Look in verse 8 once again of Hebrews chapter 9. The Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing. Which was a figure and that word
actually is parable. It's a parable. Tabernacle is
a parable. Which was a figure for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience. There was never anyone that was
satisfied with an animal sacrifice. Now, those who understood what
that animal sacrifice pointed to were satisfied, but no one
was satisfied merely by an animal sacrifice. Which stood only in meats and
drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances. imposed on
them until the time of reformation. Now this is the only time this
word is used in all the Word of God. And let me say at the
outset I'm not talking about what is known as the Protestant
Reformation. That's obvious. This happened
1500 years before the Protestant Reformation ever took place.
And I admire those men, Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and the
men I've read about and their stand for the gospel. I admire
those men, but this is talking about a Reformation, a true Reformation,
far greater than anything we know of. Now this word Reformation.
means to make straight, to restore to a natural or the original
condition, to be upright, to be not crooked. And when he's talking about all
of these Old Testament, he calls them a worldly sanctuary. He calls them carnal ordinances.
Uh, when we see through those things to what they will really
mean is when the time of reformation truly begins. Look in verse nine, once again,
these things, the tabernacle was a figure for the time then
presence, all they had in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices
that could not make him that did the service. Perfect. as
pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and
drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances." Look at that
word imposed on them, imposed on them until the time of reformation. Look in verse 24 of this same
chapter. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true. but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. I'm interested in this, aren't
you? Now, God had given exact instruction
to Moses with regard to the tabernacle. Look in chapter eight, verse
five. who serve under the example and
shadow of heavenly things, the tabernacle, as Moses was admonished
of God that when he was about to make the tabernacle, for see,
saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern
showed to thee in the mount. Now, God gave Moses specific
instructions exactly how that tabernacle was to be constructed,
and there was no room for freelancing. What I thought about when I thought
about what Reformation truly is, and I hope the Lord gives
me grace to give what this Reformation is, but what I thought about
was the transfiguration. Peter, James, and John see the
Lord transfigured before them. The scripture says his face shined
as the sun and his clothes were literally glistening. He was
dazzling. And at this time, I don't know
how to say this other than that they saw that his deity burst
through his humanity and they saw who he is. Can you imagine
being there and beholding that? Now, when Peter views this, and
there were two people there speaking with him. You remember Moses
and Elijah, the representative of the law and the prophets,
the Old Testament. And I love what they were talking
about. We don't have to guess. Luke
9 31 says, they spake of the decease, which he should accomplish
in Jerusalem. That's what they were talking
about. But Peter, old Peter, he answered the scripture says,
He answered. After seeing this, he answered.
And I think it's so interesting the way it's spoken of him answering. No one asked him anything. But
he answered. And he made one of the worst
statements a man could ever make. When he looked at the Lord and
Moses and Elijah, he said, let's make three tabernacles. One for Moses, one for Elijah. Scripture says, for he was not
what to say. He had to say something. And when he made that statement,
the scripture says a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice
came from the cloud. This is my beloved son. Hear ye him. And they were scared to death
at this time, they'd hit the dirt. And then the scripture
says, when they looked up, they saw no man save Jesus only. That is reformation. That is setting things straight. Verses 11 and 12 of our text,
but Christ, Here's what happens when this reformation takes place.
But Christ being come of a high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place. having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now there is reformation. Things
went wrong when Adam fell and all of these carnal ordinances
and carnal, a worldly sanctuary he calls it. They were there
until the time of reformation where the truth of Hebrews chapter
nine, verses 11 and 12 are seen. And we're gonna consider that
more in detail next week. Let's go back to verse one of
Hebrews chapter nine. Then verily, the first covenant,
had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary."
Now, look what he calls the tabernacle. He calls it a worldly sanctuary. It was fleshly. Now, somebody
says, are you saying that? No, he said it. It was material. It was given only to represent
the true tabernacle. The Lord, it says, the word was
made flesh and tabernacled among us. He's the true tabernacle
to which this pointing to, and he calls it a worldly sanctuary. You know, what I was thinking
of, I was thinking, do you ever see Amish people where they're
wearing these clothes and it's supposed to say we're not worldly.
