Hebrews, and we'll go to chapter
8. Now, we're having photos taken
for a church directory And if you haven't had your picture
taken yet, get a form and fill it out or make sure you email
a nice photo of you and you can mail it to the church office
and we'll make sure it goes in there. And also, we're looking
forward to the last Lord's Day of this month. We're gonna have
a baptismal service. We've got one, two, three to
be baptized, and one of them is coming down from Michigan,
wants to be baptized, and look forward to seeing her and her
fiance. I'm going back up to Michigan
to perform their wedding in September. But I'll baptize this young lady,
and then we've got a couple here in our congregation who want
to be baptized. And also Debbie Lewis wants to
become a member of our congregation. So it'll be a wonderful Lord's
Day, the last Lord's Day of this month. And then, of course, we'll
have our morning worship service. And then I have waited until
I felt like it was safe for us to have a Lord's Supper. We haven't
had the Lord's Supper for many, many months. And so we'll begin
the service with an ordinance, baptism. We'll end the service
with another, the other ordinance, which is the Lord's Supper. After
that, we'll have our fellowship lunch. And to that end, there
are a couple of sheets of paper down here, I think, on the table. And if you'll sign up for whatever
food is your specialty, You sign up and we'll look forward to
that time of worship together beforehand and then fellowship
together. And then that will, because usually
we sit around fellowship a good while, that will be the end of
the services for that last Lord's Day of this month. So we do look
forward to that. Okay, we're in Hebrews chapter
8 this morning. If you would read with me silently
as I read out loud the first five verses. Now, of the things
which we have spoken, this is the psalm, we have such an high
priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary that is the holy
of holies, and of the true tabernacle." That's the title of the message,
the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity
that this man have somewhat also to offer." Speaking, of course,
of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus. Verse 4, "'For if
he were on earth, he should not be a priest.' Why not? because he wasn't of the right
tribe to be a priest, that is, the tribe of Levi. What tribe
was our Lord of? The tribe of Judah. So if he
were on the earth, he should not be a priest, seeing there
are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve
unto the example or as a representative and the shadow of heavenly things,
as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the
tabernacle for the sea, saith he, that thou make all things
according to the patterns showed to thee in the mount. May God bless the reading of
his word. Let's ask for God's blessing
before we go into the message. Lord, we come before you this
morning with solemnness, with reverence, being very much aware
that we are now dealing with eternal issues. Lord, you're in the heavens,
we're on earth. Let our words be few. We come
to worship you. We come as a body of believers
to give thanksgiving. Oh, how bountiful are the blessings
that you have given to us. We speak not so much of physical
mercies, though those are certainly abundant. But we thank you most
of all for all spiritual blessings. which have been given to us in
Christ Jesus, and those were given to us in Him before the
world was made. Thank You, Lord, for the spiritual
gifts that You've given to us. Oh God, we thank You for forgiveness
of sin. We thank You for the righteousness
in which we stand, the royal garments of your own Son, the
Lord Jesus. He was obedient in all things
up to and including His death. And by that bloody sacrifice,
the sins of all those in whose stead He died were put away.
