SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go ahead and get started again.
SPEAKER_00: For those just coming in, really quick, last little pitch that I'll give until the end.
SPEAKER_00: But if you were in here last semester, this is your first semester.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're going to walk through the rest of the book of Hebrews, and I'm going to do a little bit of an overview tonight of what we've done and kind of give a summary of the last thing that we looked at looking into that.
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll continue on for the rest of the semester.
SPEAKER_00: This is simply a booklet uh that has the scripture uh the entire book of Hebrews uh within it.
SPEAKER_00: On one side is the scripture, and then on the other side is a little place to take notes um just to kind of help you kind of work your way through and along and um just uh you know providing your own notebook for you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you would like one, uh just kind of raise your hand and I'll uh bring one to you.
SPEAKER_00: And if not, uh we'll we'll go ahead and get started.
SPEAKER_00: All right, Jeff, do you got a pen?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: If you do, then I won't bring you a new one.
SPEAKER_00: Um so um we're going to um go ahead and begin our session tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh let's pray really quick and then we'll we'll get started.
SPEAKER_00: Father, in heaven, we love you, and God, we're grateful of the opportunity to come and to read your word and to uh learn more about who you are.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, I pray as we look um into the book of the second half of the book of Hebrews this semester, Father, that we would just uh be reminded of all uh that uh you have done for us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As we look at the book of Hebrews, which can be very confusing, which can be uh very, very um Jewish uh tradition rich.
SPEAKER_00: Father, would you help us to see your hand moving throughout this book?
SPEAKER_00: Would you help us to see how you, through the Old Testament law and the Old Testament um sacrificial system, uh, were pointing to a truer and better sacrifice in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And God, may you be glorified and honored as we look at your word.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Father, give me the words to say.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, we pray that everything is that is said tonight is to your honor and glory.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray this all in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you were not here last semester, let me just go ahead and um give you a little overview of the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: If you were here last semester, let me remind you about the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the book of Hebrews, uh written uh somewhere um between 60 and 70 AD, book of Hebrews author, unknown.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of speculation of who it could be.
SPEAKER_00: Um early on, the thought was, especially when uh they were canonizing all the scriptures, they thought it was the apostle Paul that taught it.
SPEAKER_00: But as we look at Paul's letters and we look at the writings of the book of Hebrews, it doesn't line up.
SPEAKER_00: It's got to be somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: And then people thought it might be Luke, but even Luke's literature and his writing doesn't line up with the book of Hebrews, and so there's many different theories on who wrote the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas is a very, very big school of thought with who wrote the book of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Apollos, which we remember in uh 1 Corinthians, where Paul says, Hey, some of you Paul follow Paul, some of you follow Apollos, either way.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Paul planted, Apollos watered, but it's the Lord that gives the growth.
SPEAKER_00: Apollos was a very uh prolific teacher um during that time, very popular.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so maybe he wrote it.
SPEAKER_00: And then the other school of thought is maybe Priscilla and Aquila wrote it, and uh, because oftentimes in here you would see that they say, uh, the writer says, and we say to you.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's like, okay, well, is this Priscilla and Aquila who's written this?
SPEAKER_00: Is this uh one person just writing on behalf of the church?
SPEAKER_00: What is all of this?
SPEAKER_00: But uh, what we do know is that the book of Hebrews is one of the greatest books when seeking to understand biblical theology.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, theology is just a fancy word for the study of God.
SPEAKER_00: So the study of God as seen all throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Hebrews is um written to a group of Jews, specifically in the Qumran Valley, that are dealing with persecution from a specific sect of Jewish believers that believed that uh, number one, um, angels were superior than uh even the Messiah to come.
SPEAKER_00: What this group group of Jews believed is that there would be two messiahs that would come.
SPEAKER_00: And both of these messiahs would reign in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: One of them would reign politically, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Jews were an oppressed people to the Hebrew to the uh Roman um government and to the Roman people.
SPEAKER_00: And so this one of the uh one of the messiahs would come and reign as a strong political figure, the other messiah would come and reign as a high priest, both of which would be defeated or submit to uh the archangel Michael when he comes at the end times.
