We'll be looking at Hebrews chapter
9 in a few minutes, but you can turn to Ephesians chapter 4. I want you to look at a couple
of verses here in Ephesians chapter 4 with me, but we'll be dwelling
in Hebrews 9 in a moment. Now, it is not my intention to
ridicule or belittle anyone in particular for believing a certain
way. The Scriptures are very clear
in 1 Corinthians 2 that the only reason anyone believes the truth
or knows the truth and has an understanding of the true gospel
is because God in his grace has given his Holy Spirit to that
person, that God in mercy and grace has revealed himself to
that person. Nobody figures this thing out
for themselves. And it's not my desire to belittle
anyone for believing a certain way or ridicule. I'm not trying
to be contentious or hard or bigoted or unfeeling, and I don't
pretend to have all the answers. If any man thinks he knows anything,
he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. That is, if any man
thinks he knows a great deal, he knows nothing. And I don't
pretend to have all the answers, nor understand all of the Bible.
We're like an illustration I heard a preacher use recently. This
Bible is like an ocean of wisdom and knowledge, and you've probably
seen these seagulls that skip down every now and then and get
a little drink of water and then fly off. That's about where we
stand in reference to this Bible and understanding it. Just skim
the surface. But there are some things I do
know from this book, from God's Word. There are some things I
do know, and these things are not up for debate. If God is
God, If his Holy Spirit is real, if he reveals the truth to some
people, then there's some people that must know the truth. The
truth. And these things are not up for
debate, nor are they matters, just merely matters of interpretation,
different interpretations. Not at all. There is truth and then there
is error. There is God, then there is man. That puts it a
little more clearly. Well, look here in Ephesians
chapter 4, beginning with verse 4. Paul said there is one body,
that is, one church, one group of believers, one group, one
denomination. And I'm not saying it's Baptist
or Methodist or whatever. No, there is no title under which
this one body is held, he said, Christian. Christian. One body, that is one church,
one group of believers. Now it is located in various
locations throughout the world and even in heaven. The same
body, the same church is in heaven as the church on earth. That
is a body of believers, a group of believers. But there's just
one And they've all been taught the same thing by the same one. John 6 45 says they shall all
be taught of God. If we're if understand that if
God has a people he calls his children if Christ has a people
he calls his church his bride then know of necessity that he
teaches them all the same thing that there can't be differences
of opinion. in order for them to be of one
mind and one spirit, right? They all must understand the
same God. They must have the same understanding
of what sin is, of what salvation is, of who Christ is and what
He has done. They must have necessity in order
to be considered this one church. It's not many different denominations
to one church. One church. Look at this. One spirit, that is one all-powerful,
life-giving, life-changing, truth-revealing Holy Spirit is just one. And
if there's one source of truth, there's one truth that he reveals,
right? Right. One spirit. As there's
one Spirit who teaches all His people this one truth, one Spirit
who teaches all His people the same thing. Look at verse 4.
Even as you're called, that is, you're called by the Spirit,
it is His Spirit that calls His people. Men don't up and decide
for Jesus. Men don't up and just are convinced
of something, so they make their decision. One Spirit, and He
says there here, even as you are called, in one hope of your
calling. What is the hope of any man's
calling? That hope is that God, in sovereign
mercy and sovereign grace, will come to sin, reach down, stoop
down to reveal himself to that person. That is your only hope
of ever understanding the gospel, understanding God of ever being
saved is that God singles you out. That God, in his sovereign
grace and mercy, singles you out of the masses. That's the
only hope of your calling, is that God calls you. See what
he's saying there? The only hope of any man, woman,
young person ever being saved is that God calls them. Barbara! By his word. only hope you'll
ever have of salvation. And that's the only hope any
man or woman or young person has, is that God does it, you
see. What we're talking about, more
specifically, is election, sovereign predestination by this all-wise
God, looking down and Deciding whom he will call, because all
men by nature are condemned and headed for hell, eternal punishment,
because of our sins. For all have sinned and come
short of this glory of God. But God in his sovereign mercy
calls some people by his word, by various means, but he does
it. He does it. One hope of your
calling. Look at verse 5. One Lord. There's not different conceptions
of the same Lord. That is, you make him Lord. One
man says you make him Lord, which is a misnomer. If he's Lord,
he's Lord. Nobody makes a Lord. He's Lord. That's ignorance. One man says, though, you make
him Lord, and the Bible says God made him Lord. And there
can't be different conceptions here of what it means to be Lord,
can there? One Lord. One Lord. And look at this, verse 5. One
faith. Right? One faith. One way to believe. Right? That's what it says, doesn't
it? One faith. Really, all faith
is, Rick, is one object, is one person, one faith, that is, one
belief, one convincing of one person. All this body of believers
have been convinced by this one Holy Spirit, and called by this
one God, and have this one Lord reigning over them, and they
all believe the same thing." One. Same. One. One faith. Now, I started out by saying,
I'm not trying to be bigoted. or narrow or unfeeling or contentious
or hard. I'm not trying to ridicule the
Methodists or the Episcopalians. People. I'm not coming down on
Catholics. I'm not coming down on people.
