Hebrews 9 (Part 1)

I don't know if you have actually read ahead at all, or you're reminded very much of what Hebrews 9 is about, where we're going to continue to deal with the meat of the word here as we've been doing the last few weeks. Not the milk, but the meat. And we're going to be going through this chapter and we're not going to get through all of it. I intended to get through all of it, and it was just one of those things where it didn't happen in my study time. So we're going to, we're just going to kind of go through these verses and we're going to stop and see what the Lord is saying here, to us. You'll recall last week we dealt with the New Covenant that God established versus the Old Covenant. And it was actually an important message. Because if you've ever struggled with understanding the difference between the Old and the New Covenant, that message, and frankly the last part of chapter 8, really dealt with that. And the author is still doing that somewhat in this chapter. Still making comparisons. However, in this chapter he's getting more into the comparison between the tabernacle and the very throne of God in heaven. And so we're going to kind of get into that a little bit today. And the fact that Jesus, our great high priest, offered His own blood in heaven for payment for our sins. Now he begins, look at this, verse 1 chapter 9. He says, “Now, even the first Covenant,” (and he's talking about the mosaic Covenant) “had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness,” And then he tells you what that was. In verse 2, he says, “for a tent was prepared.” And I want you to stop there for just a moment. I promise you we'll read through more of these verses, but I want you to give me your attention because he's talking to us here about the tent. And you'll remember because this can be a little confusing. Prior to God giving Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle, prior to that happening, Moses used to meet with God. This is when they're in the wilderness in a special tent that he'd set aside. And he called it the tent of meeting. Okay? And all it was used for was meeting with God. That's all Moses did. And you'll remember that Moses would go and meet with God face to face, and it says that the cloud would descend over the tent and he would meet with the Lord and commune with the Lord there, and Joshua would go with him. And then when the cloud lifted and Moses left, Joshua would stay, which is kind of cool. Tells you a little bit about Joshua. But it was called “The Tent of Meeting.” Well then later on, God gave Moses instructions for building the tabernacle, which was also a tent, which we're going to talk about today, which is where their worship went on. But the name that Moses had originally given to his place of meeting to the Lord “The Tent of Meeting” got switched to the tabernacle. So when you read through the rest of what goes on in the wilderness, they will refer to the tabernacle as The Tent of Meeting. Those names will be interchangeable. And it's because he originally had a tent that wasn't the tabernacle. Which was for meeting with God. So but now that they're meeting with him in this place of holiness, the tabernacle, that name kind of switched over, all right? So the Tabernacle was not particularly large. Let me put a picture up on the screen here for you. (slide) Now this is the tabernacle plus the whole courtyard or what they called the outer courts, but the tabernacle was really just that thing very back there, and it's not big at all. It was only 45 feet long and about 15 feet wide. It would've fit, easily, in this auditorium. And it was essentially made up of two rooms. There were two rooms in it, and the author is going to describe those two rooms in this chapter. And that's where we go onto our next image where we can kind of see here, just in that yellow portion on the left. Those two rooms. (slide) And one room is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. And the other one is basically square, 15 by 15. I don't know if that accurately shows it there, but you can kind of see it there. And as we read through these verses, I'm going to have you just keep that image up on the screen because, I think as I'm reading through these, you're going to want to refer back to it and look at it. And he says, we're still in verse 2 here in Hebrews 9, and he says, “The first section, in which were the lampstand (or the menorah, if you will), and the table and the bread of the Presence.” In the image that you're looking at, it's called the table of show bread. And he says “It is called the Holy Place.” And so that first, larger room when you come in from the right there was referred to as “The Holy Place.” And then he says in verse 3, “Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place,” or as it's listed on that image, the Holy of Holies. And then he begins to describe what you would find in there. “Having the golden altar of incense,” And frankly, the golden altar of incense wasn't in the Holy of Holies regularly. It was taken in by the priest, and so it was only in there when he brought it in there once a year. But he says, “and the arc of the Covenant, covered on all sides with gold in which was the golden urn holding the manna.” These are the things that were inside the arc. They actually had an urn. They picked up some of the manna off the ground that God had fed them with, and they kept it in the arc and it kept in there. “and Aaron's staff that had budded was also found inside the arc when there was an issue with who ought to be ministering before the altar.” You'll remember that happened during the wilderness journey, “and also the tablets of the Covenant.” In other words, the tablets on which were written, the 10 Commandments were also located inside the arc of the Covenant. All those things were in there. And then he says in verse 5, look with me in your Bible, it says, “Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.” It's Valentine's Day today. I probably just bummed