There's nothing more worldly than that. That's utterly worldly
when someone dresses like that in order to maintain their own
religiosity. Now, the writer to the Hebrews
here calls the sanctuary a worldly sanctuary. Now, he was not saying
that disrespectfully. He wasn't saying that deriding
this. He was just saying, this is nothing but a figure. It's
nothing but a shadow. And he says, there were ordinances,
rules of divine service in this tabernacle. You had to do the
sacrifices exactly as God presented them. There were the 10 commandments
in the Ark of the Covenant. They're in the whole law. There were civil laws, there
were ceremonial laws, there were sacrifices. He calls them carnal
ordinances, carnal commandments imposed on them into the time
of reformation. Now let's go on reading. Four,
there was a tabernacle made. The first wherein was the candlestick.
the table and the showbread which is called the sanctuary and after
the second and after the second veil the tabernacle which is
called the holiest of all which had the golden center 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 now there was a tabernacle made given
to typify um, the word made flesh who tabernacled among us. And
this tabernacle was a portable temple. I mean, the priest could
break it down. They could set it up. They would
carry it on staves, uh, as they went through the wilderness.
And in this tabernacle, there was a first, there was a courtyard.
It was about 150 feet long and about 75 feet wide. That's about
a quarter of the size of a football field. And it had a fence over
it. And you couldn't see over the
fence. You didn't really, were not able to see what was going
on, only the priest could. And there's a lot of significance
to that. Now, in the courtyard, before
you got into the actual tabernacle, there were two pieces of furniture,
if you want to call them that. There was the brazen altar. and there was a laver to wash
in, and every single day. You think about this, every time
the priest went in, because they came in to light the incense, to bring
in the bread. They came in to light the candles.
They came in every single day, and every single day when they
came in, they had to slay an animal before they could get
in. And before they could actually go into the tabernacle, they
would have to go to that laver and wash before they could go
in. The only way I can come into
God's presence is through the sacrifice of Christ at all times. And that water speaks of His
cleansing blood. It always cleanses. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us. present tense, cleanseth us.
Do you need cleanse presently? With the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. Now that had to be taken care
of before you could go into the tabernacle. Now the actual building,
the tent, it was about 45 feet long, about 15 feet wide, and
about 15 feet high. Now that's not a very imposing
looking structure, is it? This from here to here is almost
45 feet. From there down to there is 14
feet. So that gives you some idea of
the size of the actual tabernacle structure. And you ever go into
a cathedral and it seems so, you know, big, but this was not
really that impressive to the flesh. Just a building, 45 by
15 by 15. And covering this tabernacle,
you had four kinds of materials covering the tabernacle. First,
what you saw on the outside was badger skin. I guess the most unimpressive
looking stuff you've ever seen. I mean, it's not something that
you would say, wow, this is great. And you just read, there's no
form nor comeliness when we see him. And when there's no beauty
that we would desire him. When somebody saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, they didn't see anyone so special, just badger skin. You know what the next layer
was? Ram skin dyed red. That speaks of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the third layer was made
from goat hair, made of goat hair. And that has something
to do with the scapegoat. You can't really understand the
blood if you don't understand the scapegoat, what was going
on. The sins of God's elect were transferred to the Lord Jesus
Christ, just like when the high priest put his hands on the scapegoat,
and that signified the transference of sin. And then the fourth piece
of material, whatever it was, was dazzling white linen. The perfect, beautiful righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Now, I've actually thought about
thinking of the Moabites and the Amalekites. They looked down
at that tabernacle and they said, what's the big deal? I don't
see anything impressive about that. They didn't know what was
inside though, did they? Now, in this tabernacle, there
were two rooms. One room was 30 by 15 and the
other room was 15 by 15, a perfect cube. And in this first room,
you had a golden candlestick that was always a flame, it was always burning.
The priest had to make sure every time they came in and they'd
kill another animal, wash again. I mean, think of this, every
day to get in there, they would have to do that. And it was,
I'm sure they somehow, but some of probably like this really
monotonous doing the same thing over and over and over again.
But they would come in and they would light the candle. Now what
that represents is Christ our light. I have light. as to how God can look at me
and embrace me and receive me and see me as perfect in Christ
Jesus. He's the light of the world.
