Now staying there in Hebrews
chapter nine, I want to talk to you a little bit about Christ
the way into the holiest. And that title comes from verse
eight where he talks about the way into the holiest was not
yet made manifest. You know, I was thinking about
these messages in this time of year, you know, people are so
geared and, and uh, accustomed to the times and the seasons
of the year to do this and not do that. When they go to church,
you know, preachers used to tease or joke about people who would
show up for church on Easter Sunday and you'd never see them
again. Some people around the Christmas
holidays, as they call it. And sometimes, you know, preachers
would gear their messages around those times and seasons. And
I don't think we ought to be ought to buy into that as this
is a necessity. You've got to say this on this
day and that on that day. We preach the gospel. We preach
Christ crucified and risen from the dead every time. We talk
about his birth. I celebrate his birth every day,
don't you? His incarnation. But I got to
thinking about this, and I think, you know, you come to passages
of scripture like this, And you say, well, what does that have
to do with what people call Christmas or the holiday? And I can't think
of anything more appropriate than this passage here about,
he's talking about, of course, the issue here is Paul, I believe,
who's the writer of Hebrews, he's talking about how the coming
of Christ into the world and Christ doing his great work on
the cross is the abolishment of the old covenant by way of
fulfillment. Now that's what he's talking
about back here in verse 13 of chapter 8 look at he says, in
that he saith a new covenant hath he made the first old now
that which decayeth and waxeth or groweth old is ready to vanish
away. Now that's his purpose and he's
going to go into some detail mentioning certain things about
the tabernacle. Well the tabernacle Next week
I'm going to preach on Christ our tabernacle, our true tabernacle. Christ is our true tabernacle. We don't have a physical temple
or tabernacle out here where we bring the sacrifices of animals. We have Christ who is the dwelling
place of God himself in the glory of his person. God manifests
in the flesh. The Bible says, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, what we call the Shekinah
glory of God. But I thought about this in light
of what I'm gonna deal with next week, beginning at verse 11,
that Christ being come in high priest, he's come, come into
the world. And John said this about his
birth. John 1.14, it said, the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And that word dwelt in John
1.14. Now I'm not preaching next week's
message now, but I'm just giving you a heads up here. In John
1.14, he said that word dwelt is the word tabernacled. So when
we speak of the incarnation and the birth of Christ, we're speaking
of Christ tabernacling among us. And what all that involves. And these verses here in Hebrews
nine tells us that. Christ, the word was made flesh,
Christ our tabernacle. Now you know the tabernacle of
old in the old covenant. It was designed and ordained
by God. It was an earthly sanctuary.
Look at verse one of Hebrews nine. He says, then verily the
first covenant. Now he's talking about the old
covenant, the law covenant, the Sinai covenant, where Moses was
given the 10 commandments and the ceremonial law, the law of
the tabernacle, the laws of the priesthood. It was first in time
as compared with the new covenant. And remember the new covenant
is the establishment in time. of an everlasting covenant made
before time. So that, barely that first covenant,
that old covenant, had also ordinances. It had ceremonies. It had commandments. There were
things, you know, somebody, I think several scholars have counted
all the different laws that were given to Israel under the old
covenant. I think somebody come up with 640 some, concerning
not just 10, Now the Ten Commandments was the basis of that. In fact,
we're gonna see this arc of the covenant. It contained the Ten
Commandments. And the Ten Commandments, we
look at it, it's the broken law. We broke the law. How do you
know that? We're sinners. So that whole
tabernacle system, that whole tabernacle, that physical, Listen,
he says it had ordinances of divine service. That means these
ordinances were not made up by men, but they were ordained of
God. The commandments, the ceremonies
sanctioned by God for his service set apart. This tabernacle was
set apart for a specific service. It wasn't to be used for anything
else. except what God ordained it for. And he says, look at
it in verse one, a worldly sanctuary. This is an earthly physical thing,
you see. And so that tabernacle, it was
designed to house mainly the Ark of the Covenant, which was
set in a place called the Holy of Holies, the very inner chamber
of that tabernacle. All of this tabernacle, every
element of it, and some of you may have seen models of the tabernacle. We used to teach in Bible school
up in Ashland, sometimes we would take that model and show the
students how each thing was a representation, a symbol, what we call a picture
or a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory of his person and
in the power of his finished work and his church. And it all
pictured Christ. Even the outer walls of the tabernacle,
made of badger skins, which really the tabernacle, you know, when
Christ stepped out and showed his disciples the temple, it
was a very impressive thing. And he says, you see this temple
and how beautiful it is? And he says, this is all going
to be destroyed in three days. Of course, he was talking about
himself as the tabernacle of men. But this tabernacle in the
wilderness, this movable tent, it wasn't very impressive to
look at from the outside. And I thought about this. Well,
what does Isaiah say about our Savior? He was despised, rejected. We esteemed him not. His appearance. You know, I think a lot of people
have the idea that when Christ walked around the earth that
there was some glow about him that really impressed people.
