Now, there were many wonders
and miracles surrounding the death of our Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross. It's not surprising to me that
the sun became darkened at noonday, from
twelve until three in the afternoon. That does not surprise me at
all when the King of Glory hung on that cross. The sun became
darkened. And it doesn't surprise me at
all that the graves were opened and some people came forth. And
the earthquake, that doesn't surprise me. What an indescribable,
momentous occurrence. The Lord of glory in human form
dying on a cross. The fact that the Lord of glory
should even take upon himself human flesh. You know, David
said, Lord, when I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the things that thou hast made, the sun, the moon, the stars,
what is man that thou art even mindful of him? That's astounding,
that God should even be mindful of us. Why he didn't just us
by and cast us into everlasting chains of darkness like he did
the angels that kept not their first estate and rebelled against
him. But he had been pleased to be
mindful of us. And not only mindful of us, but
he took upon himself human flesh, bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh, literally, actually, in reality, was made of a woman. He who made woman was made of
a woman. Can you imagine that? That's
beyond our understanding that Christ, he was in the world,
he was in the world. He who made the world was in
the world and the world didn't know him. And then the fact that
he should walk on this earth, that he should subject himself
to his own law. that he should subject himself
to the temptation of Satan, allow himself to be questioned by that evil monster of iniquity, to
allow himself to be tried and tested after fasting forty days,
experiencing hunger and thirst and weariness and pain and grief
and sorrow and the wrath of men. That's a marvel, what a wonder,
so many wonders surrounding this event on Golgotha's hill, that
he should allow himself to be lied upon. False witnesses gathered
and they lied on him, and he didn't even answer. With just
a word he could have cast them into hell, and they stood there
and lied on him. And then they spit in his face, and our Lord
of Glories stood there while the spittle float down his beard. And then they plucked his beard
out by the roots, and they hit him with their fist, and they
blacked his eyes, and they lacerated his back, and then they took
him out and nailed him to a cross. The marvel of marvels that one
man said he saved others, and he did. He saved those in blindness
and those twisted, lame bodies he straightened out. He saved
men's souls, saved us from eternal judgment and condemnation. Himself
he cannot save. Well, he cannot save himself
if he saves us. He is our sacrifice for sin.
They didn't know all that. They didn't understand all that.
But nevertheless, our Lord Jesus Christ allowed himself to be
nailed to a tree. and then hanging on that tree
in his deepest agony of soul. You know, if when you're hurting
and when you're in pain and when you're in depression, if folks
will leave you alone, it helps a little. If you can lie there
on the bed and just hurt in quietness, that's the reason they put signs
on the hospital door, no visitors, quiet please, no noise, let those
who suffer, suffer peacefully. But while our Lord was agonizing
suffering, they were walking around the cross laughing at
him, spitting at him, mocking him, ridiculing him, calling
him names, adding to his agony. He said, Is it nothing to you,
all ye that pass by, and behold my sorrow? There's no sorrow
like unto the sorrow with which I've been afflicted of God. And if they laughed and mocked,
let's say, hey, he's calling in lies. Hey, let's see if the
lies will have him. He trusted God, let's see if
God will have him and just add him to his anguish. And then,
you know, sometimes when we lie there suffering and the nurse
comes in and she has a good word and our wives come in and they
sit by the bed. a mother, a father, in that hell.
Somebody cares. But our Lord on that tree looked
into hell, and they were jeering and mocking. He looked into the
faces of the people, and they all made fun and ridiculed. He
looked up to heaven, and he said, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? You talk about alone. And nobody
ever, ever, ever, ever been as alone as he was. That's a miracle. Don't try to understand it, just
believe it. Calvary, oh, the wonders of Calvary,
their God with a power to destroy all his enemies with a word.
He said, I could call on my Father and he'd send legions of angels.