Thank You, Father, that You have freely pardoned us. And we know that the work of
Christ was satisfying, Lord, to Your justice, because there
is an empty tomb outside of Jerusalem where our Lord Jesus' body did
lay. But after three days and three
nights, he took that body back into himself. And 40 days later,
the God-man ascended back to the majesty on high. And there
he sits, our blessed Savior, our glorious Mediator. He sits with satisfaction. He sits in peace. He sits knowing
that the eternal purpose of God shall be fulfilled. Lord, may
we find all of our salvation in this blessed Redeemer. And
help us, O Lord, as we spend our days and years in this world,
May we walk in the newness of life. May we follow the example
of our Lord Jesus, who sought always to glorify You, and who
did that. And may we seek to glorify You. May we indicate to others that,
like the disciples, like was said of the disciples before,
They bore witness, their lives bore witness that they had been
with Jesus. Jesus, what a precious, lovely
name for our Savior. For He is indeed Jehovah who
saves. And so Lord, lead as we go through
the message this morning. And may that one who tabernacled
in this world May He be our subject, our theme, our song. May He be
our hope of glory, our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus. And we look for Him to come back
someday. Lord, we, as it were, should
be standing upon the very tiptoes of faith, anticipating the second
coming of our Savior. Until then, keep us ever looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And we're
so thankful He is the friend of sinners. These things we ask
in His name and for His sake. Amen. We've been studying for several
Sundays about the tabernacle in the wilderness. And all of
you know by now that that tabernacle was a picture of our Lord Jesus,
who is said to be here in the second verse, the true tabernacle. That tabernacle in the wilderness,
it pictured our Lord Jesus, it pictured the work of our Lord
Jesus, and it pictured in many ways the results of his work
of redemption. But we know that those things
pertaining to that earthly tabernacle, they couldn't save anybody. Listen,
those who are saved are saved by grace. And those who are saved
are saved by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus. And that's
the way it was in the Old Testament. They were saved as God the Father
considered them in His Son, and God the Father would be satisfied
with the death of His Son. blood of His Son. It was very
true back then and very true when probably the Apostle Paul,
I suppose he's the writer of this epistle of Hebrews, it was
true when he wrote it and it's true today. Without the shedding
of blood is no remission of sin. If you had lived back in the
days when God gave to Moses the instructions to build the tabernacle,
and then when finally the tabernacle was built, it was erected, and
the children of Israel began to worship there, if you had
lived in that day, you would have made this conclusion. This
is a bloody religion. A bloody religion. Because every morning at nine
o'clock sharp, there was the offering of the morning sacrifice,
which was a lamb. And throughout the day, various
individuals would bring to the priest their individual sacrifices
for the sins of their families and to thank God for His mercy
and for His grace. And they would give that animal
to the priest having killed that animal there in the presence
of the priest, and the priest would catch the blood in a basin
and then put that animal up on the fire of the brazen altar,
always being reminded, it is the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. And throughout the day, people,
by the multitudes undoubtedly, they kept the priests busy as
they brought these animals to God. Depending upon their financial
condition, they might bring birds, pigeons, or turtle doves, or
if they got a little money, kind of middle class, bring a lamb
or a sheep. If they kind of had quite a bit
of money, a ram, a bullhook. but they would bring that and
it was always to be killed. Death, death reigned in the tabernacle. And of course, all of those deaths,
they all pointed to the Lord Jesus. Now, none of those deaths
could put sin away. The blood of bulls and goats
we read in Hebrews chapter 10, they couldn't put one sin away. But they all pointed to that
one who is the true tabernacle of God, who would lay down his
life, the ransom for the people of God. Blood was always prominent. It's very sad today to me, and
I know it is to you, that if you listen in, and I do listen
to preachers every once in a while on the television, I'll watch
them, and they talk about Jesus being an example. Well, He's
the best example. There's no question about that.
You want an example to follow? You want an example of a man
who did God's will? Who sought God's glory? who honored
God in every single thing that He did, look at the Lord Jesus.
He is the perfect example, but it doesn't end there. There are
others who preach Him as the one who started a new religion.
