Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Hebrews again, chapter 10. It says in verse 1 of chapter
10, or image of good things to come,
and not the very image of the things, can never, with those
sacrifices which are offered year by year continually, make
the comers thereunto perfect. Now, we look across the page
on your left to chapter 9, verse 2, for there was a tabernacle. There was a tabernacle made.
The first were in was the candlestick, the table, the showbread, called
the sanctuary, and after the second veil, the tabernacle which
is called the holiest of all. When Moses went up on the mountain,
and some of you saw the movie, The Ten Commandments, And you
saw their version of how God gave the Ten Commandments, the
two tablets or tables of stone. And Moses brought them down the
mountain to the people and then dashed them to pieces. But Moses
was a long time in that mountain, forty days, something like that.
And then there were other trips into the presence of God. And
the Lord gave to Moses many more things than ten commandments.
He gave him the Mosaic law, the Levitical law. And you'll find
those laws and those feasts and those ceremonies and those sacrifices
and that priesthood, Feast of the Tabernacle, Feast of the
Firstfruits, you'll find all of these things, the keeping
of the Passover, you'll find all of these things in the writings
of Moses in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. You
see, when the Bible talks about the law, sometimes it means the
whole word of God. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimonies, there is no truth in them. That
means according to the word of God. Sometimes the word of God,
when it speaks of the law, refers to the Ten Commandments. To offend
in one point of the law is to be guilty of the whole law of
God. Sometimes the Word of God, when it speaks of the law, refers
to the Levitical or Mosaic law, the law of ceremony, feast days,
sacrifices, priesthood, and so forth. Do you understand that?
And that's what he's saying here in chapter 10, for the law, or
the Levitical law, the ceremonial law, all of these types in pictures
in the Old Testament, they are shadows, they are pictures, prophecies
of things, good things to come. Now, there was a tabernacle.
Let me explain it a little bit. The camp of Israel, the twelve
tribes, they were situated out here, and I don't know exactly
how, but they were out there. And in the center of the camp
was a lot And it was 150 feet long and only 75 feet wide, just
about the size of this parking lot right out here. This lot
on which this church is built is 315 or 320 feet long, this
whole block, and 105 feet deep. Well, this tabernacle sat on
a lot, just about half of this lot on which we have this building,
150 feet long, 75 feet wide. Now, around that lot was a fence
seven and a half feet high. It was made, it had sockets and
pillars, but the fence itself was white linen, pure white linen,
showing the righteousness and holiness of God. There was only
one gate. It was the Eastern Gate. You
hear the song, I'll meet you at the Eastern Gate. Well, that's
where it came from, the Eastern Gate. It faced the rising of
the sun. That's where the only gate into
that lot, the courtyard, showing that rebels and sinners and natural
men and religious or whoever, because of the holiness of God,
they are not allowed into the presence of the Lord. That's
the Lord's tabernacle, the Lord's courtyard. Inside this fence
there is a building, and that building is called a tabernacle.
That's what he says here, there was a tabernacle. All of this
God gave to Moses, all of those fence posts Cecil means something. Those sockets mean something.
The gold, the silver, the precious stone, the white linen fence,
the embroidery, the eastern gate, everything has a significance
toward Christ and a meaning. I don't want to get bogged down
into all these things. You spend the whole message on
the sockets or the post or the fence or something like that,
and I will not do that. This is what Paul said about
not preaching the gospel with wisdom of words, lest the cross
of Christ be made of non-effect. Let's read the scripture, make
the application, and get to Calvary. So when the priest, let's say
the high priest, once a year, but now in that courtyard there
were many priests, there were hundreds of priests. In fact,
the tribe of Levi was made up of priests and those who dealt
in the things of the tabernacle and temple. But when you come
to that courtyard, to that eastern gate, I'll take the priest on
the Day of Atonement, the high priest. He would come there,
and the first thing that he would meet when he went into this courtyard
through the eastern gate, there he would meet an altar. And that
altar was 7 1⁄2 feet long, 7 1⁄2 feet wide, and 4 1⁄2 feet high,
in it a fire burning. And he would take a lamb. Not
a very pretty sight, but he would take a lamb with the help, I'm
sure, of other priests, and he would slit that lamb's throat
and catch the blood in a basin. And then through other particulars,
he would put that lamb on that altar, on that fire, and roast
its body. That's what he would do. This
is the atonement, this is the sin offering, this is the blood
atonement, this is the sacrifice, without which there is no forgiveness. And without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Almost all things under the law,
the Levitical law, are purged with blood. And then he would
take, that lamb would be roasted on that altar. He would take
that blood, and the next thing that he would come to, as he
walked across the courtyard, was a laver. And that laver was
so big, and in it always clear, pure water, kept there all the
time. And there he would wash his hands
and wash his feet before he went into the presence of the Lord,
before he went into the tabernacle. Now, each of these has significance.
