I want to read chapter 9. It
says, Then verily the first covenant also had 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 those 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, 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, which stood only in meats and drinks and
divers washings and 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. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an 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,
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 of goats with water and scarlet
wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and the people,
saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath
enjoined unto you. Moreover, he is 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 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
truth, but unto 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 suffered 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." Now we continue on with our same
thought that we had last week when we were looking at chapter
8. And that chapter began with saying,
Now these things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man. And this is continuing the thought
of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect sacrifice
for sin, which was ordained from before the foundation of the
world, but it pleased God in the meantime, before it pleased
Him to reveal Christ, to give a pattern of things that would
be. Now the sad thing is that many
people take the pattern and make it to be what the sum is. And that's the problem with the
Jews. You see, they went about to establish their own righteousness
with Moses' law because they thought that in that law and
in those sacrifices and in their efforts that they could make
themselves appear holy in the sight of God. They thought that
by coming continually into the tabernacle, or ultimately into
the temple, that they could make these offerings, and that God
would be appeased, and they would be satisfied among themselves
to look upon one another and say, well, we are the seed of
Abraham, we have the law of God, we have the testimony of God,
and we are accepted in His sight. The only problem with that was
that they didn't read closely enough, because the Lord said,
if you don't keep this law, you shall be cast away. Now, they
didn't read that part because that was the inconvenient part.
That's just like today, a lot of people, they like the part
where the Lord said, believeth in me shall not perish."
They like the part where he said, "...him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out." But they don't like the part where he
says, "...all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." They don't
like the part that says, "...thy people shall be willing in the
day of thy power." And so it is that the truth of God is often
very inconvenient to men. As I was thinking there as Brother
Al was setting forth that psalm before us this morning, how true
it is that men, the Scripture says, did not like to retain
God in their knowledge. It's not that men didn't have
a knowledge of God, as you pointed out, that they knew there was
God, but it was not convenient. You see, it's more convenient
for men to think that, well, we're all in this together. We are all men and we are reasonable
men. And if we are reasonable men,
surely God is reasonable. Is He not? I mean, the Scripture
says, Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. I mean, the Lord said He was
reasonable. Did He not? But the inconvenient part of
having a God who is truly a God is that he does things according
to the good pleasure of his will. And that's not always in keeping
with the good pleasure of men's will. And so it is inconvenient
for them to have a sovereign God. It's far more convenient
to have a God that's like a little puppy dog. that's sitting at
home with his tail wagging, just waiting for you to drive up the
driveway, and he's so happy to see you that he just forgets
about everything and comes up and licks you all over, and he's
just happy. I mean, that's convenient, is
it not? I mean, when men commit sin,
it's convenient, is it not, to just think, oh well, God won't
hold that against me. Because I didn't really mean
to do it. I mean, we've got all kinds of
excuses. Every one of us. You're constantly
making excuses for your sin. It's just natural. Because men don't like to retain
God in their knowledge. You see, it is only by the sovereign
work of God and the mercy of God displayed and manifested
in the heart of a man that he can see his sin for what it is
and fall upon his face in true repentance. True repentance is
never convenient. There was an old saying that
I heard one time that the Jews used to say is that that man
was happy who was able to repent of his sin before we died. And, of course, there is the
thought among many that you have to, as long as you repent, everything
is okay. I mean, as long as you say, well,
I didn't mean to do that, then that makes everything okay. Well,
that doesn't make everything okay. That doesn't make everything
okay in this world among one another. We can't take away our
fault by saying I'm sorry or I didn't mean to do it, can we?
It doesn't change a thing in the world. But men want to believe
that just by making out like they're sorry before God, that
He's going to say, all right, they think God's a fool, really.
I mean, they think that they can say... And I've shared this
with you before, an old gentleman that I knew, that he was up in years, and I asked
him what he would... What was his expectation of standing
before God? What was he going to say when
he came into the presence of the Lord? He said, well, I'm
just going to tell him I always tried to do the right thing.
