Address—C. Hendricks
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You will remember it's found in Matthew 27 and elsewhere in the Gospels that when the Lord died on the cross.
He said it is finished, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.
And then he died.
And it says the veil of the temple was renting Twain from the top to the bottom.
And we're going to read about that veil a little bit here in this chapter in the next to get the significance of what that was when that veil was rent.
Hebrews 9 and verse one. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary, for that was a Tabernacle made the first, wherein was the Candlestick, and the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary.
Now the Tabernacle that we often think of, that Moses erected in the wilderness, and that's what the Hebrews speaks of, doesn't speak of the temple, but it speaks of the Tabernacle. It had two compartments, and this is the first compartment of the Tabernacle. And there was the Candlestick and the table of showbread and.
The all for Vincents, it's not mentioned here, but.
The incense sensor is mentioned.
There was that first compartment.
And the.
The priest went into that compartment, always accomplishing the service of God, but there was a veil in the midst of the Tabernacle, which is the the one that separated the first compartment from the second. The second compartment had the arc. Speaking of the person of Christ that we've been considering. It was made of ******** wood overlaid with gold. ******** wood speaks of his.
Incorruptible humanity, His impeccable humanity.
And the gold, his deity.
Well, after the second veil, they had to enter one veil to get into the first compartment of the Tabernacle, and then there was the second veil that that behind it was the ark.
The Tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. We call it the Holy of Holies. It's where God dwelt.
Which had the Golden Censer and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold.
Wherein was the golden pot that had the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, that is, the ark contained these three things. The golden pot that had the manna. That was the remembrance of the how the Lord fed them when they went through the wilderness, He reigned manna from heaven. And they took some of that and and put it up, and put it in the ark.
And then there was Aaron's rod that budded. You remember the game thing of Cora as they challenged Aaron's priesthood. We're all holy. And there was 250 that offered incense and they were all destroyed. The earth opened his mouth, Jason and Abiram and Moses. Authority was challenged. There was judgment that came upon them. And in the next chapter, right after that.
God said to bring leaders of every tribe with a rod, and they laid it up before the Lord, and the next day they looked, and Aaron's rod budded.
It speaks of his resurrection lifeout of death. A rod doesn't have life in it, but Aaron's rod budded and so God showed by that means they had complained, they had questions. Aaron's Aaron's priesthood just as some challenge of the Lord Jesus as as who he is, the assembling of God, the apostle and also the high priest, the one who's gone back to God to represent us.
And the the against thing of Kara was the most serious.
Of the three evils that you'd mentioned.
Well, Aaron's rod that budded God showed that Aaron was his high priest, and it of course speaks of Christ and then the tables of the covenant, which were the 10 commandments, the law, and that was God's perfect measure for man and responsibility, and these were all kept in the ark.
And then on top of the ark, the ark was a box.
And in the ark were these three things. And on top of the box was a gold print.
And hammered out of that one piece of gold were two carabins, and they looked down upon the mercy seat.
And what did they see? They saw the blood that was sprinkled there once a year by the high priest that came into that holy of holies, and he came with blood and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat. And that's what he's talking about here. The Jewish system was a vast ritualistic system that God had given to Israel.
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To remind them and to instruct them in a typical way of things that they.
These figures, these were just figures of things that had reality to it before the Lord. And there's two ways that today there are two ways that the truth can be denied. The one is rationalism, which is is the deification of the intellect, and that's rationalism, man trying to reason upon the things of God.
And preferring his own thoughts to God's rationalism. That's a direct attack upon Scripture, the rationalists.
They don't believe fundamental truth, and then there are the richer less, and they seem to hold to the form anyway of the truth. But today ritualism is really in a very effective way of setting aside the truth of God. They seem to be so opposed rationalism, rejecting it by 1's intellect and the other is.
One's emotions and feelings.
Seeming to support it.
But both really deny it and they seem to be very far apart, but they they come together in the one thing and that is they deny the word of God. And we'll see as we go through this how that's done. Well, what this chapter is starting with is the ritualism that existed in Judaism.