Legions of them. An overwhelming force of angels. Don't you know that? Don't you
know that? And yet, Almighty God didn't
send a single angel, not a warrior, not even a note of comfort, but
permitted his Son to be nailed to a cross. Calvary, their God,
who delights to show mercy, who delights to pour out his mercy,
pour out his wrath on his Son. Calvary, their God, who closed
the lily. Our Lord said, Behold the lady
of the field, Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed like
one of these. And yet there God permitted his
son to be stripped naked and hang there naked between heaven
and earth before the gaze of mocking people. Calvary, there
God who feeds the raven, who cares for the sparrow, would
not hear the cry of his son when he said, I thirst. Oh, the agony,
and that is his body was full of infection, and then all of that suffering
and all of that fever, and he's hanging there on that cross for
those six hours, and he cried, I'm thirsty, and nobody heard. And Calvary, their God who said,
I'll never leave you, never forsake you, forsook his I tell you,
you talk about the wonders of Calvary, you could dwell for
days on just one of them, just him being there. God the Father
not being there in his power and presence. Oh, wondrous love
to bleed and die. to bear the cross of shame, that
guilty sinners such as I might plead thy gracious name? Where
might the sun in darkness hide, and shut his glories in, when
Christ, the mighty Maker, died? For man the creature sinned.
Huh? But what I want to talk about
this morning, perhaps, perhaps to you and me, the most significant
wonder of Calvary, perhaps the most significant happening of
all that took place at Golgotha's Hill. You know what it was? Did you notice when we were reading
that, and Darcy and I were somewhere, I believe in Charleston one time,
and heard a man speak, and he read this scripture. And he said,
when Christ died, the veil in the temple was rent in twain
from top to bottom. And he went over that just like
the earthquake, and he went over that just like he went over when
the people mocked, and he went over that just like he went over
when the graves were opened, and all of it, just something
that happened. Wait a minute. What did you say happened? The
veil in the temple was rent in two, torn apart from top to bottom. You know what that means? I tell
you this, you turn to Hebrews 9, and let me try, let me try,
I'm just going to try, I'm just going to try to show you the
significance, the powerful, heaven-shaking, earth-shaking significance of
the splitting, the wrenching, the tearing of that veil in that
temple. Now look at Hebrews 9. Then verily, the first covenant,
first, that is, the typical covenant, had also ordinances, ceremonies
of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle
made. Now, you know who gave the orders
for that tabernacle? God did. And he gave those orders
to Moses. And he said for Moses to build
it precisely and exactly like God ordered it built. to put
that 8-foot white fence around it, to put one gate on the eastern
side to look toward the rising sun, in front of that gate to
put that altar where the Lamb was slain and where it was roasted
by fire. And just before you got to the
tabernacle itself, there was that labor of clean, pure water
that was to be kept there all the time. And in this veil, the
first veil Not the second, first veil. And you went into this
sanctuary, the outer sanctuary, the holy place, and there was
a table of showbread and the candlestick, and there was the
incense that burned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, typical
of Christ's prayers. And then the veil, de-veil, de-veil. The veil between the two sanctuaries,
the veil separating the holy place from the holy of holies,
de-veil. four inches thick. The veil was
not an opening from the top or the bottom or the side. To enter,
it had to be raised up and a fellow crawled under it. Now, let me
read about it. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick, table, and the showboy, and that's
this outer sanctuary, which is called a sanctuary, which is
called a holy place. And after the second veil, the
second veil, that's the veil, The one we've been talking about,
the veil that was rent at Calvary. 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 Avon's rod that budded in
the tables of the Covenant. Now, there was that little Ark.
It wasn't a huge thing, it was just so long, two and a half
feet, I believe, so wide and so high. was those tables of stone, the
Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from the mountain. The law
of God that was broken, Moses dropped it and broke it, threw
it down or something. People had certainly broken it.
And then the manna, that cup pot of manna, and Abram's rod
that butted inside, but wait a minute, outside, over it, which
had the And over it, verse 5, the cherubims of glory shattering
the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. There
was a gold mercy seat that covered that ark. And right on either
side of that ark was a cherubim, a winged creature that faced
one another. And in between those winged creatures
was the Shekinah glory of God Almighty. Now, this place within the veil. It was called the Holy of Holies.
And there was just one piece of furniture in there in two
parts. There was that ark, the ark of God, the ark of the covenant,
with those things inside, the law, the censer, the pot of manna
and evenswine. And over it, the mercy seat.