He's the light of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. I see that. Oh, the beauty of
the gospel. Oh, the light of the gospel. It's so beautiful. And then we
read in this passage of scripture what's called the table with
the showbread on it. Now the showbread, they would put that
in once a week. and then they would make more and the priest
would eat it. But it was two stacks of six
representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And it's called in Young's
literal translation, the bread of presence, the bread of faces. Now what this is talking about,
this bread of presence, bread of faces, is the presence of
Christ, my salvation. I need His presence. I need His
presence right now. I need His presence. I need His
presence as my representative in the covenant of grace before
time began. I need His presence on earth
when He came to earth and kept the law perfectly. I need his
presence when he was hanging on the cross, putting away my
sins. I need his presence when he walked out of the tomb and
he ascended back to the Father. I need his presence interceding
for me, representing me as my great high priest. And oh, I
need his presence. I can't bear life if I thought
I was just gonna be left to myself. I need his presence, the bread
of presence. And then we read of the holiest
of all. Now I think this is interesting,
the two rooms. In the Old Testament, the golden
censer is said to be in the first room. And here it's said to be
in the second room. Now, is that a discrepancy? No,
I know it's not that, but I know this. The only reason what the
incense represents, the intercession of Christ, the only reason it
has any power is because of the blood of Christ that's sprinkled
on the mercy seat. But you have this incense, this
golden censer, the incense, and it was always burning, continually
burning. The priests had to make sure
that was the case. And it represents Christ, our
intercessor. And then, and there was a veil
that separated the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. And in
the Holy of Holies, now the priests in the Holy Place, they went
in every single day, every single day. But into the Holy of Holies,
only one time a year did the high priest enter, not without
blood. Now in the Holy of Holies, there
was the Ark of the Covenant. It was a rectangular box, approximately
two feet by four feet, but two feet high, two feet wide, four
feet long, made of gold, pure gold, and chitim wood, the gold
overlay that represents the deity and the humanity of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then you had that propitiatory
lid. It's called the mercy seat. It was a lid, and it was called
the lid of propitiation. And remember what propitiation
means. It's a big word, but it means a sin-removing sacrifice. The way my sin can be removed
from me is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
was over the ark, and then you had the cherubims over that. You know, the cherubims, they
were in the Garden of Eden, if you'll remember, keeping Adam
and Eve from entering back in. And they're spoken of in Ezekiel,
I think they're the living creatures of Revelation chapter four. And
they could certainly be the seraphims. I don't know if they're different
orders of angels, but the seraphim is in Isaiah six, but I know
this, the cherubims and the seraphims both had six wings. And they
would fly around the throne. And with two, they would cover
their face, speaking of the awesome holiness of God. I can't look
on him and live. With two, they would cover their
feet. Even the seraphims and the cherubims were ashamed of
their walk. Now, how could that be? They
never sinned. They knew they would sin if God didn't keep
them from it. They knew they were mutable creatures and that
they would certainly fall if God didn't keep them. And they
had humility before God knowing that. And then with two, they
would fly always ready to execute the commands of God, whatever
they were. Now, what about what was inside
of that ark? Look in verse four or verse three, and after
the second veil, The tabernacle, which is called the holiest of
all. Let me say something about that veil. What happened the moment
Christ died? The veil in the temple was rent
in half from the top to the bottom. Two things from that. Number
one, the reason for God's separation has been removed. The blood of Christ has removed
any reason for God to be separate from me. I can draw nigh through
the blood of Christ. Second thing that that rent veil
signifies. Now I want you to remember behind
that veil, when that happened, you know what wasn't there? The
Ark of the Covenant. It hadn't been around for a long
time. And when that veil was rent,
all of a sudden you saw the phoniness of those men who were trying
to pretend that that was going on when it wasn't. The ark had
been gone a long time, but the veil, it separated the holy and
the holy of holies. Now in that ark of the covenant,
three things were, look in verse four. Wherein, the last part of verse
four, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's
rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. That's talking
about the Ten Commandments. Now, number one, the manna in
a golden pot. And I love the simplicity of
manna. May the Lord give me and you grace to hear what's being
said. That manna was to be eaten daily. You couldn't look at yesterday's
manna and you couldn't look for tomorrow's manner. Faith is always
in the present. You look to Christ right now
the way you look to Him the very first time you look to Him, and
you never graduate past that. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence, the beginning steadfast
to the end. Faith is in the present. And I love this too. Manna, it didn't just show up
in your house. You had to go out and gather it and bring it
in. And that's what we're doing right now. I mean, we want manna
from heaven. And in that golden pot, you had
the manna from heaven. heaven, which represents faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, our bread, our necessary food. And
then you had Aaron's rod that budded. Now the story behind
Aaron's rod that budded, the sons of Korah, they were Levites. But they weren't priests. They
were part of the Levitical line. They were the ones that did the
work. But they didn't have the right to come into the tabernacle
the way Aaron did. And they said to Moses, they
said, you and Aaron take too much on yourselves. We're just
as holy as you. What makes you think you have
the right to do this? And what happened? God opened the ground
