SPEAKER_00: All right, good evening.
SPEAKER_00: We'll go ahead and get started with our Bible study and and begin walking through Hebrews chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Um Hebrews chapter 9 is we're gonna be tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I'm gonna pray and then um we'll get started.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, God, we love you and and God we praise you.
SPEAKER_00: Um God, that number one, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, but God, number two, God, that you created us in your image, and God, we are grateful that um in your in your will you sent your son to save us so that we could have life in you.
SPEAKER_00: And God, as we look tonight at the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus, and God, at the work that you have done on our behalf, so that we might have life and salvation in you.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we just pray that we would uh bring you honor and glory, God, that we would see you rightly for who you are, God, that we would see your um sacrifice as one uh that we do not deserve yet.
SPEAKER_00: God, you graciously give to us, and God, we just pray that you receive all honor and glory from our time here this evening.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this all in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we talked last time, now two weeks ago, so let me re-jog your memory.
SPEAKER_00: We went all through the book of chapter uh all through chapter eight, uh, talking about Jesus is the high priest in a better tent and a true tent.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see that again tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we'll talk through that a little bit more in detail.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we talked about how Jesus all throughout the Old Testament is a shadow or a type of, or I'm sorry, all throughout the Old Testament there were shadows and types that point us to Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That uh all throughout the Old Testament we see um different examples of Jesus' sacrifice and his death and the salvation that he would bring all throughout the Old Testament, uh, even coming to the New Testament again, this book written to Jews that would know the law, that would know the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And so the author does exactly what any good arguer does.
SPEAKER_00: They go to what the audience knows and uses their knowledge to help further their point.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's exactly what the writer of Hebrews does in our case, um, within this book.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that this covenant that Jesus brings is better than this old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at that again and we're gonna see its significance again.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might be, if you've been in here the last few weeks, we've been on this kick.
SPEAKER_00: The writer of Hebrews has been on this kick of what is so significant that Jesus is this ultimate and great high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Why did it have to be him?
SPEAKER_00: What is the big deal?
SPEAKER_00: There was a group of hikers that uh was making their way around a castle, a very well-known castle called the Balmaral Castle in Scotland.
SPEAKER_00: And they're walking around and they walk up, and this person that's walking past them is going onto the trail as they're coming off the trail, and they said, Hey, you you just might want to be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a lot of security around.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different people here all over the trail because the queen of England, or the queen is here, the queen of Scotland is here.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to this passerby that they ran in contact, they said, Have you ever seen the queen here?
SPEAKER_00: And the person looks to the person with them, and I said, No, but my acquaintance has.
SPEAKER_00: And the the acquaintance just laughs and the people leave.
SPEAKER_00: The acquaintance keeps laughing, and it's still a funny story because that person that they were talking to was the Queen of Scotland.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't recognize who she was.
SPEAKER_00: She had a baseball hat on and a jacket, and she was just walking the grounds, but uh they did not recognize or see the significance of the moment that they were in that.
SPEAKER_00: They were standing in the midst of royalty that they were standing before the queen.
SPEAKER_00: What's the big deal about having Jesus be this great high priest?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is the significance of that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's read our passage.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go to a couple other passages, and then I'll I'll give us a few points to end our night.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 9, we're gonna go verses 1 through 14.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna stop at 14 to give us something to talk about next week.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is our second to last Wednesday night, and next week is our last Bible study on Wednesday night before the summer.
SPEAKER_00: Um, spoiler alert, we did not get through the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: It means we get to keep going through Hebrews next semester, and we will finish the book of Hebrews next semester.
SPEAKER_00: And so, um, but but we will finish chapter nine before we end or leave uh for the summer.
SPEAKER_00: But Hebrews chapter nine, starting in verse one.
SPEAKER_00: Now, even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: For a tent was prepared, the first section in which there were a lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence.
SPEAKER_00: It's called the holy place, because the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which uh was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded in the table in the tablets of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.
SPEAKER_00: Of these things we cannot speak in detail.
