In Hebrews chapter 9, in verse
5, at the end of the verse there, it talks about considering these
pieces of the tabernacle, it says, of which we cannot now
speak particularly. The details of each of these
items mentioned were not necessarily the subject, the point that the apostle was
making. But in a study where we have
the leisure of time, we can stop and look at each one of these
and then we'll go back and look at the whole context of what
is being taught here. So, we begin here in Hebrews
9.1 and it says, Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances
of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle
made, the first, or the first room in this tabernacle, wherein
was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread, and
this room was called the sanctuary. We saw last time how that the
tabernacle itself, being covered over with badger skins, without,
but within being gold and having fine royal colors, was a picture
of Christ of the God-man, in whom outside was no form of comeliness
about Him, that when we would see Him, we would desire Him,
but righteousness is the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of His reins. That first room, the sanctuary,
or the holy room, that was where the Levitical family alone entered.
We saw how that typified Christ, our holy place, our sanctuary,
where only those whom He has made priests can serve God and
worship God. We saw the candlestick, how that
Christ is the light by which His people are illuminated to
live and see and walk in Him with God. And we looked at the
table, and we considered this table as being the table which
held the showbread. rather than the brazen altar. And the reason I looked at that
is because itself is important, because this table, we saw how
it typified the one in whom we gather around and in whom we
have communion with our Father, much like you gather around your
dinner table. And the showbread that was on that table pictures
Christ the bread, ever before God's face, ever His delight
and the delight of His people. The bread whom believers feast
upon and in whom we have life. And then today we pick up here
in verse 3. And it says, 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.
Now, today we're going to begin to enter the second room in the
tabernacle called the Holiest of All, and this room It's typical
of heaven itself where the thrice holy God dwells. We can see here
in verse 24 of chapter 9, it says, Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands. Those were but figures of the
true holy place. But he's entered into heaven
itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. That's this holiest
of all. The title this morning, we're
only going to look at two items. We're not going to get to the
Ark of the Covenant. We'll look at it by itself in
the lesson next week, Lord willing. But today, we'll look at the
veil and the golden censer. That's the title of the lesson.
The veil and the golden censer. Now this veil, if you want to
turn to Exodus 26-31, Exodus 26-31, this was a heavy curtain that was hanging between four
columns which separated the holy room from the most holy, or the
holiest of holies. In Exodus 26, 31, it says, and
thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine
twined linen of cunning work with cherubims shall it be made,
or on it was cherubim. And thou shalt hang it upon four
pillars of shittum wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall
be of gold upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang
up the veil under the tatches that thou mayest bring in thither
within the veil the ark of the testimony. And the veil shall
divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy. Now
this fine twined linen means it was a thread that was doubled
six times when it was twisted. So you have blue thread that's
doubled six times, purple thread that's doubled six times, scarlet
thread that's doubled six times, and linen doubled six times,
making up one thread that's been woven 24 times. So each thread
And it says there were 72 of these woven together to make
up this curtain. And so the point being, this
veil was about as wide as your hand. It was a heavy, thick veil. It was not just a curtain like
these we have in here. This was a thick veil. And the
only way to the holy place, the only way into the holiest of
holies was through this veil. The only way to get to where
God said He would meet with His people above the mercy seat was
through this veil. The only way to see God's good
pleasure when He received the high priest and the offering
that the high priest brought, the blood, was through that veil. Now we're talking right now about
the tabernacle in the wilderness. It's the veil we're talking about
in the tabernacle in the wilderness. But this veil, or one like it,
is what hung in the temple. Now you picture this. It's the
time of the evening sacrifice. And Christ is hanging there on
the cross. And He cries out with a loud
voice. And He gives up His life. And suddenly, Just in that instant
this thick veil splits from top all the way to the bottom it
splits in two and before everyone present and Recorded in Scripture
for all of God's people to see and to know God declared that
no longer is this beautiful veil this beautiful veil which hung
there no longer is it the way into the holiest of all and There
is a new way. There is a living way. The way
is a man, a flesh like his brethren. The door is Christ Jesus the
way. Through him we enter, not into
a holy place in a tabernacle or in a temple, but into heaven
itself, into God's presence. Look there with me at Hebrews
10 verse 20. That's what's being declared
here. by a new and living way which He hath consecrated for
us through the veil." That is to say, His flesh. He's the way
in. Look at John 10 in verse 7. John 10 in verse 7. When Christ was speaking there
in a parable, they didn't understand exactly what He meant, and so
He spoke plainly to them. And he says here in John 10 and
verse 7, then Jesus said unto them again, verily, verily, when
you see verily, verily, pay attention. What comes next is utmost importance. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me
or thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am
the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture." This
is Christ. He's the one that's made an entrance
through His flesh into the holiest of holies, the very presence
of God for us. And it's only through Him that
we enter into this holiest of holies. We've seen that in the
lesson that we had prior to this one, that the people came to
the outer court with the sacrifices, and the priest, the Levitical
family alone, could enter into that holy place, that holy room,
that sanctuary, a picture of Christ's people entering into
Him by faith. He's the light. He's the bread. He's our communion with God.
