a title of the message, Eternal
Redemption. That's what we have in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The redemption we have in Him
is eternal. Eternal, not temporary. All that
they did under the Old Testament—the blood of the bulls and the goats—was
temporary, pointing to the One who's eternal. And I know that
we take a lot of pictures. You know, we've got albums at
the house, pictures of the same people, our boys and us, me and
Vicki. We've got albums, scrapbooks.
She's got scrapbooks from when they were just babies and just
step by step by step by step all the way through. And if you
tried to One of those pictures, just one of them, she would flog
you. I guarantee you. I could say, just throw that
one away. Why, you've got to be kidding.
There's no way. The Hebrews had trouble with
that. These people that the apostles
write into, you have to realize and understand, they grew up
under this, pictures and types. And for the most part, they didn't
see it as a picturotype. It was life to them. It was God-given. You see here in the first verse,
then verily the first covenant had also ordinances, listen,
of divine service. That means God gave it. This
is not just a religion the Jews came up with. This is given of
God. God gave the sacrifices right
from the beginning after Adam and Eve fell. God clothed them
with coats of skin. He killed the first animal, then
Abel offered a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, and right on down
through there, and then came to Moses, and then all these
ceremonies and tithes and pictures were given. This is of God. If God gives it, you don't throw
it away, do you? If it had a time limit, aren't you due? And these
had a time limit. They were for a time. They were
for a purpose. They spoke of Christ, they were
pictures and types of him, of his work, of his priesthood,
of his sacrifice, of his blood, and that's all they were. Life
was never to be given through these things. Life is given through
Christ. He's the giver of life. Salvation
is obtained through him, never through these. Even the Old Testament
saints, their sins were put away. just the same as our sins are
put away by the blood of Christ. Look in verse 15, and for this
cause he's the mediator of the New Testament, that by means
of death, his death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. Their sins, from the first one
whom God saved, to the last one, whom God saves, are put away
by the blood of the Lamb of God, not by the blood of bulls and
goats. And what the apostle is going to teach these Hebrews
and us, we let these ceremonies, these pictures and types go. We benefit from their message
But we don't hold on to tradition. You'd be surprised. You just
try to break a tradition. And we like to think that we're
not that way. You just changed something. This
is the way it's always been done. Always. But that's what he's
dealing with here. And he's going to let them know
that these things had their place. They had their place, their time,
and their purpose. But the real has come. So let
go of the types and the pictures. Let go of the pictures. Let the
pictures go. That's what Paul's teaching in
his Hebrews. The real has come. All right, now let's look at
this. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances, ceremonies
of divine worship. That is, God gave it. And a worldly,
that is, an earthly sanctuary. Well, there was a tabernacle
made. It was made of earthly materials. The first we're in
was the candlestick, and this represented the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only light that was
in that tabernacle. There were no windows in that
tabernacle. It was that one candlestick. That's what gave light to that
inside that tabernacle. And that represents Christ, the
light of the world. He said, I am the light of the world.
And then there was a table. There was a wooden table overlaid
with gold and on it was the showbread, which represents Christ, the
bread of life. Listen, everything in that tabernacle
and the tabernacle is a picture, a representation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now it says here in the table
and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the
second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of
all. Inside of that tabernacle, there was a 15 by 15 by 15 foot
room. The tabernacle itself, I believe,
was 45 by 15 by 15. I believe that was it. And the Holy of Holies took up
about a third of that tabernacle. So inside of there, now, there's
some furniture in there. Well, actually, there's one piece
of furniture in there, the ark. It's in two pieces. You had the
lid, which was of pure gold, which is the deity of Christ. You had the ark itself, it was
made of wood overlaid with gold, which shows the humanity and
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. So 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, that's Christ
again, the bread of life, and Aaron's rod that budded. You
know what that rod said? that rod that budded. You remember
back there over in, I think it's over in Numbers. I should have
written it down. I think it's Numbers chapter 10. There was
a little hiccup going on. And so God told Moses, He said,
you take the rods of all these leaders and you put them in the
tabernacle. And then the one that budges, that's my man. That's my chosen priest. He's the one. He's the one. And
then the next morning, They got up, they went in there, and Aaron's
rod budded. And that rod that budded says,
it said, and it says, this is my priest. This is my, this is
God's chosen priest. Christ is God's chosen priest.