SPEAKER_00: These preparations have thus been made.
SPEAKER_00: The priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes.
SPEAKER_00: And he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.
SPEAKER_00: By this the Holy Spirit indicates that we indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age.
SPEAKER_00: According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot be or that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of Reformation.
SPEAKER_00: But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once and for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats or calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
SPEAKER_00: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purifying our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_00: What is the way in which sacrifices, atonement was made in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_00: What is the way that it is still somewhat made for the Jew?
SPEAKER_00: That is that the priest would go in before.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's two different sections.
SPEAKER_00: You had the holy place, and then you had the holy of holies.
SPEAKER_00: So in this holy place is where bread of the presence were, where different things could be uh brought in, uh, different things that that um the priests regularly go into the first section, performing their ritual duties.
SPEAKER_00: They would light the incense, they would pray, they would make intercession, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: That would happen in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: But it but in this next place, the Holy of Holies, only the high priest could go in.
SPEAKER_00: He could only go in with blood of a goat or a calf, and and he would go in to make atonement not only for his sin, but the sins of all the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we talked about this temple that we see in the old in the New Testament, in the what was built in the Old Testament by Solomon, had this great veil that went up.
SPEAKER_00: Remember how thick it was?
SPEAKER_00: It was a foot thick fabric.
SPEAKER_00: It took 300 men to hang, and it was 60 feet high.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the it was the divider between the holy place and the holy of holies.
SPEAKER_00: And and so only the high priest could go in.
SPEAKER_00: And we said last time the high priest would tie a rope around his waist.
SPEAKER_00: That way, if he went in and he was unclean or he didn't do what he was supposed to do, he would die because he is in the holy place.
SPEAKER_00: It is believed to be that's where the presence of God is, and then he'd be pulled out.
SPEAKER_00: And so what the writer says is all of these things is what happened before Christ Jesus came.
SPEAKER_00: But now that Christ Jesus is come, he is the greater high priest who has made a perpetual intercession for the people so that you and I, through salvation in him, can have access to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody comes to the Father except through me, because I am the only mediator between God and man as great high priest.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we read here in the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is still significant.
SPEAKER_00: It's significant because God is holy.
SPEAKER_00: Probably the most overlooked characteristic of God, yet the only characteristic of God that informs all of his other characteristics.
SPEAKER_00: Again, if if you're reading the Bible for the first time, then you read that God is loving, God is merciful, God is gracious, and that is true.
SPEAKER_00: But when you read of God's holiness, it's not just said that he is holy, but there's multiple times in scriptures where he is holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: Now read we read that in English and we go, okay, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: He's holy.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, it's different.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Hebrew, if you wanted to give emphasis to something, you repeated the words.
SPEAKER_00: Here in English today, if you want to give emphasis to something, what punctuation would you use?
SPEAKER_00: Exclamation point.
SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to give emphasis to a word or a phrase, what are some other things on on word that you can use or Microsoft word that you can use that would give emphasis to that?
SPEAKER_00: You can do what?
SPEAKER_00: You can underline it, you could also do what?
SPEAKER_00: Italics, bold, highlight, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, you repeat it.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's the same way when you would go through and you'd hear someone say, Hear ye, hear ye.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's listen up, right?
SPEAKER_00: You you you'd say it twice.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would say, when he was teaching, he would say, Truly, truly, I say to you.
SPEAKER_00: When he would say, truly, truly, he's he's hey, listen, pay attention to what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: We do not see in scripture that God is love, love, love, that he is grace, grace, grace, he has mercy, mercy, mercy.
SPEAKER_00: We see that he is holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: And when you see that right beside each other in Hebrew, that would mean God is holy, he is holier, he is holiest.
SPEAKER_00: It's the superlative degree of emphasis of that word.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we see that he is holy, holy, holy, it is the superlative degree of that characteristic that we see of God.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the first places that we see that used is in the book of Isaiah in chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: So turn very quickly, book of Isaiah, chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Very famous um account that we read in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It is from the prophet Isaiah, who lived about 700 years before the coming of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Prophet Isaiah uh spoke to the people on behalf of God in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we see that Isaiah was around, um, began his ministry in the year that King Uzziah died.