I'll come back to them in a moment. This was repeated all the time.
Then he would go inside that tabernacle. There was a tabernacle. It was 45 feet long, that's all. This auditorium is close to 70
feet long, so you know it wasn't a large building, not very imposing,
but very significant. 45 feet long only, 15 feet wide. This ceiling is 15 feet high
right here. That's how high it was. It's
15 feet high, 15 feet wide and 45 feet long. He'd walk in and
look up, and inside that building the covering was a white linen
covering, pure white linen across the top. And then just above
that another covering of goat's hair, cloth made of goat's hair.
which is significant, and above that, ram skin dyed brilliantly
red. And then above that, the badger
skin, drab, tough, gray, just ordinary old badger skin, cover
all the way to the ground, that tabernacle. There was no light
in there but one source, one light, one source, and that was
a seven-pronged candlestick right over here. And that candlestick
burned 24 hours a day, Seven days a week, 365 days a year. The priests, that was their job,
to minister with the sacrifices and all the offerings and the
feasts, and to take care of this tabernacle and temple. The glory
of God was revealed there. The cloud was over that tabernacle,
in the center of the camp. Over here on this side was a
table of showbread, on which were six or twelve loaves of
bread in two stacks of six. Each tribe of Israel represented
bread. And then he would go, he would
take the blood and go toward the veil. Now, this tabernacle,
there were two sanctuaries. This is the holy place, 30 feet
long, 15 feet wide, 15 feet by 15 by 15, separated by a heavy
veil, 4 or 5 inches thick from ceiling to floor, wall to wall,
that veil stood. No one was allowed inside that
veil, but the high priest once a year, not without blood, on
the Day of Atonement. For inside that bagel, in the
Holy of Holies, was the Ark of the Covenant." They made another
movie about that. What was it? Raiders of the Lost
Ark. All right, they'll never find
it. God won't let them find it. You know why? We'll worship it
if He does. If they find Noah's Ark, we'll worship it. That's
what kind of folks we are. We'll worship anything but God.
And so that ark, it was only so long and so wide and so high,
but in that ark, that sacred, holy ark that was carried with
them wherever they went, many men died lifting the lid of that
ark. The ark of God, in it was the
broken law, the tablets of stone. In it was Aaron's rod that budded. In it was a vessel of manna,
the bread that fell from heaven. And that arch sat in that holy
sanctuary, that holy of holies, that awesome, awful place. And
the Shekinah glory of God was revealed, because on top of that
arch was a mercy seat. Thank God for the mercy seat.
Thank God there's a mercy seat to cover the broken law. And
over that mercy seat were the cherubim with their wings. Here
is the mercy seat covering the ark, and the cherubims were over
it on either side, and in the center the shekinah glory of
God. To come into that place, the
wrong person, the wrong time, without the blood, would be annihilation. One king called Uzziah came into
the holy place to offer sacrifice, and they drug him out, a snow-white
leper. Others died in that place. But the high priest, because
he represented someone, was allowed of God to come into his presence,
and he would come under that veil once a year, with an incense thing with incense in it, burning
the holder, whatever it is, holding it, and the smoke would fill
the place. And he had that blood in his
And he would come there to the Ark of the Covenant, and he would
put that blood on the mercy seat. It would flow over the whole
mercy seat and down either side, representing the blood of Christ.