Verse 5. Now over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly or in detail. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests, that is, when this Jewish system was established of God, the priest went always into the first Tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.
No one dared enter the second compartment.
Which was behind that veil in the middle where God dwelt. The Shekinah glory came down upon that.
A cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And no one had access to that part of the Tabernacle except the high priest once a year, not without blood. And when he entered in, he entered in in a cloud of incense, Speaking of the glories of the person of Christ. And he entered in with blood, Speaking of the efficacy of his work, the work of Christ beautiful.
Types that we have in that, but their value only lay in the typical significance.
That they had. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first Tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God, but into the second, into the second compartment went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people, the Holy Ghost. This signifying that the way into the holiest of all.
That is the immediate presence of God.
Was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle.
Was yet standing. So while the first Tabernacle was standing, and while that ritualistic system of Judaism was in force, the God was not accessible.
They could not enter into his presence, only the high priest, and only alone and only once a year in a cloud of incense and with blood.
And so the Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the presence of God was not yet made manifest. It wasn't open. God was at a distance man could not approach. We don't realize that, you know, they talk in Christmas about the judeo-christian tradition. That's a misnomer if I've ever heard one. Judaism is not Christianity. Christianity is not an improved Judaism or a better Judaism.
They mix the two. Judaism leaves man outside.
Not able to approach God, not able to enter into His presence. Even if the high priest had dared to go in without blood, he would have been stricken dead instantly. Or if he dared to go in without having that cloud of incense, We read that in Leviticus 16.
Man was no longer and he was not able to enter the presence of God as long as that veil was unwrapped. That's the veil between the 1St and 2nd compartment. Now what happened when the Lord died after he had met all the claims of God's holiness with respect to sin and He had borne the judgment of God and He had shed His blood, What happened was the veil of the temple was rent and trained from the top to the bottom.
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That if God rented it was a very thick veil. Very thick.
Man couldn't care it, but God did, and He showed by that that the way into His presence now was open. Notice what it says.
Verse 9 still building on what existed in Judaism while which was a figure, that is, that veil on rent was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience.
And verse 8 says the Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was yet standing. And these things, the value of these things in Judaism was just in their figurative values. They were just figures. They had no intrinsic value whatsoever.
It's important to see that.
And it says which stood only in verse 10 in meats. That is the Judaistic system of vast ritualistic system that God had given to Israel.
And it was proper to be a ritualist when you were a Jew. A Jew is a ritualist with these following the scriptures properly, if he did follow the scriptures properly back then. But the Christian is not a ritualist. The work is all finished. We don't need ritualism. In fact, every bit of ritualism that a Christian practices. And there's thousands of Christians in Christendom that practice ritualism. Everyone that does so denies the efficacy.
Eternal value of the work of Christ.
Ritualism is a denial that the work is done. It is a real it is a reinstating the old order of things and saying that the work of Christ is not sufficient has not brought us into the presence of God, has not put our sins away, and we still have to resort to some ritualistic observances, much of which in Christendom is still being practiced.
Which is really a denial of the eternal efficacy of the work of Christ.
So he's still describing this ritualism in verse 10, and he says which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. That's not referring to the Protestant Reformation, by the way. It's referring to the time when things would be set right and when the ritualistic system would be done away with and the reality to which it printed would be enforced.
You're not Christianity now, having said all that, he says, but Christ.
The income and high priest of good things to come, we are in the good of those good things which have come now.
He came of good things to come. He came in to bring in a better thing. The whole Epistle to the Hebrews shows the the better things of Christianity.
Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands. It's not the one that was builded by Moses in the wilderness, but this is the one that that was a type of, that is to say, not of this building or this creation that is this Tabernacle here he's talking about that Christ is the high priest of is in heaven.
Neither by the blood of goats and calves. That's what characterized the ritualistic system of Judaism, but by his own blood. He came in the power of and characterized not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood.