SPEAKER_00: Don't know where they got that in all of the Jewish literature that we have, but this is where they are, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so um their influence to those Jews there is to say that um that angels are supreme, um, that that when this Messiah comes, that he'll be a political messiah, then he'll be, and then one will be a uh high priest uh messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And what the writer of Hebrews seeks to do, the the main theme of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is supreme.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you want to put that down, main book of the of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is supreme, he is superior over angels, he is mis superior over the prophets, and he is superior over priests.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter one tells us in the beginning, you know, uh back in the day.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it for you really quick, just to kind of give us uh a look here.
SPEAKER_00: It says, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
SPEAKER_00: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
SPEAKER_00: After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the point of the book of Hebrews that Jesus Christ is superior over angels, over prophets, and over priests.
SPEAKER_00: He is supreme.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see themes throughout that that he is the ultimate high priest.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at that in chapters four, five, six, and seven.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we've seen that he's superior over angels.
SPEAKER_00: End of chapter one, into chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we've seen uh that only through him uh do we receive rest, both not only rest here on this life through spiritual rest, but he gives us rest eternally.
SPEAKER_00: And the writer of Hebrews early on will encourage both in chapter three, two, three, and seven, that his listeners not harden their hearts towards the things of God, but enter into his rest.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same call for all of us to not harden our heart to the things of God, though they might be tough to understand, though it might take a little effort, though it might stretch us a little.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the writer of Hebrews has a word for the the listeners of us today, as long along with the listeners back in this time, to not harden our heart to the things of God, but to enter into his rest.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verses or chapters six, seven, eight, nine, and we'll continue to see, the writer of Hebrews will show us that it is through Christ Jesus that we can enter into that rest because he is the ultimate high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say that he in when the writer of Hebrews says that he is the ultimate high priest, in your mind you might be going, okay, high priest, that's an important priest because he's the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: What he did, what he does, what he represents, don't really know that that much, but I know that it's significant within the Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_00: You're right.
SPEAKER_00: The high priest is incredibly significant in the Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_00: What is the main thing that the high priest did?
SPEAKER_00: Enter then the Holy Holies once a year to make what?
SPEAKER_00: Sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: That is exactly what the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: The high priest had the most important job of all the priests.
SPEAKER_00: He would enter once a year to make intercession and atonement by slaughtering an animal and sprinkling it on the mercy seat, and he would make atonement for all the nation of Israel once a year, including himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is a very significant job.
SPEAKER_00: But what the writer of Hebrews is going to be telling us is that Jesus is the ultimate high priest because once and for all he'd entered into the holy place, and his sacrifice is what was sprinkled on the altar, which was sufficient to be the propitiation for all sin of those who would trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: This is significant.
SPEAKER_00: Because we also see that the own that entering into that place required a lot on the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: He would go into a fear and trembling because any false move, he would die.
SPEAKER_00: The high priest would enter into the holiest of holies with a uh bell, a rope tied around his waist.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know why?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because if he died, they could drag him out, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because nobody else could could go in there.
SPEAKER_00: Because the holiest, the holy of holies is where the ark of the covenant would be, and it was where the presence of the Lord would sit.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're reminded of tonight as we go in is that this is a very uh sacred place because it is where the presence of God is, and and God is holy.
SPEAKER_00: He is holy.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we don't really understand the the the the the um really the significance of holy, especially in our in our world today, because there's nothing that is that sacred that could kill you, but there are sacred things and sacred offices and sacred officials that we have uh here on earth, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you were to go uh to England and stand before the king, that is a sacred place because that is the ultimate authority within England, is the king.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same in going to the White House.
SPEAKER_00: And and the the thing is, when you walk into that room that contains the throne of the king, you know exactly who he is.
SPEAKER_00: There's no guessing.
SPEAKER_00: I told this last semester, but it's a famous story.
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple that's jogging through uh the uh the grounds of a uh famous castle uh that is somewhere, uh I believe it was um in Europe, and uh they are American tourists and they're jogging through and they see all of this security around, and um there's a jogger that is passing by them with another man with her, and uh they say, Hey, do you know what's going on right now?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're so confused.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Oh, I I think the princess is here.