And you see what he's saying here, that these sacrifices which
they offered, verse 1, year by year, year by year continually,
can never make those who bring them perfect. For would they
not have ceased to be offered? Because once the blood had purged
the sin, there would be no more offering. Our consciences would
be cleared. But the blood of bulls and goats
can't take away a man's sin. It's the blood of Christ that
this blood represents. He would go out of that place
and would never go back in for another year. That went on for
years, that went on for decades, that went on for centuries, that
went on for millenniums. How many sacrifices were made?
How many? What an awesome, awesome time.
All right? All of this finds its fulfillment
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look down here a little further.
Verse 4 says, It is not possible that this blood should take away
sin, the blood of bulls and goats. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, Sacrifice an offering,
thou wouldst not. He didn't come to go through
this ritual again. The Lord Jesus didn't come to
minister in the old tabernacle. But a body thou hast prepared
me. He tabernacled among us. You
see, that tabernacle is where men meet God and God meets men.
When Christ came into the world in a body, he was God's tabernacle
where men meet God and God meets men. Are you with me? A body,
thou hast prepared me. Now watch verse 6. In burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. God had
no pleasure. In other words, pleasure means
satisfaction. The law of God could never be
satisfied by these sacrifices. The justice of God could never
be satisfied with these sacrifices. But when Christ stood on the
earth in the flesh, the Father said, This is my Son in whom
I'm pleased. Are you with me? I'm pleased. Those sacrifices were effective
only as they were offered in faith, believing on Christ and
looking to him. offered sacrifices that were
not accepted, because they were not offered by faith. By faith,
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than King. Christ is
our tabernacle. Now, stay with me. I described
that tabernacle to you, the badger skin. Now, if you were standing
up here on a hill overlooking the encampment of Israel, and
you saw all the tents, and you saw that one in the middle, it
didn't look any different. It looked bigger. But it didn't
look any different. It was badger skin, just like
the rest of them, old, cold, drab, gray, badger skin. And if you stand and look at
Jesus Christ, he was born of a woman, worked in a cartoner's
shop. If you were to pass him on the
street as a man, they said he's a cartoner, he's a gluttonous
man, a whined-over and all these things. That's what they said
about him. There was no beauty that we should desire in him.
There was no comeliness. There was no riches in satin
and silver and gold. He wasn't impressive, he was
just a man. And that's the way that tabernacle
was. And then you have the goats, the ram's skin dyed red, that's
his blood. You see, the badger's skin is
his flesh, his outward appearance. The ram's skin dyed red is his
blood. The goat's hair clothed, he's
our scapegoat, bearing our sins. And the white linen on the inside
of that tabernacle. Now, outside, if you stand on
the hill and look at the tabernacle, it looks like any other tent.
But oh, when you walked inside, the whiteness, the gold, the
glory, the presence of God, it was different from all the rest
of them. Our Lord Jesus Christ, though
he was a man, And though he bore the likeness of sinful flesh,
and though he gave the appearance of a carpenter, inside he was
without sin, holy, magnificent, and awesome. He is God Almighty. When you came to that courtyard,
you came to the altar, and you saw that priest take a lamb and
slit its throat, and the lamb squealed, and life grew out of
it, and its blood flowed, and then see its body roasted on
the altar. come to Calvary and I'll show
you that fulfilled. I'll show you my Lord Jesus Christ
in the flesh, taken there to the cross of Calvary and nails
put in his hands and feet and raised up between heaven and
earth there to be burned. I thirst, my tongue cleaveth
to the roof of my mouth. What awful thirst as he hung
there, as his lips cracked open, and he was literally burned upon
the altar of sacrifice, and his blood poured out of his hands.
There's your sacrifice. And then that blood is taken
and you come to that labor where you wash your hands and feet.
Do you see him at the feet of his disciples washing their feet
and telling them what I do? You don't understand right now.
And Peter said, Well, you're not going to wash my feet. He
said, if I don't wash you, you don't have any part with me.