Mercy seat means propitiation. And then those cherubims were
the shekinah glory of God. The glory of God was in that
place. Now then, let's read on. Now, verse 6, when these things
were thus ordained, established, foreordained of God, the priest
went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services of
God. These sacrifices went on all
the time. You see that white fence around
that tabernacle says that God is holy, that me and a sinner
stay out, stay out, stay out. And the only entrance is one
gate, one way. And the only way you can come
even that way is with the blood of a lamb. So a lamb was slain,
a lot of lambs slain, and bullocks and rams were slain. And they'd always bring them
here to the eastern gate and they'd slay them, put the blood
in a basin, roast the body with fire, and that's a picture of
Christ dying on the cross. his body roasted in the fire
of fever and the wrath of God and the judgment of God against
sin, and they'd roast that body with fire, and then the priest
often, every day, would come here and set that down and wash
his feet and his hands before he went into the tabernacle.
That's sanctification. Justification, sanctification.
Washing that clear water. Then he'd take that blood and
he'd come into the holy place, and he'd go about all manner
of services in there. But once a year, into the second,
verse 7, through the veil, verse 7, into the second, went the
high priest alone, the high priest, not any priest, the high priest
alone, once a year, once every year, but not without blood,
not without an atonement, which he offered for himself and for
the errors of the people. Now watch verse 8, 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. And that tabernacle 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 pertained to conscience. It stood only in meats and drinks
and divers baptisms, washings and carnal ordinances imposed
on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come, 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." Hold it right there.
What holy place? In that tabernacle? Oh, no. Look
over here at verse 24, same chapter, Hebrews 9, verse 24, "...for
Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands."
which is a figure of the truth, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God." Well, that's where he went in.
Now go back to that verse 12 again. He entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Oh, I tell you, these are all
pictures. This settles the matter of how people are saved, Old
Testament and New. These were pictures. You see,
Abel offered a sacrifice, but what made his sacrifice acceptable? He offered it by faith. He offered
it by faith. Let's go to Hebrews 10 here a
minute. Now let me show you something in Hebrews 10. So when our Lord
died on the cross, here's what we're saying. When our Lord hung
on that cross, and when he died, I don't say, I'm not trying to
say physically and literally the Lord Jesus Christ left in
his spirit and he took his blood and went there into the presence
of God and on some mystical mercy seat over an ark that he literally
poured blood. I'm not saying that at all. You
see, when he came into this world, when he died on that cross and
suffered under the judgment of our sins, he fulfilled. All that
God pictured, promised, showed us by pattern and everything
that was required by the law, he paid it, he settled it, he
finished it, and sat down at the right hand of God. Now, when
that happened, when he died, that veil down there in the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom, just ripped apart from top to
bottom. And you know what that says?
I'm going to show you. Hebrews 10, verse 1, for the
law, and we're not talking there of the moral law of God, we're
talking of the Levitical law, the law of ceremonies, the law
of types and pictures and shadows. The law having a shadow, a shadow
of good things to come, of justification, of free grace, of freedom of
worship, of calling upon God of redemption, the law having
a shadow of good things to come, and not the image of those things.
That law can never, with those sacrifices which are offered
year by year, continually make the comers down to perfect, never. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? Because if the worshipers, once
purged, once saved, Once sin is put away, we have no more
conscience of sin. But in those sacrifices which
they offer day by day, year by year, month by month, there is
a remembrance again made of sin every year. For it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Now then,
lay to rest once and for all any thoughts or ideas of a dispensation
of salvation other than grace. Lay aside any thoughts whatsoever,
any thoughts of any dispensation of salvation by any way but the
blood of Christ. Forget it. It's not possible. Look at verse 4 again. It's not
possible. It's not possible. It doesn't
say it's hard. It says it's not possible that the blood of bulls
and goats should take away sin. Lay it to rest. Abel was not
saved by the fact he offered the blood of the Lamb. He was
saved by the fact that he offered the blood of the Lamb by faith
in Christ. That's what I'm saying. He looked
to Calvary just like I look back to Calvary. But he looked at
the Lamb that would come. When God Almighty, the scripture
says, when God passed through Egypt that night of judgment
to kill the firstborn, it's not when he saw the blood of that
Lamb on the door It's when he saw the blood of Christ which
that Lamb's blood signified. You see what I'm saying? That's
what saved those people back then, and that's what saves us
today. Now, verse 5, let's look at Hebrews
10 and 5. Wherefore, when Christ cometh
into this world in the flesh, born of a woman, he said, Sacrifice
and offering thy wood is not. But a body hast thou prepared
me in burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure."
