The Earthly Sanctuary & Divine Worship

Transcript

GR 1697
07/07/13
The Earthly Sanctuary and Divine Worship
Hebrews 9:1-10


We're going to Hebrews 8, because we're going to start chapter 9 but we have to go back and pick up on chapter 8. And I have a number of things I want to pull together with you today. Hebrews 8 brought us to the New Covenant, foundational to everything as far as Hebrews focused on the high priestly ministry of Christ because since the priesthood has changed from the priesthood after the order of Levi to Christ's priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, that necessitates a change of Law, a change from the Mosaic Covenant which was inseparably joined to the Levitical priesthood. It's the foundation and heart of that covenant because without the priesthood and all associated with it the sacrifices and so on, there would be no provision for forgiveness, there would be no provision for access to God. Just a list of futile commandments. So the priesthood is essential and essentially connected to the covenant.

In Hebrews 8 after making clear in Hebrews 7 and the beginning of Hebrews 8, Hebrews 8 opened up, the main point of what has been said is this—we have such a high priest. And He has taken His seat before the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. So you come down to verse 7, if the first covenant, referring to the Mosaic Covenant, had been faultless there would have been no occasion for the second. Then he quotes from Jeremiah 31 beginning with verse 31. Behold days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant.

Important to see the connection of the covenants. We noted there is one covenant before the Abrahamic Covenant, the Noahic Covenant, but that's a universal covenant covering all creation. The Abrahamic Covenant is the foundational covenant that permeates Scripture. Out of the Abrahamic Covenant we have three aspects—the land, the seed and the blessing. Each of these will be reinforced with a subsequent covenant. It is crucial to see the connection of all of these covenants to the Abrahamic Covenant. You'll note the Law, I've tacked it on to the blessing. The land is elaborated and confirmed with what we might call the Palestinian Covenant or the Land Covenant; the seed is elaborated in the Davidic Covenant, the promise of a ruler who would rule over the nation and the nations; and then the blessing is the salvation aspect. All three are inseparably joined together, that's the Abrahamic Covenant. So we don't want to think of these as three separate, distinct covenants. I read you from a professor who wrote an article in a recent journal who said the Abrahamic Covenant is over but the provisions of salvation and the New Covenant continue. And fail to appreciate the Abrahamic Covenant is a unit, it cannot be broken apart. That's why we have to understand as we talk about the contrasts between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, we're talking about the contrasts with the Mosaic Covenant which was not part of the original Abrahamic Covenant.

Come back to Genesis 22. In Genesis 21 God had made clear that the physical line of promises to Abraham had to come through Isaac and Ishmael could not fulfill those promises even though he is a son of Abraham. Not the son of Abraham with Sarah. So the physical promises and the fullness of those promises can only happen through the physical line—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and then the twelve tribes. When you come into Genesis 22, pick up with verse 17. Here God, verse 16, has taken an oath. And we've covered that in Hebrews, the oath that He gave in establishing this covenant.

Verse 17, indeed I will bless you, I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, as the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. The physical descendants of Abraham are going to be innumerable and they will rule over others. And then He says in verse 18, and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Note here that word seed we talked about, can be singular, can be collective. In other words sometimes it refers to Abraham's descendants as it did in verse 17, the physical descendants he would have and so on. In verse 18 there is an emphasis on singular.

So come to the New Testament, to the book of Galatians, Galatians 3:16. And he's talking about the Law in Galatians because there were certain Judaizers who wanted to say that these Gentile Galatians had to submit themselves to the Mosaic Law in addition to believing in Christ or they could not have full salvation and sanctification. Now Galatians 3:16 says, now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He did not say, to seeds, plural, referring to many, but rather to one, and to your seed, that is Christ. Now some take this to say, then, the land promises, the seed promises of the Davidic Covenant, all are just focused in the New Covenant. There is no longer a future in the land, a future Davidic ruler to rule a kingdom on the earth. But we understand this doesn't cancel out the promises given to Abraham.

There were three aspects to the Abrahamic Covenant—there were individual promises to Abraham; there were promises to the physical descendants of Abraham, the nation Israel; and then there were universal promises of salvation that encompassed both the physical descendants, the Jews, and the non-physical descendants, the Gentiles. We have to be careful, the Abrahamic Covenant is a package, you can't break it apart. It's true, the land promises, the seed promises of multiple descendants and a ruler, Messiah, who would rule over the earth with Jerusalem as the capital, all those promises are contingent upon the provision of salvation covered in the New Covenant. But the provisions of salvation in the New Covenant do not nullify the physical promises like the land, a physical kingdom, and physical nation and so on. They are woven together. We have to be careful we don't cancel one out with the other.