and swallowed them and their families. They went to hell quick,
250 people. And you'd think everybody would
be scared to death, but the next day, the children of Israel said,
you slain the Lord's people. They said that to Moses. You
slain the Lord's people. And so a disease of some kind
went out and 14,700 people were killed. Because of that disease,
the Lord was going to smite them all. And that's where Aaron brought
the censer and stopped the plague, representing the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the Lord said, I want all 12 tribes to take a rod,
their shepherd's rod, and put it in the tabernacle. And the
next day, the one that buds and blooms and has life, that's going
to be the priest. And whose rod gave life, had
life? I mean, just a dry rod that had
no life in it, all of a sudden it bloomed, had flowers, had
almonds on it. And there's only one priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ. the priest of God, and this also
signifies Christ our life. Oh, it budded, it has life, Christ
our life. And then there was the law, the
Ten Commandments, Christ our righteousness. Every believer
has perfect righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ
is their personal righteousness before God. Now, verse five,
and over it, the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat
of which we cannot now speak particularly. We don't have time,
I guess he's saying, to give detail on this. Now, when these
things were thus ordained, and they were, this was imposed on
them. The priest went always into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. And like
I said, every morning, every evening, an animal slain. Millions of animals slain every
day. The only way they could get into
the tabernacle to perform their duties is when there was first
this animal slain and then they would wash in the labor of water
over and over and over again. What if a man was a priest for
40 years? How many animals were slain?
How many times did he do the exact same thing, but his work
was never done. It was never done. There wasn't
a place to sit down. He'd just start over again. Verse seven, but into the second went the high priest alone. He's
the only one that came in. Nobody else did. once every year, not without
blood. May that be impressed upon us
like it never has before, not without blood. The only way God
can be approached at all times is through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, we sing that song,
dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power
till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.
Listen, his blood never loses its power. In glory, our standing
is in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of the second, went
the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people. Now,
this is interesting. The high priest, before he could offer
a sacrifice for the people, he had to offer sacrifice for himself
because he was a sinner. And after that, he would offer
sacrifice for the people. Verse eight, the Holy Ghost,
this signifying. that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while at the first tabernacle
was yet standing. As long as this first tabernacle
was standing, the way into the holiest was not truly made manifest.
They were going through emotions. I'm sure some of them understood
it and believed the gospel, but the way into the holiest was
not made manifest. The time of reformation had not
taken place as long as all this stuff was going on. which was a figure for the time
then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices. But
here's the problem. They could not make him that
did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. Now you could
go through all the right ceremonies. The priest could offered all
the right sacrifices, and you know what? If that's all you
saw, your conscience was not satisfied. Never is. There's only one thing that satisfies
the conscience. The precious blood of Christ. If your conscience is satisfied
by anything else, that's trouble. The only thing
that can satisfy the conscience is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look in chapter 10, verse one. For the law, having a shadow
of good things to come. And not the very image of the
things can never, with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year, continually make the comers therein too perfect,
for then would they not have ceased to be offered, because
the worshipers, once purged, should have had no more conscience
of sins." Why does there need to be another sacrifice? I mean,
I'm okay if their conscience really was satisfied with that,
but every year they knew that doesn't make me pure before God.
The only thing that makes me pure before God is the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the time of Reformation is when I look to Jesus Christ
only. Now that's when things have been
straightened up. Not until then. Things went bad
when Adam fell. And you and I were born bad.
And the time of reformation is when we look to Jesus Christ
only and rest in him as all in our salvation. And that's what
is expressed, let's go on reading, which stood, these things couldn't
satisfy your conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks
and divers washings and cardinal ordinances. That's what the writer
to the Hebrews calls these things, they're fleshly. They're carnal,
imposed on them under the time of reformation. When's the time of reformation?
When you, like the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration,
See, no man saved Jesus only. That is the time of reformation
and it's expressed in verses 11 and 12, and we'll get more
into that next week. But Christ, here's the reformation,
but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come. Justification. Redemption, sanctification,
perfect likeness to Christ, good things to come by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say
not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by His own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place. having obtained eternal redemption
for us. That is the reformation. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the types
and the shadows that give us some idea of who thy son is. But Lord, we thank you that he
comes into your presence, not with the blood of bulls and goats,
but with his own blood that he shed on Calvary's tree, and our
standing is utterly, completely in him. Lord, deliver us from
looking anywhere but him, alone. In his name we pray, amen.