Who does he think God is? I mean, if you came to me and
said, I've always tried to do the right thing, I'd laugh, because
you haven't always tried to do the right thing. You know it.
I know it. And we don't think God knows it. You see, it's inconvenient. So the truth of God and the way
of God is not convenient. And it's certainly not convenient
to the religious mind of men. Now, we like to look around us
and see sincerity in people and say, well, that counts for something. Don't you believe that? Sure
you do. I do. I mean, all I was believing. Sincerity counts for something.
Well, he was sincere. Don't we believe that? Sure we
do. That's natural. That's convenient. Dear brethren,
sincerity is not unimportant. The Scripture says the Lord looketh
on the heart. I mean, he values sincerity but
not sincerity by itself, nor sincerity as it is judged among
men. You see, I do not know who is
sincere and who is not. I can look at men and say, well,
they seem to be sincere, but I do not know if they are sincere.
But you see, God knows all things. But He does not judge men on
the basis of sincerity. But He judges men on the basis
of His law. in his truth and his justice.
And the Scripture says that he will not at all acquit the wicked.
He will by no means clear the guilty. Now how foolish would
it be if a man really believed what God said there, that by taking a bull and cutting
his head off and pouring his blood out on an altar that he
constructed with his own hands, in a building that was put together
by men that somehow or other that would be sufficient with
God. Now, it pleased God for a season
to set forth a pattern, but you have to understand that. See,
that is what Paul is saying here in the book of Hebrews. This
was a pattern of heavenly things, but not the very heavenly things
themselves. It was given for a season. The
law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. You see, the sum
total is Christ. It is not all the things that
men have done or sought to do, because any kind of religion
is convenient for men. If we can get together and decide,
well, we all agree on this and we all agree on that, we'll write
it down in the book, we'll come again and we'll say, well, this
is what we stand for. That's convenient. We can do
that, can't we? And we can pat one another on
the back and say, well, I'm a member of such and such. I'm part of
that. But you see, the inconvenient
thing is that all of that doesn't mean anything. Because it doesn't matter, dear
brethren, what we say we belong to. The Lord said that we've
been made members one of another if we're in Christ. Now that
carries with it a little bit more importance, does it not? Than saying, well, we belong
to such and such. Well, I'm a member over there.
this and the other. Well, brethren, we are members
one of another by the grace of God brought together by Jesus
Christ. And Paul said, you shall know
that you are my disciples because you have love one to the other. You see, that is how it is, the
working of God. It is a real work. It is not
a make-believe work. It is not a pattern. The Lord
isn't setting up a pattern. Dear brethren, the church of
God is not a pattern. The church of God is the church
of God. It is that bride for which Jesus
Christ came into the world to pay the price for their sin. But there was the ordinances
of divine service, a worldly tabernacle, a sanctuary, all
of these different things, the ark was there, and there were
priests that were thus ordained, and they always went into the
first tabernacle accomplishing the service of God. What kind
of a service did they accomplish? But into the second went the
high priest alone once every year, not without blood. Now
speaking about going into the holy place, There was a sanctuary
into which the priests came. Even the children of Israel could
not come into the sanctuary. They could come out into the
outer court there, but they could not go into the sanctuary because
that was the place where the priests alone went. But there
was a place inside the sanctuary where even the priests could
not go. And even the high priest could
not go but once a year on the Day of Atonement as he went in
there to make an offering. The high priest went once every
year, but not without blood, which he offered for himself.
He had to make an offering for himself and for the heirs of
the people. Now what does it say here? The
Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest. Now the Jews said, well, here,
we're going into the Holy of Holies. The Lord said, no, you're
not. All you're doing is setting forth
a pattern that men might look at, that you might be reminded
of what this is about, but this is not the offering for sin,
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 the crux of the matter. The high priest went into the
temple and he made these sacrifices, but it could not, according to
what the Scripture says here, could not make him that did the
service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Now, either the one doing the
offering, being the high priest, it couldn't satisfy his conscience,
and he was the one that did it. It couldn't satisfy the conscience
of the people. Because they knew that just as
soon as it was done, they would start working on it next year.