Note what verse 17 says in Galatians 3 which ties to what we are talking about in Hebrews. What I am saying is this, the Law which came 430 years later, after the promise, the covenant based on God's promise was given to Abraham, it does not nullify or invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God so as to nullify the promise. The Mosaic Covenant is an add-on, it's not part of the provisions within the Abrahamic Covenant, but will be temporary for a time to cover Israel and make provision for Israel until the new covenant aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant is put in force.

If the promise, verse 18, is based on Law, it's no longer based on promise. But God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. And remember we looked at that. God promised He would do this, He confirmed that covenant with Abraham by Himself. Then we have the oath He took—by Myself I have sworn, says the Lord. Verse 21, is the Law then contrary to the promise of God? May it never be. The problem with the Law was it couldn't do what needed to be done. This has been the point in Hebrews. It couldn't provide perfection. People are sinners. It could provide for the nation a way of forgiveness, a way of access to the presence of God. It's a temporary provision.

Come down to verse 24, therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Verse 23, before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law, shut up to the faith that was later to be revealed. Salvation has always been by faith, God was always saving people, Abraham and his descendants and Israel under the Law, on the basis of the provision that Christ would make, but Israel was not aware of that. They were simply believing in what God had revealed up to that point and were to manifest that faith by following through in their worship of Him. That was the provision. If you didn't follow through, you were manifesting you didn't believe in God, you were standing as a rebel against Him.

So you'll note, the Law was given after, 430 years after the Abrahamic Covenant and it was only for a time, until Christ would come. So it was to oversee Israel, guide them and prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. And that's what we're going to be looking at in Hebrews.

Turn over to Hebrews 9. What he has been showing is there is a connection. In the Levitical priesthood, which is part of the Mosaic Covenant, there was an anticipation and in many ways a picture of what was required—a high priest, a sacrifice. That should have prepared Israel for the coming of their Messiah who would also be the high priest. So when you come to Hebrews 9, he's continuing right out of the end of Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8:13 says, when he said a New Covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. That argument again—when God prophesied the coming of a New Covenant, He was indicating the old one would be passing away. We're not comparing it with the Abrahamic Covenant, we're comparing it with the Mosaic Covenant which was part of the Levitical priesthood system. And the Levitical priesthood gets instructions and is established out of the Mosaic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant is not being made obsolete, it is seeing further fulfillment of one of its major provisions—the blessing of salvation that could not come through the Mosaic Covenant, which Israel was incapable of keeping because of their sin. And God never intended that as a way of salvation. No one was ever saved by keeping the Mosaic Law, they were saved by faith and Abraham is the example of that as we have seen. But it was to prepare Israel and guide them in anticipation of the coming fulfillment.

So Hebrews 9 opens up, now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and earthly sanctuary. And so now he is going to show what he is going to cover. He's going to go back and reiterate in two parts the details of the place of worship, the physical aspects of the Old Testament tabernacle and then the worship system associated with that tabernacle. So in verses 2-5 he'll talk about the physical makeup of the Old Testament tabernacle in summary fashion. He is not going to go into great detail. At the end of verse 5 he said, of these things we cannot now speak in detail. And these Jews would be familiar with the details of the Old Testament tabernacle, but he just overviews the major pieces of that tabernacle. And then in verses 6-10 he'll talk about how the high priest functions within that tabernacle system. That will be the foundation for what he'll pick up in verse 11 and show, but when Christ appeared, He has entered into a greater tabernacle, vastly superior to that physical earthly tabernacle constructed according to the instructions of God but by the actions of men. So that tabernacle had a place, but it was temporary. And it was for Israel's benefit and enabled them to appreciate what was going to be required for the worship of God.

You'll note it says in verse 1, now if the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. And he'll pick these up in reverse order. The earthly sanctuary will be covered in verses 2-5, then the divine worship associated with it will be verses 6-10. That earthly sanctuary, that's in contrast to the heavenly sanctuary where the Son as high priest carries out His priestly ministry. Come back to Hebrews 8:1, now the main point of what has been said is this, we have such a high priest who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man. The vast superiority of the place of Christ's ministry, it's in a sanctuary which God Himself built in heaven, His presence. It wasn't constructed by men. God gave instructions for the Levitical tabernacle to Moses and then the artisans and the men gifted by God constructed those things associated with it. But heaven, God Himself built it. So it's vastly superior.