Here's what the Jew thought, and here's what people today,
I'm afraid, are getting wrapped up in. The old Jew, God gave
them circumcision. God gave them Sabbath day. God
gave them the tithe. God gave them the Passover. God
gave them the Feast of the Tabernacle, the Feast of the Firstfruits,
a different feast to observe. God gave them the high priest,
the priesthood, and the priests that were under them. God gave
them all of the sacrifices and ceremonies, and all of these
things were to point to Christ. All of them were to point to
Christ, and they were to be offered and they were to be done in faith. Faith not in the means, but faith
in God, who would fulfill all these things in Christ. Faith
in him. Abraham believed God. Moses believed
God. These religious Jews believed
in their ceremonies. They made the means to be the
end. They took the washings and thought
that they purified themselves. They sprinkled the blood and
thought it actually made them holy. They kept the Sabbath day
because they felt like it recommended them to God. They gave their
tithes, hoping to buy their way into God's favor. Everything
they did, they took these ceremonies and ordinances and rituals and
made them the end rather than simply a means. And men today
are doing the same thing with baptism, doing the same thing
with the Lord's doing the same thing with the assembly of the
Church, doing the same thing with the works of religion. They
are making these things the end instead of the means to the end.
And our Lord Jesus Christ said in verse 6, the writer of Hebrews
said, God has never had any pleasure, satisfaction, fulfillment in
any sacrifice or offering that has ever been made but one, and
that's the one his Son made. Verse 7, Then said I, Lo, I come,
and the volume of the book is written of me, to do thy will,
O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings,
and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither had any pleasure
therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I
come, I come to do thy will. It's written in the volume of
what book? In God's book, in God's book, in this book, It's
written in the book of Almighty God's redemptive glories. It's
written, I come to do thy will. Now, watch this. And he taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. That's what God's
doing when he ripped that veil in two from top to bottom. He's
saying that all of these sacrifices, all of these ceremonies, all
of these sin offerings, all of these tithes have been totally
fulfilled. completely fulfilled. He taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. That's Christ. Now
look at verse 10. By the which will, what will
are we talking about? When Christ said, I come to do
thy will, I come to do thy will. And that's the very will by which
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. And every priest, there were
many of them, there were many priests, there were thousands
Thousands of them, Christ is one. These priests, listen to
this, in every priest's standing, daily, they constantly offered
sacrifices daily. There was the morning sacrifice,
the noon sacrifice, the evening sacrifice, Christ offered one
sacrifice. These priests also lived and
died. Our Lord is a priest after the
order of Melchizedek, he lives forever. And they offer all the
time the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. But
this man, this God-man, Christ Jesus, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of God.
There were many priests. He won. Their priesthood was
temporary. His is eternal. They offered
sacrifices of animal blood. He offered his own blood. They
offered their sacrifices in an earthless tabernacle. He offered
his in heaven itself. Their sacrifices were but tithes. They could never put away sin.
He, by one sacrifice of his blood, put away all our sins once for
all. The debt completely paid. These
priests in the old tabernacle never sat down. You notice when
I talked about the furniture, there wasn't a chair in that
tabernacle. Why didn't they sit down? Their work was never done.
Never done. It just kept going on and on.
But Christ, after he'd offered one sacrifice forever, sat down. He said, it's finished. It's
done. The great transaction's done.
I am my Lord's and he is mine. Look at verse 13. From henceforth,
expect him till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one
offering he hath perfected. And my friends, that word is
so important. perfected. The only thing God Almighty can
accept is perfection. Perfect obedience to the law,
the perfect honoring of justice, and perfect love, and perfect
devotion, and perfect submission, and perfect accomplishment of
his will, and Christ did all that. And he perfected us by
one offering, by one offering, by one sacrifice, he has already
perfected Forever! That does away with a fellow
being saved today and lost tomorrow. By one sacrifice he has, as our
great high priest, he has perfected, made pure, holy, sanctified,
perfect. How long? Forever! Them that
are sanctified. them that are chosen by the Father,
and redeemed by the Son, and called by the Spirit. Well, the
Holy Ghost, verse 15, also is a witness to us, for after that
he said before, he said before, this is a covenant I'll make
with them after those days, those days of pictures and types, saith
the Lord, I'll put my law in their hearts, not on tables of
stone, I'm going to write them on the heart, so they'll love
them. I'm going to write my law on
their minds, so they'll think of them. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." How can you do that, God? Because
they're paid for it. Because they're paid for it.