Wasn't the case at all. He just looked like just any
other person. He was much, much more than every
other person. But as far as his looks, you
see, we esteemed him not. His appearance, you know, when
you see these portraits or paintings of Christ, disregard them. They're not Christ. Nobody knows
what he looked like physically. There were no photos or any representations,
and they're not to be made. I'll never forget one time I
was getting my hair cut in one of those barbershops where they
have several chairs, and the girl that was cutting my hair,
she was talking to me, and there was a girl beside her that was
cutting hair. And the girl that was cutting
my hair knew I was a preacher, knew I was a pastor. And we started
talking about that. The girl beside us heard it.
And she did some painting on the side. And she said, I want
to show you a painting that I've got. And she pulled it out, and
she showed it to me. She said, who do you think that
is? Well, I didn't really. I wasn't thinking. wise as a serpent and harmless
as a dove. But I just wasn't thinking, and
the first name that come into my head when I saw that picture
was Charles Manson. And I said, it looked like Charlie
Manson to me. Well, she had meant it to be a portrait of Jesus,
and it went all over her. I thought she was going to suck
all the air out of the room. That's what I thought. I wasn't
thinking in religious terms of this being a portrait. It looked
wild-eyed, you know, and all. It looked like Charlie Manson
to me. Well, there's no pictures of Christ. As far as his person,
this is a picture of Christ right here. The tabernacle was. And
there are other pictures of Christ. But don't look at these portraits. They don't mean anything. People
don't know what he looked like. But he didn't have any special
glow or halo about him. Now, he did special things. He
healed the sick. He raised the dead. He walked
on water. He calmed the storm. He did all
those great, great, and mainly what did he do? He bore away
our sins on the cross. And he arose again the third
day. That's impressive, isn't it? But it wasn't about how he
looked or anything like that. It wasn't mystical. But this
tabernacle of the old, in the wilderness was given to picture
and teach of Christ, the Messiah, the promised Messiah, who'd been
prophesied back in Genesis 3, the seed of woman, the Lamb of
God, whose blood would bear away the sins of his people all over
this world. And that tabernacle was made
and patterned by God to picture Christ and his glorious person,
God manifest in the flesh. You know, whenever you had a
piece of furniture or like the Ark of the Covenant itself, it
was made of Shittim wood and it was overlaid with gold. And
the Shittim wood was a picture of his sinless humanity, his
human nature. And the gold was a picture of
his deity. Now, who is Christ? He's God
manifest in the flesh. That's who he is. And they weren't
to use any other metal or any other wood except that which
God instructed them. Because it had to properly symbolize,
picture, prophesy of who Jesus Christ really is. And then it
also pictures the accomplishment of redemption of his people as
their surety, their substitute, their redeemer. Salvation by
God's grace for his chosen people through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Showing how we're sinners, we've broken the law of God, we've
transgressed, we fall short of the righteousness that God requires. But that can only be found in
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that's his
righteousness imputed. And that's how life comes, to
dead sinners, spiritual life. You who were dead in trespasses,
he's quickened us. Because why? Because as this
body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of
righteousness. And so in the first part here,
talking about Christ, our tabernacle, we have a list of some of the
objects in the tabernacle. Not all of them. And he doesn't
explain how each one of these things pictures Christ at this
passage. And that's what he means. If
you'll look down there at verse five, when he says, of which
we cannot now speak particularly, he's not just talking about one
of the pieces that he, he's talking about the whole thing. What he's
saying is I'm telling you this because my purpose is to show
you how Christ has abolished all of that by way of fulfillment.