Down in Hebrews 8:5, that old one, the Levitical one, the Mosaic one was a copy and a shadow of heavenly things. We noted, we have studied this in Hebrews 8, this is just a copy, a shadow. It's not the reality, it's not the substance. We need to understand that. People think, these Hebrews thought, well maybe we can go back to the Levitical system. You can't go back to the Levitical system that was just a copy, just a shadow. That was just anticipating the coming of the reality. That's where salvation is found, in the reality, not in the shadow. And that shadow was not the means of salvation. It is always by faith. But God was saving them on the basis of what Christ would do. This was just to prepare them for the coming.

When we go further down in Hebrews 9, in Hebrews 9:24, for Christ did not enter a Holy Place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 10 will open up, for the Law since it only has a shadow of the good things to come. That contrast between what God has done in Christ, the New Covenant compared to the Levitical system and the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant is done, the Levitical system is done, it is obsolete. It has been replaced with the reality that now has been provided in Christ.

So we have the earthly sanctuary. Now he is going to elaborate something of that earthly sanctuary. And if you put up that diagram 1. I want to point this out, this is the whole tabernacle area. The writer to Hebrews is not going to be talking about these outside areas, but I want you to have it in mind. His concern is only going to be on that tent structure with the brown or red cover, the maroon cover, the red, white and blue on the front. They have it cut open to see in. He is only going to be focusing on that. I want you to see that when you come in the entrance, you'll come through a curtain there and you see the animal being brought. You come to the brazen altar, that's where the sacrifices took place. Then the laver that blue bowl idea, the brazen laver was where the priest would wash himself after the sacrifice and ceremonially cleanse himself. Then he'll go in through the curtain that leads in. And then there is a second curtain. So we'll be just talking about that tent within the general tabernacle structure. This outer area within the fenced area, people come in. They come in, they brought their sacrifice. But only the priest went into the tent area.

Now around the outside of this whole structure, when Israel would carry this tent and then they would camp, three tribes would camp, they were assigned, on each of the four sides. You'd have the twelve tribes, included in that twelve were the two sons of Joseph. Then within that closest to the tabernacle you had the four divisions of the Levites who surrounded the tabernacle. So you have the Levites who are responsible for the tabernacle, each of the four divisions of it, around the tabernacle. Then outside that you have Israel surrounding it. So this tabernacle in its entirety is the focal point of Israel's life, worship. It's key to everything.

This is an artist rendition of that tent area within the overall tabernacle setting. And it's a cutaway so you can see where the priest who is standing outside would go through the first curtain. And the first curtain and the second curtain, they divide what we call the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. They will be referred to at the end of verse 2, the Holy Place, and the end of verse 3, the Holy of Holies. The Holy Place is the outer area. The priest could come in here. And you have the furniture he is going to mention. You see the candlestick, we'll be reading that but at least you get it fixed in your mind. The candlestick and then on the other side you have the table of shewbread, the bread of the presence. Those are twelve loaves, we'll talk about them in a moment, representing each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Then you have the altar of incense before the curtain. We'll have to say something about that, its location. Then you have that second curtain and most of you are familiar, that is the curtain behind which the high priest could only go once a year. The general priests did not go there. The high priest carries on his ministry and only one time a year could he go behind that curtain—the Day of Atonement. That's where the Ark of the Covenant is with the mercy seat on top. So you get just to refresh your mind the layout, this is what he is going to be talking about in verses 2-5, these various items that set the stage for the worship that takes place in the context of the Levitical system.

All right, let's look at what he says here beginning in verse 2. For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one or the first one. So that was that first area. The tabernacle prepared by God. He goes all the way back to the Mosaic tabernacle, you might think he would go to the temple under Solomon because it is much more splendid, but it follows the same pattern, the layout is the same. And the details obviously done more elaborately. It was permanent, didn't have to be taken down and carried and so on. But the layout is the same. He goes back to the tabernacle because remember this is connected to the covenant. And the whole worship system, the Levitical system with its priesthood and sacrifices and so on is established in the Mosaic Covenant. So he goes back and keeps those two together. But the worship system is the same when you come to the temple and the basic layout is the same even though it is obviously more splendid in its construction.