This is who verse John 5. This is he that came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood. And so here he's spoken of as having come by His own blood, in contrast with the blood of goats and calves. And now He has entered in once into the holy place, having obtained the eternal redemption before us. Should not be in that verse. It properly belongs at the end of verse 24. But he's not talking.
About so much of what he's done for us, but what he has done, period. He has obtained an eternal redemption. He is contrasting the benefits of Christianity and contrasting them with the deficiencies of Judaism.
He has entered in once into the holy place once for all, never to be repeated. The high priest enter in every year afresh, afresh a new work, a new work. Every year it had to be repeated. But what characterizes Christ entrance in is that He was accomplished once.
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And you'll never have to do it again. He's entered in to the Holy of Holies.
Having obtained eternal redemption, now they never obtained eternal redemption in the Old Testament. All those repeated sacrifices of bulls and goats and lambs and Rams, they had to be repeated and repeated and repeated. They could never take away sins. They could never accomplish an eternal redemption. Christ offered one work, Himself, His precious blood, and eternal redemption was the result He obtained.
And eternal redemption, verse 13 For yet the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean.
Sanctify us to the purifying of the flesh. That's the only value that lay in those ritualistic observances of the Old Testament, he says. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God?
Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. I used to wonder what our dead works.
Dead works today are all ritualism, all ritualistic works, dead works.
Anything that we are given to do of a religious nature to make ourselves acceptable to God, no matter what it is, is a ritualistic kind of thing. It's a dead work. It's a dead work. So everyone that practices ritualism today is practicing a system of works which the scriptures label as dead works. No value in them.
In fact, they have a negative value in that they deny.
The efficacy of the once for all, never to be repeated sacrifice of Christ that He accomplished on the cross.
If the blood of virgin of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of their flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. I don't have to bring a sacrifice, I don't have to.
Do anything go through any kind of ritualistic observance? Because.
The work of Christ has set me, each one of us, in his presence, acceptable by virtue of what Christ did, once for all, once for all.
For this 'cause he's the mediator of the New Testament and so on. Let's pass down. We don't have time to go through all these things and.
It says in verse 23, It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be terrified with these, that is, these animal sacrifices and so on. But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands. He didn't enter into the earthly Tabernacle or the earthly temple, but He has answered what?
Into which are the figures of the true. But he's entered into heaven.
Itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. And neither for us should be there. He now is in the presence of God. That's where he has entered and He's there for us.
His place of acceptance there defines our place of acceptance there, and he's there by virtue of who he is and his by virtue of his precious blood, and he has opened the way now for us to be there too.
Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others, which had to be repeated fastly every year, every year, every year. He doesn't have to do that. He did it once. The sacrifice of the Mass, by the way, is a total denial. That's a ritualistic observance that is practiced in the Roman Catholic Church, and it denies the value, the eternal efficacy of the work of Christ. I can't think of anything that more effectually.
It because they say that in that sacrifice of the Mass, the Lord Jesus is being sacrificed over and over and over and over and over and over again. That means that his once for all work done on the cross never to be repeated is not not enough. He has to die again and again and again. Well, that's the old Jewish system that's putting the the work of Christ on the same level as the sacrifice of bulls and goats.
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And it's blasphemous, a total denial of the work of Christ. That's why I said before whether you are a rationalist and just out now deny the Bible because you intellectually reject it, or whether you are a ritualist and go through all that ritualism you are denying.
The sacrifice of Christ and its eternal value just as effectively as the rationalist. So those two things seem at the opposite ends of the pole, but they come together in both denying the work of Christ and the Word of God.
Both are wrong.
Very, very seriously wrong.
Christ verse 24 Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands that old order of things came to an end at the death of Christ and the veil of the temple was rent in train from the top to the bottom. And God said by that to weigh into my presence is now open by virtue of the death of Christ. And now you can enter in and that that barrier that existed as long as Judaism existed.
Is broken down.
The old thing has passed away. If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. All things have passed away. Judaism has passed away and all things have become new.
And all things with God. And that's what we have here.