And he said, I'm not telling you each thing in here and how
it all represents Christ particularly. That's not my point now. My point
now, he says, is to show you how that's been abolished. But
he does list them. He has a list of some of the
objects, and though we're not given specific explanation of
each object mentioned as to how it does picture Christ, generally
he mentions them collectively and shows that they were pictures
of Christ. Again, his goal. is to show the
greater superiority of the high priesthood, the sacrifice of
Christ, pertaining to the new covenant, the everlasting covenant
of grace, and to show how that old covenant is now abolished
by way of fulfillment. It's not needed. We don't need
an earthly tabernacle. We don't need an earthly temple.
Because why? We have the substance. We have
the substance. We don't need a shadow. We've
got him. Whom to know is life eternal.
One old preacher used an illustration of that one time, said a young
lady, her husband was called off in the army to the war. He
was overseas for a year or so. And every day she'd get up and
she'd look at her husband's picture and it'd just draw out that love
and cause her to have those memories of her loving husband and how
she wanted him to come home. And then one day he came home,
walked through the door. What do you think she did with
the picture? Set it aside and embraced her husband. She didn't
say, now sit down over and let me look at the picture. You see
what I'm saying? Well, we have Christ. That's
who we have. So think about that. And then
the law, think about this. The law could not save us, could
not save them. Now, we were never under the
law, but again, sometimes preachers today try to put people under
the law and they deny the gospel, but the law can't save you. Brother Tim James was talking
about one time how they want to put the Ten Commandments on
the wall. He said, well, I can make it
easy for him, just put the word condemned up there, because that's
what the law does. Now, I know the moral precepts
of the law, which are still in force, have always been in force,
even before Sinai, and they're still in force today. But here's
the point, the law cannot make you righteous. It can show you what righteousness
is, but it cannot do it. The law came by Moses, John 1,
17, but grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. There's no salvation
in the law, it's a broken law. All they can do is expose our
sin. Romans 8, three, listen to this. For what the law could
not do in that it was weak through the flesh. What's the problem
with our relationship? It's not the law, the law's not
the problem, it's us. Weak through the flesh, we're
sinners. But what happened? God sending his own son. There's the incarnation and birth
of Christ. There's the glory of it. It's
not just that there was a miracle birth, even though that is impressive.
When Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin, it was
without the aid of man. It was by the Holy Spirit. He
was conceived in Mary's womb, and he was born just like you
and I were born, except he was born without sin. And that's
impressive. But here's the most impressive,
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, not
in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of it, and for sin, as a substitute,
a sin offering, he condemned sin in the flesh. In his own
body, he bore our sins on that tree. He condemned sin. Now without
him, without his blood, without his righteousness, the law, the
sin would condemn us. But he as the surety and the
substitute and the redeemer of his people, he kept that law
perfectly and died under the condemnation, the wrath of God
for our sins charged to him. And he condemned sin in the flesh. Now, why did he do that? Romans
8, 4, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
That we might stand before God in his righteousness. and have
life from the dead. Walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. Well, again, this was all a picture
of Christ and the glory of his person, the power of his finished
work to save his people from their sins, to work righteousness
whereby God justifies his people, and from which God has given,
gives spiritual life and eternal life. Look at what he says here.
Look at verse two. He says, for there was a tabernacle
made, the first, wherein was the candlestick, the table, the
showbread, which is called the sanctuary. On that tabernacle, when you'd
walk into the first part, it was open and there was the brazen
altar there. And that brazen altar was where
the sacrifice was made. And the priest would catch the
blood of the lamb or the goat or the bullock in a basin. And that's where, and then the
body would be burned up. And then when you went back into
the first division, there was a place called the Holy Place,
and there was a golden candlestick there. They call it a menorah.
And that represents Christ, the light of the world, the light
of his people. He is the light. Without Christ,
there's nothing but darkness. We have the light of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You know, he talked about, Paul
talked about in 2 Corinthians 3, read that chapter sometime
about how the law, how the unbelieving Israelites under the law, they
were in darkness. They had a veil over their face.