SPEAKER_00: King Uzziah, one of the uh kings of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We'll go through that again.
SPEAKER_00: In the year that King Uzziah died, that's significant.
SPEAKER_00: That's significant because this is taking place in the year that Uzziah died, and Uzziah's king, kingly reign was uh an up and down bit.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Uzziah was a great king up until he wasn't.
SPEAKER_00: He was a great king up until the point that he stopped being.
SPEAKER_00: He led the people, he he he was a good king, but then Uzziah saw his importance more important than it was for God.
SPEAKER_00: You Uzziah goes into the temple in an unholy manner, and what happens to Uzziah?
SPEAKER_00: What does he get?
SPEAKER_00: Leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: He gets leprosy and ultimately dies in disgrace.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what's happened.
SPEAKER_00: So as Uzziah has underestimated and underemphasizes the holiness of God, upon his death in the same year, Isaiah has a prophet, has a vision, and he says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you look in your Bible, you will see that Lord in it is capital L, little O, little R, and little D.
SPEAKER_00: Now, unlike what Jehovah's Witnesses would like to tell you, that every time that you see Lord, it means Jehovah.
SPEAKER_00: It does not, Hebrew does not automatically translate everything with Lord to be Jehovah.
SPEAKER_00: This word here is Adonai.
SPEAKER_00: And the word for Adonai is the word Lord that ascribes a sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: So in the year that King Uzziah died, in the year that the king died, I saw the sovereign king.
SPEAKER_00: So you see the emphasis between the two.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now we might go, that's really weird.
SPEAKER_00: The longest train of any dress or robe that I've seen is in a royal wedding of the queen, or like in the sound of music, uh just a long train.
SPEAKER_00: The train of a robe would often emphasize the significance of the rule of that leader.
SPEAKER_00: So when the Bible says that the train of his robe filled the entire temple, like this thing went on and on and on, showing the infinite of his majesty and sovereignty over all that he has dominion.
SPEAKER_00: So the train of his robe filled the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Above him stood the Seraphim.
SPEAKER_00: We read more about the cherubim and the different uh beasts that are before the Lord in Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: The Seraphim, along with those beasts, were created for the environment they are in.
SPEAKER_00: And the environment they are in is in the throne room of God, around the throne, and we see that they were created distinctly.
SPEAKER_00: Each had six wings.
SPEAKER_00: With two they covered their face, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
SPEAKER_00: And the one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Now that Lord right there is different than the other one.
SPEAKER_00: How it's all capital.
SPEAKER_00: Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.
SPEAKER_00: What word do you think that is?
SPEAKER_00: Say it.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the one who is, who was and is and is to come.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the Alpha and Omega.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the holy one.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not only holy, and he's not only holier than the other Lords, he is holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: That is what is ascribed to the Lord by the seraphim.
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory, and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
SPEAKER_00: This is the environment of the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Where you would go into this holy of places is exactly what is similar to what you see here.
SPEAKER_00: He is holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: There's smoke, there's there's great rumbles around.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Isaiah says.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a King James version, you would see that it says, I am undone.
SPEAKER_00: The description of what Isaiah said is like, I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams.
SPEAKER_00: Because my eyes have seen the king, the there's that Lord, Yahweh, Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: Every sinner, when face to face before a holy God, truly recognizing who God is, falls down and says, I recognize in this moment that I am a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: There is a difference between you and I because holy doesn't mean morally perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Holy doesn't necessarily mean uh righteous.
SPEAKER_00: What holy means is set apart.
SPEAKER_00: He's different.
SPEAKER_00: When Peter sees Jesus for who he really is, after Jesus says to cast his nets on the other side and they pull in fish that almost sinks the boat.
SPEAKER_00: What does Peter do?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: He falls down at Jesus' feet and he says, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.
