Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purged your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
And for this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament,
that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promises
of eternal inheritance.
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity
be the death of the testator.
For a testament is a force after men are dead,
otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator live
it.
Whereupon neither the First Testament
was dedicated without blood, for when Moses had spoken
every precept of all people, according to the law,
he took the blood of calves and of goats,
with water and scarlet wool and hyssop,
and sprinkled both the book and all the people,
saying, this is the blood of the testament which
God hath enjoined unto you.
Moreover, he sprinkled with the blood
both the tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry.
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood,
and without shedding of blood is no remission.
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things
in the heavens should be purified with these,
but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these.
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made
with hands, which are the figures of the true,
but into heaven itself now to appear
in the presence of God for us.
Nor yet that he should offer himself often
as the high priest enters into the holy place every year
with blood of others.
But then must he have suffered since the foundation
of the world, excuse me, for then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And as it is appointed unto men who wants to die,
but after this the judgment.
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
And unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Let's pray.
We thank you, Heavenly Father, for your son.
Dear God, we thank you for this church.
And we thank you for our pastor, dear Lord.
Please bless him as he preaches your word unto us tonight.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
We're in Hebrews chapter 9.
I'm actually going to cover the chapter
that I would typically cover on a Thursday night.
We had a guest preacher this last Thursday.
And so I'm going to go ahead and catch up on our Bible study
tonight in chapter 9.
Of course, we've been studying the book of Hebrews on chapter,
or excuse me, on Thursday evenings.
And now we're getting into a lot of the meat
of what the foreshadowing of the Old Testament was.
And the title of my sermon tonight
is the real reformation.
The real reformation.
I'm not referring to the so-called reformation
of the 1500s with Martin Luther.
And I don't believe that to be a reformation,
because ultimately what they're referring to
is the fact that you have all these people protesting
the Catholic Church and making Christianity or even
the Catholic Church better by recognizing that salvation
is by grace through faith.
But here's my answer to that from a biblical perspective.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing?
Not one, amen?
So you can't protest the Catholic Church
and not expect to have some Catholicism still in you,
which is why you have all these Protestants, Lutherans,
Presbyterians, that still hold to Catholic ideologies.
So I don't recognize that as the reformation.
I'm a Baptist.
And the only reformation that I actually observe and uphold
as being legitimate is the reformation
that we see here in Hebrews chapter 9,
referring to the new covenant.
Obviously, I'm referring to verse number 10.
This says, which stood only in meats and drinks
and divers washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them
until the time of reformation, referring to the fact
that there is a certain way of religious rights,
certain manner that religious rights were carried out
in the Old Testament.
However, those did not last forever.
They had an end to them.
And the end was, once that new covenant was established,
and that new covenant is established,
once Jesus Christ died on the cross.
And so if reformation means to make something better,
then that means that the new covenant
is better than the old.
Of course, carrying that same theme of the book of Hebrews,
essentially showing us the New Testament, the new covenant,
the mediator of the New Testament,
is far superior than the old.
And so we're gonna look at that this evening.
Look at verse number one.
We're gonna look at the worldly sanctuary,
first and foremost.
It says here in verse number one,
then verily the first covenant had also ordinances
of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.
For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick and the table
and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.
And after the second veil, the tabernacle,
which is called the holiest of all,
which had the golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant
overlaid round about with gold,
wherein was the golden pot that had manna
and Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant.
And over it, the cherry beams of glory,
shadowing the mercy seat,
of which we cannot now speak particularly.
So what is it referring to when it comes
to this worldly sanctuary?
Where I've mentioned this in previous chapters of Hebrews,
is that a lot of what took place in the Old Testament,
more specifically when it comes to the tabernacle,
the mercy seat, you have a lot of the accoutrements
of what was taking place in that tabernacle
was simply a copy of something that actually existed
even prior to that and still exists in heaven.
So when you look at through the word of God,
the details of the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant,
the mercy seat, the candlestick, the showbread,
the brazen altar, where the sacrifices were being done,
all of these things, minus the brazen altar,
were actually things that actually existed in heaven
and still exist there even today.
And I think, obviously, we don't really know
exactly what heaven looks like.
You know, we have bits and pieces of figures
in the Bible in that regard.
But I would say, you know, it's basically like
what we see here, which is the tabernacle.
And I'm gonna explain to you what I mean in just a bit.
So let's talk about this worldly sanctuary
that these first couple verses is talking about.
Because when you think about the tabernacle,
essentially, the measurements that the Bible gives
in the Old Testament makes two rooms, right?
One being bigger than the other.
You have the first room, which is called the sanctuary.
And what divides the first room from the second room
is that veil, the second room being a lot smaller.