out some guys, but it is Valentine's Day today. And every year you see these little pictures of these angels, these little naked baby angels, or whatever. Don't ever begin to think that that's what the cherubim looked like. They were awesome. They were magnificent. They were mighty angels that attended the throne of God. And were told here that the Cherubim of Glory, which were these carved images of these Cherubim angels were overshadowing the mercy seat, which is essentially that picture of the throne of God Almighty. But the author says, and we're still at the very end of verse 5, he says, “of these things, we cannot now speak in detail.” So he's not going to get into a whole lot about these things, but he's going to go on to make his first point, and that is in verse 6. He says, “these preparations having thus been made,” and he's talking about during the Mosaic Covenant, the priests go regularly into the first section, that's the Holy Place, performing their duties. And do you guys know that the priests would go into that first section daily? They'd go into the Holy Place daily and they had things that they had to do in there, daily. They had to go in and make sure that the menorah was burning brightly. They had to go in and burn incense. On the Sabbath they would replace the bread with some fresh bread on the table of show bread, which of course was a picture of having fellowship with God. But then he goes on to say here in verse 7, “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.” And if you'll stop there, again, this is what we've talked about many times. On the day of Atonement, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies. And he would go two times. So 364 days of the year, nobody would go into the Holy of Holies. They never went in there. And the only person who did go there on that one day was the high priest, and he went in two times. Before he could go in and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice for the sins of Israel, he had to go in first and sprinkle blood for his own sins. So he had to take care of his own issues because he himself was a sinner. And So then he'd go back and get the blood of the sacrifice and go in and make atonement for the rest of the nation. But nobody else was ever allowed into the Holy of Holies, ever. You don't go in there. Okay? And that's why the author says, if you look with me in verse 8, this is a very important verse. “By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age).” Now, I want you to stop there because this is a very important verse and it's important that we understand it. I want you to notice in verse 8 that the writer says that this picture of the tabernacle, which God took great pains to give to you and me related to what Jesus ultimately did. It's a picture, he says, that is symbolic “for” the present age or “of” the present age. Here's what's interesting: that word “symbolic” in the Greek, it's where we get our word parable and we know that a parable is a story. So the author is saying to you and me that this picture of the tabernacle that we read about through the Old Testament is a story. It's telling a story and it's a story of a greater reality. But he's saying that one of the things we learned from this story, and you see this in the Old Testament, is that it's closed. That's what he's saying here. As long as this thing, this picture this parable that God is saying through the tabernacle is that the way to God is closed. You can't go in there. Don't go in there. And that's a message that we hear over and over again through the Old Testament. The way is closed. “You want to go talk to God? Ha? No, sorry. You can't go into his presence.” Do you remember what God said to the people or to Moses to tell the people when he was about to give them the 10 Commandments? You'll remember that God spoke the 10 Commandments to the nation of Israel. They heard the voice of God. Freaked them out, but they heard the voice of God. Let me show you what, remind you what he said.

Set it apart. So he says the people aren't, they're not going to come. You told me, and I told them, they're not going to even, you remember they said, even if your goat touches the edge of the mountain, kill it. Right? Nobody approaches God except those who He allowed. And then when they came into the land, so then Joshua, of course brings them into the promised land, they're getting ready to cross the Jordan and all that stuff. The priests are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, remember? Remember how that all went, Joshua? Let's take a look here, chapter 3: (slide)

Okay, are you getting the message? You see the parable? You see the story that is being repeated to us over and over? In the Old Testament, the message is very clear. Stay back. Don't come near. Don't do it. Don't even try. So how does that differ from the Covenant that we are under today? How does that differ? Well, this is what Dan prayed here this morning,

There's another story for you. There's another parable for you. What is God saying? The way is open. It was closed before. Now it's open. Why? What made the difference? Jesus now cleansed the worshiper to be able to enter. Okay. Jesus now cleansed the worshiper through the, He paid the price. He paid your price. Now you can come. It's like, “You want to come meet with God? Sure. Come on.” I imagine there were probably some angels that ripped the curtain. Wouldn't that have been a cool assignment? It's like you, Joey and Matt, I don't know what their names were. You guys go down and I want you to rip that baby from top to bottom. And they're like, “Yes! They can come in now.” Right? Do you remember what we read earlier here in Hebrews in chapter 4, verse 16? Let me put this on the screen. (slide)

