The audience for which the Hebrew
letter was written was those who believed on Christ Jesus
the Lord in true God-given faith, but who had for a very long time
been accustomed to worshiping according to the old covenant
services. They were accustomed to the visual
carnal ceremonies. The audience today is the same. Believers in our day all begin
and continue for a very long time imagining that we're truly
worshiping God until God reveals that it's an empty, carnal, legal
tradition, many times held over from that old covenant of works. Then and now, believers are taught
in the inner man, in spirit, that sinners cannot be saved
by a mixture of that which is spiritual and that which is carnal. There can be no mixture of God's
free grace and man's carnal works. There can be no mixture of the
old covenant with its carnal ordinances and the new covenant,
which is of God the Spirit, who must be worshipped in spirit
and in truth. A covenant of carnal services
cannot exist with the covenant of Christ finished service, which
is made with a sinner through the eternal spirit. That covenant
is made through the spirit. Our warfare is not carnal, it's
spiritual. Our worship is not carnal, it's
spiritual. We don't look at things that
are seen, the flesh, carnal services, ordinances, these things, but
on things that are unseen. So the message of the Hebrew
letter is as needful for us today as when it was written. All the
Word of God is as needful today as when it was written. The divine
service under the old covenant served the purpose of bringing
sinners to trust the Lord God by faith in him who served God
perfectly. God has provided himself a lamb. God has raised up his high priest
who accomplished his divine service of redeeming a people. Satisfaction
has been made. The only way of acceptance with
God is by God's grace, through the Holy Spirit, through God-given
faith in the Son of God, Christ Jesus the Lord. If you really
want to serve God, that's the title of the lesson this morning.
Do you really want to serve God? Do you really want to serve God? If you really want to serve Him,
the service that you and I must engage in is faith in Christ
our Lord and Savior, who has fulfilled all the divine service
which God requires. And by faith in Him, we fulfill
all God's divine service as perfectly as Christ Himself performs it. by simply believing on Him and
trusting Him. Now, that's the end for which
God gave the divine service and the worldly sanctuary under the
old covenant. The carnal mind worships and
trusts only that which the human eye can see. The priests could
be seen. And we've seen here in the Hebrew
letter that Christ is our high priest. has been proven to us
that the tabernacle and its furniture could be seen with the visual
eye. And the writer has proven to
us that it was made after the pattern shown in the mount because
it was everything about it. The tabernacle and all the furniture
was to typify Christ the Lord. And now the duties and worship,
the sacrifices and offerings, all the visibly exercised services
that were performed, now we're going to see what this divine
service signified. First of all, by the fact that
the high priest was the only one who could enter the holiest
of all, and by the fact that he could only do it once a year,
and by the fact that he could only do it with blood. He couldn't do it without blood.
The Holy Ghost signified in the hearts of believers then and
in the hearts of believers now that the way into the very presence
of God, it wasn't manifest then while that first tabernacle was
standing. Look here in Hebrews 9.6. Now
when these things were thus ordained, The priests went always into
the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. That's what
we're talking about, the service of God. But into the second went
the high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The
Holy Ghost, this signifying. Here's what the Holy Ghost was
signifying by these things. That the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing. Well, who is the way into God's
presence? Who is the way into the holiest
of all? Look down at verse 11. But Christ,
being come and high priest, of good things to come. Now he's
the priest that came. He's God's high priest. And secondly,
the tabernacle was a figure for that present time. But the Holy
Ghost signified in the believer that there was a greater, more
perfect tabernacle to come and to be entered into. Now look
back up there at Hebrews 9 verse 8. It says, While as the first
tabernacle was yet standing. The phrase there, the first tabernacle
yet standing, implies the first covenant that was then in place. Everything that was involved
in that first covenant, that old covenant, while it was still
in place, it was a figure for the time then present. It was
a figure of something better to come. What was it a type of? Look back down at verse 11. But
Christ being come, a 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, a greater, more perfect covenant,
not made with men's hands, not according to that old covenant,
not according to the work of a sinner's hand, but an everlasting
covenant made in Christ. He being the perfect tabernacle,
He entering into the presence of God, the holiest of all. All
the promises of that everlasting covenant are yea and amen in
Him. And His is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. So while as yet that old covenant
was in place, while as yet that tabernacle was standing, It was
a figure then, for the time then present, that something better
was coming. Something better was coming.