Now, where remission of sins is, where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. No more. No more. There's no more. Wait a minute.
Now listen. I'm not going to say there's no more priesthood.
There's no more earthly priesthood. There's no more sanctuary priesthood.
But we have a high priest. We've got to have a high priest,
and that's Christ our Lord. We've got to have a high priest.
There's no more tabernacle, there's no more veil, there's no more
holy of holy. Every believer is a priest. He
has made us kings and priests unto God. Now, look, if you will,
at verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now, if you'd
have been an Israelite living before Calvary, And that tabernacle
stood. If you were not the high priest,
you would have never come into the presence, the holy presence,
of the eternal living God. That high priest went in there
for you. He went in there for you. He went in there for himself
and for you, He went in there to confess sin, he went in there
to make an atonement, he went in there to obtain forgiveness,
he went in there to obtain favor, he went in there to offer a sin
offering and sacrifice for the people who waited outside. And
they went through that all the time, all the time. And the people
were represented by the priest. The priest represented them to
God, and he represented God to them. But when our Lord Jesus
Christ, the great high priest, died, Almighty God tore the veil
in two. And he says now in verse 19,
we have boldness, every one of us, brethren, to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which
Christ hath consecrated for us through that veil, through that
veil, that is to say, his flesh. But what's this? And having a
high priest over the house of God, and we do. We have a high
priest. You see, we come to God with
sacrifices of praise and prayer and faith. But all of these sacrifices,
because of our flesh and our corruption, are polluted in the
best that we can do. And our great high priest, with
his pure and holy makes our prayers acceptable to God, makes our
persons acceptable to God, makes even our best deeds acceptable
to God. We always must remember we don't
burst into the presence of God any more than that great high
priest of old without a blood sacrifice. We come boldly into
the presence of God to worship, to praise him, to pray, to offer
sacrifices of praise with the blood of Christ, by faith in
the blood of Christ. So he says, verse 22, having
that high priest is several things for us to do. Number one, let
us, the guiltiest, the weakest, the frailest, let us draw near. Draw near. Draw near to whom?
To God. Draw near to God, the living
God, the eternal God, the creating God, the holy God, the merciful,
gracious, loving God. Let's draw near. Let us. Oh, can we do that? Can we do
that? Shouldn't we wait out there while
some fellow waves some water and while some fellow stands
up here and says a lot of Latin words, you know, and then he
sneaks around behind this place back here and does something
and comes back and waves at us? Uh-uh. That's all been done away. Christ tore it in two. And he
said, let us come. Let us come. I said this Wednesday night,
in our Constitution, it says we have freedom to worship God. Freedom. Well, let me tell you
this, the Constitution can't give you freedom to worship God.
The Constitution can give you freedom to call yourself a Baptist
or Methodist or Presbyterian. The Constitution and the United
States Government can give you freedom to assemble here. to
go through some religious rituals. The Constitution and the United
States government can give you the right to build a church on
this site and call it a non-profit organization and carry on some
works of religion and send missionaries and all that. But only, only
Jesus Christ and his blood can give you the freedom to come
into God's presence and worship God now. Now, there ain't no
way into God's presence except by Christ. You write that down. And you say, I've got a freedom
to worship! You've got freedom to play church.
You've got freedom to have a church ball game. You've got freedom
to propagate your religious beliefs. But, brother, that holy place
is closed to you apart from the great high priest and his blood
and his sacrifice and his intercession. So let us, having, it says in
verse 19, verse 21, therefore having a high preach over the
house of God, let us draw near, how? With a true heart, don't
play games, with a sincere heart. With a sincere heart, play something
else, don't play with God. With a sincere heart, in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, that's to the Old Testament and sprinkled the book
with the blood and sprinkled the people with the blood and
sprinkled the tabernacle with the blood and sprinkled the priest
with the blood, we've had our hearts sprinkled with the blood
of Christ. And they're purified, and our
bodies have been washed with the waters of the spirit of sanctification,
the waters of the Word. Then let's do something else. Let's not only draw near, but
let's hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering.