And then, it's only by entering into Him here, by faith, that
we enter into the holiest of holies, into God's very presence. So we have to, there's one way,
just one way, and it's through Him, the veil. Now let's look
secondly here, in verse 4, in chapter 9, and it says, And there
was also, it said, which had the golden censer. Now, if you
want to be turning, you can turn over to Leviticus 16, Leviticus
chapter 16. Within that first room, the sanctuary,
incense was to be burned on the altar of incense continually,
all the time. But the golden censer, Was carried
into the holiest of holies once a year by the high priest on
the day of atonement now Let's let's read that Leviticus 16
11 And Aaron shall bring the bullock
of the sin offering Aaron is the high priest he'll bring the
bullock of the sin offering which is for himself and shall make
an atonement for himself and for his house and And shall kill
the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself. And he
shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar
before the Lord. And his hands full of sweet incense
beaten small. And he'll bring it within the
veil. He's the high priest. He takes this golden censer.
And it has burning coals of fire in it from off this altar before
the Lord. And in His other hand, He has
sweet incense, big and small, and He brings it within the veil.
And verse 13 says, And He shall put the incense upon the fire
before the Lord. He's entered the veil, and He
takes the incense, and He puts it upon the fire before the Lord. And here's what happens. that
the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is
upon the testimony, that he die not. And he shall take of the
blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy
seat eastward, and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle
of the blood with his finger seven times." Now I thought maybe
it would be helpful for you. Before we got into speaking here
about what this all typifies To just give you a simple definition
of the word intercession intercession it's intervening to mediate a
dispute on behalf of somebody is to enter into mediate a dispute
between two parties and it's to to supplicate pray for peace
on behalf of another. An example of it, let me give
you this. When Christ was hanging on the cross, there were some
with Him, or some there around Him, for whom He was dying, that
they didn't know He was dying for them. And when He's hanging
on the cross, He said, then said to Jesus, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. That's an intercessory prayer. If you go home tonight, you read
John 17. That's an intercessory prayer where he's praying on
behalf of the people that he represents. Intercession is made
by Christ on behalf of his people based on two things, two things. It's based on his righteousness
and it's based on his blood, his sacrifice. The incense that
was made that the high priest was to carry in was very valuable. It was incense, it was very fragrant
and it typified the perfect righteousness of Christ, the sweet smell of
righteousness. And the incense had in it burning
coals, burning coals. which signify the sufferings
of Christ's body and soul when God's wrath was poured out upon
him as he bore what his people deserved. So with the incense
you have a picture of his righteousness and in the burning coals you
have a picture of his sacrifice. And when that high priest entered
into that holiest of holies, he took that that incense and
he put it on those burning coals and the whole room filled with
smoke and covered the mercy seat. A wonderful smell. A sweet smell. And it filled that whole room
and it showed a continual intercession of Christ on behalf of his people.
A fullness of intercession on behalf of his people. And the
high priest which comes with this incense He says that he
came with it in this way, that he die not. Now that high priest,
that earthly high priest, Aaron, he had to offer sacrifice for
himself and for the people. Christ didn't have to offer sacrifice
for himself and the people. He came into that place pleading
one thing, and that is, His own sacrifice, Himself, His blood
and His righteousness. And the smoke of this perfume
filling the room and covering the ark and the mercy seat. We'll
see later that that ark and that mercy seat was on top and in
there was the law. And that law is the law that
God's people broke. this intercession that covered
that mercy seat, that He died not, that this high priest died
not, shows us that Christ entered in and with that intercession
that He made, God's pleased with it, God's satisfied with it,
and God's acceptance of Christ, our high priest, with the incense,
typified the fact that, or with the earthly priest, typified
the fact that Christ Jesus magnified everything about that law. He
met all the requirements. He's the end of the law for righteousness
because Christ never dies. He never dies. All who believe
Him, all who trust Him will never die. We've been made kings and
priests in Him. And just as God is satisfied
with Him and He'll never die, His people that are in Him never
die. We'll put off this body of flesh,
but that won't be death. That'll be the beginning. That'll
be the beginning. And if we attempt to come to
God any other way than in Christ, we won't be received. We just
won't be received. Let me show you two cases of
that. Leviticus 10 and verse 1. Leviticus 10 and verse 1. Aaron had two sons. One's name was Nadab and one's
name was Abihu. And one day Nadab and Abihu decided
that they were going to go in with something other than the
incense that God commanded be brought before Him. And here's
what happened. Leviticus 10 verse 1, And Nadab
and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer,
and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered
strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and
they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This
is it that the Lord spake. This is what the Lord said concerning
this matter. I will be sanctified. I will be I will be regarded
as holy, I will be reverenced as holy, as the Most High God. In them that come nigh me, and
anybody that approaches Him, we have to approach Him as the
Most High God. And before all the people, I
will be glorified." And Aaron, their father, held his peace.
