going down
to the pit. He was come, the Scripture says,
and high priest. Because in God's unchangeable
will, the Father said, Thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. The high priest that would actually
come and be the one officiating, he actually laid down his life. He was the officiating priest. He was the actual sacrifice himself. He's the Lamb. That's what John
the Baptist says. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. So he is the officiating high
priest. He's the sacrifice and He is
the altar Himself upon which no man ever laid his hand of
self-righteous works upon. Remember how the Lord would tell
them in the wilderness, He said, you build an altar, you take
the stones and you stack them up just exactly the way they
come out of the ground. And don't you put a tool on it. Don't you think that you're going
to improve on God's salvation on God's Christ, on God's honor. As the high priest, he obeyed
perfectly God's law, thereby showing and proving himself to
be God's spotless Lamb that should be slain at Calvary. He came,
the Scripture sets forth, being come and high priest. of good things to come. Oh, I
tell you, by Him coming, the high priest, or what good things
have come for His people, the good things that have come, righteousness
before God, actually established by His obedience to God's as
man. Righteousness established before
God Himself by the federal head of God's elect. Almighty God
looking to Him alone. And what He did is stop and muse
upon that. In the Psalms, when you see that
selah, stop. Righteousness before God Himself. Is there a righteousness before
God that God will accept for all of God's elect, all that
were chosen in Christ? Is there righteousness? Yes,
there is. Christ, who is our righteousness,
not only the righteousness, but the peace, the atonement, The
atonement, atonement, atonement. Peace before God through the
precious blood of His cross. God's not angry. There's no condemnation
to them that be in Christ Jesus. There's peace before God. Why?
Sin has been dealt with. The guilt of our sin has been
dealt with. over the presence of it still
there, and how well we know and admit it, and how we grieve over
it. I'm telling you, a believer,
that's a grieving thing to a believer, to see the wretchedness of that
old man that's in him, old wretched man that I am. It grieves a believer. to see the way He actually is,
but to know that there's peace before God Himself. And also,
there's a new and living way into the very presence of God
that has been opened by His death through His flesh, as opposed
to that veil that was in the wilderness. You remember when
He died, when He said, It's finished, that veil was rent. Top to bottom
opened up. I mean, that veil opened up and
there was that mercy seat. There was that ark. Oh, that new and living way.
What good things have come. But this Scripture right here
says, but Christ being come and high priest of good things to
come. Good things to come. How many
times have we quoted this out of 1 Corinthians 2, 9? I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. How many times have we talked
about the things that we know, that we can perceive, that we
can understand? Listen, think about this. I just
jotted a few things down. We shall see Him as He is and
be like Him. We shall live with Him eternally
and behold His glory. We shall reign with Him as His
glorious Bride. Now of those things that I've
just set forth, now we know that those things are some. We know
they are based on the Scriptures. We know that we'll see Him like
He is and be like Him and reign with Him, behold His glory eternally
as His glorious Bride, the one that He says, you've ravished
me with one of your eyes. And in all of these things that
we've just mentioned, I have not seen nor ear heard neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love Him." We don't even know how to think.
We have no idea. These things that we know, what
glorious things, but oh, the Scripture sets forth the good
things to come. Him become a high priest. He came a high priest. by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle. That's what the Scripture says.
Greater and more perfect tabernacle. His body that was prepared him. In the Old Testament, the outer
court, inside that outer court was that tabernacle that we keep
talking about. Divided into two compartments.
The holy place, the holy of holies. that tabernacle, His body. That's what it pictured. That's
where all the ministry was done. That's where the ministering
was done. That's where the service was
performed before God for the people. All of the service was
done inside that tabernacle. A tabernacle, the Scripture sets
forth here concerning His body. Christ being come and high priest
of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands. That is to say, not of this building.