SPEAKER_00: Every person that that comes face to face with a holy God recognizes their sin, but Isaiah is in a worse situation because he's seeing it and he goes, I feel like I'm about to just self-destruct.
SPEAKER_00: I've never seen it all the way through, but I've seen bits and pieces.
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, a Hollywood film actually got the holiness of God right when making uh Raiders of the Lost Ark for Indiana Jones.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing else factual about that movie, other than when when sinful man goes to stand before the presence of God, bad things happen.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: God told Moses that he could not look upon him or he would surely die.
SPEAKER_00: So he hid him in the cleft of the rock and he passed by him to where he could only see the train of his robe.
SPEAKER_00: He's only see his backside.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is seeing a vision of this, but he's not actually standing in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: But even in this vision, he goes, I'm in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: The priests would go into this holy place where the presence of the Lord would be, and it's there that they would make sacrifice, but it wasn't good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Because there would need to be more sacrifices made because, well, his his sacrifice wasn't perpetual, it didn't go forever.
SPEAKER_00: He was still a sinner, so he would have to make atonement for himself and make atonement for the people.
SPEAKER_00: But the righteousness of Christ has been credited to us because he entered into the holy places and he made atonement for us based on his righteousness, which is holy, holy, holy, which is set apart, which is full and complete, and he gives that to us.
SPEAKER_00: Which is the second thing that I want us to see here.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has atoned for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Look back at Hebrews chapter 9, and we'll look at verses 6 through 10.
SPEAKER_00: These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties, but the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, which is when does the high priest go to make atonement for all of the people?
SPEAKER_00: It's on one particular day, it starts with a P.
SPEAKER_00: Passover.
SPEAKER_00: Pentecost comes after Passover, you were very close.
SPEAKER_00: Passover.
SPEAKER_00: So he would go in, Passover, to signify the spreading of the blood of the Lamb, so that the angel of the Lord would pass over the nation of Israel as the Lord is you know exercising his judgment on Egypt for the evil atrocities that they've done against his people.
SPEAKER_00: They would remember those things on the Passover, and that's the day that the Lord is assigned that they make atonement for them for their sins as well.
SPEAKER_00: And so he would enter in once a year and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and uh and for the unintentional sins of the people.
SPEAKER_00: But by this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy place is not yet open as long as the first section is still standing.
SPEAKER_00: As long as the first section is still standing, there's no entering into the into the second.
SPEAKER_00: Which is symbolic for the present age.
SPEAKER_00: According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot Perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
SPEAKER_00: So as long as there's stuff going in where incense is being burned and it's still about trying to earn your way into God's graces by keeping this law, if there's still that those things, then it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what sacrifice is done because it's not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no access for anyone except for the high priest to the Holy of Holies, if this is still going on.
SPEAKER_00: But but look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands that is not of this creation, he entered once and for all into the holy places.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus went where you and I cannot go.
SPEAKER_00: Because only God is holy.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus is fully God, he is God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So God sent himself in the form of flesh, being Christ Jesus, second person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: So only God can go before, and the sacrifice that he brings is the perpetual sacrifice because it is of his own blood taking the justice on himself.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that two weeks ago as well.
SPEAKER_00: When we see the parable of the unforgiving servant, he owes an insurmountable amount of money.
SPEAKER_00: When he forgives, when the king forgives this servant, and even after the servant said, I'll pay you back whatever I owe.
SPEAKER_00: And what he owed was for us today, billions upon billions of dollars.
SPEAKER_00: He's not paying it back.
SPEAKER_00: The king takes the justice on himself by saying, Well, that money's lost.
SPEAKER_00: I forgive him of his debt.
SPEAKER_00: He gets to go on.
SPEAKER_00: There's still justice that has to be done.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus took our justice and our place on the cross so that you and I might have life and salvation in him as he goes through and gives sacrifice and offers sacrifice on our behalf so that we can have his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody else can save you.
SPEAKER_00: Not even you can save you.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that we try to do, I try to be a good person, I try to do this.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to a holy God who cannot tolerate sin in his presence, he has to make atonement for it.