Well, it wasn't a new religion. This religion of grace, this
religion by blood redemption, is as old as God. It's not new. It's old. but most people miss the fact
of how vital His death was, how vital His blood was. This is what they miss. They
don't have any understanding of how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Do you know why Jesus Christ
had to die on the cross? Do you? Do you know why it was
absolutely necessary? It was necessary because God
demands death for sin. That's vital. A life must be forfeited, but
it's gotta be an innocent life. That's the reason throughout
the Old Testament, all of those animals were offered there at
the tabernacle, at least at the beginning they were offered there,
later at the temple, of course. but they were offered because
those animals in and of themselves were not guilty of anything against
God. But they died in the stead of
the guilty ones, that is, sinful men. We studied here just two
or three weeks ago from Genesis chapter 22, when Abraham, upon
God's command, took Isaac up on the mount to offer him as
a burnt offering to God. and God saw that Abraham believed
Him. And the Lord said, don't kill
that young man. As a ram called him to thicket
by its horns, and Abraham offered that ram, and the Scripture says
very specifically, in the stead of. It's like one of the most
important statements in the whole story. In the stead of Isaac. Substitution. There has to be
an innocent life forfeited, given up. An innocent life has got
to die if the guilty is to go free. And you see that all the
way through the Old Testament. And then we get to the New Testament,
we find out that the Lord Jesus is himself that perfect sacrifice. He's the innocent one. In Him
was no sin. He did no sin. There was no foulness
found in His mouth. Within and without, He is perfection. You remember on Passover day,
There, as it originated in Exodus chapter 12, the Lord told Moses
to tell the people to take a lamb, a male of the first year, without
spot or blemish. You can't have anything wrong
with it. If it were left up to an Israelite, they'd have brought,
well, I've got a lamb, he's about dead anyway. He broke his leg
a few years ago and now he's got scurvy or some other kind
of disease or whatever, and so I'll just bring him to God. God
said, no! It's got to be without spot and
without blemish. What's the necessity of that?
Because it pictures our Lord Jesus. He's the perfect sacrifice. It had to be an innocent life
laid down for the guilty. There's our salvation right there. Our Savior died in the stead
of His people. Now, we've been talking about
the tabernacle, as I sit here for several weeks. The issue was, where would God
meet man And how would God meet man? Where and how? Two big questions. Got a lot of children in this
morning. I'm so glad you're here. And here's the two good questions. Where would God meet men? Men
meet God. And how or upon what basis? Well, he would meet with people
at the tabernacle in the wilderness. That's where he would, he said,
that's where I'll meet you. To get specific, he said, I'll
meet you in the holy of holies, in the holiest of all. And I'll
meet you at the brazen altar where the sacrifice is offered.
That's where he'll meet. Well, how's he gonna meet him?
On what basis? On the basis of death, blood. Well, where is God going to meet
with us today? I sure do want to meet with God,
and I want God to meet with us. And I know all of you do. All
of you watching. You want to meet with God. You want God to meet with you,
don't you? Well, sure you do. Well, where is that going to
be? One place. The true tabernacle of God, which
is Christ Jesus. That's where God meets you. And
that's where you'll meet God. You're not going to meet Him
down here. You're not going to meet Him walking an aisle. You're
not going to meet Him back here in the baptistry. Where are you
going to meet God? You'll meet God and God will
meet you one place, Christ Jesus. Well, two, how can that be? On what basis? On what basis
will God meet with you and you meet with God? It's on the basis
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you could
just remember that. Remember those two things, where
and how. Where and on what basis? God meets with people in His
Son. and you'll meet with God and
His Son as one meeting place. That tabernacle in the wilderness,
and of course God began to give the instructions about the building
of the tabernacle in Exodus chapter 25. God laid down all the Ins and outs, he dotted every
I, crossed every T about the tabernacle. Man had no input
into it. Man's not gonna add his ideas.
God took care of everything. And God takes care of everything
as to where he will meet with us. It's not left up to us. And not only where, but how. That's not left up to us either.
When God gave instructions to Moses about building the tabernacle,
He didn't say, now do it this way and then I'll give you a
little leeway here. I'll leave it up to your own
wisdom, leave it up to your own choices, I'll leave it up to
your own knowledge, and then you go about doing things your
way. No, not at all. Nothing was left to man's ingenuity. Nothing was left to man's wisdom. God gave particular directions
as to where he was to be meted or to meet with them and where
they can meet with him. Very specific. He didn't deal
in generalities. This is one of the things wrong
with religion today. They deal with generalities.