That first room, having the candlestick,
it has the table, it has the showbread.
You have the second room, which is past the veil,
known as the holiest of all,
not the holiest of holies, by the way.
It's called the holiest of all.
And that possessed the golden censer.
It had the Ark of the Covenant.
Now within that Ark of the Covenant,
you had the manna, the bowl of the manna,
you have Aaron's rod that budded,
and you had the two tables of testimony, okay?
So you have this ark with those three particular items
found within the ark, and then on top of it
was a particular lid of cherubims
that covered that, known as the mercy seat.
Now what is the significance of this?
Well, when you look at the tabernacle,
you see that, and the rites that were carried out
during that time, you see that the animal sacrifices
were done on that brazen altar, okay,
which is called on the outer court.
The sacrifices were done there.
The ministry of the candlestick, showbread, and table
were taken care of in the sanctuary,
but then you have the high priest
who would go into the holiest of all once a year
to make atonement for the nation of Israel.
So when the sacrifice was done in the outer court,
he would take that blood, go into the holiest of all
once a year, and put blood on the mercy seat
that covered the manna, Aaron's rod that budded,
and the two tables of stone, symbolizing the covenant.
Now what is the significance of that?
Well, when you think about it,
if we were to apply this to heaven,
apply this to Jesus Christ, and even to the world
in which we live, you know that outer court
essentially symbolizes the world,
because of the fact that Jesus Christ came
to be among sinners to be sacrificed for the world.
He came to the outer court outside of heaven,
which according to the sanctuary
would be like the holiest of all.
He was sacrificed outside of heaven,
and the Bible even says that the remains
of the sacrifices were burned without the camp, right?
Symbolizing the fact that Jesus Christ went to hell
for three days and three nights,
he was a burnt offering, a burnt sacrifice as well.
Then the high priest would take the blood of that animal,
go beyond the veil, and pour it on the mercy seat
on the lid on which the two cherubims were,
covering those three items in the Ark of the Covenant.
Now why would he do that?
Well, when you think about it,
when God looks down upon, or when his glory
would come down upon the mercy seat,
he's looking at the tables of stone,
he's looking at Aaron's rod that butted,
and he's looking at the manna.
The manna picturing God's provision,
Aaron's rod that butted really picturing
Israel's rebellion against God,
because if you know the story of Aaron's rod that butted,
it was a testament that Aaron was sent from God,
and that these phony false prophets
who wanted to be the leaders were not.
And so essentially that was a testament
that Israel rebelled against the authorities of God.
You understand?
And of course you have the two tables of stone,
the 10 Commandments per se, that essentially showed us
that we can't meet up to God's standard, right?
It essentially exposes our sinful condition before God,
Israel's sinful condition before God.
However, when the blood is put on the mercy seat,
God sees all of those things through the blood.
You understand?
So from a spiritual perspective,
when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross,
in the outer court, after that,
when he died and he ended up resurrecting
and ascending to be at the right hand of the Father,
prior, excuse me, prior to even ascending
to be at the right hand of the Father,
he took his blood and poured it on the mercy seat
that's in heaven so that when God looks at us,
he sees us through the blood of Jesus Christ.
You understand?
He doesn't see us through our righteousness,
through our incapability of keeping God's laws,
through our rebellion against God's authority.
He sees us through the sacrificial blood
of the Lamb of God who should take away
the sins of the world.
So this was done on a yearly basis once a year,
and it was very much forbidden for anyone
to go into the holiest of all at any other time
other than once a year to pour the blood
in the mercy seat, okay?
So this is what that is picturing there.
And one of the reasons it says in verse five,
it says, over at the cherubim of glory,
shadowing the mercy seat,
of which we cannot now speak particularly,
you know why he says that?
It's because we don't really know how it looks.
So even the Apostle Paul, who's given divine revelation
and has great knowledge of this particular subject,
he said, we can't really speak
of this particularly, specifically.
We don't know exactly what it looks like, okay?
And someone needs to tell the Mormons out there in Utah
with their fake tabernacle that they don't know
how to make it.
They don't know what it looks like.
They can grab those measurements, but you know what?
The Bible's telling us here of which things
we cannot now speak particularly.
We don't know exactly what they look like.
It's like you have that science dude who made the ark,
the actual ark of Noah.
We don't really know if it looks like that.
And people are so fixated on getting an exact representation
of the ark of, oh, we found the ark of the covenant
in Israel.
No, no, no, the ark of the covenant's in heaven, okay?
That ark of the covenant from the Old Testament
doesn't even exist anymore.
And it's borderline blasphemous to say, oh, we found it,
and you're elevating it as if it's something important
when it's only a copy of the real thing in heaven.
Who gives a rip about the ark of the covenant,
the physical ark of the covenant now?