This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. He's my priest. He's my high
priest, chosen of God, anointed of God, called of God. He didn't
put himself in that office. Because a lot of men put themselves
in the pulpit, had absolutely no business being in the pulpit.
But now God, when God chooses His man, He puts him in the pulpit,
you're going to know it. You're going to know that man's
of God. God's people will know it, put it that way. God's people
will know it. And the tables of the covenant,
that is the Ten Commandments, they were put in that ark, they
were kept in that ark. You know, our Lord kept the law.
We broke it, He kept it. It was kept by Him perfectly.
And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat,
which we cannot now speak particularly about these cherubims, and so
he goes on. Now, when these things were thus
ordained of God, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the services
that went on daily was ordained of God. This is not something
they came up with. This is of God, and there's a
message in it, and the message has to do with Christ. The substance. See, this is the types, but Christ
is the substance. These are shadows. Christ is
the substance. He's the real. So 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. But not without blood. He did
not go into the Holy of Holies without blood. Without the blood
of atonement. Without the blood of the sacrifice.
There was no way. No way. He was to go into that
Holy of Holies without blood. Just as our Lord went into the
Holy of Holies, into heaven itself, with His own blood. Not without
blood. If He had not died, if He had
not shed His blood, He was not going to go back into the Holy
of Holies. Don't you come into God's presence, not representing
the people like us, without blood. There's got to be blood. There's
got to be a priesthood. See, this is what is established
in these pictures. There's got to be a high priest.
If you're going to approach God, there's got to be a high priest.
You can't go around him. God's not going to have anything
to do with you and me apart from the high priest, apart from the
blood, apart from the sacrifice. And he establishes this way back
there. This is how God's going to be
approached. How can a sinner, how can a wretch like you and
I come into God's presence and have fellowship be accepted?
And he's giving it to us right here. He first gives it to us
in type and picture. And then he takes away the picture
and then shows us the real Lord Jesus Christ. But unto the second
went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood,
which he offered for himself, because he was a sinful priest.
Our Lord wasn't. He knew no sin. This shows the
superiority of our priest over that old priesthood. See, the
old priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, they had to offer a sacrifice
and blood for their own sins first, and then for the people.
But Christ knew no sin. Our high priest knew no sin.
Now, the Holy Ghost, through these continual services, through
these continual offerings that the priest went through day after
day after day, morning and evening, sacrifices morning and evening,
going through there, trimming the lamps, keeping it burning,
changing the showbread on every Sabbath. They did this every
day, and the Holy Spirit is saying this. He's saying this, that
the way into the holiest, that the way into the presence of
God has not yet been clearly revealed. This is just ice. It's a picture. It's a shadow. That's what it is. It's a shadow.
Well, as the first tabernacle was yet standing. You notice
he goes back to that tabernacle instead of the temple. He goes
back to that tent. He goes back to that tent. There's
a badger skin and all that that was so representative of the
humanity of Christ. And inside there, the deity of
Christ, the Shekinah glory inside that holy of holies, which was
a figure for the time then present. It was a figure. It was a type.
It had a message of the true Redeemer. But that's all it was. That's all it was. in which were
offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not, now listen, that
could not make him that did the service perfect. If it did, he
would not come back again the next year. How many? Well, there's
2,000 years from Adam to Moses, and this was established, this,
well, it was established, the sacrifice was offered back after
the fall. Then this, all these ceremonies
and priesthood was given to Moses. That was 2,000 years from Moses
to Christ. The year after, how many sacrifices were made? It's
unbelievable how many were made. There was a constant flow of
blood. You're talking about a bloody
religion. It was bloody. If you were a
priest, you were in the Levitical priesthood and you were doing
the service of the tabernacle there, it would be a flow of
blood every day. Killing? blood, killing blood,
sacrificing blood every day, every day. And here's why. And here's why. Because the blood
of bulls and goats could not, did not make those who came perfect. It didn't put away one sin. Not
one transgression was put away by all those thousands upon thousands. It's in the millions. of sacrifices. They didn't put away one transgression.
