the book of Hebrews, chapter
9. Now when you study the book of
Hebrews, there are three important things
that stand out. Whether you're reading the first
part of Hebrews or the middle or the latter part, these three
very important things demand our attention. And the first
is this, the preeminence, the excellence, the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. The preeminence of our Lord Jesus
Christ over the angels. And to the angels he said, let
all the angels of God worship him. Worship him. The excellence of Christ over
Moses. Moses was a servant in the house. Christ is the Son. The excellence of our Lord Jesus
Christ over the priesthood, Abram and all the sons of Abram and
the sons of Levi. The preeminence of Christ over
the tabernacle and the And all the sacrifices and ceremonies
and holy days, everything contained in the Old Testament, He is preeminent. That in all things, He might
have the preeminent. And He shares that glory with
nothing and no one. The second thing that stands
out in the book of Hebrews as it brings together the Old Testament
and the New, as it reveals that which has been written, and as
it fulfills that which Christ came to accomplish. The second
fact is this. All of the Old Testament laws
and sacrifices and ceremonies and holy days and prayers and
baptisms and priests could not put away one thing. not one sin of one guilty person. The rivers of blood which flowed
through the tabernacle and from the altars and sprinkled on the
mercy seat, all those rivers of blood and ceremonies and sacrifices
could not put away one sin. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 4.
It is not possible It is not possible that the blood of bulls
and goats should take away sin. Those sacrifices and ceremonies
were never given to put away sin, to pardon the guilty, or
to make a way for us to come to God. Never, never, never,
never, never. They were given as pictures of
him who came to put away sin, our Lord Jesus Christ. All of
these sacrifices and ceremonies were given by God to the nation
Israel to reveal Him who shall come, who He is, what He would
do, why He would do it, and where He would reign. They were targets, they were
pictures, they were shadows, never the substance, only the
means to bring us to Christ, to bring them to Christ. and
to bring us to Christ. Thirdly, when our Lord Jesus
Christ died, when he came to this earth, a body hath thou
prepared me. I came, lo, it is written in
the volume of the book, O Lord, to do thy will. I come, he came
to earth, he lived, walked this earth, under the loft, born of
a woman, laid under the loft, to fulfill every jot and tittle
of that old Every jot and piddle of that old law, every ceremony
and sacrifice and type and picture Christ came to fulfill. Died
on the cross as the supreme, only sacrifice for sin. Shed
his blood. Was buried and rose again to
send to the glory. And when he did that, when all
that was accomplished, and he cried on the cross, it finished. It finished. covenant promises,
covenant mercies, finished. Redemption, finished. And every
type and picture of the Old Testament, finished. Full filled, folded
up like a garment and put away, never to be taken out. When Christ died was bared and
rose again. All of these Old Testament pictures
and types and ceremonies and tabernacles and temples and priesthood
and washings were fulfilled and finished and put away. Never to be brought out again.
Circumcision, Sabbath days, holy days, priesthood, whatever. Patterns and pictures and types
are needed no more. When you have the person All right, let's look at chapter
9. Now, then verily, the first covenant, the old covenant, the
covenant God gave Moses and Sinai, had ordinances, ceremonies of
divine service, and had a worldly sanctuary, an earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle out
yonder in the wilderness, the encampment All the tribes of
Israel, two or three million people, dwelling in tents, tabernacles
they call tents. Sojourners, passing through the
land, camping here, camping there, camping somewhere. God furnishing
the water from the rock, which is Christ. Manna from heaven,
which is Christ. Moses gave you not that bread
from heaven. My father gave you that bread
from heaven. I'm the bread. I'm the water. And he that eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood shall never die. And right in the center
of this encampment of Israel was a tabernacle. A tent. It's only 45 feet long. This auditorium is 50 feet from
that wall to that wall. That tabernacle in the wilderness
was 5 feet shorter. It wasn't an awesome tabernacle. It wasn't a huge tabernacle.
It wasn't a tabernacle that would caught your eye. You didn't know
what it was about. It was 45 feet long and only
15 feet wide and 15 feet high. This is about 15 feet, 12, 15
feet high. And it was covered with badger
skin, but it's a type of Christ, our Lord. A picture of Christ. This is tabernacle is where God
met men and men met God. But it was a picture of Christ
when He came to earth. Our Lord of glory came to this
earth and dwelt among men. And there was no beauty about
Him we should desire Him. They said, is not this the carpenter?
Well, we know His mother, Mary, and His brothers and sisters,
Joseph, Judith. Is not this the carpenter? Can
anything good come out of Nazareth? a winebibber, a friend of public
and the Senate. He looked like an ordinary man.
No comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him. We hated
to wear our faces from him. He was despised. Everybody was
eating by turning thumbs down on him. And this tabernacle out
there in the wilderness was covered with badger skin, just like everybody
else's tabernacle. Badger skin tabernacle there,
one over there, one over there. Tent here, there. Moses' tent
was covered with badger skin. Plain, old, simple, gray, dull,
badger skin. But under that badger skin was
the ram skin, dyed red, blood. Under that badger skin and ram
skin was goat skin, Christ our scapegoat. And underneath, Badger's
skin, the ram's skin dyed red, and the goat's skin was a beautiful
snow-white linen. You walked outside that tabernacle,
it looked like any other tent that you walk inside. Oh, the glory! Oh, the beauty! The veil hanging down four inches
thick, fifteen feet high, fifteen feet wide, reaching from ceiling
to floor, wall to wall, all the beautiful figures on it, the
colors, red, white, purple, glory, white linen. It was divided into
two sections. Let's look at it. In the first
section of that tabernacle was the candlestick. And on this
candlestick, seven candles. There was no window. in the tabernacle. No door in the tabernacle. It
was veils. First veil and second veil. No
light in the tabernacle but that candlestick. Seven candlesticks. Always burning. Christ. Seven
is his deity. Seven golden candlesticks. Christ's glory. There was no
word about the candlesticks. All gold. Christ, the light of
the world. And over here was a table. That
table was made out of wood, a shed of wood. But it was covered in
different places with gold. It shows us the humanity of Christ,
wood, and the deity of Christ, gold. And on that table were
12 loaves of bread kept fresh every day, always one for each
tribe. Christ is the bread of life.
This tabernacle is Christ. Christ our Lord. Twelve loaves of bread. And right
here in front of the veil, I'll get to it in a minute, but that
was called the sanctuary, the holy place. And then there was
a second veil between this holy place and the holiest of all.
The holy place was 30 feet long, 15 feet wide, made up two-thirds
of the tabernacle. And the ordinary, common, everyday
priests came in and they changed the candlesticks when they burned
down, they changed the bread. Here was the altar of incense,
and that incense kept burning all the time. Twenty-four hours
a day, 365 days a year, that incense burning on that altar
before the Holy of Holies. That's the prayers of Christ.
ever liveth to make intercession for us. He prays for us all the
time. His prayers ascend to God. Our
prayers are not worth a plug nickel without His. Our deeds
are sinful deeds without His making them holy. That prayer
is always ascending. Never let it stop burning. Those
priests had responsibility of all these services, sacrifices,
everything. But this second veil, behind
the second veil, is the Holy of Holies. Now listen, and in
that Holy of Holies was the golden censer. The censer, that's what
Uzziah burned when God turned him into a leper. He came and
took the golden censer, put the coals on it and went before the
Lord. The priest always had the censer, the intercession of Christ
and the sacrifice of blood of Christ. The high priest never
went into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God, without
the censer, with the incense, the prayers of Christ, the smoke
filling that Holy of Holies, and the blood. The censer, all
right. The censer was there, and then
the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid with gold. It was made of wood,
but overlaid with gold. Again, the humanity of Christ
and the deity of Christ. And in that ark, that preacher,
how big was that ark? Well, let's read. Let's go over
to Exodus 30. Let's go over there and read about that ark of the
covenant. It's so important. In Exodus chapter 30, let's read
verse 1. Oh, I'm sorry, Exodus chapter
25. Exodus 25. Exodus 25, verse 10. That's it. Exodus 25 verse 10. And thou shalt make an ark of
shed of wood. Two cubits and a half shall be
the length. That's three feet and three quarters. A cubit is
18 inches. Make it two and a half cubits
long. A cubit and a half shall be the
breadth. thereof. That's two and a quarter
foot, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. Almost four
feet long, two feet approximately wide, and two feet high. And
thou shalt overlay it with pure gold. Within and without shalt
thou overlay it. And thou shalt make upon it a
crown of gold round about, and thou shalt cast four rings of
gold for it, and put them in the four corners of that ark.
the four rings of gold, and put them in the four corners. And
two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side.