They couldn't see the glory of it, the reality of it. But he
says, when it turns to the Lord, the veil's removed. When sinners
turn to Christ, that veil of self-righteousness and veil of
ignorance, it's removed. And we see the glory of Christ
and the power of his work. He talks about the table of showbread
here. There were 12 loaves laid on
a table, 12 because that was the number of the children of
Israel, representing the elect of God and how Christ is the
bread of life to his people. He said, I am that bread. Moses,
manna from heaven, and it filled you up physically, but he said,
I am that bread, the bread of life. We live upon him. We live
upon his word. That's what that table of showbread
represented. And then he talks about the holy
of holies, the holiest of all. There was a veil in that inner,
as you come into the tabernacle, you saw the brazen altar, and
then there was the first division, And you went in, there was the
holy place. All the priests of Levi did the service of God in
that holy place. But then there was a veil in
there from the ceiling to the floor. And inside that veil was
the holiest of all. And that represented the very
holy presence of God. And only one person, one time
a year, could go into that holy place, that holiest of all. And
that's the high priest. He's the only one who could go
in there on the day of atonement. And in that holy place, listen
to what he mentions here. He talks about, he says in verse
three, after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called
the holiest of all. which had the golden censer.
Now the golden censer was not always in there, but the priest
took it in with him, and that's what he's talking about here.
And that golden censer, that had incense in it, it was taken
into the holiest, that represents Christ our intercessor, Christ
interceding for his people. the prayers of God's people going
up, and the prayers of Christ coming down. He intercedes for
his people on the basis of the merits of his obedience unto
death. He says there was, he goes on,
he says, there was the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid round
about with gold, that's the Ark, y'all familiar with that, that
box, and the Ark of the Covenant, Christ is our Ark, and he's God
manifest in the flesh, that's what that's showing. There's
a golden pot of manna, he says, that had manna. And that represents
the preservation of God's people through the manna. Remember that's
how God preserved the children of Israel in the wilderness,
with manna? And they began to complain about,
well, our manna is Christ. And you know what? There's something
about that manna, that physical manna, in what, a couple of days
it would start rotting? Well, our manna lasts forever. and we never get tired of him,
like they did. And so that's the golden pot
of manna. Aaron's budding rod, Aaron's
rod that budded. That was the rod that Aaron had.
Remember the one he gave to Moses? And it said it budded, it flowered.
And that's our eternal life and the fruit of God's power and
grace in and by Christ. See, that's what all this represents.
And he's not dealing with that individually now in this passage. He talks about the cherubims
of glory, verse five. Or he talks about the tables
of the covenant. That was the Ten Commandments, the two tables
were placed inside that ark. That's the broken law which condemns
us based upon our best. Verse five, over it, the cherubims
of glory shadowing the mercy seat. That was those two cherubims
that were on the lid of the mercy seat. They looked down. They
represent his ministers. Messengers looking constantly
at the mercy seat. If you're a messenger of God,
you're gonna constantly look to Christ. He is our mercy seat,
and that's what he mentions next. He said, over it of which, the
mercy seat, shadowing the mercy seat. That mercy seat was that
lid. And you remember when the high
priest came in, he sprinkled the blood of the lamb on that
lid. That's Christ, our redeemer. Christ, our surety. Christ, our
substitute. And so all of these things, he
said, of which we cannot now speak particularly. So here you
have that tabernacle, the holiest of all, the holy of holies, representing
the Shekinah glory of God. This is where God reveals himself
in his glory, his redemptive glory. This is where sinners,
this is where God will meet with sinners and be gracious and merciful. That's why it's called the mercy
seat. It's a propitiation. The scripture says, a sin-bearing
sacrifice that brings satisfaction. And all of that finds its fulfillment
and its completion in Christ, who is our mercy seat. Ain't
that beautiful? Well, what about Christ, the
way into the holiest? Well, didn't Christ himself tell
his disciples in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Let's read these last few verses,
and there's several phrases we need to understand. Look at verse
six. Now, when these things were thus
ordained, in other words, when these things were commanded by
God, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. That's the Levitical priest. They went into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God, doing what God told them
to do. Verse seven. But into the second went the
high priest, that's the holiest of all, alone, once every year,
the day of atonement, not without blood, which he offered for himself. He was a sinner himself and for
the heirs of the people. Remember, we already learned
in Hebrews 7 that Christ, when he went in to the holiest of
all, it wasn't for himself, but it was for the sins of his people.
He's the perfect surety, the perfect Lamb of God. He had sin,
he was guilty based on sin imputed to him. But that was it, he was
not corrupted by it. But the phrase I want you to
know, not without blood. What do you think would happen
to that high priest if he went in there without blood? He'd be struck dead, is the indication. There'd be no atonement for the
people, even ceremonially. Not without, but what does that
teach us? It teaches us that at the forefront of this thing
called salvation is the absolute, unbendable justice of God. When people speak of salvation,
they speak of the gospel today, they wanna talk about nothing
but the love of God. Well, I wanna talk about the
love of God too. God is love. But when you talk
about His love, apart from His justice satisfied, my friend,
that is an unbiblical, empty love. Herein is love, 1 John
4. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son, Christ coming into the world.