They just say God loves everybody and Jesus died for everybody.
The Spirit of God's wanting to save everybody. If you let the
Spirit of God save you, you're saved. You believe? Yeah, what
do you believe? I believe on Jesus. You're saved
then. Boy, that's really dealing with generalities and nothing
specific. God deals in specifics. Where are you going to meet God?
Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No
man cometh unto the Father. Now listen. No man cometh to
the Father but by me. That's where. Pretty simple, isn't it? I don't
know how anybody can misunderstand that. He didn't say, no man cometh
unto the Father except through Mary. He didn't say, no man cometh
unto the Father except through Saint Christopher. He didn't
say, no man cometh unto the Father except through Saint Jude. He
didn't say any of those things. He said, no man cometh unto the
Father but by me. That's where. If you leave Christ
Jesus out, you've forsaken all hope of any salvation. Now, God meets you one place.
He'll meet you in Christ. But on what basis? On the basis
of His life laid down. On the basis of the blood. God taught Israel where he would
meet with him and how he would meet with him. So understand
this, everything was ordained by God. And when it comes to
our salvation today, right now, your salvation, God has already
taken care of everything. He doesn't leave anything to
your wisdom, something for you to do to add to the things that
He's done. You say, but, but, now wait preacher,
God doesn't repent for me. No, He doesn't. But He gives
repentance. The book of Acts, Luke says that
Christ has been exalted for to give repentance to Israel and
forgiveness of sins. Is repentance necessary? Except
you repent, you shall all likewise perish. That's what the Bible
says. But you know, if left to yourself,
you're not going to repent. We're in a sad state, I tell
you. We're alienated from God and we're alienated from everything
that is good and holy and right. He said, but I have to believe,
don't I? Yes, you do have to believe. And if you don't believe
the gospel, you're gonna perish. And you hear me now, it'll be
your fault. That will be your fault. So you
have a responsibility, I have a responsibility, you watching
the computer screen or television screen at home, you have a responsibility
to believe what God says about His Son. That is your duty. God commands all men everywhere,
believe His Son! Believe Him! What's the problem
then? Well, the problem is with us
because nobody left to themselves will ever believe. There's the big issue of our
spiritual death that has rendered us helpless
before God. And so here's what the Spirit
of God does. He makes us alive. That's why
the Savior said in John 3, and He wasn't talking to a drunkard,
and He wasn't talking to an outwardly ungodly man. He's talking to
a man who was a master in Israel. He taught the rabbis. He had
a very high standing in the nation of Israel. Nicodemus! He's nobody's fool when it comes
to the Word of God, to the letter of the law. He knew the Bible. He had been
a walking Bible. You know what the Lord said to
him? You must be born again. That's his problem. What's the
problem Nicodemus? He's dead in trespasses and sins. That's the problem. Just like
that's your problem and my problem by nature. And the Savior said,
you must be born again. He didn't give a prescription
as to how I could be born again. He didn't say, now do these five
things, and then you'll be born again. No, He didn't do any of
that. He didn't tell him how to be
born again, except to inform him of the Spirit of God who,
like the wind, blows where it will, breathes on whom it will, It's
like Ezekiel, there in the book of Ezekiel, where the Lord took
him out into a field where there's a bunch of dead, dried, bleached
bones, and said, son of man, can these bones live? Well, I can answer that, and
certainly Ezekiel did. No. They can't live. Go out to a cemetery and somebody
says, well, can these people live? No. They can't take life back. What was necessary then in Ezekiel's
time? The Lord had to breathe on the
dead. And that's what we've got to
have today. We've got to have the breath
of God in the soul. It's called the new birth. And
when we're born again, that's when we believe. That's when
we believe. And we'll believe where to meet
God in Christ, and we'll believe how to meet God on the basis
of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look here in
Hebrews 8. Look at verse one. I'm just gonna
give you a few thoughts on these first five verses. Now of the
things which we have spoken, this is the sum. This is the
sum. It's like he's saying, I've totaled
it all together. And here's what I've come up
with, he says. We have such an high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens. This is the sum. Or we could
say, this is the main point. This is the main thing. Here's
the principal thing. I do quite a bit of reading.