He didn't say a word. This is God speaking. This is
how We got to come is in Christ. We can't come in a way other
than the way other than the intercessor Then if you look over at 2nd
Chronicles 26 2nd Chronicles chapter 26 You'll see there in verse 16 There was a man named King Uzziah
and And the Lord blessed King Uzziah greatly, blessed his kingdom
greatly. But when King Uzziah was blessed
with all this abundance, his heart was lifted up to his own
destruction. He grew in pride. And he decided
he didn't need a priest anymore. He didn't need a high priest.
He could offer incense on his own. He could go in without the
high priest. Now remember, the high priest
pictures Christ. The incense that's burned pictures
that which is pleasing to God. His intercession alone. And here's what happened to King
Uzziah. Says in verse 16, but when he
was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction For he
transgressed against the Lord his God. Here's how he transgressed
against God He went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense
upon the altar of incense And Azariah the priest went in after
him And with him fourscore priests of the Lord that were valiant
men. And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him,
It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto
the Lord. This is not your business. You
can't come in and do business. This is for the priest alone.
But to the priests, it's who it belongs, the sons of Aaron
that are consecrated to burn incense, go out of the sanctuary. He's in the holy, he's in that
first room, but he couldn't even go into that room and burn incense,
much less holiest of holies. They said, go out of the sanctuary
for thou has trespassed. Neither shall it be for thine
honor from the Lord God. And then Uzziah was wroth and
had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was wroth
with the priest, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead
before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense
altar. Azariah the chief priest and
all the priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in
his forehead and they thrust him out from them yea himself
hasted also to go out because the Lord had smitten him and
Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death and dwelt
in a separate house being a leper for he was cut off from the house
of the Lord and Jotham his son was over the king's house judging
the people of the land and Here's the lesson that we learn from
that. Christ, the intercessor, is the
one we come by. In faith, we come in Him. In prayer, when we pray, and
we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come in His
name. We come through Him. And one
day we're going to come in person before God into His presence,
and we must come in His Son. I want you to look at a few Scriptures
with me here before we end. Romans 8, 26. Romans 8, 26. This is talking about what happens
when we pray. Romans 8, 26. It says, Likewise the spirit also helpeth
our infirmities For we know not what we should pray for as we
ought as speaking of every believer but the spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and he God our Savior, that searcheth
the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Look at Romans 8, 34. Who is He that condemneth? Who
can lay a charge to God's elect? Who can condemn them? It's Christ
that dies. yea rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us." That's where he is. He's entered in like we saw that
earthly high priest. He's entered in with the incense
of his perfect righteousness and the fire of his sacrifice
that he made and it's filled the holy place and it's a sweet
smelling savor unto God. And then back in our text, or
back in Hebrews rather, Hebrews 7.25, it says, He is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. Remember, He's
the veil, He's the way, He's the door. If we're going to come
to God, we've got to come by Him. And He's able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, He ever liveth to
make intercession for them, to plead our case before God. And then over in Hebrews 9, where
we started, down in verse 24, where we read before, I want
you to get this one particular phrase here. It says, Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are the figures of the truth, but into heaven itself. Now look
at this last phrase, now to appear in the presence of God for us. He's there for somebody. And
His appearance, His being there, He doesn't have to do anything.
His being there, He's the intercessor. He is our intercession. And His
simply being there is being there for us, appearing before God
for us. So this high priest passing through
the veil, entering the holiest of holies with the golden censer
burning with incense, it's a beautiful picture. It's a beautiful type.
And due to the satisfaction that Christ made unto God, completed
at the cross, His mediatory intercession, it's a sweet savor unto the Father. And it's effective, effectual
unto the salvation of all His people. If we're going to come
to Christ, we have to come through the veil. And we have to come
pleading to Him to make intercession on our behalf. Alright, I hope
that's... Next week we'll pick up there
and then we'll look at the Ark. The Ark is just too important
to try to cover that much material and yet we just devote one lesson
to the Ark.