SPEAKER_00: That is why Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: That's not me making Christianity exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus, God Himself saying, There's no other way to me but through me.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other way to God but through me.
SPEAKER_00: There is no salvation and no one else, for there's no other name given to men by heaven, by whom we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: It is in Christ Jesus alone, because He alone has gone into the place that we could not go before God and made sacrifice for us that we could not make to purchase a salvation that we desperately need.
SPEAKER_00: The same way God made atonement for Isaiah to go to the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't read that part.
SPEAKER_00: We see that this seraphim goes, takes tongs, grabs a coal from the fires that's right there on the throne, takes it to Isaiah's lips, and touches him.
SPEAKER_00: And this is atonement that God's made to prepare him for the ministry that he is to do, which is to go to the nation of Israel and say, Keep listening and do not hear.
SPEAKER_00: Keep going on, and there is judgment coming.
SPEAKER_00: God made atonement for what he had called Isaiah to go and do.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, God makes atonement through Christ Jesus for what he calls us to do, which is to repent of sin and trust in him for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And only he can offer that because only he can go before and make sacrifice for us.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus has made atonement for us, thus reconciling us and giving us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: So here is the weight of this significant moment.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting here going, okay, he's a great high priest, what's the significance of that?
SPEAKER_00: It is because he has entered that place where you and I could not go with a sacrifice that is greater than anything you and I could try to muster up and sacrifice ourselves with our own strength to purchase for us a salvation that is given to us freely as a gift, paid for with his own life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the significance of this moment.
SPEAKER_00: And because of Christ, I can commune with God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So if that's what in this moment it does once a year, and then I gotta do it again the next year, and there still has to be sacrifice made, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this on Sunday morning in the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2 says that we are all who are outside of Christ are dead in trespasses in sin.
SPEAKER_00: We have no spiritual life in us because there is no desire for us outside of Christ to honor the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There's no desire for anything of the things of God because that there's no desire for God.
SPEAKER_00: We are dead in trespass in sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we try to think, especially those outside of Christ, is though I'm dead in trespass in sin, I can make myself alive through these works that I do, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's why we see in most religions, most false religions outside of this, that it is always work your way into God's good grace, work your way into righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: But what the Bible tells us all throughout the New Testament, this isn't just select passages, all throughout the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a circumcision of the flesh that one is saved, it is a circumcision of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, circumcision of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: When we look to the Old Testament, that if you follow these rules, specifically, if you are circumcised, then you are a child, you are a child of the nation of Israel, you are of God's holy people, and so you are good.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews believe then, I don't, I think they still believe now, that Abraham stands at the gates of Hades and checks every single male that comes through if they're circumcised or not.
SPEAKER_00: And if they're circumcised, he goes, What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Up to me.
SPEAKER_00: And they go to Abraham's side, they they get to go to paradise, and everybody else that's not gets to go in.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if they lived an unrighteous life, it doesn't matter if they are unclean, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: It's because they're Jews, they're circumcised.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't count for anything when it comes to this new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 8, verse 13, in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.
SPEAKER_00: And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away in light of this new covenant that we've seen.
SPEAKER_00: But but because of Christ, I can commune with God because his spirit lives in me.
SPEAKER_00: His death on the cross in Christ Jesus gives me access to God, but because I get to now go before his throne and bring prayers myself.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need a high priest to do that.
SPEAKER_00: The same way we talked about two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need a priest in the Catholic Church to give me, to take my prayers to the Lord because what the Bible tells us is that Jesus is that ultimate high priest that gives intercession for me, and I get to go straight to the Lord because he's right there by his side giving intercession.
SPEAKER_00: I get to just go to him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to have all this man-made stuff or all these other things around.