A better covenant, established on better promises, with a better
tabernacle, with finished services that are complete and finished,
that give us access into God's presence, into the holiest of
all. Then thirdly, The gifts and sacrifice offered by the
high priest in that first tabernacle had no saving efficacy. That means they couldn't do anything,
had no effect whatsoever. They only typically purified
the flesh. There was all kinds of washings,
all kind of carnal ordinances that typified the purifying of
the flesh. If a man touched a dead body
or just crossed over a grave and he didn't know it was there,
there was just a bunch of ways that a man could be defiled.
And what it was is an example of showing us of our defilement,
the death that we are in ourselves. And the only way that that flesh
could be purified was if they took the ashes of a red heifer.
And that red heifer pictured Christ. And they took the ashes
and sprinkled those ashes upon Him. That purified them according
to the flesh, just in the type, in the flesh. And God would receive
them again into His presence. But that did nothing for their
conscience. That did nothing for the purging
of, really, purging of sin. And so we see here in Hebrews
9, in verse 9, it says, in that first tabernacle, under that
first covenant, They were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience, which stood, they stood only in meats and
drinks and different kinds of washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation, until the time
that Christ came. So the Holy Ghost signified in
the hearts of believers the service that Christ, the High Priest
in the name of God, would obtain by His one offering. This is
what's being signified. Look back down at verse 12. We'll
see that. And so it says, 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
of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifyeth
to the purifying of the flesh, if it in type purified the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ God's own Son, who
through the eternal Spirit, this is God in human flesh. How much more shall His blood,
who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spite
to God? How much more shall His blood
purge your conscience from dead works, from dead service, to
serve the living God? Now, I have four lessons for
you this morning. from this. I want you to think
about it. First of all, that service, that
service which the carnal mind, the natural religious mind, that
carnal service, which man believes is really serving God, really
serving God, God rejects. God calls it dead works. Favor
of his son and his son's finished service to him. That's what we
learn here The Hebrew writers teaching them that those services
are finished those services are done away with well, surely You
don't think somebody would go and try to offer the blood of
a bull or calf in our day and time We do the same, we do the equivalent
of that in our day and time. We might not literally offer
a bull or a goat, but the principle's the same. We'll bring to God
some sacrifice that we deem service to God and expect God to receive
us based on something we've performed or something that we've done.
And God said, that's not the case. My Son is the one in whom
you must come. He's the one who finished the
service. But the carnal mind will reject that true service
in favor of a shadow, in favor of the law, which was a shadow
of things to come. And while that which God says
is truly serving Him, believing on His Son, Christ Jesus the
Lord, the carnal mind is going to reject that And yet God says,
I reject your dead works. Through the Holy Ghost, even
though the Holy Ghost declares in the Gospel that the purpose
of all these visual services, all these things we could see
under that Old Covenant, even though they were but shadows
which signified the way, into the holiest of all, Christ the
Lord himself. That's what they signify, that's
what they typify. Even though that's the case,
still the carnal mind refuses to let go of outward carnal services
and worship. Because that's all carnal religion
is. It's got to have something outward. or else there's no evidence. There's nothing in the Spirit
going on. There's nothing happening within the Spirit. So there's
got to be all kinds of flash and all kinds of entertainment
and all kinds of show. The believer is going to manifest
some good works. He's going to prove that his
faith is genuine God-given faith by continuing in Christ. by trusting
Christ alone, by not being able to be turned back to the law
or to the flesh or to carnal services and putting any value
in those. Though the Spirit declares plainly
in the written word, declares plainly in the word that no carnal
gifts, no carnal sacrifices could ever sanctify a sinner, not then,
not now, yet still, The carnal mind says, no, my gifts and my
sacrifices are what's going to make me holy. And it's this way
in every religion. Some people think baptism washes
away a man's sins. Some people think that the blood
and the wine actually become the blood and body of Christ,
and therefore it's It has some sacramental effectual happening
when you partake of it. Some people think just joining
a church, getting your name on a membership roll, any of these
things like this, that's what's going to please God. There's
one thing that's going to please God. There's one way to serve
God. That's in His Son. That's by faith in His Son. You
want to serve God? That's how He says He'll be served.
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who offered himself
through the eternal Spirit, purge our conscience from dead works
to serve the living God? He's talking to people who Living
in the midst in a day when there are so many Judaizers so many
law works Religionists that are trying to lure them back under
the law and saying it's okay to believe on Christ But you
got to have something else mixed with it, and he's saying how
much more if those carnal services if they typified and God really
received you according to the flesh and considered you purified
in your flesh after you touched a Dead bone or dead body? How much more shall the blood
of Christ purge our conscience the inner man? From dead work. These are dead works. He said
to serve the Living God How we serving? By trusting him who
served God in our room and our stand as our representative Secondly, as we now believe Christ,
who's the end for which that old covenant of works was given,
then let the believer stay on Christ Jesus the Lord. Let us
lay hold of Him and not let go of Him. We've been turned from
dead works to serve the living God. Let's serve the living God.
