Now, as Mark read from John chapter
one, the main focus for our message today was verse 14. And then
we have some more said about the subject in our text, Hebrews
nine, beginning at verse 11. And the subject is this, Christ,
our perfect tabernacle, our perfect tabernacle. In every message,
I believe that we should strive to preach the gospel, the gospel
of God's grace, salvation, conditioned on a person, a person who did
a great work on behalf of his people. And of course, that person
is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we find that the
issue of the gospel has to do with who Jesus Christ is. Who is Jesus Christ? Why did
he come into the world? Secondly, and thirdly, what did
he accomplish for his people in his coming into this world,
his living, his dying, being buried and arose again the third
day? Who is he? Why did he come here? And what
did he accomplish? Well, John 1.14, as Brother Mark
read, said, the Word was made flesh. Now, the Word there, it's
established from the very beginning of that chapter that the Word
was God and is God and was with God. And that's language that
might be confusing to some people, but what it's simply saying is
the Word there, which is the communication, the revelation
of God, Someone said the ABCs of God. The word, you know that's
the Greek word logos, you've heard that word. The logic of
God, if you will, is the second person of the Trinity, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is immutable and eternal,
who is God in every attribute of his nature, Co-equal with
the Father and the Spirit in every attribute of deity. And
then in John 1 14 it says that word, that same word, was made
flesh, a physical human body. Sometimes in the Bible you have
to, in order to interpret the Bible, you have to look at the
context. Sometimes you'll see the word flesh and it means sin. The spirit lusteth against the
flesh, the works of the flesh, it means sin. But there in John
1 14 is talking about the physical body. There's nothing sinful
inherently about our human bodies. Sin is our nature because we're
born in trespasses and sin, born spiritually dead. And that sin
consists, the flesh as sin, consists of our evil desires, our evil
thoughts, our evil motives, our ignorance, our unbelief. But
Christ didn't have any of that. The Word was made flesh. He was
made a human in such a way. A man. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt. And as Brother Mark told you,
when that Word dwelt, It means he tabernacled among us. So who is Jesus Christ? He's
God manifest in the flesh. He's the fullness, he himself
is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now what that means,
that's Colossians chapter two and verse nine. What that means
is if you're going to see the fullness of God, the fullness
of the Father, the fullness of the Son, the fullness of the
Spirit. The only way that we as sinners can see that is by
revelation in the person of Jesus Christ. God manifests in the
flesh. The word made flesh who tabernacled
among us. Why is that word there? Well,
that's what I'm gonna show you in just a moment. But let me
give you this right here. One man said one time that if
Jesus Christ is not God, He was the greatest imposter and liar
that ever lived on earth, and we're the greatest idolaters
if he's not God. And then if he's not man, then
we have a pipe dream. We have no hope of salvation.
He had to be both to tabernacle among us. Now you can understand
this language if you know the significance of the tabernacle
of old. We've been talking about that
over in Hebrews chapter nine, where the writer of Hebrews mentioned
the old covenant tabernacle, that movable tent. And we talked
about that. I'm not going to go into detail
on that now. I did last week and we'll do
it some other time. But it was the place. Here's
the significance of it. That old covenant tabernacle
was the place where God met with and received sinners through
his appointed high priest and on the basis of the blood of
sacrifice. And the significance of this
is that when it comes to eternal salvation, now that old covenant
tabernacle, that human priesthood and the blood of animals was
only a type, a picture, symbolic. It had no power to eternally
and spiritually save anybody from sins. He says over in Hebrews
chapter 10, and look at verse four, he says, it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Animal blood could not do that. But that animal blood, the blood
of lambs and goats and bullocks, It pointed to an object, a subject,
who is none other than the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
which taketh away the sins of the world. It's by the blood
of Christ which those things pictured. And so the significance
of all this is that when it comes to eternal salvation, living
forever and ever and ever, when it comes to the forgiveness of
my sins and your sins, When it comes to being justified before
God, being made right with God, standing before God, accepted,
received on a right ground. When it comes to spiritual and
eternal life for sinners, that place is not an object. It's
not a movable tent. It's not a human priesthood.