The one we're concerned with is the legitimate one,
okay, which is in heaven.
But people wanna say, oh, no,
they found the ark of the covenant.
It was actually under Golgotha.
And therefore, when Jesus Christ was crucified,
his blood seeped all the way down,
and it poured on fairy tales.
You know, it's all a fluke to try to, like,
arouse the interests of people.
And then you, what's that guy's name,
that Seventh-day Adventist's name?
What?
Ron Wyatt, is that his name?
Ron Wyatt is the one who claims to have found
the ark of the covenant, and then, you know,
he's like, and we found blood on there, too.
So then when they examine the blood,
they're just, the rabbi was just like, oh, man,
or the Jew was like, oh, man, this blood is still living.
Whose blood is this?
And he's like, it's the blood of your savior.
Someone put that blood there, and it's not Jesus' blood.
Jesus took his blood and put it on the mercy seat in heaven.
Okay?
That's a Jewish fairy tale, is what it is.
It doesn't exist.
And you know, people need to stop emphasizing
the physical accoutrements of the Old Testament.
Those things don't matter.
They're literally a pattern of something
that is in the heavenlies, and if you really wanna see
the ark of the covenant, get saved.
And one day you will see it.
Okay?
And so he's explaining here what they specifically look like
and what their operations were, where they were located,
because obviously, the Holy Ghost is signifying
that all of these things existed already in heaven.
So the outer core can be symbolized by the world,
because Jesus Christ was sacrificed here in this world,
right, he came to this world, he died for the sins
of mankind, he was crucified on the cross,
and once he died, he personally took his own blood
as the high priest of the New Testament,
and we can actually track when that took place.
Because if you read the gospels,
you see there's a time after the resurrection
where he told his disciples,
"'Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended unto my Father.'"
And people get that mistaken and say,
oh, does that mean that like, you know,
once his ascension took place,
or what is that referring to there?
Well, it's referring to the fact that
even prior to the final ascension,
where he was gonna be at the right hand of the Father,
he did go to heaven.
Now, how do we know that?
Well, because again, he told the disciples,
he told Mary, "'Touch me not, for I have not yet
ascended unto my Father.'"
But then shortly thereafter, he told Thomas what?
Handle me.
He touched the wounds in my hand and in my side.
Those aren't contradictory statements, my friend.
What that means is that after he told Mary,
don't touch me, and prior to him telling Thomas,
go ahead and touch me, he ascended to the Father,
and he said, well, what for?
For this purpose right here.
To put the blood on the mercy seat in heaven,
in that tabernacle, and then he returned
to be visible to the disciples,
and so he can show himself after his passions, understand?
That's what it's referring to there.
He was sacrificed here in this world.
He went beyond the veil, and the wonderful thing
about this is that when he went beyond the veil
to pour blood on the mercy seat,
the veil was rent in twain, the Bible says.
So even though in the Old Testament,
only the high priest can go beyond the veil
to see the holiest of all, to operate the job
of placing the blood on the mercy seat,
now we're all welcome into the holiest of all.
Because the veil is no longer that dividing factor
between us and the holiest of all.
Jesus Christ allowed himself to be rent,
spiritually speaking, in order for us,
the royal priesthood, to have access
to the holiest of all.
So even though in the Old Testament,
you had the priest of Aaron, the household of Levi,
not being permitted to go beyond the veil
to offer the blood on the mercy seat,
they weren't allowed to do so.
We can in the New Testament.
And in fact, we can go, not only can we go beyond the veil,
the veil's not even there for us anymore.
The partition was rent in twain,
and now, and obviously, what this is referring to
is the fact that we can pray unto the Lord,
we can come before the throne of grace
to obtain mercy to help in the time of need.
You understand?
We don't need some priest to go on our behalf
and speak on our behalf.
We can literally go to God ourselves, okay?
And a sacrifice no longer needs to be done,
because he sacrificed himself once and for all.
However, we obviously know that just as in the Old Testament
in the outer core, the sacrifices were done
on that brazen altar, in like manner,
we essentially also provide those sacrifices
in the New Testament.
The difference being, it's not the sacrifices
of bulls and of goats, it's the sacrifice,
it's a living sacrifice.
Because the Bible talks about,
I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, thee present yourselves
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service, the Bible says.
Be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And so God doesn't expect for you to die for him,
he wants you to live for him,
to be a living sacrifice, to die to self.
And even apart from that, the Bible says
that we offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving
as well in the outer core, and we can go to God
to petition for our needs in the holiest of all
through Jesus Christ.
And so even though access was denied
to the priests of the Old Testament, we have VIP now.
We have VIP access to the holiest of all
through Jesus Christ.