They were temporary. It was temporary. It was good
enough to sanctify the flesh outwardly as far as cleansing
and that kind of stuff and hold back the wrath of God. It was
good enough just for that at that time. But it made nobody
perfect. In Christ, you're perfect. In
Christ, you are absolutely as perfect as He is. As pertaining
to the conscience, you see, they could do the outward washings
and stuff like that and declare you to be clean according to
his flesh, as far as his flesh goes. They could take a leper
who had leprosy in his skin and they could say you're clean,
but it never put away sin. He's still a sinner. He's still
a sinful man or a sinful woman. As pertaining to the conscience,
only the blood of Christ can reach to the conscience. and
give you a clear conscience before God. Only the blood of Christ
can do that. Which stood only in meats, drinks,
and different washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until
the time of reformation. You know, the Greek word of that
reformation is a thorough straightening out. Until the time of a thorough
straightening out. But now, He's given us the pictures,
the types, Now he's coming to the real. But Christ, being come
and high priest of good things to come, what are those things?
Well, righteousness, justification, mercy, grace of his fullness
and all we received, all good things to come. By a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, his body. A body has now prepared
me. Not made with hands. No one made
this tabernacle. This tabernacle is made of God.
This tabernacle is of God. His body was created and made
by the Holy Spirit of God, created in the womb of Mary. That's to
say, not of this building, not of these earthly things, neither
by the blood of goats and calves. He didn't come into this world
to offer goats and calves. We have enough people doing that.
We have enough priests doing that over the years. But by his
own blood, which in the book of Acts is called the blood of
God, but by his own blood, listen, he entered in once into the holy
place. That doesn't mean the holy of
holies in the tabernacle. That means the holy place, the
true holy place of which these were just a type. He entered
into the presence of God. This man, listen now, a man.
God-man, yes, but a man, a real man, like you and I, except without
sin. A real man entered in to the
Holy of Holies of Heaven, walked into the presence of Almighty
God with his own blood. Having obtained, accomplished,
he said on Calvary, it is finished. I have obtained eternal redemption."
No priest was ever able to say that. Aaron and all those after
him were never able to come out of that holy of holies that they
went into and say, I have obtained eternal redemption. We don't
need to do this anymore. They had to do it again. Had
to do it again. But Christ has entered into the
Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Ripped
the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifies and purifying of the flesh. This is temporary. I wrote out from that, temporarily.
These earthly things, everything about this earth is temporary.
Everything touching this earth is temporary. These were just
temporary things. If they did this, if these things
did this to purify the flesh outwardly and, you know, people
could be pronounced clean and then, you know, the atonement
would be made once a year. Then the next year they could,
you know, they can go home and come back again the next year.
And the atonement's been made for a year. And if they did that
temporarily, how much more? If the blood of bulls and goats,
animals, that's all they were was animals. How much more shall
the blood of Christ, the Son of God, God in human flesh, who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself with that spot to God?
He didn't offer Himself to me. He offered Himself to God. The
sacrifice is to God. The blood is to God. If He offered
Himself with that spot to God, purge your conscience. How much
more? How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself in that
spot to God, purge your conscience? Not just these outward things,
not just his flesh, but I mean your conscience. You. You. From dead works. Dead works is
any works that I do. Any works that I do to obtain
favor, to impress God. Any works that I do is going
to have sin in it. It's dead works. the living God. You serve now from your heart. We're not going through ceremonies
here. We are worshipping God from the
heart. If we're worshipping God at all,
we've been worshipped from the heart. Engaged in adoration in all of
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."
And he's telling these Hebrews, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Abel,
I believe Adam, and Eve, They were all redeemed
by the blood of Christ. These things never saved anyone.
They were just picturing the one who saves. Where a testament
is, now you're going to talk about this testament, this New
Testament, and you're going to compare it with this Old Testament.