He is entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us, we can enter into heaven itself. Where did we worship this morning? Here in this room? Well, yes, we were here physically, but we entered the very presence of God. The holiest. We entered and we entered into His presence and have access to Him now because of the work of Christ.
Now in verse 25, he takes up another very vital subject, he says.
Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the High Priest entereth into the Holy Place every year with blood of others. For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world. You see, the Sacrifice of Christ offering Himself on the cross, being disassociated from His sufferings, is worthless. He suffered for sin that could only happen once.
So this repeated sacrifice of the mass is a total denial.
That ritualistic thing is a total denial, and not only that, not just picking on them, but all the way down the line, right through the Protestant circles. Anything that gives man a place, that something he has to do in order to make himself acceptable with God, is a denial of the work of Christ, which presents us perfect before God with nothing else needed. And that's the teaching of these verses here.
And so then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now?
Once in the end of the world, the end of this world of trial, when man was on trial and the originalistic system was enforced. Now that is ended, the consummation of the ages. Man is no longer on trial. He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Sin has been put away now. To bring in anything that we have to do in order to make us acceptable to God is to deny that truth.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die after this judgment, so Christ was once offered.
To bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Altogether apart from the sin question, He settled the sin question the first time that He came.
And he's offered to bear the sins of many. Are you one of the many? Doesn't say bear the sins of all? Are you one of the many? You can be sure that you're one of the many that he came to bear the sins of if you have trusted Him as your Lord and Savior.
That's the only way you'll know you're one of the many is to receive Him by faith as your sin bearer, and then you will be sure that you are one of the many.
And unto them that looked for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.
The next time he comes, it won't be to determine whether we're saved or not, but it will be to take those who are saved, who have trusted him, whose sins he has borne home to glory. Then the next chapter for the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things to see. The Law didn't have the very image of the things, just a shadow.
You're sitting on a park bench and the sun is shining and you see a shadow cast before you.
And all it shows it's just a silhouette. If it's coming from the back of the person, you see one silhouette, it comes from the side, you'll see another, but you don't really know what the person looks like from the shadow. It's just an indication that there's a body there casting that shadow. What would you think of the man that was sitting on the bench and saw the silhouettes on the ground and then he looked up at the person that was casting the shadow and said, I prefer the shadow.
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That would be an insult to the one that cast that shadow.
Now that's what the Jew is guilty of. It went back to the system of shadows and figures and types and ceremonies instead of remaining in curtain Christian, Christian truth.
The law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. If I could, as a Jew bring a sacrifice that it would have given me a perfect standing before God, I'd never have to bring another. But I had to bring every time I failed, I had to bring another, had to bring another.
And that's what he's saying, He says for them. Would they not have ceased to be offered? If you could bring a sacrifice that would give you a perfect standing before God, you'd never have to offer another. You'd cease offering.
Because at once the worshippers, once the worshippers once purged should have. Because that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins, he would know that the sin question was eternally settled.
And he could say my sins so great, so many.
When his blood are washed away, no more. Conscience of sins doesn't mean that he's not conscious of failure in his part, but he's not conscious he's he has a clean conscience, A purged conscience. He knows that the sin question has been settled. The work of Christ has settled it. Christ has borne the judgment and opened up the way into the presence of God.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
The repetition of the sacrifices is a constant reminder that the same question was not settled. So those that would make Christianity an extension of Judaism, and that's something altogether new, calling it the judeo-christian tradition or whatever they say, are using an expression that falsifies the vast difference between Christianity where we have a finished work.
Giving us a perfect conscience and a perfect standing before God.
And what they had in Judaism.
Where God was not known, he could not be approached directly. He had to be. They had to bring a sacrifice. And then there was a priesthood in between and man was kept at a distance. And there are some systems today that call themselves Christian that just do that very thing.
Total denial of what we have here in those sacrifices. There is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible of, let's get this clear, it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. They could not take away a single sin.
They had no intrinsic value whatsoever. The value of the blood of bulls and coats lay only in their typical value, pointing forward to the work that Christ would accomplish, which would take away our sins and give us a perfect acceptance before God. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
Not one of them are all together the thousands that Solomon offered and the dedication of the temple could not take away one single sin.