And thou shalt make staves of this shed of wood, and overlay
them with gold. And thou shalt put the staves
into the rings on the side of the ark, that the ark may be
carried with these staves." And nobody but the priest could carry
that ark. And when Israel marched, the
ark went before them. And when Israel came to a place
to camp, The ark went into the Holy of Holies, carried only
by the priest. The stave shall be in the ring,
shall not be taken from it, verse 16, and thou shalt put into the
ark the testimony I shall give thee, the Ten Commandments, the
law. Thou shalt have no other god
before me. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain. Thou shalt not bow down to a graven image. Remember the
Sabbath day. I shall not steal, I shall not
commit adultery, I shall not covet, I shall not bear false
witness. These on the stone, the table of stone that God wrote
Himself. He wrote it the first time and
Moses broke them. When he came down the mountain,
God wrote it again. Gave it to Moses. Put that law
in the ark. Take that law out of the hands
of Moses and put it under the mercy seat. I'm glad of that,
aren't you? Put it in the ark. Now watch this. And thou shalt
make a mercy seat of pure gold, no wood in the mercy seat. Two
cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, a cubit and a
half the breadth. And thou shalt make two cherubims
of gold, of beaten work, shalt thou make them in the ends of
the mercy seat. And make one cherub on one end,
and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy seat,
shall you make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And
the cherubims will stretch their wings. covering the mercy seat
with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another. Toward
the mercy seat shall be the faces of the cherubim. And thou shalt
put the mercy seat on top of that ark. And in the ark you
put the Ten Commandments that I'll give you. And there at the
mercy seat I'll meet with you, and I'll commune with you from
above the mercy seat. from between the cherubims, which
are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I shall give
thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." This ark, in the Holy of Holies, the mercy
seat, and under the mercy, the mercy seat is the perpetuatory,
the perpetuatory, the covering. It's the blood of perpetuation.
And it stayed in this Holy of Holies, and the cherubims on
either side, and the greater Shekinah glory of God was revealed
between those cherubim. And the law was under the mercy
seat. Now let's go back to our text
and read about this. Verse 5, And over the cherubims
of glory shattering the mercy seat, of which we cannot now
speak particularly. That's about all we can say about
it. Now, when these things were thus ordained, when that tabernacle
stood in the midst of the encampment, which is Christ, for He tabernacled
among us, and the outside in the courtyard was the altar where
the lambs were slain and the blood collected and the body
of the lamb was burned and the priest would cross the courtyard
and wash his hands in pure water and then they go in the holy
place and offer sacrifices. This is what he's saying, verse
6, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, into the
first compartment, accomplishing the services of God. Morning
sacrifice, noon sacrifice, evening sacrifice, but listen, into the
second, the holy of holies, where that law was in the ark. And Aaron's rod that budded.
You say, well, what's this Aaron's rod that budded? Well, you see,
Aaron, God chose Aaron to be the high priest. And some of
the men in the nation Israel objected to Aaron being the high
priest. They said, why can't we have
other priests besides Aaron? And Moses said, well, select
the men that you feel like ought to be priests. And we'll have
them come and we'll see who God puts his hand on. And they all
came and they all carried shepherds' rods, staffs. And Moses, when
the time came, he said, all of you men, cast your rods down. And the rod that, wooden rod,
the one that buds, that a branch grows out and a bud, that's God's
priest. And they all cast their rods
down. Avon cast his down. All of them just stayed there,
dead. Avon's rod budded. God chose
him to be the priest in things pertaining to God. When men went
to God, they went through the high priest. When God came to
men, He came through the high priest. And in that ark was that
rod that budded. A golden pot with some manna
that God gave them from heaven and the Ten Commandments. And
into that second place, the Holy of Holies, Luke, verse 7, the
high priest went alone, this high priest, once every year,
once a year, Day of Atonement, not without blood, which he offered
for himself. Why for himself? He was a sinner
too. Our Lord became a man. Aaron
was a man. But Aaron was a son of Adam,
Christ the Son of God. And Aaron, though he were a priest,
he was a sinner. Christ was not a sinner. Christ had no sin, did no sin,
knew no sin. He's perfect, the God-man. So
when Abram went into the Holy of Holies, he offered a sacrifice,
he sprinkled blood on the mercy seat for himself and for the
people. Sins of the people. And he did
that once every year. Now here's what the Holy Spirit's
saying in verse 8. Here's this tabernacle in the
wilderness. See, the Old Testament says someone's
coming. A high priest like Melchizedek.