It's not animal blood. It's not a physical building.
It's a person. who accomplished a work of righteousness
for his people. And that person is none other
than the Word made flesh and tabernacled among us, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not just any person now, and
not just an ordinary person, and certainly not one who has
or is a sinner or one who was even made or became a sinner,
no. This person, Jesus Christ, is every believer's perfect tabernacle. He is one who is in himself full
of grace and truth. The glorious person is himself
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and therefore he had to have
a human body without sin. This is the significance of the
birth of Christ, folks, right here. This is what His incarnation
and birth is all about. He wasn't conceived of man. He
was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. Someone
said that the birth of Christ is all about peace on earth and
goodwill toward men. Well, that's taken from Luke
chapter two. Turn over to Luke chapter two with me. I'll show
you something here. This is where the shepherds At
the birth of Christ, we're given a revelation of the coming of
the Messiah into the world. This is often read during this
time of year. I like to read it other times
of the year. I don't know about you. And incidentally, the birth
of Christ probably was not December 25th. You do know that, don't
you? But anyway, look at verse eight. It says, there were in
the same country shepherds abiding in the field. keeping watch over
their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. The angel said unto them, fear
not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. Now the all people there, he's
talking about, this is not just for the Jews. It's for anybody
who'll hear it, Jew or Gentile. And he says, for unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord, the Messiah. And this shall be a sign unto
you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
now listen, it says glory to God in the highest. What does
that mean? That doesn't mean just glory
to God up there somewhere. That means that what's going
on here is the greatest, highest manifestation of God's glory
that can ever be found. They called it back in the old,
some of the old Jewish writers called it the Shekinah glory.
And in that tabernacle, in the holiest of all, God revealed
Himself in the greatest way, the God of redemption, the God
of salvation, who saves sinners by His grace. Well, that is fulfilled
in perfection and in its highest in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So glory to God in the highest
and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. Now, that verse,
if you were to translate that verse from the original, it would
read a little differently. The reading there is just fine
if you know what it means. For example, when people talk
about this season being a time of peace and goodwill, and usually
it comes with a dollar sign on it, you know how it goes. A lot
of idolatry that's connected with it. A lot of wrong thinking
and all that. He's not talking about peace
among men here on earth. He's not talking about peace
among nations. What peace is he talking about?
He's talking about peace between God and his people. through the
blood of this God-man. That's what he's talking about.
Peace established by the blood of the cross. In his birth, he
was in the mind of God, the cross. Obeying the law unto death, even
the death of the cross. But here's the way it would read
if you read it in the original. It would go something like this.
Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to people
he favors. or peace on earth to those whom
his favor rests or to those with whom God is pleased. That's the
translation of it. Well, who's God pleased with?
God can only be pleased with sinners as we stand before him
in Christ. Without Christ, God's pleased
with none of us. We're sinners and deserve nothing
but wrath and hell. Well, look back at our text in
Hebrews chapter nine. Look at verse 11. He says, but
Christ being come, that's his incarnation and his birth, and
he's come in high priest, that's his office, prophet, priest,
and king, the priest in the old covenant stood before God for
the people, having 12 names on his breastplate and six on his
shoulder and six on the other shoulder, the names of the tribes
of Israel. Well, Christ was a high priest.
And he has the names of his people, God's chosen people, all whom
the Father gave him before the foundation of the world on his
heart and on his shoulders. Remember we read that in Isaiah
9, 6, the government shall be upon his shoulders. That's the
government of his kingdom. That's the government of his
church. That's the government of the covenant of grace. It's
conditioned on Christ, not on sinners. If it were conditioned
on us, it would be a failure. it's conditioned on him, the
God-man, therefore it's a success. And he says he's a high priest
of good things to come. A high priest had to be appointed
of God to represent the people of God's choice, the elect. A
high priest was to enter the holy of holies where the ark
of the covenant, remember we talked about that last week,
the ark of the covenant, and the mercy seat, the lid over
the ark. The high priest was to enter the holiest with the
blood of sacrifice from off the altar, the brazen altar, the
altar of sacrifice. And he was to enter there by
the blood of sacrifice. Well, Jesus Christ is the one
and only high priest of God's people. There's no other high
priest. The Pope is not a high priest.