SPEAKER_00: Or no, I she said, I think the queen is here, and they go, Oh, well, that's kind of cool.
SPEAKER_00: Well, have you seen her?
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, No, uh, no, I haven't.
SPEAKER_00: You guys have a great day, and she keeps jogging on.
SPEAKER_00: Later that afternoon, that American couple turn on the TV and they find out that the person that they had talked to asking where the queen was was actually the queen herself on a walk throughout the grounds.
SPEAKER_00: Now we laugh because we're like, oh man, if I met the queen, I'd be like, you're the queen! Like but she's not in her, she she's not in her garb.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't have her long train that would show her royalty, she doesn't have a crown on her head, she's wearing a jogging suit with just a man beside her.
SPEAKER_00: But but those in Europe that would be walking the grounds and see her would go, that that's the queen.
SPEAKER_00: It there's a significance to the role.
SPEAKER_00: Much more than that is the significance of the holiness of God to his authority and supremacy over all things.
SPEAKER_00: So I want us to look at Hebrews chapter 9 tonight.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we're gonna pick back up.
SPEAKER_00: If you were here last semester, this is gonna be a little bit of a refresher because you remember reading this passage probably, but there's always things within scripture that the Lord teaches us the second time, the third time, the fourth time, and the two hundredth time that we've read it because uh the Holy Spirit works in that way.
SPEAKER_00: But uh Hebrews chapter nine is going to tell us what Jesus has done as that greater high priest.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's look very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just walk through this.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read to verse 14 or at least look to verse 14, but I'm gonna read verses one through five first, and we're gonna see our point and then keep working our way.
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 were the lampstand of the table and the bread and the uh I'm sorry, the table and the bread of the presence.
SPEAKER_00: It is also called the holy place.
SPEAKER_00: Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, or in the Hebrew language, and repeating, the holy of holies, having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenants covered on the sides with uh with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded in the tablets of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, and of these things we cannot speak in detail.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the first thing that I want you to see within uh the this section very quickly is that God is holy.
SPEAKER_00: And because God is holy, the presence where He His presence and where He dwells is affected by His holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you read words there about bread of the presence and the lampstands and cherubim, and I might have just as well been telling you about uh how living was back in the 1600s, because you and I have no really understanding of what everything and all of that looks like, because we don't have that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: There there is no uh holy of holies that we still see, there is no Ark of the Covenant that still has all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: But uh in under the first covenant, this is how it would be set up.
SPEAKER_00: You would go into the temple and then uh back behind the or off to the just off to the right, off to the altar, you'd see this large curtain that would lead you into the holy place.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the holy place is only where the priests could go, and in the holy place where the lamp stands and the bread of the presence, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that there's this distinction between the people and the priest, and so there is this holy place.
SPEAKER_00: But another distinction was the holy of holies that went beyond that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that place, as we've already said, is a place where only the high priest would go.
SPEAKER_00: And the high priest would go into that place once a year to make atonement for the people with fear and trembling, because if he makes one false step or he does not treat this place as a holy place, he could end up dead and have to be drugged out of there.
SPEAKER_00: And we know this for multiple different things throughout the Old Testament, but the greatest story that has to do with the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of God is in it, is because there is this one guy in 1 Chronicles chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: His name was what?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody remember?
SPEAKER_00: Uzzah.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're perfectly fine.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Uzzah.
SPEAKER_00: Uzzah was just a guy.
SPEAKER_00: Don't know much about Uzzah, but what we do know from the story is Uzzah is dead.
SPEAKER_00: And Uzzah died in a really interesting way.
SPEAKER_00: The Ark of the Covenant is being transported, it's it's going along this hard terrain.
SPEAKER_00: One of the axles breaks and it's about to fall in the mud.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, there's no touching of this ark on the side.
SPEAKER_00: There's a specific way how it's transported.
SPEAKER_00: There's a specific way how Moses would go into the tent of meeting with the Lord because it is where the Lord decided to rest his presence with the people, isn't the Ark of the Covenant?