This tabernacle of His body, it wasn't like the one that was
made under God's direction, under God's instruction, made exactly
the way the Lord said to make it, as a beautiful picture and
type of that glorious wood that was, that chitim wood that was
covered in gold and the veils and the embroideries and the
beauty that was set forth of our precious Savior, but concerning
His tabernacle, His body, not made with hands, not made with
hands, that is to say, like we're created. You see, he was conceived
by the Holy Spirit. Here we are. We came from natural
generation, from our parents, not him, not his tabernacle. He was holy, not conceived in
sin. He didn't come forth from his
mother's womb, speaking lies. There was no sin in him, on him,
May sin for His people, but He's holy, harmless. It was not, the
Scripture says, by the blood, verse 12, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once
into the holy place. I want you to notice this. It's
not by the blood of goats. Notice the plurality. Not by goats and calves. but by His own blood, one time,
one sacrifice, not continual, continual, continual. By one
sacrifice, His own blood, He entered into the holy place,
and listen to this, having obtained eternal redemption for us when
He died on the cross. When he cried, it's finished. Redemption was obtained right
there by the shedding of his own blood. He obtained eternal
redemption and then entered in. He put away our sin, eternally
redeemed us, and entered into the presence of God with his
blood, and God accepted it. Look at the reading of that. He entered into the holy place
having obtained eternal redemption for us. He bought us by His own precious
blood, redeemed all that the Father had given Him, made what
they are, and laid down His life and paid the debt before God's
law concerning what they owed. He honored God's law. He magnified
God's law. Not one jot or tittle of God's
Word, God's law was done away with. It was honored. And He
obtained eternal redemption for us. And He entered into the very
throne room of God. And God accepted it. Verse 13. for if the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh. If Jehovah pronounced his people
to be ceremonially clean through the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer, I want you to turn with me to Numbers
chapter 19. I was going to speak on this heifer,
Numbers 19. I'm going to read the portion
of Scripture concerning this red heifer, but I removed my
notes that I had on this red heifer. And I, Lord willing,
not next week's Lord's Supper, but the following Wednesday,
Lord willing, I want to preach on Christ, our red heifer. But I want to read this portion
of Scripture. This is what he's talking about
if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer is
used to the purifying. What I'm about to read actually
sets forth God's merciful provision as touching Safety, protection,
daily and eternal cleansing provided by Christ. Daily cleansing, eternally
cleansed. In this, I want to read this
passage of scripture, and Lord willing, we'll preach on it the
next time we look in Hebrews. Numbers 19, verses 2 to 17. This is the ordinance of the
law, which the Lord hath commanded, saying, unto the children of
Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, without spot, wherein
is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke. And ye shall
give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without
the camp, and one shall slay her before his face. And Eleazar
the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle
of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation
seven times. And one shall burn the heifer
in his sight. Her skin and her flesh and her
blood and her dung shall he burn. And the priest shall take cedar
wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the midst of the
burning of the heifer. And the priest shall wash his
clothes. And he shall bathe his flesh
in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest
shall be unclean until the evening. And he that burneth her shall
wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and
shall be unclean until the evening. And a man that is clean shall
gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp
in a clean place, And it shall be kept for the congregation
of the children of Israel for a water of separation. It is
a purification for sin. And he that gathereth the ashes
of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until
the evening. And it shall be unto the children
of Israel and to the stranger that sojourneth among them for
a statute forever. He that toucheth the dead body
of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself
with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be
clean. But if he purify not himself
the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. Whosoever
touches the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifies
not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord. And that soul shall
be cut off from Israel, because the water of separation was not
sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is
yet upon him. This is the law. When a man dieth
in a tent, all that come into the tent, all that's in the tent,
shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel which hath
no covering bound upon it is unclean. Whosoever toucheth one
that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body
or a bone of a man, or a grave shall be unclean seven days.
And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the
burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall
be put thereto in a vessel." Needless to say, there is a whole
message in that passage. But concerning this heifer back
in Hebrews, Hebrews 9, verse 13, If the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies
to the purifying the flesh, verse 14, 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 to serve the
living God? The Lord Jesus Himself If God
ceremonially pronounced clean those by the blood of bulls and
goats and the ashes of a red heifer, how much more shall the
blood of Christ through the eternal Spirit. The Spirit of God took the one who came into this
world in the form of a servant. And he was willingly led by God's
Spirit to the cross, just like he was led by the Spirit into
the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. That's what this
says. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit, he walked as our representative,
guided by God's Spirit, They that are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God. He humbled himself and he walked
before God exactly the way God demanded for us to walk. He walked
in perfect obedience and by the Spirit of God, led by God's Spirit,
he offered himself without spot to God. Spirit of God teaching us in
regenerating grace of His accomplishment, the Scripture sets forth now,
setting forth Him who was left. Now He purged your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. The Spirit of God
who led Him to the cross now teaches God's people what He
has done in our stead. that perches our conscience.
From the works of sin and the flesh to serve the living God. And how do we serve Him? Let
me tell you, you believe Him. You believe Him. What must we
do to work the works of God, was asked. The Lord said this
is the work of God. This is the work of God. It's
the work of God of grace in your heart that you believe in. This
is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom God has sent. What a miracle of God's grace.
Men talk about believing God. I've said this recently, as if
that's an easy thing. No, my friend. That's a miracle
of God's grace that anybody believes Him, that anybody trusts Him. A believer looks at himself,
believes in God. He struggles, Gary, with every
moment of that. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. All of these legal ordinances,
shadows, they don't give peace. They don't give peace. The only
peace that we have is when the Spirit of God gives us peace.
When God of all grace settles our heart and teaches us divinely
that our guilt has truly been removed. We know that. We know that by faith. But, oh,
how much we admit we see through a glass darkly. Lord, I know. I know that. Lord, I know, based
on Your Word, You put away my guilt. Lord, help me to believe
that. Lord, teach me that again. Teach me that fresh. By Your
Holy Spirit, purge my conscience. Settle my heart. Teach me again
how you've made peace by your blood and that now there's no
dread of the law. There's no dread of approaching
God in Christ. That we can enter in boldly into
the throne of grace with assuredness and that when we pray, Lord,
teach me Even as we call on You in prayer, that Lord, truly,
it is by Your blood that we can enter in and actually talk to
God Himself. For Christ's sake, amen.