Look at verse number six, if you would.
Verse number six, now when these things were thus ordained,
the priests went always into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God,
but into the second went the high priest alone
once every year, not without blood,
which he offered for himself
and for the heirs of the people.
The Holy Ghost this signifying that the way
into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest.
While as the first tabernacle was yet standing,
which was a figure for the time then present
in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices,
listen to this, that could not make him
the one that did the service perfect
as pertaining to the conscious, okay?
So anybody who tells you, oh, people were saved
in the Old Testament by offering the animal sacrifices,
by doing the services of God,
namely these dispensationalists,
they haven't read the book of Hebrews.
Because it's telling us here that the Holy Ghost
did this with the intention of showing us
that this was only a copy,
it's foreshadowing something else,
it can't make even the people
who were doing the service perfect.
So let me ask you, if it couldn't make the priest perfect,
what about the rest of Israel?
They were definitely less likely to be made perfect
if the priests who were ordained for this job
could not be made perfect,
how much less those individuals in Israel?
Why is that important?
Well, because of the fact that people
will often teach this doctrine
that there is various gospels in the Bible.
People were saved differently
throughout the history, biblical history.
People were saved by keeping God's commandments
in the Old Testament, by doing the animal sacrifices,
by participating in these old covenant rites,
but that's false, okay?
This was done for a short period of time
to foreshadow a heavenly truth,
a heavenly manifestation of what Jesus Christ did
physically on this earth
when he spread his blood on the mercy seat later on.
Look at verse 10.
Which stood only in meats, drinks,
and divers washings and cardinal ordinances.
Don't just breeze over that,
because that's important there.
Because we're talking about the Old Testament, right?
And any time we quote Old Testament laws,
when it comes to morality,
when it comes to the book of Leviticus,
and the death penalty,
and what God considers to be an abomination,
that which he considers to be criminal,
that which he considers to be fornication,
and adultery, and murder,
people will often say,
we're not under the law, but under grace.
And the law was done away with or something, you know?
It's like, we're in the New Testament now,
and therefore those things do not apply anymore.
But what they fail to understand is that
the laws that were repealed from the Old Testament
in the New were not the moral laws.
And we can clearly see that in verse 10.
Because it's saying here that these laws
were imposed upon the children of Israel,
and it says until when?
Until the time of reformation.
Meaning that when the reformation takes place,
which is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross,
meats, drinks, divers, washings, cardinal ordinances,
no longer instituted.
So this is also a good verse for the Hebrew Roots movement,
who constantly wants to observe times, months, and years.
They constantly want to bring people back
under these ceremonial laws,
when the Bible literally says that there was a deadline
to them, until the time of reformation.
Meaning it was imposed on them,
and it no longer is imposed on them, okay?
So the meats, drinks, divers, washings, purity laws,
sacrificial laws, ceremonial laws, cardinal ordinances,
this was something that had to be done
in order to prime the mind of the children of Israel
that Christ was gonna come and fulfill these things, okay?
But yet you have these people
who are the Hebrew Roots movement,
who literally want to impose these ritual rites on Gentiles.
You know, tell people to observe the Sabbath,
and that they have to observe these purity laws,
and observe the Old Testament laws,
and they will pervert the scriptures
in such a way that when the Bible talks positively
about the law, they infer that it's referring
to these ceremonial laws.
But it's not referring to the ceremonial laws.
When the Bible speaks well of the law
in regards to Christians, it's talking about
God's moral law.
And obviously we know that when the Bible mentions
the laws of God, it can be used in a very broad way
to describe just the word of God.
The testimonies of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord,
the precepts of God, it could be describing very,
it's a broad way to describe the word of God
just in general.
But if we were to get specific about the law,
we can say that it's referring to God's moral law.
And so when the Bible speaks of the law
in a positive manner, that we should be adhering
to the laws of God, we know that it's not referring
to meats, drinks, and divers washings,
because that would be a contradiction of this passage.
Why would God say that we need to keep those laws
when he's telling us here that they're no longer
imposed upon the people?
So they're no longer imposed upon Israel,
but they're imposed upon us.
It's nonsense, my friend.
And so the meats, drinks, divers washings,
cardinal ordinances, you know, you can eat shrimp,
you can eat pork, and look, these Hebrew roots people,
they take offense to that.
They take offense that Christians eat shrimp
and lobsters and pork and whatever else
they consider to be unclean and just ignore
the clear passages of scripture where the Bible tells us
that every creature of God is good and nothing
to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Oh, let's just ignore that, though,
and abstain from shrimp, shellfish, or something.
But these are the people, this is the spirit
of false religion where they look at a particular passage
of scripture and just become so literal about it,
they literally think, oh, okay, this Old Testament law
of abstaining from these shellfish is exactly what
God wanted us to do for all time and there's some sort
of spiritual significance to just abstaining from it.