SPEAKER_00: And this thing is about to fall onto the ground where it would get muddy and dirty and all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: And so Uzzah, in a natural reaction, but yet still a foolish reaction, decides what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try to catch it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, well, the Lord definitely doesn't want this thing on the ground because then it's gonna get dirty.
SPEAKER_00: What Uzzah forgot to remember was the one thing that would make this dirty is not the dirt from the ground, it is the hands of sinful man.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord is what?
SPEAKER_00: Holy.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah in chapter six says that he has a vision of being in the temple of the Lord, where it says that uh he saw the Lord high and lifted up, the train of his robe filled the temple, which remember the longer the train, the more majestic the ruler.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, whenever you watch the queen, you know, her her um uh wedding or or her uh um is it confirmation for the queen?
SPEAKER_00: Or uh coronation, that's it.
SPEAKER_00: Not con yeah, that one coronation.
SPEAKER_00: Um when when you see the the the long train of her robe, it just signifies her power and authority.
SPEAKER_00: So Isaiah says the train of the Lord's robe filled the temple, and his voice shook the foundations of the temple, and there were cherubim that were flying above him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the same things that are uh mentioned here, and cherubim had six wings, and they were created for the environment that they were created for, which is the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so with their six wings, two of them covered their face, two of them covered their feet, and two of them let they flew around.
SPEAKER_00: And they do have one job, and that one job is to say exactly what Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Al said holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth is full of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah sees all of this.
SPEAKER_00: The uh the the smoke in the temple is is filling up, and he sees the holiness of God, he sees him on his throne in this vision, and even in this vision, Isaiah says, What?
SPEAKER_00: Woe is me, for I am undone.
SPEAKER_00: For I have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean when we say that the Lord is holy?
SPEAKER_00: Above everything, okay.
SPEAKER_00: What else?
SPEAKER_00: It's very pivotal that we understand this definition, so I'm glad that we're we're we're gonna work through this because I want you to remember this as you leave.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean that the Lord is holy?
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
SPEAKER_00: Who else said it?
SPEAKER_00: You said it, you said it.
SPEAKER_00: Gene see me after clash, you guys get a high five.
SPEAKER_00: Um set apart, different, but but but set apart in a whole nother league, in a whole nother realm.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord to be holy means he is distinguished above all else.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when the angels say that he's holy, they don't just describe him as holy, but they use Hebrew repetition to ascribe to him significance.
SPEAKER_00: So when they say that he is holy, holy, holy, the it is to the superlative degree that they are ascribing praise to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Catch that ascribing praise.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that in the Sunday, ascribing praise to the Lord, and essentially what they're saying is the Lord is holy, he is holier, he is holiest.
SPEAKER_00: For him, being holy, holy, holy is how we can sing with strong confidence, there is none like you.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is no one like the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus calls us to be holy as our Father is holy, is He calling us to be perfect?
SPEAKER_00: He's calling us to be set apart.
SPEAKER_00: Be set apart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, through seeking holiness, we seek to be more like Jesus, who is morally perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Who uh loved the Lord God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, loved his neighbor as himself, but but he in seeking holiness is seeks to be set apart.
SPEAKER_00: And in all of his conduct and in all of his ways, the Lord Jesus Christ was set apart from any other man that has ever lived because he was sinless.
SPEAKER_00: But we see in this passage that the Lord is holy and he is to be treated as holy.
SPEAKER_00: Only the high priest could go in, only the high priest is allowed to go in.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is established by God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is holy and set apart.
SPEAKER_00: And because he is holy, we worship him because of that.
SPEAKER_00: But specifically within this passage, God is holy, so worship of him under the old covenant had to be precise.
SPEAKER_00: It had to be distinct.
SPEAKER_00: There was no other way that it could happen outside of a priest doing this because he's holy and he demands that reverence.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's keep reading because the second thing that I want you to see is that Christ has atoned for our sin as the great high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, 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 the way I'm sorry, I lost my place.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm sorry, indicates that the way into the holy place is not yet open 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 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, until the time where it is changed.