A prophet like Moses. A king like David, prophet, priest
and king, a Redeemer, Son of God, is coming to redeem His
people by His blood, by His holiness, by His life. Until He comes,
the Lord is going to show you pictures of who He is and what
He'll do, why He'll do it, how He'll do it. And so the high
priest would take a lamb without blemish or spot, a male of the
first year, and kill it. Shed His blood, burn His body
on an altar, catch His blood in a basin. That's Christ, our
Lamb, God's Lamb, came to this earth without spot, without blemish,
without sin, a male in the prime of life. And He was slain on
a cross, and His blood was shed, His body was roasted in the fire
of God's wrath and judgment for our sins. I thirst, He cried,
burning up with people. His blood was shed that pierced
His side. Out came blood and water. The
pure water to sanctify and the blood to justify. The water to
make us clean outwardly and inwardly and the blood to make us clean
perfectly before God. But this high priest would take
that blood of the Lamb and he'd go under the veil once a year
into the Holy of Holies. And take a hyssop and sprinkle
that blood on that mercy seat, that mercy seat, propitiatoria. Sprinkle that blood on the mercy
seat that was covering that broken law. All have sinned and come
short of God. We're all broke for God's love.
And the blood was sprinkled, atonement at one month, to reconcile
us to God. That's a picture. That animal
blood didn't reconcile them to God. It was a picture of him
who would. The blood sprinkled on that mercy seat would not
purify, justify, make holy the people who did it, because they
did it every year. Every year. These priests were
many. He was one. They lived and died. He lives forever. They sacrificed
the lamb. He sacrificed himself. They came
into the holy place. He went into heaven itself. And
the Holy Ghost is saying this, verse 8, that the way into the
holiest of all is not yet made manifest while that first tabernacle
stood. And secondly, verse 9, it is
a figure, it is a picture for the time then present in which
were offered gifts and sacrifices, listen, that could not make him
that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience.
This tabernacle, this animal blood, this human priest is a
picture of the work of our Christ and never could give rest and
peace to the conscience or justify them before God. Verse 10, these
things stood in meats and drinks and different washings and carnal
ordinances imposed on them, commanded to them until He comes. That's
what the woman at the well, said to our Lord, the Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming, and he'll
tell us everything. And our Lord said, I'm he. I'm
he. Now watch this, verse 11. But
Christ being come, he came. The angel said to Joseph, call
his name Jesus. He'll save his people from their
sins. The Son of God will save His
people. He came in the flesh, the High Priest, of good things
to come. What good things? Justification,
real sanctification, peace with God, eternal life, a hope of
glory. That's good things to come. This
Old Covenant promised them Canaan, a land of prosperity and a land
of peace with their neighbors as long as they obeyed. a land
flowing with milk and honey, all appealing to the flesh, Christ
promises us good things to come. I go to prepare a place for you.
If I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am. Heaven, glory, you may be also. Good things to come. By a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, listen, verse 11, not made with
hands, that is to say, not this building, We're talking about
His body. He's our tabernacle. Back there
in the Old Testament, they had a tabernacle where they met God.
Do we have a tabernacle where we meet God? Yes, Christ. He's
our tabernacle. They had an altar where they
sacrificed. Do we have an altar? We have an altar. It's Christ.
They had a priest that represented them. Do we have a priest who
represents us? Christ Jesus, our Lord. Did we
have a sacrifice? We have a better sacrifice than
them. They had animal blood. We have His blood. Under the
blood of Jesus, safe in the shepherd's foe. Under the blood of Jesus,
safe while the ages roll, safe though the worlds may crumble,
safe though the stars grow dim. Under the blood of Jesus, we're
secure in Him. In verse 12, Christ is come,
a high priest of good things to come, peace, righteousness,
by greater and more perfect tabernacle, His body, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, verse 12, but by His own blood. His own blood, our great high
priest. You see, sin demands death. What
is the blood saying? You go clear back to Abel's sacrifice. Here's two brothers, Cain and
Abel. Household heads. Cain built an altar. Cain built
an altar. Abel built an altar. Cain brought
the fruit of the field. Things he had done. Abel brought
a lamb. Shed its blood. The lamb died. The blood was shed. God accepted
Abel and his offering. He rejected Cain. God is saying
here, sin demands death. Sin, when it's finished, brings
forth death. The judgment and wrath of God is upon sin. The
soul that sinneth, it'll die. And Abel is coming to God, not
through the blood of that animal, but through the blood of God's
Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. animal he brought, represented
the Savior God sent. And that's what all through the
Old Testament, every lamb slain, every goat slain, every bullock,
every offering is saying, this will be done till he comes. The
Passover will be observed every year till he comes. And when
he ate with his disciples at last Passover, there wasn't any
more Passovers. For Christ, our Passover was
sacrificed for us. And now we meet in the house
of the Lord and take the bread and the wine. He said, this is
my body and my blood. We have a Passover. It's Christ. We remember His death till He
comes again. So He didn't take the blood of
goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once. They
went in every year. Why'd they go in every year?