Well, Peter said, wash me all over, not just my feet, but my
hands, my head, and all over. Christ said, he that's washed
needeth only to wash his feet. And when you come to that altar,
the altar of Calvary, and our Lord has sacrificed his bloodshed
by one offering, he has perfected us, but we need, like that priest,
before we go into the presence of God, daily cleansing. You see what I'm saying? Daily
forgiveness. You hear men stand here and pray,
as Bob did, the Lord forgive us of our sins. But you're already
forgiven. We need daily cleansing. That's
sanctification. We're perfectly sanctified. But
when we come to that washing of clear, pure water, that's
our feet need daily to be washed. And then you go inside and you
see the candlestick, Christ is the light of the world, the only
light. You see the bread over here, Christ is the bread of
life. And you see here the incense. What is that? Right in front
of that veil is an altar of incense. And like I said, seven days a
week, 365 days a year, every year, every day, every moment,
that incense is continually burning. That's the prayers of Christ
that ascend up to the Father on our behalf. All of these are
most significant, everything. Then our Lord Jesus Christ went
not as the high priest went under the veil and put the blood on
the mercy seat. The scripture says he went not
into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself,
and he put his blood on the mercy seat of glory in the presence
of the Father for all our sins. And when our Lord died, what
happened, Richard, to that veil? It was rent in two from top to
bottom. God didn't tear a little corner
down here so you could look in once in a while and see what
was going on. He didn't tear just a little door so you could
get on your hands and knees and crawl through. He looked into
you from top to bottom, and he said, The glory of God is now
manifest, and the presence of God is open through the blood
in Christ to every believer. Now, we're all priests. We're
all priests. Do you see that? And that's what
that tabernacle is, it's a shatter, it's a picture of all the redemptive
work of Christ. That's what it's all about. And
that's the reason, turn now to Hebrews 10, verse 9. Let's read
verse 8. You get the picture of all the
sacrifice. Verse 8 says in Hebrews 10, above,
when he said, sacrifice, offering, burnt offerings, offering for
sin, thou wouldest not. Neither had pleasure, neither
had any satisfaction which were offered by the law, never, never. They were but pictures, they
were but types. Then said he, Christ said, Lo,
I come to do thy will, O God, that he taketh away the first,
and establisheth the second. I say to all the Jewish people
on the face of the earth, if you do not worship God in If
Christ is not your priest, he's not your sacrifice and your sin
offering and your atonement by whom we've received atonement,
you'd better be building your tabernacle, you'd better be finding
the Levites, you'd better be finding the right priest, you'd
better be slaying some lambs, because it's just one or two
ways to come to God. Under the old dispensation, it
was this way. He took it away, now it's in
Christ. Why aren't they offering sacrifice?
Why isn't there blood being shed over that? That's the way it's
set forth right here. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. But you and I, we come through Christ
because he said he takes away the first. He takes away that
first tabernacle. He takes away that first sacrifice.
Take away the altar. We don't need it anymore. The
Calvary is our altar. Take away the labor with the
pure water. We don't need it anymore. Christ
is our sanctification. Take away the candlestick. You
don't see any candles burning in here. We're not going to burn
any. Christ is our light. Take away the table of showbread. We're not going to have any incense
in here. There's not going to be any incense
burned around here. Christ, the fragrance of his
prayers comes up to the nostrils of God. We're not going to have
any sacred caves and sacred arcs and all these other things, and
crosses. Those things are done away. They're
put away. Christ is our Sabbath. Let me
tell you this. All over this world, they're
trying to incorporate all these things into the worship of God,
and it won't do. Turn to Philippians 3. Let me
show you something. It won't do now. God is angry.
Don't you try to incorporate Christ and the law, Christ and
the Levitical ceremonies, Christ and any other thing. I'll tell
you this, if I'm going to keep a Sabbath, it's going to be Saturday,
because that's the Sabbath. But Christ is my Sabbath. The
Sabbath is a part of this whole Levitical procedure. If I'm going to wear a cross, I'm going to get all the other
things, the chair beams, and I'm going to get the ark, and
I'm going to get all these other things, these symbols, these emblems,
these visual aids. If I'm going to start in one
place, I'm going to go the whole gauntlet, the whole route, because
you're obligated to. You're obligated. Cursed is everyone
that continues not in all the things written in the book of
the law to do. It's either Christ or law. It can't be both. Look
at Philippians 3, verse 3. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit, in the Spirit, not in visual aids,
not in the burning of candles, not in processionals, not in
carrying crosses and all those foolish sorts of things. We worship
God in the Spirit. God looks on the heart. It's
heart-faith and heart-love and heart-repentance and heart-praise
and heart-gratitude and heart-thanksgiving. And we rejoice in Jesus Christ,
not in days or holy days or ceremonies or rituals. We rejoice in Christ. He is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And we have no confidence in
the flesh, mine, yours, or anybody else's. Now, let me show you
something. This principle is applied throughout
the scripture. You listen carefully to this. and establishes the second."