I enjoy reading. There are some books that I don't
read as much as I used to. I don't read biographies as much
as I used to. I don't read history books, the history of
the Christian church, that sort of thing. I don't read that as
much as I used to. I like reading the Word of God,
and I like reading sermons. I like reading sermons. And lots
of times after reading commentaries and sermons, and that's good
because it gives you a different look at passages of Scripture.
Maybe they approach it a different way than you would. Lots of times
though in reading something, I'd like to be able to call up
the author. Of course, they didn't have telephones
back in the 1700s. and I know they can't talk to
me, but I'd just like to say to them, would you get to your
main point, please? And they take you all around,
all around the world as it were. And sometimes I've been guilty
of this in preaching, but I hear preachers sometimes, they say
lots of good things, say nothing but truth. But after all that
they've said in the message, if you ask me, what was the key
thought in that message? What was the main thing? Could
you summarize in just a very few words the theme of his message? And I'd have to say, no, I can't
do that. I'm not exactly sure what his
main point was in his sermon, though he said a lot of really
good things. Well, here is the Apostle Paul
writing. And he says, of all that I have
said in the first seven chapters, here's the main point. Here's
the summary. And so now, I'm up on the edge
of my seat, because I want to know, are you going to condense
everything you've said in the first seven chapters in just
a little bit? Well, what is your summation? Here it is. We have such a high
priest. And the word such presents the
idea of a unique one. We have a high priest who is
absolutely unique. There's nobody else like him.
He is set. He's in a fixed position. God has ordained that he be at
the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.
Our high priest, what did the high priest of Israel do? Okay,
need to deal with that. He offered to God the sacrifice
on the day of atonement and he dealt with God on behalf
of the people. That's what Aaron did. Aaron
was the first high priest appointed by God. He offered to God blood. On the Day of Atonement, he got
two animals. One was a ram, and then he took
two goats, and he cast lots for the goats, and then one of the
goats was going to die, and one would be released. He was the
high priest. He was a minister of the sanctuary.
And He would kill that first animal for His own sins. Of course,
our Lord Jesus, He didn't have any sins. He offered
no sacrifice for Himself because He needed no sacrifice for Himself. Now listen to me, if He was a
defiled man, if He was a sinner, in any way, shape, or form, He
couldn't be our Savior. You understand that, don't you?
That's why He had to be God. That's why He had to be the God-man.
He's the perfect one. He is the one who satisfied God
in every facet of His life. He's the one who did God's will
in all things. But Aaron, he had to offer a
sacrifice for himself and then one for the people. And having offered the sacrifice
for himself and one for his people, and of course he went in and
sprinkled the mercy seed, he satisfied the justice of God
for another year. Next year, had to come back and
do the same thing. But our Lord Jesus, here's the
sum and substance of what's been said in the first seven chapters.
He came as God's appointed high priest to do business with God,
watch it now, for us. to do business with God for us.
Sometimes we hear people say, well, have you made your peace
with God? No. You can't deal with God one-on-one. God's a consuming fire. You've
got to have somebody to deal with God for you. That's our
Lord Jesus. That's the Son of God. That's
God in human flesh who did that. and he came to perform the ministry
of a high priest. Aaron's job, offer sacrifice,
pray for the people, indicated by burning of the incense. Well,
we have such a high priest. We have a glorious high priest,
far, far excelling Aaron, because he offered the sacrifice to God
that satisfied God, his own death. And now upon the basis of His
life laid down, He petitions the Father for us. He does business
with God for us. That's what the high priest did.