Because they were going to have to come back and do it again.
It was over and over and over and over. So it couldn't do any
good. Which stood on in meats and drinks
and divers washings and coronal ordinances imposed on them until
the time of Reformation. The Reformation, now a lot of
people talk about the Reformation. We have a lot of folks that they
believe in something called the Protestant Reformation. Not that
they believe in it in that way, but they have a lot of confidence
in being a part of the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation,
certainly a lot of good things came out of that, but that in
itself is nothing but the workings of men, the workings of God in
men. There is certainly no watershed
insofar as the kingdom of God is concerned. It is just part
of how God seemed fit to unfold the gospel in the earth, because
the Lord has always had His people in the earth. who were not a
part of that which needed to have that reformation. You see,
the church of God never has needed a reformation. Now, the organizations
of men from time to time, they do need reformation and help
and whatever. But you see, that church which
is of the living God, whose names are written in heaven, it doesn't
need any improvement. It doesn't need any help. It
is that which is ordained of God as the object of His everlasting
love, and He loves His people and calls them out from the earth until the time of Reformation.
That is, until the time when Christ would come. You see, that's
the time of the Reformation, the time when the Lord would
show what these things actually were. types and foreshadows of
that which was true. But Christ being come a high
priest, see here is the Reformation, 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,
did not have anything to do with it. Now when the Scripture speaks
about Christ fulfilling the law, is not talking about Christ fulfilling
Moses' law per se. Now, He did indeed fulfill the
jot and tittle of Moses' law. He never broke one of the Ten
Commandments. He kept the Ten Commandments.
He did all of those things. But He did not come to simply
satisfy Moses' law. Because if he had come simply
to satisfy Moses' law, how would the Gentiles have ever been saved? Because, you see, the Mosaic
law was given to the Jews. The Gentiles, they didn't have
anything. Now, what does the Scripture say? I mean, what did
Paul say? What advantage did they have
to the Jews? He said, much in every way. It says, under them
was committed the oracles of God. The Gentiles did not have
the oracles of God committed to them. They were just out here.
And now the Jews figured by that, well, you see, we are the people
of God. Little did they know that this
was a pattern, that the Lord would show that He had a people
in the earth that was a remnant. that was not the whole, but it
was a specific people upon whom He loved. He said, I have loved
you, I have chosen you, not because you were a great people on the
earth, but because you were small, because you had no power. And
such is that those who are the people of God. And so Christ
being come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle that is not made with hands." Nothing
about the kingdom of God is carnal. You cannot become a part of it
through any carnal activity. You cannot be baptized enough
times to become a part of the kingdom of God. You cannot obey
the commandments of the Lord enough times and in enough perfection
to become a part of the kingdom of God. It cannot happen. You see, the tabernacle in which
the Lord Jesus Christ came and made offering is that which is
perfect. It is without blemish and it
is without the spot of carnality because He is not a priest after
the order of Aaron, but he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And he came to perfect that which
is his, to show that, to be perfect. 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, dear
brethren, here is what the gospel is. You cannot preach the gospel If you don't include that right
there, you can't do it. There is no gospel apart from
the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And in the
preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, you must declare
what it is that He came to be crucified for. And if you declare
what it is that He came to be crucified for, you must declare
what it is that He accomplished when He came. Now, He didn't
just make some open-ended deal out here and come down and say,
well, I hope it's good enough. But isn't that what we hear around
us? I mean, isn't that what's drummed
into our minds and you just want to snatch the radio out of the
dash of the car? That is just kind of as convenient
to everybody out here. Dear brethren, if God had purpose
to save everybody, He certainly could have. But according to what the Scripture
says, it hasn't pleased Him to do that. And therefore, according
to the pattern that He has shown, He has demonstrated that His
love is specific. It is particular. And if His
love is particular, then that which He came to perform in the
behalf of those whom He has particularly loved must be particular in what
it has accomplished. It cannot be open-ended, else
it be that which would depend upon men, would it not? I mean,
if it is open-ended and waiting for men to button it up, Like
a father told me, well, Christ made salvation possible. Brother,
if that's it, we'd better go home and we'd better weep. Because if all that Christ did
was make salvation possible, waiting for us to come along
and somehow or other ratify it and make it real or whatever,
whatever it would be that a man would come along and add to it