SPEAKER_00: I get to go straight to the Lord because of what Christ Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it and it's not about going in and burning incense first, or it's not about going in and having any kind of atonement, because my atonement has been perpetually secured for me in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm able to draw near to the throne of grace, as we see in chapter four of Hebrews, with confidence, because this high priest has entered in before me, the forerunner before me, and secured for me a salvation as a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: In one day, I am I am able to, when I stand before the Lord, when I die, say with confidence that Christ Jesus has reconciled me by his blood.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I know that I get to stand in the presence of the Lord forever, because I entered by the true sacrificial lamb that was slain for the sin of all of those who trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the writer of 1 Corinthians says, Death, where's your sting?
SPEAKER_00: I I don't have to worry about what happens upon death because I know that my salvation has not been secured by what I do, but it's been secured by Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what we said?
SPEAKER_00: Salvation requires what?
SPEAKER_00: Two things.
SPEAKER_00: Say it with me.
SPEAKER_00: The first one starts with an or repentance, and then with repentance comes what?
SPEAKER_00: Faith.
SPEAKER_00: What does it produce?
SPEAKER_00: Obedience.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel requires repentance and faith to turn from sin, to recognize I am dead in works, I can't earn my salvation, and to turn to believe in Christ Jesus upon his death, burial, and resurrection that gives me life.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I am so overwhelmed by the grace of God that I seek to be as obedient as possible.
SPEAKER_00: Do I fail?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Are all of us in here who are in Christ hypocrites because we fail?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not based on my performance or my good works, which Rite of Hebrews calls dead works.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on trust and faith in the perpetual high priest who has gone before me and made atonement for sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I bank everything on.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings me to a rest that I will get to stand before the Lord for all of eternity, not because of what I have done on my own, but for because of what Christ Jesus did on his own.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not because God thought I was awesome and I was great.
SPEAKER_00: I was dead in trespassing.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever looked at a dead corpse and gone?
SPEAKER_00: That's appealing.
SPEAKER_00: Herod did, but we'll talk about that later.
SPEAKER_00: But like, but do you ever look at something that's dead and goes, man, that seems worth it?
SPEAKER_00: But that's exactly what God looked at these dead people and he said, I want to give grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I want to breathe life, new life into them.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give them spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to be worried about this circumcision of the flesh and these dead works.
SPEAKER_00: I want them to be circumcised in heart.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get to that, we see that a new covenant means God has made a way to be in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: God has made a way to be justified before him.
SPEAKER_00: If we look back to chapter 8, the writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31, 31, this new covenant that's found in the Old Testament, a prophecy of Jeremiah, 400 or 500 years before we see Jesus, and he says of this new covenant, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Where were the laws written before?
SPEAKER_00: Tablets.
SPEAKER_00: This is not going to be about all this stuff of them trying to work and do and all this list of things.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to write my laws on their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And they shall, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall not teach each his neighbor to in um each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall know me, and from the least of them to the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
SPEAKER_00: Turn very quickly to Romans chapter 2, verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 2, verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: Paul?
SPEAKER_00: Hebrew of the Hebrews, Pharisee of Pharisees, on the Damascus roads comes to an encounter with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says.
SPEAKER_00: For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
SPEAKER_00: But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a manner of the matter of the heart by the spirit, not the what.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody have it?
SPEAKER_00: Written code by the letter.
SPEAKER_00: So what is that saying?
SPEAKER_00: That circumcision is a matter of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's what God does internally in us.
SPEAKER_00: It's that regeneration of the heart, taking us from spiritual death to spiritual life, not a matter of following after rules that you think ultimately makes you righteous.
SPEAKER_00: What's the significance of this?
SPEAKER_00: It's good news.
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't even keep a New Year's resolution for a week.
SPEAKER_00: Yet there's some people that walk around and live, and even some of us that go, Well, I can I can earn some of this, like I can figure some of this out, like I can make, I can do enough righteous things.
SPEAKER_00: But but but here's the thing it's not about countering it out.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is holy in set of part.
SPEAKER_00: The moment sin enters the picture for your life, you're behind the eight ball and you never get back.
SPEAKER_00: Like if we were trying to have a competition of who's the most righteous, and we were standing on the coast of California going, we're all gonna jump to Hawaii, all of us would have a really good try and a nice long jump of trying to see how far we could go, but we would not even register anything on the radar on the map when it comes to a significant jump to Hawaii.