Sent His Son to do what? To be born in a manger, yes.
To be found by the shepherds, yes. All of that. But that's not the story that
ought to really impress us. That's impressive, now don't
get me wrong. That's impressive. And I love to hear about it.
But here it is. Sent his son into the, to be
a propitiation for our sins. To die under the justice of God. God is a merciful God. There's
got to be blood on that mercy seat. His justice must be satisfied. God is a gracious God, but His
grace cannot save or reign except through righteousness, justice
satisfied. God is a loving God, but His
love must provide what His justice demands, not without blood. And whose blood? Christ, the
blood of the Lamb of God. That's the only blood that'll
save. That's the only blood that'll satisfy. The Bible says in Psalm
916, the Lord is known by the judgment he executed. The judgment
he executes in condemnation and in salvation. He must be a just
God and a savior. God justifies the ungodly. And it's all based on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God has imputed to every one
of his people and through which they get life. Look at verse
eight. He says, 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.
Now what's he talking about? He's saying this, that as long
as God ordained that first tabernacle, that earthly tabernacle, and
it was standing, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, was testifying
then that Christ had not yet come, the Messiah had not yet
come in time. That's what he means. That tabernacle,
that priesthood, that animal blood could not take away sin.
But one was coming who could and did take away sin. He's not
yet God here though. He was ordained before the foundation
of the world. It was sure and certain that
he was coming. When he says he's not yet made
manifest now, he's not speaking of gospel truth. The gospel truth
was manifested, revealed back in Genesis three. The promised
Messiah was always known by his people to be the only way into
the holy presence of God. Abel knew that. Enoch knew that. Abraham knew it. Isaac and Jacob,
they knew it. David knew it. But this is strictly
speaking of the coming of Christ into the world. In the fullness
of the time, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. And then look
at verse nine. He says, which was a figure for
the time then present. That tabernacle, it was a type,
a picture, a symbol for that time, not for all time, but for
that time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices. The gifts are the thank offerings,
the sacrifices are the atonement offerings that could not make
him that did the service perfect. It could not make him righteous.
It could not take away his sins. And he says, as pertaining to
the conscience. The conscience is the seat of
judgment in our minds and hearts. Our sense of right and wrong.
One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin
in our conscience. Well, what's gonna cleanse that
conscience? What's gonna soothe the guilty conscience? Oh, the
works of man? It can do it for a time. That's
called legalism, but it won't last. The only thing that can
cleanse the guilty conscience before God in his court of justice
is the blood of his son. And when the Holy Spirit convicts
us of sin and drives us to Christ, that's the application of that
blood to our conscience. We see that the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin. We see that his blood is our
only righteousness before God and that we have no other. And
that soothes our conscience, that quiets our conscience, that
gives us the peace which passes understanding. And then we see
that Christ is the only way into the holiest. Look at Hebrews
10. Look at verse 19. Speaking of
Christ, by whose one sacrifice for sins brought all the salvation
and forgiveness and righteousness that we need. Verse 19 of Hebrews
10. Having therefore brethren boldness,
liberty, confidence to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus. A new and living way which he
hath consecrated. This is a way he made. He accomplished
it for us as the surety, substitute and redeemer of his people through
the veil, that is to say his flesh, his body on that tree.
And having an high priest over the house of God, look at verse
22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
the full confidence that we gain from looking to Christ. and resting
in his blood, his righteousness, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, a condemned conscience, a legal conscience,
and our bodies washed with pure water, washed in the blood of
Christ. And then look back at verse 10, and I'll close, Hebrews
9, 10, which stood only in meats and drinks, divers washing, that
old covenant, ceremonial, carnal ordinances, that is physical,
imposed on them, until when? The time of Reformation. Now
what is the time of Reformation? Well that was way before John
Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther, which we normally
call the Reformation. I thank God for that Reformation,
don't you? That's when the truth kinda came
on out. Again, it was resurgence of the
truth. The time of Reformation is the
time of the coming of Christ into the world to do his great
work. That's when it all changed. When
he gave up the ghost, he said, it's finished, it's done, and
the veil was written to from top to bottom. That's Christ,
our tabernacle, the way into the holiest.