All right, this is Hebrews chapter
9. Then verily the first covenant
had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. which had the
golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about
with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, and over it
the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot
now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus
ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
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 thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing. which was a figure for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and
divers' washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time
of the Reformation. But Christ, being come and high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? And for this cause he is the
mediator of the New Testament. that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament,
or covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of
eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a
testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise it is of
no strength at all while the testator liveth. whereupon neither
the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses
had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law,
he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet
wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people,
saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath
enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood
both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And
almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without
the shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with the blood of others. For then must he often
have entered since the foundation of the world, But now once in
the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." begin looking here at chapter
9. Of course, he is carrying on
the contrast and comparison between the old covenant that was made.
And he said that the first covenant, speaking about the covenant given
to Moses, the covenant of law, and he said they had ordinances
of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. That is, the Lord
gave to Moses an order of things to be done, and everything was
to be done according to that by the jot and tittle of it,
and a worldly sanctuary. That is, there was a tabernacle
made. Now you remember that the tabernacle
was basically a tent. It was that which could be moved
from one place to the other. And it consisted basically of
a big curtain that went around. I forget exactly how big it was,
but there was a curtain that enclosed the outside of the tabernacle. And then when you went into that,
that was the holy place. And then there was another place
that had another curtain around it inside of that. And that was
called the holiest of all or the holy of holies. And inside
that second enclosure was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. And nobody ever went into that
except once a year when the high priest went in to there to make
an atonement for the sins of the people. For there was a tabernacle
made, the first, and of course he is talking about the first
tabernacle or the outer part of the tabernacle, after you
go in to the holy place, says, after the second veil, or wait
a minute, I'm getting ahead of myself, where there was a tabernacle
made, the first or the first part wherein was the candlestick
and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.
So they went in to the sanctuary, that was where the priest went
and made these offerings. And there was, in that first
place there, was the candlestick. Now there was a, you've seen
the Jewish menorah, that's what that candlestick supposedly,
as they say, looked like. And I believe it had twelve candles
on it. But it was a candelabra, if you
want to call it that, that was set up there and it was representative
of the Lord's presence with the people of Israel. It was the
light that was given to them. to them were committed, as we
read in the book of Romans, what advantage then hath the Jew,
Paul said, much in every way, because chiefly unto them were
given the oracles of God, or the promises, the prophets of
God, through them the promises, and the law of God. And no other
nation on the face of the earth had that. They were a blessed
people. And so it was that this candlestick
was there and the table. Now there was a table set there
and the purpose of the table was to hold the showbread. Now
the showbread was 12 loaves of bread that were made every week. They made 12 new loaves of bread
and it was put there on that table. And it was set there before
the Lord in that. And, of course, we believe that
that would be representative, of course, of the bread of life,
that which the Lord had fed them with and continued and would
promise to do that. Now, you remember that the showbread
was at which when David was fleeing from Saul, and he was, his men,
his army, those men that were with him, they were hungry and
had not had anything to eat, and they stopped. They went to
the tabernacle. The priest was there, and Himelech,
I believe was his name, and they said, We need something to eat.
And he said, Well, we do not have anything here but the showbread. And he said, ìItís not really
lawful for you to eat that,î but he said, ìSince youíre perishing,
weíll make an exception.î And so he gave of them to eat of
that showbread which was there. And of course the Lord later
on uses that to show that the The purpose of all of the things
that God has done is for the benefit of the people that He
gave them for. Just like He said that man was
not made for the Sabbath. The Lord didn't create man so
he could keep the Sabbath. That wasn't the purpose of what
the Sabbath was, but the Sabbath was given to man for his benefit.