Let's don't be hearers of the word only and not doers of the
word. A hearer of the word looks into
the perfect law of liberty. He sees what Christ has accomplished
on his behalf. And he doesn't walk away and
forget that without Christ, apart from Christ, he's dead in trespasses
and in sin. He continues in Christ, trusting
Christ alone, not looking anywhere else but to Christ. That's a
doer of the work. That's what it is to serve God,
is to continue steadfastly in Him. That's why Paul said in Galatians
5.1, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. He purged our conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. And Paul says, therefore,
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back
under that law. One of the errors that we make
that is very common is a sinner belief that after, the carnal
mind somehow has gotten this from scripture believing that
after conversion that we somehow get better in our flesh and become
more accepted with God in our flesh and are progressively sanctified
in the flesh. Sanctification is in Christ. He is our sanctification. He
is all our holy standing. We will not get any more holy
than perfected forever. When the thief on the cross died,
nothing else had to be done to make him perfect to enter into
God's presence. What we do find in scripture
and what will happen is as we live and we go on in faith, continue
in faith, God will continue to teach us more and more and more
of Christ. And as He does that, we grow
in knowledge and understanding of Him in the inner man, in spirit. And the more we grow in knowledge
and understanding of His full, complete, perfect redemption,
the satisfaction that He made, the more we grow in understanding
and knowledge of that, the less we'll look at this flesh. The
more we'll go from being a sinner to the chief of sinners. in our flesh. If a man is looking at his flesh
and he's saying, well, I've gotten better, he's proven that he's
not born of God. He's proven that he doesn't understand
what God teaches in the inner man. Christ is our all. Christ is everything. And then
thirdly, Remember this, God left the early church under a covenant
of works for years. for the purpose of declaring
to show his people that acceptance with him couldn't be obtained
by the works of the law. He left them under that covenant
of works for years and years to teach them and those scriptures
were written for our edification. We learn from those scriptures
and we see like as we read Hebrews here and he's given us a commentary
on Leviticus. We know now that Christ is the
way. He's the only way. And we know
that a man can't obtain any acceptance from God by his own will, or
works, or doing, or obedience, anything of the sort. But it
took a long time before God brought them out from under that old
covenant. He had believers all along. David
said, teach me thy way that I might learn great things from thy law. They were true believers born
of the Spirit of God then, just like now, who saw Christ in these
things. We have a greater manifestation
of Him. But knowing that, let us remember
this too, how long we continue in in thinking that we somehow
could gain favor with God by our works and our will and our
what. And even now, we're constantly
having to be taught and reminded. That's why we come here every
week to hear the gospel preached. It's because God, through the
gospel, continually keeps us in Christ, where He chose us
and put us before the world began. in Him who redeemed us, in Him
whom when the Spirit came and purged our conscience so we actually
could behold Him in truth and in spirit. He keeps us there. And so as we see how gradually
this thing happened and how they were left for a long time, we
ought to be patient, firm and truthful, but patient with folks
when we're talking about these things because it takes time.
It takes time to understand these things. Listen to Ephesians 2.1. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and in sins. Wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who rich in
mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, He quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. Paul said to the Galatians, he
said, you heard about my conversation in time past. You heard about
my walk, my deportment. I persecuted the church. I was
walking in the tradition of my father's. I thought that what
I was doing was serving God. I thought I was pleasing God.
And he said, but when it pleased God who separated me, sanctified
me, put me in Christ from my mother's womb, when it pleased
Him to reveal Christ in me, Then I was turned from those dead
works to serve him by faith That's why Paul could tell Timothy foolish
and unlearned questions foolish and unlearned questions avoid
them Avoid them these let me tell you something these internet
forums Stay out of stay away from and if somebody emails you
something and they want to add a they got some question and
You be careful. I'd call them and talk to them
before I wrote anything down. Because a click of a button and
everybody in the world has got it. And you're on every webpage
in this world. Avoid them. They gender strife. And the servant of the Lord must
not strive. Must not strive. That's not the
spirit of the Lord. The spirit of the Lord is not
debating matters. When they brought Paul in accusing
him of debating in the temple, Paul said, I wasn't debating
with anybody. I was telling them the truth. I wasn't debating. I don't debate the Scripture.