No, the spiritual significance has already been fulfilled.
Okay, and if you don't believe me, then why don't you
look at the example of the Apostle Peter
where God himself had to tell him, rise, kill, and eat.
You know, he brings down a sheet knit at the four corners
with all types of unclean animals on top of it
and he commands Peter, rise, kill, and eat.
And Peter's, you know, God bless him.
He's like, not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean
has entered into my mouth.
It's like, dude, God just told you to rise, kill, and eat
and you're just gonna tell him no?
Such a self-righteous attitude.
But these Hebrew roots are like Peter in that sense
where it's just like, hey, every creature of God is good.
No, no, nothing common or unclean has entered into my mouth
or whatever, you know, it's a stupid doctrine
because at the end of the day, the Bible teaches us
that the kingdom of God is not a meat and drink.
You're not a superior Christian because you abstain
from certain foods or something.
You know, it's just like, oh, man, I'm just gonna abstain
from meats and I'm just gonna be like a vegetarian.
Well, you're definitely, I can say you're an inferior
Christian if you just become a vegan or a vegetarian
because the Bible actually says that.
It says you're weak in the faith.
That's what the Bible actually says.
You know, and I know people who have been Christians
for decades and now they're vegetarians, you know?
And you know what, that's a miserable life.
I'm just gonna be honest with you, that is a miserable,
I don't care how well they're able to sell,
how happy they are as being a vegetarian,
I feel so good, no you don't, you feel weak.
You know you hate eating vegetables
and how much you covet when someone is eating a juicy steak.
Don't tell me that when someone's eating a steak,
you're not just coveting that and wishing, you know,
that you're under grace.
But yet they convince themselves into thinking
that they're superior because oh man, you know,
it's so wrong to eat meat.
Folks, if it's wrong to eat meat,
then you're saying that Jesus sinned
because Jesus ate animal-based products.
And so, you know, it's telling us here
that these laws were imposed upon them
until Christ was crucified and why is that?
Because the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
was the culmination of all of those pictures, okay?
And as we're gonna see in this chapter,
you know, his death brought in that New Testament
because in order for a New Testament
or for a testament to come into effect,
you need the death of the testator.
And in the Old Testament, the death was through
those animal sacrifices that were done
on a daily and yearly basis.
Whereas the death of Jesus Christ only had to be done once
and he liveth forevermore.
So he says in verse 11, but Christ being come
and high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place
having obtained eternal redemption for us.
So obviously we see the superiority of his sacrifice
compared to the inferior sacrifices of the Old Testament
that had to be done every single day, every single year,
and it just couldn't get the job done.
Whereas Jesus Christ, not only was he our great high priest,
not only was he a part of the order of Melchizedek
because he is Melchizedek, but he's even the sacrifice
that the high priest offers.
He's even doing the part where he's putting the blood
on the mercy seat.
He's not only doing the part of being the bread
that comes down from heaven, that's showbread,
he's not only doing the part of the priest
that offers the sacrifices, he's not only doing the part
where he's being sacrificed, he's even doing the part
where he's shedding the blood on the mercy seat.
He's doing it all, you know what that tells me?
It means that we don't have to do anything.
It's not of us.
You say why is Jesus doing all this stuff?
Because it's showing us that it's not of us,
not by works of righteousness which we have done.
We do not participate in our salvation whatsoever, okay?
You don't get sacrificed, you're not offering it,
you're not putting it into the holiest of all
because you can't even go there.
There's only one person qualified to fulfill that job
and that's Jesus Christ.
But isn't it funny how you have these works-based
salvationists that think that they are somehow qualified
to actually go into the holiest of all
by their own righteousness?
The only blood that God accepts
is the blood of Jesus Christ.
But somehow they think, well no,
you have to live a righteous life, you have to be just.
Folks, our righteousness are as filthy rags
in the eyes of God, it's insufficient,
which is why the Bible teaches the doctrine of imputation.
What is imputation?
It means God puts the righteousness of Jesus Christ
upon you because he doesn't accept your righteousness.
The best that you can do, he does not accept at all.
Doesn't matter how moral you are,
how well you're able to keep the commandments,
no matter how many times you did the animal sacrifices
and the fact that no unclean animal
has ever touched your lips,
doesn't matter what you've done, it's insufficient,
you still fall short of the glory of God.
You fall short of his standard,
therefore you need what's called a substitute.
And that substitute is Jesus.
So these workspace salvationists are always like,
oh no, you gotta work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling.
You can't save yourself.
And work out your own salvation in Philippians chapter two
has actually nothing to do with justification,
just to let you know that.