See, that's an invitation that the saints in the Old Testament didn't have. “Let us draw near.” “You want to come meet with God? Yeah! Sure! Come on, the way is open. You're free now. You want to meet with God? Yes. The curtain has been rent. You can now enter into the Holy…” “Wait a bit. But I'm not an Aaronic priest!” It doesn't matter. You're a child of God. You've been cleansed through the blood of the lamb. Now come into the Holy of Holies. Oh, how we take this for granted today. If we could go back in time, live through just a week or so of living and relating to God through the Old Covenant. If you could go back for a month, you'd be so anxious to get back to 2021 with all the junk going on. This, I know. Think anybody wants to go to 2021? Yeah, because the Covenant that we are under, no matter what's going on in the world. You can come into the presence of God whenever you want, wherever you may be. You're free. There was another complaint about the Old Covenant and that was about what it couldn't do. Look with me at the very end of verse 9. We've kind of started verse 9, but he goes on in that verse to say, “According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10but deal only with food and drink and various washings.” Notice that he calls them “regulations for the body,” imposed until the time of Reformation. And here's what he's saying. Here's what he's saying. Give me your attention because this is important to understand what this verse is saying too. He's saying that the Old Covenant was directed at those things which were external, regulations for the body, for the outside washings and what you eat and what you drink, and stuff like that. But the Old Covenant didn't make any provisions for the heart. It couldn't affect the heart. It was external, it wasn't internal. And people, it was no mistake that God wrote the 10 commandments on stone. That wasn't because there was nothing else to write on at the moment. “Oh, what do we got here? Well, we got a lot of rock. Let's grab some rock.” No. Very specific and purposeful that God wrote the 10 Commandments on tablets of stone because they're rigid and they're external, and they were also a picture of the heart, which was very much like stone. And so he's saying that this is one of the issues with the Old Covenant. It dealt with the exterior out here. It didn't deal with “in”. Inside here. So how's that different from the New Covenant? Well, you guys remember the prophecy we read last week that was being quoted by the writer of Hebrews, from Jeremiah, chapter 31? You remember? Remember one of the elements of the New Covenant? Let me put it again on the screen to remind you. Verse 33, (slide)

See the difference? The Old Covenant couldn't deal with the inner man. The New Covenant can. It was made specifically to deal with the inner man. And see, when you, when you and I focus on externalities, we do the New Covenant a great disfavor. I remember back, back in the hippie days, back when the whole Jesus people movement was brewing down in Southern California, it was also brewing on the East coast as well. But you don't hear as much about that. But a lot of these hippies were trying to find, “the purpose of life”, and some of them were getting into drugs. Some of them are into sex, some of them are into this and that. Eastern religions and some of them got into the Bible. Because they're looking for truth. So they start showing up at the doors of churches. And you guys know about the sixties, right? Square, it's what they used to refer to people as. And so they showed up at some of these churches, and these churches were like, you can't come in here, not dressed like that, you can't. You go get some shoes, get your hair cut, maybe buy yourself a, a suit and tie and we'll let you come to church. What a tragedy that was. Because you see the whole New Covenant is all about what happens on the inside and then works its way to the outside. What we were doing back in the sixties, shame on us many, is that we were focusing on externalities. “You’ve got to look good out here, before you can get in”, that's exactly the opposite of what the New Covenant is all about. Thank God there were some churches down in Southern California and fortunately Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa was one of them. Not the only one, but one of them, that embraced these hippies and let them come into church, barefoot long hair and sit on the floor. And they even let them bring their guitars and stuff in there with them, which had never happened before. People back then thought that there were certain anointed instruments for church services, and one of them was the organ. Thank God we put that one away. I grew up, my mother played the organ at church, foot pedals and all. Feet are going as fast as her fingers are going. Sing it. I didn't, I never liked it. It always sounded like a haunted house to me, to be completely honest with you. I got to just got to tell you. But suddenly, it's a whole new environment. Why? Because they got a hold of the fact that the New Covenant is all about change from the inside. And eventually it did change the outside. Kind of. I saw this funny meme that came out just this last week, said, so is it like a News story from the Babylon Bee Calvary Chapel pastor, late for church because he can't find his dress sandals. Something like that. But anyway, you got to… So the New Covenant is internal, deals with the heart, all right? Now the author connects all of this talk of the tabernacle, the Old Covenant, the New Covenant with the work of Christ in heaven. Look what he says in verse 11 with me in your Bible, he says, “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's talking about heaven. The very presence of God. 12 “he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” All right? In other words, what he's saying is that Jesus not only operates in a superior sanctuary, not one built with human hands, but he also brings a superior sacrifice, not the blood of bulls and goats and lambs, but his own blood by which he makes peace between God and man through his blood. And this is really vital. And what's particularly vital about here and I read a phrase there for you in verse 12 that might have just zoomed right past you, but it