I'm going to make an application to the Scripture and to you and
me. Listen carefully. He taketh away the first and
establishes the second. There was a first covenant called
the covenant of works. This doing lives. It lays in
ashes, right? Because Adam fell. It's done
away. There is a new covenant, a covenant
of grace. He said, I'll make a new covenant
with them and write my law in their hearts so they'll love
it, and in their minds so they'll think about it. It's a covenant
of mercy and grace, a new covenant. The first Adam, the word Adam
means man, red, taken from the red earth. He was made holy,
upright, without sin, but he fell. That first man, Adam, is
gone. He fell, he sinned, and because
of his sin, death and darkness and condemnation came upon the
whole race. In Adam we die. There is a new
Adam. The first Adam is of the earth,
earthy, what does scripture say? The second Adam, man, is the
Lord from heaven. And as in Adam we die, in Christ
we may live. By man came death, by man came
the resurrection of the dead. The first Adam, done away. The
second Adam is exalted on the throne of God, right hand of
God. That's right, all right? What
about the first paradise? I've often tried to imagine what
the Garden of Eden was like. I can't. But I'll tell you this,
it must have been beautiful. But I see, if I had been standing
there, I'd go back in my imagination and stand there, and I see Almighty
God bring a man and woman clothed in the skin of animals with a
sad look on their face and kick them out, out of Paradise. The first Paradise, the gate
is closed. And Almighty God put flaming
cherubims, the swords out there and barred the way, lest man
come back in. The old Paradise is gone, friends,
it's gone. You needn't go around the Nile
looking for it. I tell you, the Paradise to look
for is the new Paradise. Our Lord said to the thief, Today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. He taketh away the first and
establishes the second. What about the first son of Abraham?
Old Abraham stood by that cradle and said, I've got me a boy.
He'd never had a son, he'd never had an heir. And that boy, through
his own efforts, through his own work, he got a son, he got
an heir. But God said he won't do. And
I see 14 years later, Abraham standing by gate, waving good-bye
to Israel, because God had brought in Isaac. Take it away, the first. Anything
man does, anything the flesh produces, it's got to go, Paul. Abraham said, Lord, let him have
a corner down here on the north 40 acres, and we won't even act
like he's there. He's got to go, got to go. He established a second. What
about the first priesthood? Aaron and the sons of Levi, gone,
gone. They were men. Christ is the
God-man. There were many of them, Christ
is one. Their lives were limited. He's
eternal. They offered animal sacrifices.
He offered his own blood. They ministered in the earthly
tabernacle. He ministers in glory. They stood, he says, having finished
his work. He takes away the fall. I have nothing and no patience
with men who walk around in whatever they call that that garb with
those city-looking hats and going around waving incense and sprinkling
water, they're trying to resurrect that Old Testament priesthood.
They're trying to say, you stay out there and God's in here,
and I'm the one that goes to God and comes to you, you paid
me, here, give him something to put in here. When you hear
the clang of the golfering plate, we'll yank somebody out of purgatory.
That's an abomination, a desecration and blasphemy to God Almighty.
He taketh away the first. And I hope you say, well, don't
talk about the Catholics. Somebody better talk about it.
Somebody better talk about it, because that Bible says God took
all that away. He opened the Holy of Holies.