I'm trying to ridicule people. I am ridiculing these systems
of belief that go under these names, though. I am ridiculing
Catholicism. which has a mediator they call
Mary, an intercessor that men and women pray to called Mary. No, no, no, she's just a woman
in need of a savior like everybody else. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And if you're praying to anybody
else, you're praying to the wrong one, you're under condemnation.
I am ridiculing these various forms of belief, Methodism, with
its free will, so-called gospel of free will. and decision and
works and these various forms, these various beliefs. I am ridiculing
these things because there's one way to believe. One way to
believe. One way. Not many. And if you
dare to stand up and say these things, people will call you
bigoted or narrow. Or so be it. Because there is only one way.
And this is the reason we're so vehemently opposed to all
this and we're so adamantly believing of this truth and this truth
only. That there's only one way to
be saved because Christ himself said it. To put it very plainly,
very simply, he said it. Christ said, I am The way. Now we all know that. We all
can quote that verse. Every one of us in here. And
most everybody out there can quote that verse. I am the way. The truth. The life. Men quote that. I want to try
to define that this morning. But what I say. He said, No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. Me. Christ said. And whoever they are. and whatever
denomination they may belong to, whatever, no man, no woman
gets to God Almighty any other way but by this man, Jesus Christ,
but by Jesus Christ. Because Christ prayed there in
John 17 that God had given him power over all flesh to give
eternal life to as many as God had ordained and given to him.
Now here's the problem. Here is the problem. There's
so very many preachers. Christ said it. And we don't
say these things for the purpose of sounding exclusive. We ought to say it with a pain
in our voice. But Christ said that many would
Many false Christs would come. Paul said it over and over again.
Many false prophets are gone out in the world. There's so
many preachers out there preaching an imitation gospel. They call it gospel because that's
what, you know, it wouldn't go by another name. Because that's
what you're supposed to be preaching. But it's not the gospel. There's
no good news in it. I gave the illustration one time
of a man standing before a judge, and he was bankrupt. He was in
debt. He owed a million dollars. And
he was greatly in debt. with which to pay that debt.
He was totally bankrupt. And he stood before this judge.
And this judge said to him, I've got good news for you. Somebody
has agreed to pay $999,999 of your fine. Good news. Somebody
has agreed to pay all that for you. Now, if you just come up
with a dollar You can go for it, bet for it. But the man was bankrupt. And
he said, that's not good news. That's not good news. I don't
have a dollar. I don't have a dollar. And to
a man or a woman who realizes from this word that we don't
have a dollar's worth of goodness. None good, no not one. And that
God Almighty requires of us perfection. But we don't have anything to
recommend ourselves to God. There's none good, no not one.