There was a tabernacle prepared, the first one, in which there were. So you have this first, and in the outer room, the first room in that tabernacle where you entered into the curtain, where the priest would enter in. And you have the lampstand. Now I ought to tell you the dimensions of this area. This area is 30 feet long, 15 feet wide and 15 feet high. And this is just a flat diagram but it shows you, here you come into the temple, there is the brazen altar where the sacrifices were made, the altar of burnt offerings also called. Then you had the laver where the priest would ceremonially wash himself to cleanse. And now we're talking about when you come into that Holy Place, that first division there. It's 30 feet long, the yellow area as you have it, the first phase of it to the second curtain, that purple curtain. You come through and right there on the bottom part of that you have the golden candlestick, the lampstand. It is made out of gold. And we're familiar with it, you see them now, you buy them sometimes as souvenirs and you'll see them here in the States. And go over to Israel you see them as well obviously in a variety of settings. We sometimes call it the menorah. It has seven branches or one main branch with three side branches on each side. But there are seven lamps on it. Sometimes the King James called it the candlestick, but that's confusing. Each of these seven, I'm going to call them branches or prongs, has a little bowl on top where they put the pure olive oil. Then they put a wick in that. They light that and that burns. That has to give light because this is a covered, heavily covered structure with a heavy curtain blocking it. The only light in here is given by this lampstand. And according to the Old Testament instructions the priest was responsible to come in morning and evening and trim the wick and so on so it was to be kept burning continually.

So that's the first item of furniture here. We're not going to go into any details because the writer here doesn't. He says, as I noted, at the end of verse 5, we can't speak in the details. That would become its own study, the details of the tabernacle, but we get the general idea. So you have the lampstand and its seven lamps on it burning.

The second piece of furniture is the table and the sacred bread, the table and the sacred bread. And it is sometimes called the bread of the presence, the table of shewbread. It's on the top of that area, the two round circles represent, it seems like these flat loaves, something like our pancakes in appearance, were stacked. Two stacks of six, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. They were replaced every Sabbath day. And they belonged to the priests and could be eaten by the priests. But they were presented there to the Lord and acknowledge Him as the provider.

So this is called the Holy Place. Now we didn't deal with one item, it's going to come up in the next statement. Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies. So now we've gone behind that second curtain. So he has called that a tabernacle as well, a tent. So it's one long tent, 45 feet long, but really divided into two separate tents or divisions. The first one is 30 feet long, 15 feet wide, 15 feet high. The second one is a cube—15 x 15 x 15. And we just have to take a moment here, that's where the presence of God is manifested. We'll note that. That's the Holy of Holies.

And we have to jump to Revelation, turn over to Revelation 21. Don't want to get confused here, but when we get to the ultimate, Christ is in heaven in the true Holy of Holies as we'll see as we move on in Hebrews 9-10 in future studies. But there is coming a day when the Holy of Holies will be on this earth and heaven will come to earth. You'll note Revelation 21 opens up, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Verse 2, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Jump down to verse 10 for time, he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain, showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Come down to verse 16, the city is laid out as a square. Its length is as great as the width. He measured the city with a rod—1500 miles wide, 1500 miles long, 1500 miles high. It's a cube just like this 15 x 15 x 15 where the presence of God is manifested among His people. In eternity the new heavens and the new earth, on this earth we'll have heaven on the new earth because that's where God will be manifesting His presence among His people. The only thing, it will be 1500 miles. Now since I didn't have anything else to do, I got out my calculator and tried to figure out. If this is 15 feet, how many feet will that be? And I'm not really good at math but I think a mile is 5,280 feet so I multiplied that by 1500. So I think it's like 8 million feet each way. I'm sure that helps you.

But you something of what we talk about when we talk about this man-made tabernacle on earth. And it's just a copy of a shadow, or a shadow. It's like, I remember when we first went to New York when we moved to the East Coast from western Pennsylvania. We went to New York to go to the Empire State Building and do all those things. And you get the little statue of the Empire State Building. Well you set that on the ground next to the Empire State Building, it's nothing. It's just a model, it's just a copy.

Well that's what we see when we see this tabernacle. Here we have this. These Hebrews are thinking about going back here. You think of the splendor of heaven itself, the magnificence of it, the magnitude of it. So just something, we sang about what we have to look forward to in the billions and trillion years that are before us as God's people.

Come back to Hebrews 9. So that's the earthly tabernacle here, its layout. Now we come to the Holy of Holies, what is back here. Verse 4, having a golden altar of incense. There is a little bit of a problem here, we're not going to go into much detail on it, but according to the Old Testament and records in the New Testament like in the early part of Luke when the father of John the Baptist is carrying out his priestly ministry, that table of incense, that altar of incense is in front of the curtain, the second curtain, not behind it. It's where we have it on the diagram and all the diagrams you look at, I think, will have it basically, if you go down to Sound Words and pick up some material on the layout of the tabernacle, it's in front of the curtain. In fact it has to be in front of the curtain because according to the book of Exodus the priest had to put incense and burn it when he came to trim the candle wicks in those oil lamps on the seven-branched candlestick. He also, morning and evening, was to put incense and keep it burning on the altar of incense as a continual burning before the Lord. Well, the priest couldn't go behind the curtain except once a year. So the curtain is in front.