SPEAKER_00: So this sacrifice that the priest would go in and make, it only covered what?
SPEAKER_00: Food and drink.
SPEAKER_00: And the law that described that was given for how they were to eat and how they were to drink, the various washing, the regulations for the body, all of these things is what this sacrifice will be made for.
SPEAKER_00: It couldn't, as the writer says here, according to this arrangement and gift sacrifice are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with the external.
SPEAKER_00: This is the significance of reaching brothers and reaching those that are uh within the Jewish community, because the rituals that they still cling to that are performed by the high priest only take care of if they break the Sabbath, if they don't eat the proper dietary restrictions, if they don't do these things.
SPEAKER_00: But there is no cleansing of the inside, there is no cleansing of the conscience, because that is for the Messiah to do.
SPEAKER_00: And what we know is that while there was a time where the the high priest would go in, he would have blood all over his hands, that he would sprinkle onto the mercy seat to cover those unintentional sins or those breaking of the laws and restrictions, but but not really dealing with the conscience.
SPEAKER_00: What we know as Christ being the greater high priest is that he enters once and for all to pay for the sins of those who would trust in him, those sins that are within us.
SPEAKER_00: And as we talked about a few weeks ago, this those sins of iniquity and those sins of internal, those that wickedness of the heart, those transgressions or the transgressions, the outer sin and the iniquity, the wickedness internally.
SPEAKER_00: All these preparations and ritual duties, they are meant to cover the exterior.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody during this time could could cover what's happened within the heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's the main message that Jesus gives to the people in the Sermon on the Mount, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: He says, You've heard it said, do not commit murder.
SPEAKER_00: What act is that?
SPEAKER_00: It's an external act, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's an external act upon anger within the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, but what I say is, if you have looked upon your brother with anger in your heart, hate in your heart, you have done what?
SPEAKER_00: You've committed murder.
SPEAKER_00: This is significant because that this is not simply a well, I haven't murdered anybody, like I haven't externally done that.
SPEAKER_00: But but it what Jesus is saying, yes, exactly, but even if you haven't done it externally, the iniquity in your heart, the wickedness in your heart has already led you to commit that as an act of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing that he says for adultery, right?
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it said, not to commit adultery, but I I say to you, if you look upon a woman lustfully, you've done what?
SPEAKER_00: Committed adultery in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a problem within this sacrificial system, and that is you have a much bigger issue than failing to follow the dietary laws or the washing laws or all the regulations of the Sabbath as a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: You have a problem of the heart that cannot be fixed by this sacrificial system.
SPEAKER_00: But that's been known.
SPEAKER_00: What did David say?
SPEAKER_00: You won't delight in offerings or sacrifices, or he'd he said what?
SPEAKER_00: Or I would give them to you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, A broken and contrite heart you will not despise.
SPEAKER_00: Even back then, the system was sufficient for a moment, but but it wasn't complete.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't perfect yet until a greater high priest went through the veil or went into the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_00: A greater high priest made a sacrifice that is sufficient to cover all sin, not just external transgressions, but internal iniquity sin of those who would put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: This is significant for us to recognize because it's significant for our world today.
SPEAKER_00: As much as you might be able to change or to go back on what you have done externally, there's nobody, not even yourself, that that can cover your sin in its totality.
SPEAKER_00: There has to be an atonement made by someone who is sufficient enough to make that atonement that covers.
SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what Christ Jesus has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: He has made an atonement for us, thus reconciling us and giving us that ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the weight of this significant moment.
SPEAKER_00: The third thing that I want you to see is because of Christ, I can commune with God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: But when Christ appeared as a 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 and calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
SPEAKER_00: For at the blood of boats, 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 through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
SPEAKER_00: This is what Christ Jesus has done for you and I, the place that we could not go because we did not have access to, because we did not have the righteousness to go before.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus has purchased for us a righteousness not of our own, and he has laid it upon us because he is the one that has gone through into the Holy of Holies and offered a sacrifice that is sufficient for, if you notice here, and eternal redemption.