None that doeth good. None righteous. And God declares
that we must be righteous. But yet we have none. All of
our righteousness is our filthy wrath. And if a man and a woman
who knows that from God's Word, they're bankruptcy. toward God. When somebody comes
up and says, I've got good news for you. I've got a gospel to
preach to you. Gospel. Good news. Jesus Christ
came down here. Oh, really? Yes. He came down
here and he went to a cross and he shed his blood for your sins. And they use these terms. I'll shed his blood for your
sins. Died for your sins. Put away your sin. Did he? Yeah,
he did. Now, why do they have to add
this? Now, if you'll just accept him, if you'll just accept him, if
you just make him Lord over your life, if you just let him save
you, you'll say, that's not good news. I'm dead, Stan. I'm in the grave of sin. I can't
get out. I'm like a Samaritan laying in
the ditch. And unless somebody comes along,
somebody else comes along and reaches down and picks me up
out of the ditch, I ain't getting out of the ditch. You remember
the story Christ gave? It's a perfect illustration of
salvation. We're in the ditch of sin. We're all dead in trespassing,
see? Unless our good Samaritan That
Samaritan was a half-breed, half-Jew, half-Gentile. Unless our good
Samaritan, half-man, half-God, comes along and picks us up out
of the ditch, dresses our wounds, covers us in his righteousness,
and then takes us to the end, puts us in his body, the Church,
and then gives his Holy Spirit charge over us and gives him
money to take care of us all the days of our life, we're not
getting out of the ditch. So it's no good, it's no good
news that somebody say God's done all he can do now except
to use it. I don't care if God's done 99.99% of it. If there's one thing left for
me to do, I'm going to hurt him. And that's not good news. But
these preachers are coming so close. Christ himself is the
one that said it. So close that if it were possible,
it would deceive the very elect, so close. Bet your rich young
ruler came up and was it a rich young ruler? Well, anyway, Christ
said, you're not far from the kingdom of heaven. No, it was
the law years it was. He said, you're not far. I don't
want to be just not far. I want to be in. Don't you? I want to hear him say, enter.
You're not far. Now, come on, you can make it.
No, I want to hear him say, come on, I'll get you and take you.
But recently, sort of what prompted this message was I read a newspaper
article. I read these Friday religious
articles they put in our local paper. We've put a few in there.
But I read one not too long ago that the title of it was The
Purpose of the Cross. I don't know if anyone read that
or not, by a man named Ray Miller. I'll call his name. Ray Miller
of a Methodist assembly around here somewhere, and the title
of that message or the title of that article is the purpose
of the cross, and I read it carefully, and he said many good things.
He used terms like justification. Christ died to justify. He used
terms like propitiation. He did. I was surprised. He talked about Christ coming
to put away sin. by the sacrifice of himself,
he quoted many scriptures, but at the end, the end of the article,
he said, now, why don't you let him do that
for you? Why don't you make that sacrifice
your own? That's another gospel. And I'll
prove it from God's Word. It's another gospel. It's not
the gospel. It's a perversion of the gospel. It adds man to
it. It adds man to it. You say you're
splitting hairs. No, I'm not. If it takes splitting hairs to
get us into the kingdom of God, we need them split, don't we?
Every one of them. You see, if you add one work
to this thing of grace, one work. It's not grace, right? That's what Paul said. It's either
works, that is, it's either something we do, or it's grace. It's something God does for us,
completely. It can't be both. They're opposite
terms, works and grace, right? If you add one ounce of man lifting
his finger, looking If you add this thing of man being able
to look, of man being able to believe, and that's the subtlety
of it, they'll add this thing of man's faith. Now, if you just
believe, why does anybody ever believe? God gives them faith. You see, it all comes from Him.
But if you add this thing of faith, well, if you just believe,
now Christ died for you, now if you just believe, He's Lord
and Savior. I can do that, OK. Oh, no, you
can't. No man can believe except it
be given to him from above, the scripture said. You see, it's
the same old song and dance. God wants to. Christ tried to. You decide. God loves you. Christ died for you. Your investigation
saves you. Same old song and dance. I don't
care how close it gets. It's the same thing. That's what
it's saying. God wants to, Christ tried to, now you make the difference. And that's puffing men up and
women up. And people that believe this
way are ignorant of the Scriptures, ignorant of the person and work
of Jesus Christ, and they're yet in their sins and on their
way to hell. It's the truth. It's the truth. Christ said,
you must first believe that I am He. Well, let's get into it here. Look over at Hebrews chapter
9 with me. Hebrews chapter 9. Now, follow
along with me. This is meat. This is strong meat here. A man,
woman, boy or girl is only saved one way. That is by Jesus Christ
coming down and doing something for them that God requires of
them. Only one way to be saved, that
is somebody to save you. You understand the term? Everybody
uses the term save, don't they? What is it to be saved? It's
for somebody to do it to you, right? You don't save yourself. I mean, you're lost. If you're
lost, there's the problem. Ain't nobody lost. They're just
temporarily misplaced. And God just has to show them
the way or point out the way. That's what they make Jesus.
There's the path. Now you walk on it. No, no, no,
no. That's not what the Bible says.