So he is superior, the superior high priest, sacrifice,
and if you're able to get yourself to heaven
to pour the blood in the emergency seat, have at it,
but you can't even do that.
Because in order to get to heaven, you have to be justified.
Look at verse 13.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats
and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctified to the purifying of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God.
And for this cause, he's the mediator of the New Testament
that by means of death, for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise
of eternal inheritance.
So what is this telling us?
It's basically telling us that the earthly tabernacle
was essentially a microcosm of the heavenly tabernacle.
And it's great if someone can give you a picture
of what it might have looked like,
but to say this is exactly what it was,
you're wasting your time because at the end of the day,
the heavenly tabernacle is the most important one.
And what we saw on this earth is still inferior,
even if you were to see the real one.
Even if you were to see the legitimate real one
here on this earth, it's still inferior
to the one that's in heaven, okay?
Look at verse 16, for where a testament is,
there must also of necessity be the death of a testator.
For a testament is a force after men are dead,
otherwise it is of no strength,
at all the while the testator liveth.
Now that's important because of the fact
that people have this misconception
that the New Testament begins in Matthew,
begins in Mark, begins in Luke, begins in John,
begins at the ministry of Jesus Christ.
But really, just because those are found
literally physically in our Bibles
as being the New Testament, the New Testament
did not begin until the death of Jesus.
Now that's really important, okay?
And you know why that's important?
Because the book of John is in the Old Testament.
You understand what I'm saying?
And the book of John over and over says belief.
So if you have people saying, oh you know,
Jesus' gospel was different from Paul's gospel,
and the gospel presentation was different,
salvation was different, there's various salvations,
well you have an issue because we quote
the book of John all the time,
and I know that it's physically in the New Testament
in your Bible, but the chronology of the Old Testament
and New Testament is that the New Testament
came at the death of Jesus Christ,
and all that was said prior to that.
Oh no no, John the Baptist had a different gospel
than the apostles, because he said repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
He preached the baptism of repentance.
You know what, he also preached John 3.36.
Did you know where it says, he that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth in him?
John the Baptist said that.
So how do you explain that?
He's the one who said verse 36 in the Old Testament,
so there you go, is he contradicting himself?
No, it means that the baptism of repentance
means to believe on Jesus Christ.
And people have to stop, people who hate the truth
never wanna reconcile scriptures,
they just wanna choose one over the other.
You ever notice that?
People who don't really want the truth,
they never wanna reconcile scriptures,
they always wanna choose the scripture
that pushes what they think their narrative to be.
Like, oh, they believe in repenting your sins?
Oh yeah, that's what John the Baptist preached.
He preached the baptism of repentance.
And it's like, yeah, but he also said John 3.36.
No, no, no, no, but he said the baptism, I believe both.
It's just that your interpretation
of what his message was is just stupid.
It's not in the Bible.
And so the way we interpret the word of God
is by comparing scripture with scripture.
And you know what, the baptism of repentance,
the verses that talk about it are just as important
as John 3.36, plain and simple.
And so even though your New Testament begins
in the book of Matthew, from a chronology perspective,
it does not begin until the death of Jesus Christ.
Just like the Old Testament, even though it begins
in the book of Genesis, doesn't truly begin
until Moses took the blood and sprinkled it
on the book and on the people.
That's when the Old Testament began.
And I've said that before and people are like,
that's heresy, you don't read the Bible.
How can you say that's heresy?
It's like one of the most plainest things
that you can see in the word of God.
That's when it begins.
You say, well, then we'll aspire to Mount Sinai
and all that that took place.
That's not the Old Testament?
Well, according to the Bible, it's, first of all,
it's just the book of Genesis.
But secondly, if you really wanna get specific about it,
it's the order of Melchizedek.
Checkmate!
Because you have the order of Melchizedek
that has always existed, still exists today,
and then you have this interlude known as the Old Covenant
that's right dab, not even in the middle,
it's like towards the beginning.
So it's just like order of Melchizedek, Old Covenant,
then New Covenant, which is also the order of Melchizedek.
Because the order of Melchizedek is just another way
of saying the New Testament.
It says in verse 17, or verse 18,
Whereupon neither the first testament
was dedicated without blood.
For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people,
according to the law, he took the blood of calves
and of goats with water and scarlet wool,
and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people,
saying, this is the blood of the testament
which God hath enjoined unto you.
This is referring to the inception of that Old Testament,
that Old Covenant, okay?
Verse 21 tells us, Moreover, he sprinkled with blood
both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry,
and almost all things are by the law purged with blood.
Listen to this, and without shedding,
or let me reread this, and without doing good works,
is no remission.
Without repenting of your sin, there is no remission.