SPEAKER_00: This rest that we see that we're called to go into, this eternal rest and spiritual rest, is what he offers to those who trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: And if the sprinkling of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer are able to purify those uh flesh, though, those uh iniquity or those transgressions of the flesh, as the writer says, how much more, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offer himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from the dead from dead works to serve the living God?
SPEAKER_00: Christ entered into that holy of holies in a tent not made by human hands before the throne of God, and his hands were not covered with the blood of goats and calves, his hands were covered with his own blood, poured out for the sins of those who would believe in him, and his atonement for the sins of those who trust in him is sufficient to eternally save them.
SPEAKER_00: Because what would have to happen after you go to Jerusalem and you take your family from wherever you were, and you make your trek up to Jerusalem, and you climb those mountains and of some four three to four thousand um feet in altitude, and you go into that temple uh that time during the spring on the day of Passover, and you take the Passover meal and you have sacrifice made, and you have that little trip with your family, and you would then turn around and go back home, and you'd do the same thing again next year.
SPEAKER_00: Have to go back because you need you need another atonement made.
SPEAKER_00: You you need another sacrifice made, you need another intercession of the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: But the writer says that once and for all, Christ entered in.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we say at Easter that the veil was torn in two.
SPEAKER_00: What's the significance?
SPEAKER_00: It is that you and I can commune with God now, not because we are righteous, because none are righteous, none were able to commune with God just face to face on their own merit, but because he is righteous and he has purchased us that privilege to be able to go into his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Because let's let's go back to the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Where were you and I, if we were not priests, allowed to go within the temple?
SPEAKER_00: We could go into the temple, we can even go to the altar, but but any place of significance of communing with the Lord and hearing from the Lord, you and I were cut off from.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't get to do that.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember when I when Zachariah goes into the temple to burn incense, as he takes his duties during that time to pray for the Messiah to come, and the angel of the Lord speaks to him and says, Hey, your wife's gonna have a baby, and you're gonna name him John, or you're and and and you're he's gonna be the front runner uh before the Messiah comes, and and he's just baffled.
SPEAKER_00: He comes out of the temple, and what's the first thing that the people say?
SPEAKER_00: He had a vision.
SPEAKER_00: What did they say?
SPEAKER_00: Because they don't get to see that, they don't get to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: They they they're trusting you to hear from God and for God to speak to you, and then he speaks to us.
SPEAKER_00: But through Christ Jesus, his communion is with all who put their trust in him, and his presence is with all who put their trust in him through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the significance of why we celebrate Easter.
SPEAKER_00: Why we look with anticipation of what Jesus has done on the cross, because on the cross he was the sacrificial lamb.
SPEAKER_00: And through the cross is how he enters into the presence of the Lord to make atonement for sin, to cover our sin.
SPEAKER_00: He covers the mercy seat with his blood, a true propitiation for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, propitiation is a word of a sufficient sacrifice to satisfy a payment needed.
SPEAKER_00: He is the sufficient sacrifice that has redeemed you and I unto the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God has done to us or for us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that his spirit, for all of those who believe in him and trust in him, now enters into them and seals and secures them because that atonement payment is sufficient to cover sins for all who trust and believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, does that mean that you and I always honor the Lord because we uh honor the Lord based on what he has done for us in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And with all of us collectively, we would give a sigh of frustration and we would say, What?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But here is the grace of God that our performance is not what our propitiation is based on.
SPEAKER_00: It is by his blood that he has satisfied the requirement the requirements of the Lord for our sin and has purchased us by his blood so that you and I, though we stumble, though we fall, though we do not walk in in uh in godliness all the time, though though we say words we shouldn't, when that person cuts us off in traffic, though we get frustrated when things don't go our way, though though you know we respond in ways that we shouldn't, our lives are not perfect, but his sacrifice is.
SPEAKER_00: And that is why he had to do what he did when he came to this earth.
SPEAKER_00: That is why it is the good pleasure and and great work of God to crush the Son so that he could make us sons and daughters by his blood.
SPEAKER_00: His blood covers us, his salvation reconciles us.