That ain't what God's Word says. It says He came down here to
walk the way, to be the way. To put us on His shoulders and
take us down the way. up the way. There's only one way to be saved.
That is for God Almighty to actually save. Like a drowning man. A drowning man. Somebody swims out, grabs a hole,
and takes them into the shore and gives them resuscitation.
That's salvation. A holy, by Christ coming down
here and doing what God required of us. That we need to be holy. And we can't do it. We had to
shed our blood. We've already sinned. Now, if
we've got holy, somehow, if we got holy in ourselves, about
twelve years old, if we suddenly got holy and lived the rest of
our lives perfectly, it's too late. We've already sinned. Scripture says the soul that's
sinned must surely die. We've already sinned up to that
point. Well, what are we going to do about those sins? shedding of blood, there's no
remission of sin. Without the shedding of blood,
the soul that's sinned must surely die. Well, all right, we've got
to be holy, and we can't do it. We've got to shed our blood.
Our blood has got to be shed to pay for these sins we've committed. Now, look at Hebrews chapter
9 with me. Most people are ignorant of and
forget about the Old Testament. You know, there's an old Bible
and a new Bible. Just throw away the old Bible. Let this new Bible
in. No, no, no, no, no. The whole
new Bible, somebody may call it, cannot be understood, will
not be revealed until you have an understanding of the old.
You see? Look at it with me. The Old Testament
is the blueprint for the building It's the blueprint for the building
of the body of salvation. It's a blueprint. Like when we
built this house, the first thing we did was we got us a blueprint.
Now, we didn't just look at it and say, well, it looks pretty
good. Well, that's pretty drawn. He does good work, doesn't he?
Yeah, I like that. I think we'll go with that. Throw her out? No. We got that thing and meticulously,
while we were building the building, went over it. ever, 2 by 4, 2
by 10, 2 by 6, ever, whatever. A piece of plywood went over
it meticulously, according to the blueprint. It had to be like
the blueprint, or it wouldn't be what was intended, would it?
And this Old Testament is God's blueprint for salvation, the
way it's going to be. And the New Testament, the apostles
were writing these things. as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit, according to the Old Testament. And Christ, when he
came down, he preached the Old Testament. The apostles, they
preached the Old Testament. Christ said, the scriptures are
they? What scriptures? The Old Testament. Are they concerning
me? Concerning me. So it's the blueprint. The Old Testament is the prophecy,
the type, the picture. or the representation of what
was to be now in the new. And the Old Testament speaks
of the coming Savior, the coming Redeemer. That's what the whole
Old Testament is about. It's not just a group of stories
and good moral stories, you know, of men of faith for us to look
up to and to try to emulate them. That's not what the Old Testament's
about. The Old Testament speaks of the coming Redeemer. It tells
us what he's supposed to look like. It tells us what he's supposed
to do, what he's supposed to say, down to the T, every jot
and tittle. It tells us where he's going
to go, where he's been, where he's come from. It tells us what
he looks like. It tells us what he's going to
do for us, and where he's going to go after that. It tells us
the story of the coming of the Redeemer. That's what the Old
Testament's all about. And let's look at here, let's study, come
on, wake up with me. This tells of the one who is
to come and save his people from, that was the first thing, that's
the first thing we've got to learn here. And this thing of
a gospel is a good news. When they came and heralded,
here he is, Christ. The angels said to those shepherds
on the hillside, here he is. What the Old Testament spoke
of. This is he. of whom the Old Testament says
that he shall save his people from their sin. Every Jew of
old knew that, at least in principle, that a Messiah was coming to
save them. And that was the first heralding
of Christ. He shall save his people from their sin. We've
lost the first precepts, haven't we? Man, religion has lost that
first heralding. Look at it. Now, the first covenant, you're
not talking about Adam, that covenant of works with Adam.
He's talking about the giving of the ordinances of service to Moses.