Because the sin was never put away till He came. And He went
once into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for
us. The holy place? He went into
the tabernacle? Oh no, listen. Look at Dover
verse 24 of Hebrews 9. Christ is not entered into the
holy place made with hands, which is a figure of the truth, but
into heaven itself. Into heaven itself. When He died
on that cross, as our great sacrifice, substitute Lamb of God, as our
high priest, he went into the presence of God, into heaven
itself, heaven itself, to appear before the presence of God. For whom? For us. For Israel,
for spiritual Israel. Verse 25, Not yet he should offer
himself often as the high priest, Went into the holy place every
year with the blood of others, but one time. Go back to verse
12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered once, one sacrifice
for sin, into the holy place, having obtained, past tense. It's done. It's finished. The great transaction is done.
I am my Lord's and He is mine. The debt is paid. The blood is
shed. The death, he died. Redemption,
resurrection, he accomplished. And he ever lives and reigns
the right hand of God. And we're seated with him in
the heavenlies. He's our great high priest. Verse 13, for if
the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, In other
words, when this was going on, when this tabernacle stood, and
this old high priest Avery, a man of many infirmities and afflictions
and sins, dressed in the priest's garment, would kill that animal and shed
his blood and come here and wash his hands and feet and lay aside
his priestly garments and put on the linen and walk into the
tabernacle, and under that veil, into the very presence of Shekinah
glory, between the cherubim, the glory of God, over that ark
in which was His holy love. Holy love. And that fellow Avon
would take the blood, and dip a hyssop, and sprinkle the mercy
sheet, And if that would, for a while, hold back the wrath
of God, keep it off Israel, allow them to survive and to
live and to walk and to talk and to carry on their business
and hold back judgment, eternal wrath, hell and condemnation.
If that would do that, verse 14, how much more? Come on now,
how much more? peace can I have, and assurance,
and rest? How much more shall the blood
of Christ, God's own Son, their God and their God, who came into
this world on purpose, born of a woman, God's Lamb, my Lamb,
the Lamb from the midst of the throne. This is my Son, in whom
I'm well pleased. This is my Son, hear ye him.
The Father loves the Son. Oh, how I love my Son, but not
like God loves his Son. And the Son, by God's will and
purpose, delivered into the hands of his enemies and was crucified
and slain and shed his precious sinless blood. and took it into
the presence of God on behalf of the people whom He represented,
the people whom God gave Him, Israel, and put that blood on
the mercy seat. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit of God offered Himself,
not a lamb, Himself, without spot, without sin. He did no sin, tempted in all
points, yet without sin. without spot to God, perfect
life, perfect blood, perfect son, perfect love, perfect obedience,
perfect submission, perfect will and plan. How much more shall
the blood of Christ purge your consciences from dead works to
serve the living God, deliver you from holy days, and ceremonies,
and circumcision, ties, and religion, sacrifice, and all your dead
works, and dead deeds. Purge you from these things to
serve the living God. That's right, the living God.
Not a God of form and ceremony and ritualism and deeds and duties
and rewards and promises of better things to come if you do certain
things. Free grace! Love. Christ's love for us and our
love for Him. And for this cause, He's the
Mediator, the only one between God and men of a new covenant. that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant,
in other words, the transgression of those men that brought these
lambs. Aaron had sins, Moses had sins,
Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, but Christ brought atonement for them too.
See, it was the redemption of the transgressions that were
under that first covenant. They which are called of God
might receive promise of eternal life." We have a promise of eternal
life because our Savior died. They have a promise of eternal
life too. Though they brought a lamb. That lamb pictured their
Savior who died. And He put away, when He died
on that cross, He put away all the sins of all His people before
the cross. All the sins of all His people
after the cross. Past, present, and future. Verse
16, For where testimony is, there must of necessity be the death
of the testator. If I were a wealthy man, and
I filled out a will, and left everything I have to my sons
and my daughters, it's not theirs till I die. They can't touch
it. Got to die. Got to have the death
of the testator. Our Lord is the testator of the
New Testament. He is the surety of the covenant.
His last will and testament is, by my death, by my blood, they
inherit all I have. And when He died on that cross,
it became ours. That's right. Well, like I tell
our people, sometimes the courts don't give. The courts do not
give to people that which their fathers and mothers and friends
will them. They figure some loophole. And a father, after he's dead
and in the grave, can't do anything about it either. His son may
lose everything to the state or somebody else. But my Lord
made the testament. He's the testator, and He died,
and He lives to make sure it's carried out. He's at the right
hand of God. And he's the, what do you call
him, the executor of the state? He is the state, and he is the
executor of the state, and he gives it to whomsoever he will
by his grace. What a blessing. All right, I'll
pick up there, Lord willing, chapter 10 tonight.