Where a testament is, that is, where there is a will, a will
and testament, there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator. if it's going to be of any count,
of any use. You know, if I make a will to
my sons, they can't have it until I die. They've got to wait until
dad dies for that will to be enforced before it becomes effective. For a testament is a force after
men are dead. Otherwise, this is no strength
at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament
was dedicated without blood." Now he's going to go back to
this, the Old Testament, I mean the Old Covenant, the Old Testament,
the Old Covenant. He says, it was dedicated with
blood. That Old Covenant was a type,
and it was dedicated by types. But it was dedicated with blood,
but when Moses had spoken every precept, To all the people, according
to the law, he took the blood of calves, and of goats, and
water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and he sprinkled both
the book and all the people." He was dedicated with blood.
The type was dedicated with the type. Saying, this is the blood
of the testament which God hath enjoined to 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. There were some things that were
purged with water and fire, but now listen, there was no forgiveness of sin
in any way, shape or form without blood, without the shedding of
blood. There can be absolutely no forgiveness
of sin. No forgiveness. It was therefore
necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should
be purified with these. These patterns are purified with
patterns. Types with types. But now listen. But the heavenly things themselves
were the better sacrifices than these. The heavenly things themselves.
What's the heavenly things themselves? You. God's people. God's children.
God's Israel. You have to be, you have to be,
there has to be, you have to be purified with better sacrifice
than blood of bulls and goats. And that better sacrifice is
Christ. His blood. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands. He didn't die on Calvary and
rise from the grave and go enter into the temple on this earth.
He went to heaven, listen, which are the figures of the truth,
but into heaven itself. That's where He is. That's where
our high priest is. He's seated at God's right hand
making intercession for us. He entered into heaven itself
now to appear in the presence of God, listen, for us, a particular
people. He's there for a particular people
which includes a multitude of sinners which no man can number.
Salvation is certain for a multitude of sinners because Christ entered
into heaven. He took possession of heaven
for them. Not yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest. He's always been our high priest.
He's always been the high priest of the true Israel of God. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with blood of others. Do you know how many times he
would have to die over and over and over if it was just no better
than the blood of bulls and goats? No, for then must he often have
suffered since the foundation of the world, because he's always
been our high priest. But now, once in the end of the
world, and we are in the end of the world, as he appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself. He could have offered the blood
of bulls and goats, being God, manifesting the flesh,
and it still wouldn't have saved us. It still would not have saved
us, even if He offered it. It has to be the blood of a man,
and it has to be the blood of a man who knew no sin. It has to be the perfect Lamb
of God. It has to be God in human flesh,
is what it has to be, in order to satisfy God, in order to satisfy
his justice. By man sin came into the world,
by man it's got to be dealt with. And the same nature of the sin
has to be the same nature that renders satisfaction. A cow or a lamb or a sheep, An
animal cannot die for my sins. I have to. And in my substitute,
I did. I did. And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, we all have to die. But after this judgment,
we all have to face judgment. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. He died in the place of many
as their substitute. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him, who desire
his appearing, who is looking for his appearing, shall he appear the second time
without sin. You see, the sin issue is over
with. It's been dealt with. It's gone. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. You see,
the first time He came as the Lamb, this time He's coming as the
reigning King of glory to get His people. Sin's already been dealt with.
That issue's over. He's not going to come back and
die again and again. No. He did it one time. This
is how effectual, this speaks of the efficacy of his blood.
He died one time and put away all the sins of all his people.
And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. Full, eternal, complete salvation. And then we too will be done
with sin. We won't even have His presence
anymore. It'll be over. But what the Apostle is saying
here to the Hebrews and us, these types and pictures were given
by God for a time, had their purpose, they served their purpose.
These shadows were for a while, but the substance, the real has
come, and it shows the superiority. He's showing the superiority.
of the Lord Jesus Christ over all those types of pictures. And He's saying to them and to
us, cling to Him. You lay hold of Him. He's real. Jesus Christ is real. He's our high priest. His blood
is the blood of our atonement. His righteousness is our righteousness. In Him you are complete. You
need nothing else. Throw the picture away. We have
the real.