He's talking about this covenant with Moses. He said, Verily,
the first covenant had also ordinances. Ordinances, that is, ceremonies. and types and so forth, ordinances
of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. Now God Almighty,
please stay with me now, this is a study, God Almighty instituted
a long time ago, he set up one way for these people that he
called his people, one way for the people to worship him, one
way, one way, and to be accepted by him. one way, a tabernacle. You all know the story, perhaps,
of God telling him how to make this tabernacle, this tent in
the wilderness. People were going through the
wilderness, and God was going to create this place where he
would come down and meet with them in order for them to worship
him and get to know him. And God to come down and to offer
sacrifices, and God to accept those sacrifices, one place,
and it was a tent in the wilderness, a tabernacle, a tent in the wilderness. And God gave specific instructions
how it was to be created, how it was to be made, specific instructions,
blueprints He gave about that tabernacle. Now, there was one
way. There was one way for people
to come to God back then. One way. The tabernacle. Right? Right? Know anything about the Old Testament,
you know that this is so. One way for people to come to
God back then was in that tabernacle. That the high priest would go
once a year into this tabernacle and offer the blood of a sacrifice. And God would come down and meet
him there. One way, one way. Everybody else who tried to worship
God any other way were condemned. Right? If you believe the Old
Testament, that's what it said. That's what it said. All right?
And that's a picture. It's a picture of real salvation. Let's go on. Verse 2. which is called the sanctuary. Now, there was a place where
God met man, no other place, just one. And it had certain
instruments in it, certain... What's in there? and different ways
to use these instruments. Maybe something about this size
to go in there, but didn't behind at the very end of it was a another
vein, much something like this, maybe, but huge and heavy cloth. And behind that veil, look at
it after the second veil, verse three. The tabernacle, which
is called or the dwelling place called the holiest of all. The Holy of Holies, the scripture
said that was the place. that God came to receive the
blood sacrifice from the priest. Now look, verse 4. And this had
the golden censer inside this Holy of Holies. It had the golden
censer, and all of this is symbolic of Jesus Christ. All of these
things, I'm not going to go into each detail or spend the whole
message on. They had the golden censer. And
the Ark of the Covenant, now that was a golden box, I will
describe that. It was a box overlaid with gold
and it had different things about it, but inside that box it says,
was the golden pot of manna, bread. That represents Christ,
the bread of life. Aaron's rod that budded, that's
Christ the true vine in whom is life, the tree of life, Christ
the tree of life. Are you looking at it? And the
tables of the covenant, that is, the law of God, the broken
law, it was broken in pieces. The law wasn't broken in pieces,
but there was a copy of the original law that God gave to Moses inside
that box, but men had broken that law. But that's Christ the
Word, the Word. So, look, verse 5. And over top
of that box, inside that holy of holies, there were angels. pointed, they had their wings
pointing toward one another. They were angels shadowing the
mercy seat. If I understand it correctly,
there was some kind of something over top of this box or somewhere
in front of it or whatever, that they would take this blood, the
high priest would sacrifice the lamb outside the camp, outside
the Holy of Holies, and bring the blood in He'd go within that
veil on it, and he'd pour this blood over this mercy seat, representing
pouring a covering of broken law. All right? Over at the cherubims
of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now
speak particularly, verse 5. Now, verse 6. Now, when these
things were thus ordained, when God instituted these things,
the priests, there were several people of the Levitical family
of Levi. Are you with me? We're looking
into God's Word. This is the type of Christ. This is how men are saved. This
is how we are saved by showing us the type of Christ. It's a
privilege to look into this. If you have any understanding
of this at all, if you understand anything I'm saying right We
can figure this out on our own. God gave it to us, and unless
we take it for granted, he might take it away. Now, stay with
me here. Let's look into this thing, okay?
We're doing a study here. A priest. There were men that
came from the family of Levi. Levi. God ordained this family
of the Levites to be priests. about the service of the tabernacle. Now, these men, they took care
of all the things about the tabernacle. They got the bread ready. They
made sure the candles were a proper length and so forth. They got
the water for the priest, the washing of the high priest's
hands, and they cleaned things up. They swept and they cleaned.
They got the incense ready for the burning. All of this, and
all of this is very typical of some things. Verse 7. But, and those are representative
of the prophets, but, verse seven, into the second, that is, the
holy of holies, in other words, these priests, these Levitical
priests, they went inside and were doing all this around in
here. But into the second, into the holy of holies, the holy
of all, went one man. He was called the High Priest.