There's no inner sanctum or Holy of Holies back there where a
bunch of priests go back and prepare the wine and bring it
out here and wave the incense and sprinkle the water. That's
all types and figures. And if you mess around with that,
God will send you to hell. It's a denial of Christ. The
incense is Christ in his prayers. The sprinkling of the water is
his sanctification. The wine does not become his
blood. By one sacrifice he hath perfected
forever. There are no more masses. The
mass is to sacrifice Christ over again. And that's a denial of
the book. You better get out of that mass,
because it's all going to perish under the wrath of God, I'm telling
you. Billy Graham said Pope John Paul was perhaps one of the greatest
spiritual leaders of our generation. That shows he doesn't know the
gospel either. Anybody that knows the gospel knows John Paul is
an imposter. He is not, you know what the
word vicar means? Substitute, representative, he's
the vicar of Christ? That's a dirty lie. Christ is
our vicar. Vicar is vicarious, and by his
vicarious suffering, he is our vicar and the only one we need.
This is serious, my friends. God's Word said he taketh away
the fires and establishes Christ. And for me to take my filthy
hands and try to reach in and pull this stuff back out of oblivion
and back out of the dust where God has cast it and to enforce
it into the sacrifice of Christ and say, God, I'm going to have
Christ in my works. No, you're not either. We're
complete in Him. That says, you say, you're getting
worked up, preacher. Well, I'm watching people perish, and that
ought to work somebody up. I'm watching sinners covering
their eyes, falling over the precipice. I'm watching men listen
to liars, and listen to promoters of themselves, and listen to
men who are teaching and following the old dead tradition, and denying
Christ the perfect sacrifice. And that does work me up and
upset me. I don't know why they do it or
how. The first king. Let me tell you, that old priesthood's
gone. Do you know who the priests are?
Christ is the High Priest, and everybody out here who is saved
is a priest. He has made us kings and priests
under God. And you say, well, what's our
sacrifice? You say, we bring sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving
and prayer. That's our sacrifices. But Christ
is our Heavenly High Priest. Let us come bold into the presence
of God. Christ is our High Priest. The
first king was Saul. Men made him king. God took him
away and said, David is my king. David is the man after my heart.
God selected him. The first earth, this earth is
going to pass away. Pass away, that's right. There
is going to be a new earth! The first heaven! Heaven and
earth shall pass away! God said, Behold, I make all
things new. Two statements we'd better get
a hold of. He taketh away the first with
his traditions, ceremonies, sacrifices, sin offerings, burnt offerings,
priesthood, sacrifice, arts, furniture, visual aids, all these
things, he takes them away and Christ comes and fulfills every
last one of them, in every jot and tittle. I came not to destroy
the law, but to fulfill it. When it's fulfilled, it's over,
it's done, it's gone, it's taken away, and now we worship him! Is that clear? He's everything
I need. I need nothing added, not even
my offerings. He's my offering. Why do you
do these things? Because I love him. Why do you
worship? Because we love him, because
he's our Lord. This principle is applied in
redemption. He taketh away the first. My
first birth, I was born of human parents. My second birth, born
of God. My first birth, I was born of
the flesh, the natural man. My second birth, spiritual. See
what I'm saying? My first birth, I was born in
sin. My second birth, I was born in
holiness. You must be born again. My first
birth was of corruptible semen, seed. My second birth, the seed
of the Word of God. He taketh away the first and
establishes the second. I make all things new. If any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Let me tell you something,
in salvation, God doesn't reform the old flesh, God Almighty doesn't
use the old flesh, he makes a brand-new man created in Christ Jesus.
My old flesh, in it dwelleth no good. In my new, holy, spiritual
nature, given by the Spirit of God, there dwelleth no evil.
He that is born of God cannot commit sin. He that is born of
men cannot do right, neither can you do good that are accustomed
to do you. No more than an Ethiopian can
change his black skin and become a white man. You can't find a
black man that can turn into a white man, and you'll never
find a natural man who will do anything pleasing to God. It's
exactly right. And a leopard cannot change his
spot, neither can you do good. They're accustomed to doing evil.