I wrote something down here. There are changes and advancements
in nearly every field. In my lifetime, the field of
medicine has changed remarkably, remarkable advancement. The field
of politics, in some areas the old machines have been crushed
and there is more freedom of the personal expression. Back,
I remember when I was just a boy that talked about these different
machines in Kansas City and Chicago and other places that rule people. That's changed. Science has made
so much advancement in so many areas, and I can go on talking.
Clothes are so much different, shoes are so much different,
automobiles, everything has progressed, everything has made advancement.
There's one place that's never changed, and that's how God saves
sinners. how God saved, it's still by
the blood. You can't improve on the Word
of God. Somebody said, you preach an
old-fashioned gospel, you preach a first-century gospel. It goes
back further than that. My gospel goes back further than
Calvary, it goes back further than Bethlehem's manger, it goes
back further than Adam's fall. My gospel goes back to the foundation
of the world when God made Christ the surety and Lamb slain in
the foundation of the world. My friend, he said, having a
high priest over the house of God, let's draw near, let's draw
near, perfected, sanctified, justified, received by Christ,
the veil, the torn in two, don't stand out there and send somebody
else in, come on in! Come on in, through the blood
of Christ, but with a true heart. having your heart sprinkled with
his blood and washed in his grace and mercy and sanctified, but
hold fast that profession of faith. Don't let some jackleg
come along with a new revelation and follow him like kids follow
a Pied Piper. Don't do that. Stay with the
old gospel. Stay with the ancient message.
Stay with the old landmarks. Let's hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful. I'm not. He is. He is. You're not. He is. He shall not fail. He shall not fail. You can trust
him. And then fourth, let us consider
one another. You're not alone. You're not
an island. You say, I don't need anybody.
Oh, yes, you do. Yes, you do. You need God. You need Christ. And I'll tell
you, you need his people, too. Yes, you do. And if any man loved
not the people of God, he doesn't love God. Now, let's consider
one another. How shall we consider that we
are but people? We're not perfect, there's not
any perfect people here except in Christ. Let's just consider
that. Consider that we're all people
like you. Love covers a multitude of infirmities
and afflictions and errors. Let's consider one another. Consider
that we are one body in Christ. And let's consider one another
to provoke each other. That's not what it says. Too
often, that's the way we interpret it. Let's consider one another
to provoke. Now, let's consider one another
to provoke to love. Provoke to love. How do you provoke
somebody to love? You show him love. You show him
love. How do you provoke someone to
good works? You show him good works. How do you provoke someone
to kindness? Show him kindness. That's exactly right. Let's consider
one another. Let's reach out. Let's consider
one another to provoke, to encourage one another to love in good works. Now quit, and let us not forsake
the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner is, of some is,
but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as we see the
day approaching. Oh, I tell you, when that veil
was went into, and all of these Levitical laws, God taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. The remarkable thing
is this, that Almighty God in picture and in actual purpose
has taken away the first that no man may glow with. The first
Adam died. The second Adam was made alive.
The first paradise is gone. The second was bought by his
blood. That first covenant, which consisted in ordinances and washings
and baptisms and tabernacles and laws, done away. The second
covenant of grace in Christ our Lord. You can go through the
Old Testament, you'll find the first son, Esau, put away, Jacob,
have our love. You'll tell you this, our first
nature, nature of sin, got to be done away. We got a new nature
in Christ. Our first birth of the flesh,
our second birth. of the Spirit of God. The first
heaven and earth shall pass away. There will be a new heaven and
a new earth. Behold, he said, I make all things new. And those
all things new are in Christ, in Christ our Lord. May God give
us an understanding like we've never had before with clarity
of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ in redeeming
us on Calvary's cross. Our Father, take the message
and the word which we have read, and Lord, do what no man can
do, not for himself or for others. Make clear in the heart and mind
of every person here that these laws And these pictures, and
these sacrifices, and this tabernacle, and this holy of holies, and
this ark and mercy seat, all of these sacrifices were but
pictures and types and shadows. The Holy Ghost thus signifying
that the way into thy presence was not open. until Jesus Christ
the Lord, by his blood, by his sacrifice, by his offering, prevailed
and suffered and died and opened for us into thy presence a new
and living way. But that veil has been rent,
and those shadows are finished, they are completed, our law is
satisfied, everything is accomplished And we have in Christ all we
need, all we need. Reveal it to our hearts and bring
us to look only to him, only to him, and find in him rest
for our souls. In Christ's name we pray, amen.