was a very specific phrase that he mentions concerning the sacrifice of Jesus, saying that it was once for all. Did you catch that? It was right there at the beginning of verse 12. He said “he entered once for all.” And those words I don't know if I can emphasize them enough for you. They're so important. In fact, they should probably be highlighted in your Bible and fixed in your mind. Jesus made his sacrifice once for all because this is in contrast to the Old Testament priests who had to go repeatedly and sacrifice the blood of goats and bulls in a model of heaven, a model, a crude model at that, of heaven. And that repetition you guys, the fact that the high priest had to do it and then do it again, and then do it again, and then do it again the next year. That itself was a picture of the fact that what he was doing didn't completely get the job done. It was incomplete. It was inadequate. When you have to do something repeatedly, it kind of tells you something, doesn't it? You’ve got to keep doing it. Jesus made his sacrifice once for all and look what he says in verse 13. “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,” And that's talking about the outer man. He might, could, might just as well have said that if all these things that they did in the Old Testament were good enough to cleanse the outer man, he says in verse 14, now, “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience (and that's the inner man) from dead works to serve the living God.” You see, we're still doing this. Contrast as if under the Old Covenant, the outer man could be cleansed and sanctified through these rituals, how much more will the inner man be transformed, forgiven, cleansed, washed, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ? It's just, it's wonderful. All right. Ready for the main point? We still have a lot of main points, but here we go again. Verse 15. “Therefore, he is the mediator of a New Covenant, (We talked about that last week) so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first Covenant.” And I know this verse is kind of wordy, and when you read it, it might be a little confusing at first, but it's important that we understand that it emphasizes the superiority of what Jesus, our high priest, has done for us in the death he's talking about when he says that since a death has occurred, obviously he's talking about the death of Jesus dying for us on the cross by which he redeemed us from our sins and transgressions. But I want you to notice again the very end of verse 15. This is really important that you see this. I'm kind of in the middle of the verse. “since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first Covenant.” Did you get that? Jesus came and died to pay for the sins committed before. This is really important. People ask me all the time, “Pastor Paul, I know that Jesus died for our sins. I know that well. What about the sins of the people before Jesus died? What about those? Are you telling me that a goat could die at a man's place or a bull or a sheep? Is that how they were forgiven in the Old Testament? And how does that actually work?” Well, you see, this is really important because Paul, the Apostle, actually addresses this issue when he writes to the Romans in the third chapter of that letter. Let me show you this on the screen. He writes and he reminds us, he says, (slide) …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (we know that) and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, (and by the way, I'm quoting this out of the NIV, as you can see. The ESV says, 'as a propitiation') through faith in his blood. (and I want you to notice this last part) He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— The sins committed before Christ were unpunished. You with me now? Okay, let me put this in a form of a question. So let's say you lived before Christ. So your question is, “Okay, if I go before the Lord and I bring a sheep or a goat or whatever, and I confess my sin before God and I offer this sacrifice, will I be forgiven?” Yes, you would be forgiven. Under the Old Covenant, you would be forgiven. But here's the next question. Will my sin actually be punished? And the answer is no, because a goat can't be punished for you. That goat didn't do anything wrong, and that goat can't stand in for you, see? The goat was sacrificed, or the lamb was sacrificed, as a picture reminding the worshiper that a sacrifice is necessary. And that a blood sacrifice is necessary and that a life must be given. It's a reminder of that, not that life that's just an animal, but a life must be given. It's a reminder to you when you do that. And so again, what did Paul say at the end of that passage in Romans? He said, “in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” They weren't that they had not been punished. And this is just, this is another huge difference between the effectiveness of the New Covenant versus the Old. Because today, guys, you ready? This is absolutely enormous! Punishment has taken place. It's done. Not only are we forgiven, oh yeah, they were forgiven too, under the Old Covenant, but their sins weren't punished. Ours have been punished. Now theirs have also been punished. So why is that important? I mean, if they were forgiven back under the Old Covenant, why was it even important for their sins to be punished or for them to even know that their sins had been punished? Well, did you notice when the writer made a comment about, earlier, about clearing the conscience of the worshiper? Did you, do you remember seeing that? It was back in verse 9. You can just, we won't read it again, but just if you look back in verse 9, you'll remember he said something about how the sacrifices under the Old Covenant can't perfect the conscience of the worshiper? And then again in verse 14, the verse right before the last one we read, you'll remember, and let me read this one again. Verse 14, “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.” That’s important. So why and how does that purify