But if God gives me a new heart and a new nature and makes of
me a new man created in Christ Jesus, then I'll just wait till
he buries that old man and takes me to glory. And then I'll never
sin again. That's right. What about my righteousness? What about my righteousness and
morality and all these things? That's filthy rags. God burns
that. He makes me burn it too. And
he gives me a new righteousness, which is Christ. What about my
first peace? Nearly every one of us, like
Saul of Tarsus, we had a false religious peace. We made a decision
when we were 13 years old, walked down an aisle and got a little
peace and held on to it and wrestled with it and claimed to have it
and all that. Then one day I found him who
is my peace. I found him who is my joy, I
found him who is my rest, I found peace in Christ. Therefore, being
justified by faith, I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. My first family had a mother, father, brother, sister, cousin,
nieces, nephew. They have that mayhem family
reunion down there in Alabama every year, all those mayhem. But I want to tell you something,
I have a new family. That's not my family. Those folks
I'm kin to in the flesh. But this fleshly relationship
is no more. God taketh away the first, gives
us a new family. One day our Lord was preaching.
This is my family, those who love God. Our Lord was preaching
one day, and a crowd of people were there, and somebody came
in and tugged at his coattail and said, Your mother and your
brothers and sisters out there won't see you. Now, any obedient
son ought to have said, Would you all hold the procedure now?
I'm going to run out and see what Mom wants and what my brothers
and sisters want. Our Lord didn't say that. Do
you know what he said? Who is my mother? Who are my brethren
and my sisters, these who do the will of God? And he never
moved a peg, not a peg. And I'll tell you this, somebody
says, blood's thicker than water. where the blood of Christ is
thicker than that red stuff flowing through your veins, too. And
that's the family, that's my family. My first thoughts he
took away. And I'll tell you this, and I'll
close, 1 Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 42. I'm going to have
a new body. I make all things new. If I could
impress upon you one thing this morning, it would be this. Just
like that old tabernacle, with all of its furniture and all
of its ceremonies and rituals and procedures and priesthood
and everything, Sabbath days, holy days, feast days, all of
them with blessed pictures, blessed promises, blessed images and
types. But my Lord Jesus Christ came
and fulfilled every bit of it. And I reached back and picked
up none of it, not the tithe, That's exactly right. And not
the Levitical law or the Sabbath days or any other day is the
Lord's day. You get up tomorrow morning,
you say, well, this ain't Sunday, I can pretty well kick up my
heat. This is the day the Lord hath made. We'll rejoice and
be glad in it. It's his day tomorrow, too. It's
his day Tuesday, too, and Wednesday, too. It's the Lord's. Christ
is our Sabbath. He's our rest. We're supposed
to rest. Rest in Christ. That's right. And just as he tore all that
away, let me tell you something else. All of our so-called righteousness
and religion and dues and standards and all that don't lean on it
either. It's Christ. Well, how are you
going to motivate people? Oh, my soul, love, love for Christ. I'm under a rule, I'm under the
rule of a king. I'm under the royal commands
of a king. I'm a son of God, I'm a child
of the King, I want his will to be done in my life, in my
conduct, in my conversation. I want to glorify my Lord who
has done so much for me. In 1 Corinthians 15, he talks
about this old body, verse 42, the resurrection of the dead
It's sown in corruption, it's raised in incorruption, it's
sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory, it's sown in weakness,
it's raised in power, it's sown a natural body, raised a spiritual
body. There is a natural body, there
is a spiritual body. And so it's written, the first
man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first, which is spiritual. He taketh away
the first, that which is natural, and afterwards that which is
spiritual. The first man is of earth, earthy. The second man,
the Lord from heaven. And as we are born in the image
of the earthy, we shall by the grace of God bear the image of
the heavenly. That's my hope. And I pray that's your hope.
And do you see why this message is so vital and so important? Do you see the significance of
it? He taketh away the first. And all of this procedure, and
all of this flesh, and all of this doings, and all of this
going about to establish a righteousness, and all this ritualism, and all
of it fulfilled in Christ. And we worship him, believe on
him, rest in him, and entering into his rest, we cease from
our laziness. I want you to sing a closing
hymn with me, and see if you can sing this with all the Page
207, all of the beauty that's there. Oh, happy day when Jesus
washed my sins away. He taught me how to watch and
pray and live for Christ every day. Happy day when Jesus washed
my sin away.