SPEAKER_00: He he has purchased his sacrifice has justified us, and you and I are able to draw near the throne of grace, as the writer says in Hebrews chapter 4, with confidence, because our high priest has purchased that right for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is our eternal security through an eternal redemption.
SPEAKER_00: That was that was the words of um, you know, uh sat with Miss Marilyn Logis um last March, a few weeks before she ended up passing away.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh what an encouragement that that woman was.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what an encouragement the time with her was because uh Miss Marilyn sat there the whole time just telling me how she could not wait to be in the presence of the Lord, and how she could not wait to to stand before him and to worship him because of what Jesus had done for her, because that is the that that is the hope of every believer.
SPEAKER_00: The hope of every believer is not that we get to go to heaven uh to see loved ones, it is not that we get to go to heaven uh and to go fishing or do whatever we want, as the writer of Psalms would say in Psalm 70 or 71, I can't remember.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist says, Um, no, 73.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's Asaph who says, Who and I, who have I in heaven but you?
SPEAKER_00: What else is there for me on this earth but you, and who and I in heaven but you?
SPEAKER_00: The whole point of this salvation that we've received is to point us to the Lord as we see to that rest that he has purchased for us, and not hardening our heart to that rest, but continue to walk in pursuing him so that one day we can enter into that rest that is in his presence forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: An inheritance that has been purchased for us and that is awaiting us for all who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth thing that I want us just to see, and and that is that this new covenant is God making a way for us to be in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, if you revert back to verse one, the writer says, Now, even the first covenant had regulations for worship, and we saw all of those regulations, but Jeremiah reminds us in chapter 31 that, or tells us that there is a new covenant coming.
SPEAKER_00: And this new covenant would be different from the old covenant, Jeremiah chapter 31, starting in verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the old covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the covenant that I will make with those of the house or with the house of house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
SPEAKER_00: And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his neighbor saying, Know the Lord, for they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive them their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
SPEAKER_00: How is he able to do this only through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And through that, filling each and every one who would receive this salvation through this covenant, being indwelled with his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Before this new covenant, you and I didn't really have any access to the Lord outside of a priest that would just make intercession for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we could pray and ask the Lord, and we we could go to the temple and all of these things, but there is no going before the king.
SPEAKER_00: There is no uh standing in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And a holy and righteous God has made a way for you and I to stand before him, and that is not based on anything other than his own righteousness that he gives to us that we have received in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This circumcision of the heart that the Lord has done for us is how we get to then come before his presence.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does this mean for you and I?
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord has given us access access to go before him, what's what's one of the main ways that we get to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Say it louder, my story.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's multiple different types of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We we we've talked through this.
SPEAKER_00: There's prayer of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: So as as the Lord has worked, we get to go before the Lord, and we don't have to go to any mediator or any intercessor, but we have an intercessor in Christ Jesus who sits at the right hand of God, who gives us access to the Father, so I can go to the Lord and and enter and and And give prayers of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: And what does the word the Bible tell us?
SPEAKER_00: That He He hears us.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm in a situation that seems hopeless, I have petitions that I can bring before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need a priest to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need any other kind of mediator between me and God.
SPEAKER_00: I can myself go before the Lord and take all of this to him.
SPEAKER_00: When I find myself in moments of conviction over sin, I can confess sin to him, and I can repent of sin and I can go to him with a broken and contrite heart.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that at his throne I will receive mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And when I need strength to go throughout uncertain times, times of trouble, times where it is just a long road ahead, I can go to the Lord and seek his strength.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that when I go to his throne, I not only receive mercy, but I have a high priest who is a help for me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, oftentimes, there's a couple different ways that we view prayer negatively.
SPEAKER_00: One of the negative ways that we view prayer is that the Lord doesn't want to hear from me, or I don't know how to talk to him.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem that we have there is that it's like, well, he's God, you know, and he's he's he's this God on high, and I'm I'm little old me down low, and and I don't really know how to talk to him.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, hey, um Jesus has purchased for you a salvation where he looks at you like he sees Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see in Matthew chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: The same righteousness that's on Jesus is the same righteousness that when the Lord saw his son, he said, This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your righteousness that makes it that way.