our conscience? And the Old Covenant couldn't do that. The old sacrificial system could not clear the conscience of the worshiper. Ours has been cleared. Why? Because our sin has been punished. All right? And that is why those sacrifices under the Old Covenant could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper. Yes, I'm forgiven, but my sin hasn't been punished. You might say, “Well, what does punishment have to do with it?” I think just about every parent in this room probably knows what I'm talking about. Sue and I raised four kids and I remember back when they were young, we would run into situations for which we had to deal with them in some form of discipline, punishment, and the kids knew that they had done wrong, and usually they were a mess emotionally until we dealt with it. Whether we dealt with it at the end of a spoon or however we dealt with it we eventually had to come to a place where we dealt with it. But what was really interesting and I never enjoyed disciplining my children, I’ve got to tell you that right now, but I do have to tell you that once it was done, once the punishment was over, I could see how their conscience had been cleared and now the relationship between parent and child was restored. There was an issue before that. There was, even though they knew that we loved them and we would forgive them, there was this thing that was standing in between us and them. But once that punishment took place, now, after we punished our kids, we would cry with them. And hug them and tell them how much we loved them and we, and reassure them of our devotion to them, and so on. And there was such a beautiful connection that had been restored after that punishment took place because their conscience had now been restored. And that's what the writer here to this letter is talking about. You see the law and the sacrifices couldn't do that. It could promise forgiveness, but it didn't punish sin, and they knew they hadn't been punished. David deserved death. We think David, wonderful character in the Old Testament, right? He deserved to die for what did, and he knew it. He said as much to the prophet Nathan who confronted him with these, and he said “I deserve to die.” He didn't, but his sin was not ultimately punished until Jesus came along. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, our sin has been punished, and that means that Jesus paid the price and now we have a clear conscience. We have a clear conscience to enter into the Holy of Holies. It's one of the things that enables us to enter into the Holy of Holies with joy. I'm not just forgiven, it's over. The punishment phase is over. It's done.

That's what he was declaring on the cross, you guys. The punishment phase is finished, finally. Finally. Do you know that, "it is finished," took three English words to translate one Greek word, "tetelestai"? It was a common word. It was used all the time, used in everyday life. When a servant would complete a task for his master, he'd come back to his master and say, "tetelestai," it is finished. When an artist or a writer was finished, whether they're drawing a picture or writing a manuscript, they would say, "tetelestai." It is finished. And it was even used in the marketplace when a merchant had received the full price for something that he was selling. He would say to the buyer, "tetelestai," paid in full. It is finished. Done. And because Jesus paid our debt and it is finished, our conscience is now clear. And the penalty phase is over and there is no more punishment to be meted out. Christians, please hear me. There's no more punishment. It's been consumed in the person of God's precious Son. It has been consumed. He consumed it all. “Pastor Paul, I've been going through, lost my job. This happened. My dad died. Is God punishing me?” Oh. Breaks my heart every time somebody writes me, or talks to me and asks that question, is God punishing me? I'm like, okay. Let me ask you something. “Is Jesus your savior?” “Yes.” “Do you believe he died on the cross for you?” “Yes.” “Do you believe he paid the whole price of your sin?” “Yes.” “Do you believe he took your punishment?” “Yes.” “Did he take it all?” "Well let me think about that." The answer is yes. He took it all. The punishment phase is over. Tetelestai. It is finished. That's why the Apostle John wrote what he did in 1 John chapter 4 up on the screen. (slide)

When somebody truly understands the love of God that came and finished the punishment phase of your sin, fear goes away. My fear of being in the presence of God, my fear of approaching God, my fear of God, period, is gone because I understand that the love of God has born my penalty, has consumed it. Fear has to do with punishment. You're not going to be punished. "Well, pastor Paul, doesn't it say that we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ?" Yeah, but yours is going to be a different judgment. People say, "I'm so afraid God's going to judge me for my sin." And I'm like, "Oh, Christian, didn't He already judge His Son for your sin?" "Well, then what judgment am I going to have?" You're going to have a judgment of rewards. Yes, every Christian born again believer will stand before God, but only so that God will review how you have used the things that he gave you in this life for His kingdom and for his glory, and you'll receive rewards accordingly. That's your judgment. That's the judgment that awaits you. We call it the bema or the bema seat judgment. That's what awaits you, not judgment from sin. No! That's done, it's over. It is finished. Do you believe what Jesus said, "It is finished?" I do. I take him at His Word. It is finished. Thank you, Jesus. Oh man. I really wish Christians would get this through their hearts because it sets you free. It sets you free to come before God with a clear conscience. Lord, you consume my punishment. It's over. It's done. And now you've been raised from the dead and new life is mine and the hope of eternal life. It's mine and I can have a clear conscience.