that would make it perfect, how can a man who is imperfect add
something to something that is perfect? How can it be? It cannot
be. It cannot be. But the Scripture
says that 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. Dear brethren, He finished the
work that He came to do and He accomplished it. Yes, He did. Upon that is where
we stand. I mean, it is our hope, dear
brethren. We don't have a hope outside of what Christ did, what
He accomplished, what He obtained. He got it in His hand. He obtained
eternal redemption for us. Why did He obtain it? Because
it was that perfect offering for sin. You see, the blood of
bulls and goats could never do anything like that. But the blood
of Christ could. And not only that could He take
away, because what is He going to say? How much more? Well,
I skipped a verse. For if the blood of bulls and
goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify
to the purifying of the flesh. Now what He is saying there is
this. If the offerings of the law The blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of the heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying
of the flesh after the order of the law. If the law says the
high priest is supposed to go in here and make an offering
for sin, if that is accomplished and we say, oh, well, great,
he went into there and he made that sacrifice and that satisfies
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more, he said, If that
on a carnal level is of any benefit whatsoever, as weak and beggarly
and insufficient for the eternal salvation of anybody that it
might be, but if on some level it has a benefit, 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. Now, if all of these things had
some benefit in a fleshly manner, how much more is it, he says,
that what Christ did? Purge your conscience from dead
works. What's the dead works? The works
of the Lord. the things that men would do,
the activities of the flesh, whatever it is that a man says,
I don't care what it is. If he says, I'm believing, or
he says, I'm obeying, or he says, I'm going to do this, I'm going
to cut my hair this way, I'm going to act this way, I'm going
to do this, I'm going to do that, or whatever it is that he might
say that he's going to do. Those are dead works. They cannot. minister any help or hope to
you? Nothing that the law or the flesh
can produce can help you, but there is one. How much more shall
the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? You see, it is with a conscience
void of offense. that we stand before God believing
that Christ has died and this is our salvation. You see, when
we come into the presence of the Lord, our only hope, the only hope
of the children of God is that Christ has died and there is
remission. Christ died and I believed it. It's not Christ died and I joined
the church. It's not Christ died and, oh
yeah, I've been obedient all these years and I've been progressively
sanctified and I'm more holy now than I was when I first heard
about this. Oh, no. You see, our conscience
is purged from dead works to serve the living God. Because
you see, those who are born again by the Spirit of God in whom
the Lord is pleased to show what Christ has done, their conscience
is made to be clean before Almighty God. They know they cannot do
anything to help themselves. They know what Christ has done
is sufficient. They are not looking for anything
else. 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, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. You see, He is the Mediator of
the New Testament. He is not the Mediator of the
Old Testament, because the Mediator of the Old Testament was not
sufficient. He's the mediator of the New Testament. What is
the promise of the New Testament? I will write my laws upon their
heart and in their mind, and they shall know me. They shall
no longer teach their neighbor. Know the Lord, for they shall
all know me from the least to the greatest. This is why the
Lord said to His disciples concerning John, He said, There's not risen
a greater prophet than John. among men, but I tell you, he
that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John
the Baptist." Why? Because he has seen the redemptive
work of Christ played out. You see, John knew who the Redeemer
was, but he did not live long enough to see the redemption
of Christ played out. He knew that Christ was the Messiah. But he did not live long enough
to see how that Messiahship would play out in the establishment
of his kingdom. He died not having received the
promise, but seeing it afar off. Now, he saw it closer than anybody
else did, but he did not see it. But, oh, dear brethren, you
see, we have seen Christ enter into the holy place and offer
Himself without spot to God. And we are satisfied with that
because we see that He has been buried and that He rose again
from the dead. You see, that is to serve God
with a clear conscience, with a conscious board of offense,
with a conscience that is purged from dead works, that they which are called might
receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Isn't that what
Peter preached on the day? of Pentecost? He said, Even as
many as the Lord our God shall call. The Lord is calling His
people. You see, He calls His people
and when His people hear the sound of the obtaining of redemption
in the power and the blood and the righteousness of Christ,
they say, Oh, give me that! Give me that! Cleanse me from
the ways of the flesh and the desire of the heart to bring
some legal obedience to God and say, Lord, look what I've done.