Human priests are not high. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, the God-man. And any other that
you pray to or seek blessings from, that's idolatry. It's Christ
and Christ alone. He's the one and only high priest
of God's people. And his high priest, we learned
last week, is eternal, not just temporary. Under the old covenant,
when those high priests died, their priesthood was over. But
when Christ died, his high priesthood continues forever. His high priest is effectual
to accomplish what he was sent to accomplish. Well, what was
he sent to accomplish? Peace between God and his people.
Peace on earth. God reconciled to his people
and his people reconciled to him on what ground? The ground
of the righteousness of our great high priest. What is his righteousness? It's the merit of his obedience
unto death as our surety, the one who took our debt and became
responsible to pay that debt. As our substitute who took our
place under the law of God and drank damnation dry, took the
full wrath of God upon himself. That's what this person who was
born on whatever day, that's what he did. He took the full
wrath of God for his people that we earned and deserved. He took
it upon himself and drank damnation dry. And as our substitute, he
redeemed us from our sins. Look at it. a high priest of
good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle.
Well, what is that greater and more perfect tabernacle? It's
himself. It's Christ, the perfect tabernacle
of his people. It's God manifest in the flesh. It's not an earthly building.
It's not a beautiful temple made of marble or whatever stone.
It's not a tent in the wilderness. It's Christ. He's the more perfect
tabernacle. And he says, and not made with
hands. Men didn't make this. This is
not physical material in the sense of what you use to construct
a building. That is to say, not of this building.
They're talking about the temple. And then This is the issue. He
was born to die as substituted and redeemer of his people, to
put away our sins. Now let me make this clear. Christ
was not born to die in order to make redemption and salvation
possible for us if we would do our part. Because if that were
the case, it would be a failure. He was born to die, look at it
in verse 13 or verse 12, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood, he entered him once into the holy place,
not year after year, but one time. See, that's the value and
the power of who he is. By one offering, he hath perfected,
completed forever them that are sanctified. So he entered in
once into the holy place. Now look at the last line of
verse 12, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He didn't make redemption possible.
He made it a sure thing for everyone for whom he died. There's not
one person for whom Christ died on that cross who will die in
their sins. Why? Because He took their sins,
their sins were imputed, charged, accounted to Him, and He died
the death of those sins under the wrath of God, and He fulfilled
it. He obtained eternal redemption.
He paid the price. He bought us lock, stock, and
barrel. He says He obtained eternal redemption
for us. Who is the us there? Look over
at Galatians chapter four with me. Who is the us? Is that everybody
without exception? All right, read the scripture.
No, it's not everybody without exception. Look at Galatians
chapter four. Now this is another passage that
talks about the person and the accomplishment of the God-man
who was born on that particular day, sin of God. Look at verse
four of Galatians chapter four. It says, but when the fullness
of the time was come. Now what is the fullness of the
time? That's the time God appointed. When it was the time that God
appointed, God sent forth His Son. That's His deity. That's the Word which was in
the beginning, which was with God, which was God. Sent forth
His Son, the second person of the Trinity, made of a woman. Now that's His humanity. His
perfect, sinless, human nature, body and soul. God, man. And then it says, made of a woman,
made under the law. That salvation conditioned on
him. He was made responsible to obey
the law in its precept and penalty for the sins of his people. Now,
why did he do it? Look at verse five. To redeem
them that were under the law, that we might what? Receive the
adoption of sons. Who is the us that he obtained
eternal redemption for? Those whom he adopted into his
family. by the grace of God. And how
do you know if you're adopted into his family? We'll look at
verse six. Now listen to this. And because you are sons chosen
of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, adopted into his family,
because you are the sons of God, God has sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now what
does that mean? That's talking about the new
birth. That's talking about regeneration, conversion. Over in John chapter
one, let me just read this to you. Brother Mark read this.