I declare the Scripture. I proclaim the Scripture. But
I don't debate it. And if somebody wants to strive
about it, they can go on. My grandfather, used to do this
all the time. I'd go to him, I'd be all bent
out of shape. Somebody opposed me, something
went on, something went wrong, you know, and I'd just be bent
out of shape about it. Got to do something, you know,
I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that, fix this thing. And
I can't tell you how many times I've seen him do it. This is
just good old country Learning right here. This is good old
South Arkansas country gospel preaching he'd take a stick just
to just to pick up a stick on the ground and He'd take that
stick and he just wave it in the air like this and it just
behold this Doesn't happen to it. He said look at that not
a thing in the world happening to that stick and And he'd say,
now watch this. And he'd take that stick and
put it down on the ground and push down on it and snap it in
two. And he'd say, now why didn't
it break when I was just doing this and it broke when I pushed
down on the ground? Because it had an opposing force
when he pushed down on the ground and it snapped it in two. If
you don't give them anything to oppose, God's people aren't quarrelsome
people. They just say, you know what? You may be right. Go on their way. I'm not going
to argue with you. I'm not going to fight with you
over it. But you give somebody some opposition and that thing
will go on and go on and go on until it's broken. Friendships
and families and divided churches and whatever. Leave it alone. Leave it alone. But the servant
of the Lord is gentle, he's apt to teach. Because God perventure
might give them repentance to acknowledging of the truth. They
might recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who
are taken captive by him and his will. So we be careful, we
be patient with people. And then last thing I want to
remind you of is this. When we see how God allowed the
practice of this old covenant to slowly decay, look back up
there in chapter 8 verse 13. In that he saith anew, he hath
made the first old, that covenant. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. Hebrews 8 verse 13. That which
decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. God didn't come
The covenant was done away with. It was finished. When Christ
said it's finished, it's finished. When the veil rent from top to
bottom, it was finished. That service was done. But God
didn't come and destroy Jerusalem for 70 years later. It slowly
decayed. That service decayed. And that
ceremonial practice slowly decayed. And when you consider that, how
God allowed that to slowly vanish away. Believers today can rest
assured that in like manner, by God's grace, as He continues
to declare the glory of His Son and the glory of His finished
work of redemption in our hearts through the gospel, as He does
that, our carnal baggage Our old legal worship, our carnal
tradition, our vain understanding, just like our flesh is fading
like a moth-eaten garment every day, like grave clothes. These things are fading. The
more we hear of Christ, the less those things matter to us. You
want to know what the cure is for those who oppose themselves,
who say, that they want to still be serving God in some kind of
carnal fashion and putting some kind of trust in the faith. You
know what the cure is for it? Keep preaching the free and sovereign
grace of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. That's where God's
pleased to reveal His glory is in the face of Christ Jesus.
Keep hammering away. Keep just preaching the free
salvation that's in Christ alone. And if it's God's If it's one
of God's people, one that He's enlightened, one that He's given
a new heart and a new nature, brethren, these things are just
going to be like vanishing, moth-eaten garments. They're just going
to fade away, slowly fade away. And one of these days, when He
delivers us, look over 1 Peter 1.30. One of these days when
He delivers us to His throne of grace, We shall freely have that which
the Lord our Savior accomplished by His divine service, and all
this old fading, decaying worthlessness will be gone. Now look here,
verse 3, 1 Peter 1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to an inheritance." Now look here, look at the difference
between our works and what His work, His service accomplished.
This inheritance that His service accomplished is incorruptible
and it's undefiled and it fadeth not away. And it's reserved in
heaven for you. Who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation. Ready to be revealed in the last
time. That's what His service accomplished. We just let go of our service.
And we lay hold on Him. And His finished service to God. You really want to serve God?
Really want to serve God? That's how we serve Him. That
man that does that, I tell you, he'll do some other things too.
He'll plant himself in a church where the gospel of Christ in
whom crucified is preached. He'll support it. He'll support
his brethren there any way he can with his time, with his words,
with his prayers. with his money, with everything
God's given him to support him with, he'll support him. He'll
defend him and he'll provide for him, help him, protect him. And that's serving God. That's
serving God. I'm happy. We just serve Him. I'm happy by faith. By God-given
faith, we can look to His Son. And by faith, we have a perfect. We've served God perfectly. How did I serve God perfectly?
Because Christ did it. By faith, what He did, I did. That's what God says. What He
did, I did. The righteousness that He manifested,
the faithfulness that He manifested, I did that, God said. As He is,
so are you. Right now. There's no condemnation
to come. Therefore, now, no condemnation. It's done. If you really want
to serve Him, submit to Him. Believe on it. Support it. Support the furtherance of the
gospel. Support your brethren. That's serving God. You can't
have any better service than that. Any better service than
that.