No, it's actually without shedding of blood,
there's no remission.
And so, people who wanna say, no,
you gotta repent of your sins in order to be forgiven,
no, you need blood to be shed, righteous blood at that.
Because remission means forgiveness.
And so, you know, you have this teaching out there
that, oh, you have to confess your sins
in order to be saved on a daily basis.
But here's the thing, you know,
it doesn't matter how many sins you confess,
you for sure miss some.
You're gonna miss a lot, okay?
Because of the fact that at the end of the day,
you still live in a very corruptible body
that is filled with sin.
And you sin with your mind, you sin with your mouth,
and if you've never read the word of God,
I mean, you're sinning continuously
in things that you don't even know are sinful.
I mean, no one comes into the Christian life
knowing 100% what God expects of them, right?
They're sins that you found out were sins
once you came to our church.
It's like, oh man, I didn't know that I was doing that.
I didn't know that was wrong.
You're just like ignorant of it.
Now, obviously, you know, you have to learn
and all those things, but the point that I'm making here
is the fact that this whole, oh, just go to a priest
or just confess your sins to God
is so insufficient for salvation
because of the fact that you can't even name them.
And even if you could name them,
God expects punishment for those sins.
You understand what I'm saying?
Like, people think, oh man, I just confess these sins
and God's just gonna forgive me or something like that,
and that's it.
Someone actually has to pay for them.
Like, do you understand that God is a righteous God?
He's a just God that requires payment for sin.
And there's only two ways that you can do it.
And one of them is not confession of sin.
He said, what's one way?
Die and go to hell.
That's one way.
But, you know, that just doesn't sound that good, though.
Because when someone dies and goes to hell,
it's not like you're there for a couple years
and then you'll get released or something like that.
Your sin is so grievous in the eyes of God
that you'll just be there forever.
Because the wages of sin is death.
And, you know, it's not like a, it's a prison,
or, you know, the current hell is like jail,
and the only time you actually get released from that jail
is to be relocated to prison, which is the lake of fire.
Just like one hell that's hot,
you just get relocated to a hotter hell.
And the only difference is is that they give you
the county clothes for the lake of fire,
which is called your body,
and then they're both cast into the lake of fire.
Or as the Message Bible said, lake fire.
You go to lake fire, bro.
So that's one way you can get,
and it's not even, that wouldn't even get you
the forgiveness of sins.
That just makes payment for it,
but the payment just never stops, though.
You just, like, you'll be like the United States
is just perpetually being dead.
Like, the number's just always going up.
So you'll be there for a thousand years,
and it's just like, you still got thousands
of more years to go, it's just never gonna end.
Now, if that's what you wanna do, just be my guest,
but I'm just telling you right now,
it's not, you're just never leaving.
And obviously, I'm referring to people if they're unsaved.
Okay?
The second way is the best way,
which is you allow someone to pay for it in full.
And there's only one person who's rich enough to do that.
You understand?
Like, it would require the richest person you've ever known
to pay off this sin debt.
And I'm not referring to Rothschild,
because he's paying for his debt right now,
as we speak, by the way.
Lord Rothschild split hell wide open,
and he's currently paying his,
and I think he's a week in,
and he hasn't even scratched the surface of the payment,
especially that guy, for the crimes that he's committed.
And if you don't know who the Rothschild is,
where have you been?
You know, he's currently in hell right now,
and he's probably pretty close to the core.
Okay?
And you know what, that guy was a wealthy man,
but you know what, riches deliver not in the day of wrath.
That's what the Bible says.
There's no amount of money
that could ever purchase your salvation.
But the richest man that has ever lived
and still lives is Jesus Christ.
And so he possesses the only currency
that God accepts for the payment of sin.
His blood is the only currency that God accepts.
So you're little measly, you know, mites of good works,
God doesn't accept that.
You're little measly two pennies of good works,
or I can't even,
because pennies at least have worth, right?
Like your righteousness has less worth than that.
Like less, it's like dirt.
That's what it is.
It's even less than dirt,
because at least you can grow things in dirt.
It's like filthy rags.
That's your currency
compared to the currency of the blood of Jesus Christ,
put it that way.
So you could either make the payment for your sin in hell,
and you're just never gonna pay it off,
you're just perpetually in debt,
and you're paying for it forever, burning in hell,
or you can accept it for free
because someone has already paid the debt.
All you have to do is just believe on Jesus Christ.
You know what, salvation is such an easy thing.
And people wanna overcomplicate it,
they wanna participate in it, they wanna criticize it.
Bunch of ungrateful humans
that cannot accept the fact that Jesus Christ
already paid the check.
He's paid the bill.
And he doesn't even require, listen to me,
he doesn't even require a thank you.
All he wants is your faith in him and that's it.