Virgie, there's only one. One. And it says that high priest
alone, by himself, would go into that place. Nobody else was allowed
in there. I don't care how good a life
that man had lived. I don't care if he was a priest
who was very commendable for his service and who had high
aspirations, you know. Everybody approved of him, liked
him. If he said, I've been around here long enough, I want to go
with him. No, no. He'd be smitten dead
if he got married to that holy of holies. One man, a man that
God ordained, a man that God chose. God told Moses personally,
said, this is the man. This is my high priest. A man
chosen by God Almighty. Not because of anything in that
man in particular, but because God chose him. That's why. But
God chose that man. It's the type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that one man went in that
Holy of Holies where God was going to be. That Holy of Holies. Once every year. One time. Every
year. Look at it. Verse 7. Not without
blood. He went in by himself. But he
went in there with blood in front of him, like this, and that blood. He slew that sackcloth, that
lamb, out there in the courtyard, and he poured that blood in the
basin, and everybody else kind of stood back real silent, and
all the people huddled out around the tabernacle outside, waiting,
listening. He took that blood in. Now, those
people needed to know that God was with them. And he took that
blood and went into that Holy of Holies. One man. Not without blood. What if he
forgot it? God kill him. Blood. One man. By himself. Not without
blood. Which he offered for himself
and for the errors of the people. Verse 8. People talk about the Holy Spirit
coming in the New Testament. You see this, Rick? The Holy
Ghost does signify. He's the one that set it up in
the first place, back then. The Holy Ghost was telling us,
even then, that the way into God was not yet open. Not yet open. And it's not made
manifest yet. Well, as long as that tent stood,
verse 8, as long as its first tabernacle was standing, verse
9, it was just a figure, it was a type, it was a picture, a figure
for the time then present in which were offered gifts and
sacrifices that could never, that could not make him that
did not serve as perfect as pertained to the conscience. We read over there a while ago,
it's not possible blood of bulls and goats to take away a man's
sin. How could a blood of a lamb take away the sin of a man? No,
he said the soul that sinneth must surely die. The wages of
sin. A man has to die. A man. Stanley Anderson, you're a man.
You sin, you've got to die. Right? You've got to pay for
your own sins. Yes, you do. a lamb. What if I go out here
and take a dog and cut his throat? I won't do it. Well, Stan sees
it. Stan's got to pay for it. Or another man who claims to
be Stan. Somebody else that takes his
name. Now look at it. This was just a figure. It could
not make him that did the perfect of the service perfect have pertained
to the concept couldn't put away saying first hand it stood only
in meat and drinks and different washings and carnal that is worldly
material things rights and ceremonies and ordinances imposed on them
until the time of the final reformation or that is of making all things
new even so today baptism. The Lord's table, going to church,
outward morality, doesn't avail anything. Carnal, worldly, it
can't put away sin. Nothing I do with this body will
put away my sin that is in the conscience, within me, that's
applied to my soul. Sin. See, my body only does what
I tell it to do. This ain't me. This is a building,
a house I live in. I live in the house. my soul. I'm the one that sins, my body
just does my bidding. There's nothing wrong with this
body, nothing wrong with it at all. It's the man that lives
in here that makes this body sin, you see, the man that lives
in here. And none of these things that
we do ourselves or say, nothing will avail anything to take care
of this sin on our soul, our consciences. We have a guilty
conscience that God's word says you've seen it, and come short
of this Lord. Look at verse 11, "...but Christ being come." Christ, at the appointed time,
the Scripture says, "...in the fulness of time, when all of
this, Terry, when it was all The blueprint was written exactly
according to the way God said it would be. Everything he would
do and say and look like and act and every miracle and where
he was to be born and where he was to go and what he was to
do according to God's law, all the things to be fulfilled in
the fullness of time. When all of this was down and
settled and perfected the way God designed it. Then Christ came down. Men couldn't do it. We tried.