SPEAKER_00: It is his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And so, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: God wants to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00: He has given you access to him because he wants to commune with you.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the main ways that he communicates with us outside of through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as we read the Word of God is prayer to strengthen you, to embolden you, to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: We commune with God that way.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the Lord and ask for strength because we know where our strength comes from.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the Lord and ask for mercy because that's where mercy comes from.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the Lord and ask for Him to work in situations because we know He's the one that's in control over all of these things have been given to us access by God.
SPEAKER_00: Another thing that this means for us is this.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, one of the biggest ways we can get so stuck in in this vicious circle of sin is again, we feel like I have to perform my way into the graces of God and to earn what Jesus has purchased for me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem with that.
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
SPEAKER_00: What does faith require?
SPEAKER_00: Repentance and belief.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: What does it produce in us?
SPEAKER_00: Obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because of what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are lived to be in response to the grace of God and what he has done for us in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So when we read this passage, I am not telling you these things so you could be great Bible scholars.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you these things so that you can know with confidence that the salvation you have received in Christ Jesus is enough to save you and keep you here on this earth and for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is what his word has just told us.
SPEAKER_00: And it is greater than any religious system that you can find on this earth, including the one that was put in place pointing to the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what you and I have to remember as we walk throughout this life.
SPEAKER_00: We have to remember that all we have in this life to cling to and to hope to is the work of Christ that He has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: And my response to that is signify my response to that signifies how that has so impacted my life.
SPEAKER_00: There was this little girl, I say little girl, she's like 18, sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's this girl that is uh gone to a major conference, and um it was some 20 years ago, and uh she's standing uh before one of the greatest theologians of of modern history um in the last um 50 years, and and and theologians and preachers, and uh she's standing before him and she goes, I have a question for you, uh Dr.
SPEAKER_00: MacArthur, I have a question.
SPEAKER_00: How does one know that they are saved?
SPEAKER_00: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, How do I know that I'm saved?
SPEAKER_00: Because I love Jesus and I'm trying to live for Jesus, but I still find myself stumbling, I still find myself falling, I still find myself uh just not being able to keep what I read in scripture, and she just starts crying.
SPEAKER_00: In one of the tenderest, most sweetest moments, he just says, you know, he goes, Dear sister, he goes, You in this moment have just shown a heart that desires to love the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, fight sin, but do not equate giving into sin as a heart, or do not equate struggling with sin as a heart that has not been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Are you and I gonna struggle with sin for the rest of our life?
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: That's the worst news that that we can hear, that we know as believers.
SPEAKER_00: The worst news is that I will always struggle with sin and I will never live a perfect life here on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: But that is what takes the point of the gospel and makes it so incredibly beautiful and sweet.
SPEAKER_00: That he came and bled and died and gave himself up as we celebrated this last Sunday with communion.
SPEAKER_00: He gave of himself and he poured out of himself to purchase a salvation that you and I could not earn and we did not deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And he freely gives it to us for all who would trust, repent, and believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: As Spurgeon said, he does not buy his sheep sight unseen.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord knows you, he knows your sin, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_00: And he still said uh that you are worth dying for to offer salvation to.
SPEAKER_00: He looked at a wicked world and said, I'm still willing to send my son to pay for sin.
SPEAKER_00: What does this lead us to?
SPEAKER_00: Performance?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Rest.
SPEAKER_00: Rest for a soul that I don't have to earn the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's given it to me freely.
SPEAKER_00: My response then is to respond to the grace of God by being obedient to what he has called me to do, which is to become more like and follow after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So what does Romans chapter or Hebrews chapter 9, verses 1 through 14 show me?
SPEAKER_00: It shows me that Christ Jesus went into the place that I into the place that I could not.
SPEAKER_00: He took my place and he went into the place that I could not to purchase me a salvation that would give me access to God and a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: A new covenant that has been redeemed and and purchased for us by God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Next week we're we'll continue on in Hebrews chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: But let me pray for us and then we'll we'll exit.