Like what a gift!
Where the giver is just like, just take it.
All you have to do is just believe in me for salvation,
and you can have it for free.
And he doesn't even require for you to serve him
for the rest, which is, if you think about it,
what he deserves.
Like, because he saved us, he deserves our lives 100%,
all the days of our life.
I mean, he deserves the best of service.
But you know what, most people don't give him that.
And you know what, that's their loss,
and he's not gonna force them to.
He's not coming and saying, hey, I'm just coming
to check up, you know, I gave you that,
but with interest, though, or something.
He's not like the Rothschild.
He gave it to us for free, okay?
And so, what am I saying here?
What the Bible is telling us here,
regarding the blood of Jesus Christ,
is that his blood is the only thing
that can offer forgiveness of sins.
It's the only form of currency,
it's the only payment that God accepts.
American Express doesn't work,
Visa MasterCard doesn't work,
his blood is the only thing that works.
But yet, you have all these people all around the world
who are trying to use monopoly money,
known as their false religion and false gospel,
to try to make payment for their sins.
Stupid.
Without the shedding of blood is no remission.
Verse 23 says, it was therefore necessary
that the patterns of things in the heavens
should be purified with these,
but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these.
So, this is why I believe that that tabernacle
that existed in the Old Testament
was essentially something, was a pattern after something
that actually does exist in heaven,
and this is possibly how heaven looks.
You have the outer core being earth,
then you have the sanctuary,
and then you have the holiest of all,
where Jesus Christ is sitting on the right hand of the Father
where he essentially put his blood on the mercy seat.
And obviously, the one here on earth was a microcosm,
so the one up there is probably way more extravagant,
beautiful, breathtaking.
So, what it goes on to say here in verse 24,
for Christ is not entered into the holy places
made with the hands, which are the figures of the true,
but into heaven itself now to appear
in the presence of God for us,
nor yet that he should offer himself often
as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year
with blood of others.
This is why the concept of losing your salvation
is so stupid, because if you were to lose your salvation,
that would mean that Jesus Christ
has to sacrifice himself again
in order for you to be saved.
But he only did it once.
Why?
Because once you get saved, you only get saved once.
Okay?
Verse 26 says, for then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world,
but now once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment,
so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,
and unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
What is that referring to?
Well, when Jesus Christ first came in Bethlehem's manger,
he came to take care of the problem of sin, right?
He came to take care of the problem of sin
because the purpose of him coming was to die.
I mean, we're about to celebrate that in a couple weeks,
the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
where we think upon the death, burial,
and we think about it all the time,
but in this country, we celebrate Easter, amen?
We celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
It's when Christ came to deal with the problem of sin.
But when he returns,
he's essentially coming unto salvation,
meaning the full redemption,
because our spirit is redeemed,
but we still live in this corruptible flesh,
and we're waiting to wit the redemption of our body,
the Bible says, okay?
So what is this chapter really hitting on?
Well, obviously the children of Israel, Jews,
esteem these accoutrements and physical things
known as the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant,
the manna, the showbread,
these are things that they esteem as being very important
in the history of Israel,
but the Apostle Paul is simply trying to drive forth,
hey, you know, yeah, that existed at one time,
which by the way, don't get carried away with that
because we can only speak of them particularly,
which means that the Ark of the Covenant
didn't exist in Paul's day.
So if you say we're speaking of the Ark of the Covenant,
particularly, it probably means that
they don't have the Ark of the Covenant
in Paul's day in the first century AD.
So if he didn't have it then,
and he's closer to when it actually existed,
that means no one has it now.
Common sense.
But he's telling them these are particular things,
they signify something else,
let me show you a superior way,
and let me just reveal unto you
that that tabernacle was simply a pattern
of a greater tabernacle that exists in heaven,
and this is of course where he explains that.
So that's pretty much it, let's pray.
Father, we thank you for this day,
thank you for this chapter, Lord,
and we're so thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
that he made as the high priest,
allowing himself to be sacrificed,
to shed his blood, to be burned without the camp,
to suffer in hell for three days and three nights.
And not only that, but to also resurrect
and place his blood on the mercy seat
in the tabernacle in heaven in the holiest of all.
And we're so thankful that that blood is so precious
that when we fail or we do wrong and we fall short,
as we typically do on a day-to-day basis,
when God looks at us, he sees us through the blood.
And that blood is precious, Lord,
may we exalt the blood of Jesus Christ,
and may we always talk about the blood,
may we sing about the blood,
because of the fact without the blood
we would not be saved,
we would not have the forgiveness of sins,
we would not be made righteous, Lord.
And we're so thankful for you,
we're thankful for our Savior,
may you bless our evening,
and all there is in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.