They kept offering blood and sacrifice, trying to get to God
this way, that way. But then Christ came down. Christ said, now it's time. My
time has come. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. He was a high priest, Christ
being come and a high priest. Jesus Christ came down here to
be a high priest, a high priest, not just a priest, not just trying
like everybody else, but to be a high priest. Remember that one man chosen
by God, one man alone who could take blood and go into the Holy
of Holies. and offer it to God Almighty
and be accepted for the redemption of people's sin. One man, Christ
came down, that is, the Son of God, came down to this earth
as a man to become a high priest of his people. Are you getting
this? Christ being come, a high priest
of good things to come, the Scripture says. Do you see that? Good things
to come, of good news. That's what they said at the
heralding of his birth, too. Glad tidings, good news. You got a priest now, a high
priest is coming. He's here. He's a baby. He's
got to grow up and got to go through this and that and the
other. But one day, he's going to be the great priest. High
priest who's going into the holy of holies. Look at it, that's
what he says here. He became a high priest of good
things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, that
is, a place to offer this. His body. You remember reading
there in Hebrews 10, if you paid any attention, that he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and tents and tabernacles and
showbread and this and that in the altar? You would not, but
a body. He gave me a body. to come down
here and do all this in a body, a more perfect tabernacle, not
made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. Jesus Christ,
God instituted and ordained salvation to be in His high priest, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was God's chosen high
priest, he was God's tabernacle, he was God's mercy seat, he was
God's sacrifice, to put away sins forever. Now here we're
getting to it here. To put away sins forever. Not
to try and then come back and make a later attempt. Put them
away! For good! Not leave it up to
somebody else to come along and make it a fact. No! No! Says verse 12, "...because he
didn't come by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, the blood
of a man." That's what God requires of human beings. We're men, we're
women. Blood, man's blood has to be shed. Christ came down
here, took the body of a man, because men had sinned. And for God to accept a man in
his presence, Man has to die. Now, by virtue of God's wisdom,
by Christ's power, God could take all the men that he chose
and represent them in this one man because of who he was. That's
what the mystery of this thing, how one man could represent so
many. But God, this being the God-man, not just an ordinary
man, not just an ordinary man, but the God-man, and by his own
blood, he went to that cross He lived a perfect life, first
of all, establishing holiness as a man. And then he went to
that cross, and he took the sins, the iniquity, like those people
waiting out in the courtyard or waiting out in the- all those
people waiting to see if God would accept them, if their sins
would be put away. He took their sins upon him. He became the Lamb. He became
the sacrifice himself. And he went to that cross, and
he was the high priest. He did it all alone in this tabernacle. You see what he's saying there?
Not in a tent. All this wasn't done in a tent with different
symbols and furniture and all. It was done all in him. He was
the lamb. He was the showbread. He was
the candlestick. He was the laborer. He was the
incense. His prayer was the incense going up. He was the priest carrying
on the work out there. He was the high priest. He was
the lamb. He did it all in this tabernacle of his body. to the
cross, and with those sins of all the people upon him, God
cut his throat like that lamb, and then blood poured out. Blood. By his own blood, he entered
in once. You see, Christ came down to this earth,
say with me, to represent a people, a people that God loved. people
that God chose, and we started out this whole message by saying,
God has to choose a person, people. One Lord, one faith, one spirit,
one hope of your calling. Remember, we started this thing
out by saying, God has to choose you or you'll not be chosen.
You can't decide this thing on yourself. You know who was saved,
or you know who, that those sacrifices represented back in the Old Testament?
Not every single person on the face of the earth. No, that high
priest had some names on his breastplate. The names of the
twelve tribes of Israel and the people that lived in those families
were represented by him. Particular people that he represented. And he went in and everybody
whose names were written there were represented. That blood
was a token for their sins, their names. And my high priest took
the names of the people that God chose and wrote on his heart. He had the names of 2,000 years
ago. He had the name of Nancy Parks
written in his heart. I'm going to shed this blood
to make this sacrifice for that gal. She needs it. She's got
sins that need to be taken care of. And you, if you're a believer,
one of his people, and that's a token that he's done this for
you, not a condition, but a token. And he took that, Christ came
down to represent a people that God chose, he lived this holy
life, and then he took my sins to that cross and shed his blood
for my sins. He became an innocent lamb, God's
lamb, God's lamb. He died, he died, because we've
bestowed his sentence, must surely die. He died as a man. And then where did he go? I don't
know. For three days he was somewhere. I have an inkling. There's a
scapegoat in the wilderness, too. You remember that story?