It said, he came unto his own, verse 11, and his own received
him not. Now that's us by nature. But
he says in verse 12, but as many as received him. Now when the
Spirit of God comes into your heart, gives you a new heart,
A new mind, a new spirit. What are you gonna do? How are
you gonna know that? You'll receive Christ. You'll believe in Christ. You'll rest in him. You'll plead
his blood. You'll plead his righteousness.
And over here in John 1 12, it says, as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God. That word power
means the right. The right. Are you a child of
God? Are you? If you said yes, in
your mind, let me ask you, what right do you have to make that
claim? What is your right? Well, I walked an aisle when
I was 12 and got baptized. Now, my question is this, is
that what the scripture says? No. Well, I've gone to church
all my life. I had a lady tell me one time,
she said, I can't even remember a time that I wasn't a Christian.
I told her, I said, that's too long. What right do I have to say I'm
a child of God? Well, look at it in John 1, 12.
He says, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. What is His name? Emmanuel, God
with us, Jesus who saves His people from their sins. Who is
He? What did He do? Now, how did
you come to believe on His name? Because by nature you won't believe. Of your own free will, you won't
believe. He came unto His own and His own received Him not.
That's us by nature. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. We
look at verse 13 of John one, which were born not of blood,
not talking about the first physical birth, not talking about your
birthday, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, which I believe
means the works of the flesh, nor of the will of man. It's
not man's decision that gives him the authority. but which
were born of God. The birth of Christ enabled him
to suffer unto death and make an end of sin, to finish the
transgression, bring in everlasting righteousness. What is the very
righteousness of God revealed in the gospel? It's the entire
value, worthiness, merit. You know what merit is, don't
you? If you're a Boy Scout or a Cub Scout, you earn merit badges. You go out and do something and
you earn it. You who go out to your jobs, you go out and you
earn your pay. Well, that's not how salvation
works for us. We don't go out and earn or merit
our pay, our blessings, our salvation. Christ did that. He earned it. And that's his righteousness,
the merit of his obedience unto death on my behalf. He earned
it and gives it freely to me. I don't deserve it and haven't
earned any of it. The death of Christ accomplished
this great and glorious work to secure the eternal salvation
of all for whom he died, all for whom he was buried, and all
for whom he arose again the third day. Look at verse 13 of our
text, Hebrews 9. He says, 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. Now he's talking about
that animal blood under the old covenant. He says it sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh. This shows us what the services
of the Old Covenant Tabernacle, its earthly priesthood and sacrifices
of animals, what it actually accomplished. And these things
did not accomplish the forgiveness of sins or eternal salvation
or righteousness or spiritual life for any sinner. What did
they accomplish? Well, they sanctified to the
purifying of the flesh. What's he talking about? It was
a ceremonial purification of the flesh by the types and pictures
of what Christ alone could and would do by his cross. It was
ceremonial. And these things had no eternal
power, no spiritual power, but according to God's appointment,
they did keep the nation Israel in right standing with the law
of Moses. But these things were all pictures,
types and shadows of good things to come through Christ. Well,
If they did that, verse 14, here's the key, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, the blood of the God man, the blood of
Emmanuel, the blood of that more perfect tabernacle, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot, without blemish,
without fault, without sin to God. How much more shall his
blood purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God? The death of Christ as my surety,
substitute and redeemer. That's why he was born. That's
what this event, this beautiful, miraculous, great event was all
about. It's not so that we might look
at a nativity scene. That's over with. He's not a
babe in a manger. He's the living Lord of glory.
That's who He is. Don't go looking for His manger.