SPEAKER_00: Yet we do the same thing spiritually and go, um, God's holiness is farther than Hawaii.
SPEAKER_00: It's farther than even the the the you know Japan, it's even farther than Australia, it's all all the way eternally away.
SPEAKER_00: Yet I think I can jump enough to where he's gonna go.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_00: I like it.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: So, what makes us think that we can go into the Holy of Holies on our own merit and say, Yep, we got this?
SPEAKER_00: What would happen?
SPEAKER_00: We would we would drop dead.
SPEAKER_00: We would come undone, as Isaiah would say.
SPEAKER_00: But what we see in this passage, the significance of this, is that we have been made right with a holy and righteous God by his own blood and death, taking that penalty of sin on himself so that we could have life in him.
SPEAKER_00: That is what makes him gracious, that is what makes him merciful, that's what makes him kind.
SPEAKER_00: Because his set apartness still reached out and was gracious and merciful to people who are not set apart.
SPEAKER_00: But by his blood we have been healed, by his wounds, by his death, we have been healed, we have received salvation.
SPEAKER_00: A new covenant means may a God making a way for us to be in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: The question for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: Do I live every day like that is true?
SPEAKER_00: Do I live every day marveling at the fact that I get to stand in his presence not based on my merit, but based on his merit account credited to me?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine if those people that saw the queen would have known it was the queen?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, lit up, they probably would have been a little scared because the bodyguard's there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's kind of like walking up on the president and surprising him with the Secret Service agent there.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know if there's gonna be like a red dot on your head, or all of a sudden just someone from the woods just kind of snipers a shot.
SPEAKER_00: Like you, you don't know what it what's gonna happen because this is a place you don't go, you don't get close, you don't touch, right?
SPEAKER_00: All of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the response of those people that that that see the queen and think, oh, I was in the presence of the queen, and it was great.
SPEAKER_00: And she she was she was gracious and she was merciful.
SPEAKER_00: It was it was awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine that same queen saying, hey, listen, I'm gonna be gracious and merciful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take the penalty that you have against you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna pay a debt that you have, and I'm gonna I'm gonna make you, I'm gonna give you access to me to where at any point, if you want to come see me, if you want to come talk to me, come on.
SPEAKER_00: What would your response be to that?
SPEAKER_00: People would say, Who's the most famous person in your phone?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I don't mean to brag, but there's royalty in mine.
SPEAKER_00: Like I I can go to the I can go to the queen anytime I want.
SPEAKER_00: Because she made the way for me.
SPEAKER_00: She gave me your number, she put it in, like, she put a smiley face by her name.
SPEAKER_00: She made the way for me to where I can have access to her.
SPEAKER_00: The sovereign king of the universe who was and is and is to come, who is the Alpha and Omega, who who who is, who being in his presence requires full righteousness, and anyone that enters into his presence or or even presumes upon his holiness receives wrath has made a way for you to not only be considered his child, but to give you full access to him as his children.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_00: How do you live in in response to that?
SPEAKER_00: How does your day-to-day life influenced by that?
SPEAKER_00: It should be that it changed everything.
SPEAKER_00: The same way, if the queen said, Hey, all that's mine is yours, you get access to me, every all of my benefits are yours too.
SPEAKER_00: Just come on.
SPEAKER_00: Your life would be totally different.
SPEAKER_00: Would you allow the work that Christ Jesus has done as our perpetual high priest?
SPEAKER_00: Would you allow that work to so influence your life that you would live every day grateful for his gift, grateful for his sacrifice in seeking to bring him honor and glory?
SPEAKER_00: Him who knew no sin became sin on your behalf so that you might become the righteousness of God in him.
SPEAKER_00: Him who is immutable, who does not change, who does not sin, he does not, he always will be.
SPEAKER_00: Would you allow his sacrifice and his death, his salvation that he's offered you to change your life forever?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.