Their value lay in that they pointed forward to a sacrifice that Christ offered. How could an animal sacrifice take away your sins? You're not an animal.
The only one that could take away your sins is a man, one that became just like you are sent apart. He is the only one that would qualify to take away your sins. He had to be a man.
We are saying that this afternoon. And he was infinitely more than a man. God too, but he had to become a man. An animal couldn't do it.
It had to be.
God the Son become a man. An animal was just a figure of it. It wasn't a very image at all, just a figure, just a shadow. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. Thou wouldest not, but a body itself prepared me in burnt offerings. He says you're not interested in these sacrifices.
What really counts is is my coming. My coming.
Prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Thou has had no pleasure.
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Then said I low in the volume of the book, it is written of me. I come to do thy will, O God.
Above, when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest not, neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law. He took no delight in those sacrifices. They had no intrinsic value whatsoever.
The value lay in that they pointed forward to the work of Christ. Then he said, Lo, I come.
To do Thy will, O God, He taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the second, by the which will the will of God, which He had come to do. We are sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Set apart, He offered himself God, and every priest. This is the old ritualistic system. Now every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes.
The same sacrifices which can never take away sins. That's ritualism.
Those sacrifices couldn't remove a single Sinner, but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins comma.
Forever sat down. Commas in the wrong place in our translation should be after for sins he forever sat down or he sat down perpetually, continually.
On the right hand of God in token that the work that he accomplished is finished.
The priests of the Old Testament stood daily. There was number chair in the Tabernacle. Their work was never done. They could never sit down.
Because their work was never finished.
They could never say, as we read this morning from John 19, what the Lord said on the cross, it is finished. He said they could never say that, never because their work was never done. And so they were standing and the Lord sat down. That's the the significance of his sitting, sitting down is that the work was done and accomplished.
This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.
From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering, in contrast to the thousands of offerings of the Old Testament, by one offering He have perfected forever them that are sanctified. So we have the will of God, which He came to do. We have the Son carrying out that will in the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, giving us a perfect standing before God. And now we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the value.
Of it we have the whole Trinity here verse 15. Wherefore the Holy Ghost also is the witness to us. For after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Where remission of sins is there's no more offering for sin. My sins are gone. He's boring them away.
I'm so glad it doesn't say their sins and iniquities will I forget. God doesn't forget anything. He has a perfect memory forgetting as a human infirmity.
But he says I will not remember.
That's an act of his will, he says. I will not remember your sins. I will never bring them up against you again.
Because my Son has done the work which has glorified me so perfectly that I'll never bring your sins up again. They've been perfectly dealt with and judged in the death of Christ. So God himself says the testimony of the Holy Ghost with their sins and iniquities. Will I remember no more.
But that gives peace, doesn't it?
And where there is remission of these, there is no more offering for sin.
Every fresh offering for sin that is done today by well meaning Christians is a denial. It's a ritualistic observance, and it's a denial of this truth. Very serious.
Now what is the effect of this verse 19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's what we did this morning. We entered into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way.
Which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, when he died.
In the flesh the veil was rent, and now we enter in to the holiest.
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A new and living way has been opened up.
Which he had consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. And having a high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed.
With pure water, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, the blood of Christ and the body washed with pure water would be symbolical of the new birth. We have a new life. We have the work of Christ which has put all that stood against us away, and now we have access to the very presence of God. How wonderful.
That is Christian truth, and he is writing this in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
To shell these Jews the infinite value of the work of Christ, of the person of Christ. We saw that in the 1St chapter, and now the work of Christ in this chapter. The value that enhanced before God, giving us a perfect standing before God. The same question settled once and for all to God's glory.
And our eternal blessing.
By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Let's see in closing the holiest, 114 the holiest. We enter in perfect peace with God, through whom we found our center in Jesus and His blood, though great may be our dulness in thought and word, indeed with glory and the fullness of Him that meets.
Our knee.