Don't go looking for His tomb. He's not there. He's risen. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living, to plead our cause for our salvation,
for our preservation, for our glory. all based upon the merits
of his blood. That's why he came. That's what
those shepherds saw. That's what the wise men saw
when they came by probably about two years later. Did you know
that? I hate to bust your bubble on that, but no, I don't hate
to. I love busting bubbles. They weren't at the manger. They
came by later. Remember Herod told them, have every child two
years and under killed. But they saw that that star guided
them to the real perfect tabernacle, Christ. That's what old Simeon
saw. Remember Simeon in Luke chapter
two? He said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Now I'm ready
to leave this world. Are you ready to leave this world?
You say, well, I don't wanna go right now. Well, you'll go
whenever God says, come on. Isn't that right? That's not
really our choice, is it? Isaac Watts was a hymn writer. He lived in the last part of
the 17th and the first part of the 18th century. He wrote in
one of his hymns, he said, not all the blood of beasts on Jewish
altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away
one stain. But Christ, the heavenly lamb,
took all our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood
than they. He says, through the eternal
spirit. You know, in the original, the article thee is not really
there. So this may or may not refer to the Holy Spirit. If
it does, I can understand that. We know that as God in human
flesh, without sin, Christ had the full measure of the Holy
Spirit. And this would help sustain him through all the weaknesses
and pain that he experienced when he suffered unto death.
But this could simply mean his human spirit whereby he willingly
offered himself for the glory of his father and the salvation
of his people. The Bible says he set his face
like a flint to do the work that he was given to do. And he offered
himself without spot to God. Listen, the Bible says Christ
was made sin in 2 Corinthians 5.21, and he was truly made sin. And though he offered himself
bearing all the sins of God's elect that were made to meet
upon him, that were imputed, charged, accounted to him, the
sin dead, he remained in himself without spot, without blemish
to God. He knew no sin, he thought no
sin. He had no sinful desires or motives
or goals. The perfect tabernacle, having
our sins, the dead of our sins, laid upon him, the iniquity of
us all. So even though he was made sin,
he remained our perfect tabernacle. How then could God justly punish
one who was without spot in our place? And that's where the doctrine
of imputation is so important. God imputed, charged, accounted
the sin debt of his people to Christ. He was justly punished
under the wrath of God for all the sins of God's people charged
to him. And we who are spotted in ourselves,
sinful in ourselves, are justly received and blessed, accepted,
saved by God because of Christ's righteousness imputed to us,
charged, accounted to us. I stand before God not in my
works. I stand before God in Christ,
washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness. And this
is what purges your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. You see, when God the Holy Spirit in the new birth
reveals Christ, He reveals our sinfulness and our depravity,
our need of God's grace and mercy, He shows us that it's impossible
for us to be saved by our works. And then he shows us the glory
of God in Christ who did all the work required. Reveals to
us by the gospel. That's when our consciences,
the seed of judgment, the standard of right and wrong by which we
accuse and excuse ourselves, our consciences are cleansed
by the blood of Christ. Now what does that mean? That
means we see now that in Christ, God will not charge me with my
sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed not iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed righteousness without worth. We see now that in Christ
there is therefore now no condemnation. I cannot be condemned. Well,
aren't you a sinner? Yes. Don't you deserve to be
condemned? In myself, yes. Haven't you earned
nothing but condemnation? Yes, but you see salvation is
not conditioned on me. Salvation is not upon my shoulders. Salvation is in the spotless
one, the more perfect tabernacle, Christ. And he purges our conscience,
cleanses it from dead works to serve the living God. Dead works
are works aimed at your own salvation. Dead works are works aimed at
making yourself fit for God because all that will lead to is death.
Salvation is not by works. It's by grace. And anything you
do seeking to save yourself or to make yourself fit and righteous
enough to be accepted with God, you know what it is? It's a dead
work. Because it leads to nothing but
death. Well, when we see our sinfulness and look to the glory
of God in Christ, we stop trying to work our way into God's favor,
and we plead Christ. This is the gifts of faith in
Christ and repentance of dead works, not just our immorality,
but even that which we highly esteem, even that which men highly
esteem. We see that it's all Him. Christ
our more perfect tabernacle. Okay.