What did the prophet do? He dealt with the people for
God. The high priest, he dealt with
God for the people. Guess what? Our Lord Jesus is
both prophet and priest. And He's the King. He's the King. and by virtue of him doing what
God sent him to do, as our great high priest, God sent him at
his right hand. He's in a fixed position. There
is in glory right now the God-man, Christ Jesus. And look at verse
2. He's a minister of the sanctuary
and the holiest of all. Where do you think our representative
went? Where did our great high priest
go? He went into the holiest of all. He went to be with God. Now God will deal with me through
Christ and I deal with God through Christ and His shed blood. Where and how? And he is, look
at verse 2, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle
which the Lord pitched in not man. A body thou hast prepared
me, Christ said. Now look at verse three. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, Abram was, and all the other
high priests. Wherefore it is necessary, or
there is a necessity, that this man have somewhat also to offer,
this man Christ Jesus. He's got to have something to
offer to God. What did he offer to God? Himself. Not an animal. Not a bullock. He is the Lamb of God. The Lamb
of God laid down His life for us. That's why it says in verse
4, for if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing
there are priests that offer gifts according to the law. He's
of the tribe of Judah. If he was on earth, he couldn't
have been a priest under the rules of the law because those
priests were of the tribe of Levi, Christ of the tribe of
Judah. He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. But watch this, verse 5. who serve unto the example
and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God
when he was about to make the tabernacle. For see, saith he,
God said that thou make all things according to the pattern showed
thee in the tabernacle." Remember this, all of those things about
the tabernacle were shadows. A shadow isn't real. A shadow of a dog can't bite
you. A shadow of a cat can't scratch
you. But a shadow is a reflection
of, an indication of a very real object that casts the shadow. You know who casts the shadow?
the shadow of all the things in the tabernacle and the tabernacle
itself, somebody who is very, very real, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all things in the tabernacle
were just shadows of Him. They were pictures of Him who
would come. And so, I wind this message up
by reminding you of where and how. Children, you've learned,
I hope, this morning where and how. Where do we meet God? In Christ Jesus. They can't meet
Him anywhere else. And I admonish the young folks
and the older folks to come to Christ. God will meet you in
Christ and nowhere else. But know this, because this is
also vital, not only to know where God will meet you and where
you can meet God, but how. It's a bloody path. It's a bloody
way. It's a sacrificial way. God meets
sinners on the basis of a life of the Son of God laid down,
blood poured out on purpose I know sometimes in our songs, they'll
use the word spilt. His blood was spilt. Of course,
it had a different meaning in old English, but when we spill
something, that indicates to us an accident happened. If I
accidentally turned this glass over and spilled it, you'd say,
well, he didn't mean to do that. Our Lord Jesus, He didn't just
spill His blood. He poured it out. He did it on
purpose to save us from our sins. Where and how? He's the true
tabernacle. Everything about the tabernacle
in the wilderness is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't try to add anything
in your wisdom which is really foolish, just don't think that
you can come up with something in addition to Christ crucified. You can't. This is what's needed. This is our message, Christ crucified,
right? We don't just preach Jesus. We
preach Jesus Christ crucified. The blood redemption of the Son
of God. Well, let's pray. We thank you,
Father, for the privilege to gather together this morning
and give forth a few thoughts about the true tabernacle that
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, and He had something to offer.
Oh my, He offered Himself to God without spot and without
blemish. He is the Lamb of God who was
slain. He is the true tabernacle of
God in whom we find shelter, in whom we find peace, in whom
we find joy, in whom we find eternal salvation. Oh God, take
these things, hopefully present it in a way that we can all understand
them in our minds, take them and drive them into our hearts,
and bring us all, oh Lord, to saving knowledge, of the Lord
Jesus, our Savior. And Father, You have given us
Your Word and the assurance that when we come to You through Christ
Jesus, You'll receive us. When we come the blood-sprinkled
way, You'll receive us. And Lord, speaking only for this
poor sinner, I come to you again through the life, the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of that one who is the true tabernacle
of God, Christ Jesus the Lord. Bless this word for Christ's
sake. Amen.