But give me the righteousness of Christ. You see, that's what
we desire. Because by the grace of God,
He teaches us to know the Lord. Because you see, we know that
the Lord He is not satisfied with all the ways of men. He
is not satisfied with legal obedience, but he is satisfied with that
which Christ has done in the behalf of His people, and He
calls them. He calls them. The Lord said, No man can come
to Me. except the Father which has sent me draw him." But oh,
you know, the glorious thing is that the Lord does draw His
people. How does He draw them? He draws them to Christ. They
see what Christ has done. They say, that's what I want.
Oh, Lord, give me what Christ has. Give me what Christ is.
I don't want anything else. I want that. For where a testimony is, there
must of necessity be the death of a testator." The Lord Jesus
Christ wrote His will before the foundation of the
world. And He says, I am going to give
eternal life to as many as the Lord my God has given me. He wrote it in His own blood. And then He came and He tabernacled among men
and He poured out that life's blood
on Calvary's cross. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. Now, a
testator is one who writes a will. If you write your last will and
testament, you will be the testator of that will. You are testifying
that this is what it is that I want done with my possessions.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who has purchased that which is His,
He has said, this is my will and this is my testimony that
this is to be done. For a testament is a force after
men are dead. You know, you could be the heir
of Trump's fortune, if he has one. I mean, he says he does.
I guess he does. You could be his sole heir, which
you could star-slam to death, if he doesn't die. Isn't that
right? It doesn't make a difference
how much money your mom and daddy's got, if you're the sole heir
of it. As long as they live in it, it
ain't going to do you a bit of good. I mean, a lot of people,
they want to hurry up the process. It's amazing how the thinking
of men changes sometimes. Listen, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He says, Whereupon neither the First Testament was dedicated
without blood, For when Moses spoke unto every priest, he sprinkled
the Lord. He is not only the testator of
his own will, but he is the executor of it. Because you see, he did
not just simply die. Now, if he had just died, and
say, well, I've done the best we could. See, that's how most
people view it. Christ died. Everybody believes
Christ died on the cross. But dear brethren, He died on
the cross and He rose again at the power of an endless life
because, you see, He didn't trust anybody to be the executor of
His will but Himself. And that is why he said to Pilate,
he says, I have power to lay down my life and I have power
to take it again. And because he has the power
of an endless life, he is both the testator and the executor
of his own will. And dear brethren, he has accomplished
his will and he has brought salvation to his people. He said, my own
arm has brought salvation to whom? Who did he say he brought
salvation to? He said, to me! He said, he brought
salvation to me! He says, it is my salvation! And he says, I give it to whom
I will. And all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. Oh dear brethren, What a glorious
truth is set forth to us in the Gospel of Christ Jesus the Lord
that He has come into the world to pay sin's penalty for His
people. He has accomplished it absolutely
and without equivocation. And He ever lives to make intercession
for them that come unto God by Him. Because you see, them that
come unto God by Him are those who are included in His will.
There are those whom He draws with cords of love that can't
be broken. There are those in whom His Spirit
comes and He says, Come unto Me, all you that labor and are
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And they say, We want that
rest, O Lord. Lord, we want that rest. And He says, Come. Come unto
Me. Oh, what a glorious gospel there
is in that which Christ has accomplished, dear brother. being both the
testator and the executor of His own will to obtain eternal
redemption for His people at His own arm. His mighty hand
has brought salvation to Himself. It is His salvation. Oh, that
we might be found to be numbered among those who are the inheritors
of that great mercy and grace.