And so it is that so was the showbread. But the showbread
was there And that is the part of the tabernacle that was called
the sanctuary. And that is where the priests
went every day. They went in that place and they
observed that, which had the golden censer and the Ark of
the Covenant overlaid. And after the second veil, that
was after, inside that, in that inner enclosure, The tabernacle,
which is called the holiest of all, the holy of holies, this
was the place again where no one could go but the great high
priest, which had the golden censer. That is, it had a censer,
of course, a vessel that is made to burn incense in, and that
was the fragrance that filled that place, even as the fragrance
of God does fill the place where He is at in the midst of His
people. It had the golden censer and
the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold. So the
Ark of the Covenant was there. Now that was, of course, the
symbolic thing to the Jews of the presence of God. Do you remember
how important that was when The Ark of the Covenant was taken
captive by the Philistines, and Eli, when he found out about
that, he fell over dead because it was such a terrible thing
to think that the Ark of the Covenant had fallen into the
hands of the enemies of God. And so it caused him to have
a heart attack and he fell over dead, which had the Ark of the
Covenant overlaid round about with gold. And of course, the
ark of the covenant represents the promises of God, and inside
that ark was placed the tables of the covenant. Now, I believe
as you read this, You might get the idea that all of these items
were inside the ark, but I do not believe that is what it is
saying because we do not have any record that those things
were in the ark any other place. I believe what it is saying is
that they were with the ark of the covenant in the holy place,
but they were not inside the ark. Because these things were
used, and of course it was unlawful to open the Ark of the Covenant,
so they couldn't have used these items if they'd have been inside
the Ark. So, which had the golden sanctuary,
the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein
in the same place, that is in the sanctuary, was the golden
pot that had manna. Now the golden pot that had manna
was there to testify again the Lord sustained His people even
though they grumbled and complained and said, Oh my goodness, we
are going to have to eat manna again. But yet the Lord gave
them that and it was a testimony to that which He would provide
for His people. And it says, And Aaron's rod
that budded, Now, does anybody remember the case of how it came
to pass that Aaron's rod budded? Well, when Korah tried to usurp
the power of the priest, and he said, well, we can all offer
unto God. We are all one just as good as
another. And the Lord, of course, you remember, He swallowed up.
because they offered this strange fire before the Lord. So after that incident was all
over, in a cleansing process, the Lord had each one of the
tribes to bring a rod into the tabernacle. And when they laid
those rods down there before the Lord, There was one of those
rods that budded, and the Scripture says that it budded out and had
almonds on it. Now that's an amazing thing that
you'd take an old rod and it would just all of a sudden bud
out and have almonds on it, but that's what the Scripture says.
And the Lord did that to show that the house of Aaron was the
one that He had ordained to be the priestly family among the
sons of God. And so it was that he ordained
that. So there was the golden pot that
had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the
covenant, which of course were inside the ark of the covenant.
That was the tables of the law. And over it the cherubims of
glory show it, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot
now speak particularly. If you read that one verse there
by itself, you would think that he is saying, we talked about
all these other things, but we are not going to talk about the
mercy seat with the cherubim shadowing over it. We are not
going to speak about that particularly, even though we did speak about
these other things particularly. That is not what he is saying.
But rather what he is saying, if you read that whole thing
without any breaks in it, You understand what he is saying?
Now, all of these things were there, but he said we are not
taking the time to go through and speak about these things
in any great detail. Now, it is a good thing to look
at these things in detail. And if you have never studied
the tabernacle, it is a glorious thing to study it because of
the fact that in everything that is in the tabernacle points to
Jesus Christ. Now, the Jews could not see that.
They didn't understand that. But those who have been given
eyes to see Christ can see Christ in all of those things. So the
cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat. Now those carvings
of these, the cast in gold of these angels that sat over the
mercy seat, and of course the mercy seat was where the offering
was made, and that was the place. whereto the priest came and sprinkled
that mercy seat with the blood of the sacrifice, and God in
that covenant of Moses was satisfied with that. But we are not going
to speak particularly about that. Because he says, now when these
things were thus ordained, the priest always went into the first
tabernacle accomplishing the service of God. That was the
continual place where the offerings were made unto the Lord in the
daily sacrifices and things were made. But into the second, or
into the Holy of Holies, went the high priest alone once every
year, not without blood. He didn't just go in there to
see how things were coming along. Now some might say, well, it
might have gotten dusty in there. Well, maybe it did. I don't know
about that. But nobody went in there but
once a year, and he went in there with bells on the bottom of his
robe. because it was necessary that
he go in there for the purpose of ministering this atonement,
this sacrifice for sin, not that he just go in there and take
a nap or just be in there for some unknown reason. So he was
in there and during his ministry there were bells that were sewn
into the bottom of his robe and as he moved around in performing
that sacrifice, The people could hear those bells ringing and
because they could hear those bells ringing they knew that
he was performing that which was in that covenant, that which
would appease the Lord and make Him satisfied with them, which
He offered for Himself. But He went in there not without
blood. He had to go in there with blood,
which He offered for Himself and for the sins of the people.