One goat was killed in the blood offered, and another one was
a scapegoat. They put their hands on it and pleaded their sins,
and then a man, an able man, took that goat out in the wilderness
and set it loose, not to come back anymore. Put their sins
on it to get rid of that goat. Christ, after he died, took our
sins somewhere and deposited them. and behind God's back,
the Scriptures say, never to be seen anymore, never to be
heard of anymore. Well, I wish I could... took
our sins. And this is the reason I hate
this false gospel today. If Christ did not put away your
sins, You've still got them on you, and God will damn you. Right? If he didn't, by the virtue
of his blood and his life, put them away, you got them. Right? And the soul that sinneth
must surely die. Now, did he? Or didn't he? Did he do all he
could do and leave it up to us? That's not good news, is it? Well, let's see what it says
here. Verse 12. this Lord Jesus Christ, not by
blood of goats and calves, but by the blood of a man, his own
blood, holy blood. He entered into heaven, the holy
place, having attained—I wish I could say it
as loud Eternal redemption. I don't have any sin, Joe. I didn't do anything. The people
out there in the courtyard, sitting around, the high priest was in
there doing the blood and this and that and the other. And I'm here on earth. Christ
lived 2,000 years ago. He went to the cross 2,000 years
ago. He went to heaven 2,000 years
ago and offered that blood. I want him around. But it says
here, he got rid of my sinners. He doesn't say now. There's something
left to do. No, when he was hanging on that
cross, he said it's finished. It's over. It's over. All the types, testaments, old
covenant fulfilled. The reformation he spoke of,
done. The great transaction, the high
priest has gone in there. And it says there in Hebrews
10, let's look at that real fast. We read it, but did you pay any
attention to it? This man, verse 11, every high priest stands
daily ministering, offering off time. The same sacrifices never
take away seeing that this man, after he had offered one sacrifice,
one, sat down. Sat down. And by one offering, verse 14,
he perfected, that is, made whole again. That word perfected is
whole. Hagiadzo in the Greek, made whole again. By one offering,
he made holy forever. thing that God set apart, put
in his... It was long, and it was drawn
out, and it was deep study into that, the Old Testament types
and all, but like I said from the beginning, people are ignorant.
If you're ignorant of the Old Testament scriptures, if you... Rick, if you're ignorant of the
blueprint, you can't... you don't know anything about
the building, do you? Oh, no, no, no. God saved men
one way back then, and he saved men one way now. And it's one
and the same way. Those people back there weren't
saved by the blood of bulls and goats. No, they were not. They
were saved by looking to the one that they represented. They
were saved by Christ the same way. Adam, when Adam first fell,
what did God do when he first fell? He took an animal, an innocent
animal that had not sinned, cut that animal's throat, shed the
blood, took that skin off that animal, and covered old naked
Adam, sinful Adam. That's a picture of Christ had
to come and cover our naked souls with his righteousness. And then
he told Adam, said, Adam, the woman's seed's got to come. I've
got to send a man. A man's going to, my son's going
to have to come down and become a man and live this life, and
he's going to have to bruise, or he's not to Break the serpent's head, step
on the serpent's head, and condemn sin in the flesh, and then he'll
be bruised in the crosshead. Adam was saved by the same person
we're saved by, Jesus Christ. And it's been the way from the
very beginning until now that we have a high priest who went
into the Holy of Holies, God's heaven, and offered his own blood. to the father and father accepted
it and said now sit down you've done a good job you got the job
done and someday it says that he's going to present these people
every one of them and say behold I and the children that thou
hast given me every one of them dear lord that you chose everyone
you chose is right here with me and the father's gonna say
you did a good job son they're all here he became their surety
their surety And he got the job done. Now you go and tell me
a man comes up here and starts preaching some little two-bit
blasphemous message about this man Jesus going to the cross
and trying. I'm going to take issue with
that dude. He's blaspheming my Lord. And he's butchering men's
souls. He's telling men, now you go
offer you a lamb, your own sacrifice. You go make some sacrifices.
Instead of just telling her, look, look, it's done, it's done. As clear as I can make it. The
Holy Spirit has to make it clear, doesn't it? Stand with me in
all this, Mrs. Simperson. Our Lord and our Redeemer, how
grateful we are for full and accomplished salvation in Christ,
that there's nothing left to do, nothing left to do, that
even our faith, even if you give us faith to see that, to see
Christ as having accomplished redemption, even that is from
God. We didn't do it. We didn't drum
it up. God has to give the faith even. Salvation is truly of the
Lord from start to finish. It's of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our great high priest, and it's his name that we exalt now and
forever, throughout eternity. We'll be singing the name of
our high priest who shed his own blood and accomplished salvation. In his name we pray. Amen. you