He was a sinful priest. All priests ordained of men are
sinful priests. How do we know that? Because
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is
no such thing as a holy man. Now people talk about holy men. All religions have their holy
men. But there is no such thing as
a holy man among men. There has only ever been one
holy man, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth. And so he went in offering
for himself and for the errors of the people, for the sins of
the people. The Holy Ghost, this signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest,
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a
figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience." Now, this is interesting
because he says here, the Holy Ghost signified by the fact that
it was an unholy priest In reality, now even though he was holy in
the sense that he was set apart to do this job, he was yet a
sinner, and he went in there to offer for his own sins, and
the Holy Ghost signified that in reality the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made plain, because he went in there as a
sinner. And what does the Scripture say?
Who shall enter into the hill of the Lord, or into the presence
of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not sworn deceitfully, nor lifted up his
soul unto vanity. Now the high priest could not
claim that, could he? because he had to offer for his
own sin. And so in reality, even though
he went into that earthly tabernacle and into that earthly holy of
holies, yet every time he went, it was still manifested by the
work of the Spirit of God that the way into the holiest of all,
that is, into the very presence of God, which is a place not
made with hands, it wasn't yet made open. But you remember what
happened when the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross. It says that the veil of the
temple was rent entwined from the top to the bottom, and the
Holy Ghost signified that the way into the Holy of Holies was
made open so that men might come into the presence of God. Because
there is a high priest who needed not daily to offer up sacrifices
for his own sin, but he went in there with no sin. and offered
a pure sacrifice that was satisfactory, which was a figure for the time
then present. And of course all of those things
that were in the law were figures. They never did anything. Now
sometimes you will hear men talking about how these sacrifices that
these men made was sufficient to take away sins during the
time. They never took away a sin. Never
one sin ever at all was expiated by anything that the priest did. Think of the thousands of gallons
of blood over the hundreds of years that they went through
these rituals. And never one of them ever did
one thing concerning sin. Couldn't do it. It was not wet,
but it wasn't meant to do it. Now, they thought it was meant
to do it, but what it was meant to do was to show that One who
would come, who was that perfect sacrifice, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices that could not make Him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Now, we've
talked about this before. Now, the conscience could never
be clean. The priest could never come out
of there with a clean conscience, that is, with a conscience bored
to the fence, that he could come out and say, I'm not a sinner.
He knew he was a sinner. He knew he was a sinner when
he went in there, and he knew he was a sinner when he came
out. And the people for whose sins he made an atonement, they
were sinners when he went in there. And they were sinners
when it came out. And so it can never take away
sin and make the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience.
That is, it was not anything that had a lasting effect. Now contrast that to what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done. And of course, we're going to
read on when we get into that as we go further. But you see,
that which the Lord Jesus Christ has done is a satisfaction of
the conscience. Because it is that which by the
gift of faith that when a man comes before the Lord in the
consideration of that which Jesus Christ has done, he has a conscience
void of offense before God because he believes that that which Christ
has done did satisfy. the law. And so that he comes
there without a conscience that condemns him, but he comes there
with a conscience that rests in that which Christ has done,
and he believes it's a perfect sacrifice. Now, we're constantly
beset by the knowledge that we are yet false and full of sin. But, dear brethren, as we stand
before Almighty God through the gift of faith, we believe that
what Jesus Christ did is sufficient. And you see, that's what faith
is. It's not in that which we do,
but it is in that which Christ has done. And it is that which
does give the conscience rest, because these offerings stood
only in meats, drinks, and divers' washings, that is, the cleansings
that went through in carnal ordinances. imposed on them until the time
of reformation. But Christ, being come and high
priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption. for us. Now brethren, that is
the place where the guilty conscience has rest, that Christ died. You see, that is the answer of
our conscience toward God. He that says he has no sin, the
truth is not in him according to what the Scripture says. But
you see, we know that he is faithful and just to forgive us of our
sin. We know that he has made a sacrifice that is sufficient
for that. And the guilty conscience is
made satisfied, not because it can look at itself and say, I
have a sin, but that it can look at Christ and know that there
is a satisfaction that has been made. And that is the cleansing
of the conscience for the children of God.