But here he connects it with what goes on in the Holy of Holies in connection with the Ark of the Covenant with its mercy seat. That's probably because what he is stressing here is the ministry that is to be carried out on the Day of Atonement. And the ministry on the Day of Atonement includes three basic items here. We come outside altogether to the altar of burnt offerings, the brazen altar there, that is when you first come in. That's where the animal would be sacrificed. Then the priest would come in to put some of that blood on the horns of the altar of incense and also take some of that incense and take it in with him to put on the mercy seat, which covers the Ark of the Covenant. So it seems he includes it here because his focus is going to be on the sacrificial work of Christ and how that fulfills what was pictured in the Day of Atonement when the high priest made the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the people, which is what Christ did once for all.

So just so you don't get confused, he connects that altar of incense with the Holy of Holies, but it sat outside the curtain. But he is going to be focusing on what happens on the Day of Atonement. And we see the incense in the heavenly sanctuary in the book of Revelation connected to the prayers of God's people coming before Him. And it's associated because the blood offered on the Day of Atonement will be put on the horns of the altar of incense as well as on the mercy seat. And the incense from the altar of incense will be put with the blood on the mercy seat. So it is joined close. And so you see that line coming straight through from the altar where the sacrifice is made, into the Holy Place where the incense is, into the Holy of Holies where the presence of God is manifested.

So we're in Hebrews 4:9, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold in which was a golden jar holding the manna, Aaron's rod which budded and the tables of the covenant. The golden jar with the manna in it, that was the manna that God provided in their wilderness wanderings and was a continual reminder of His provision for them. The rod of Aaron's that budded, that was when his ministry as high priest was challenged by Korah, his family and followers. And the result was devastating judgment of God in Numbers 16. And then in Numbers 17 God wants to establish before the people that He has appointed Aaron and his family to the priestly ministry. And no one can intrude into that. And when they do, they'll bring the judgment of God as Korah did upon himself. So they are there. And then you have the tables of the covenant. And that's where the name comes from, the Ark of the Covenant, because the two tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments which are the summary, if you will, of the Mosaic Covenant, were placed in this ark. What we call the Ark of the Covenant is a chest, I think it is 45 inches long and 27 inches wide and 27 inches high. So it's not a big item, but it's a chest and it has a lid as we'll see in a moment. But in this chest, then, are these items. It gets its name, Ark of the Covenant, because it is centered in the covenant here.

Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. So there is a lid on this chest and on this lid have been made, according to the instructions of God, one on each side, a cherubim. Cherubim, plural of cherub. One on each side, they are facing each other and they have their wings spread out touching one another over the mercy seat. So this is the representation. The glory of God is here. The cherubim that serve in the presence of God in heaven are represented here as covering the mercy seat. And the mercy seat is where the presence of God is manifested and where the blood will be applied for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation.

That's the furniture we are talking about. When you come in you have the lampstand, you have the table with the bread on it, the table with the loaves of bread on it. You have the altar of incense and you have the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat overshadowed by the cherubim.

Now verse 6, when these things have been so prepared. So this is the setting now in which the priest will carry out their ministry. The priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship. He just summarizes that. The regular priestly ministry goes on. Like we said, they came in every morning and every evening and kept the candlesticks burning, the incense burning, changed the bread on the table of shewbread every Sabbath, in addition, of course, to the daily sacrifices being offered on the altar as you come into the broader temple setting. But his concern is the ultimate sacrifice that was made only once a year.

But into the second, that second room, that room that was the cube where the ark of the covenant is, behind that second curtain or veil only the high priest enters once a year, not without blood. This becomes crucial. You see what is being emphasized here. First thing that has to happen if you are going to come into the presence of God, you must bring a sacrifice. We are dealing with sin, we must have a sacrifice of blood. And the ultimate sacrifice which is required by God would be presented once a year in the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant is. The rest of the year incense burns, which represents the prayers of God's people so that is pictured as coming before God, if you will, but no one enters. Only the high priest once a year.

So verse 6 says, these things have been prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer, the first tent, the regular daily duties of worship, but into the second only the high priest enters once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. It's going to be an important point when we get to the next warning passage in Hebrews 10 after unfolding this, the danger of the sin of a high hand and willful rebellion. You close yourself off from any sacrifice for your sin. You couldn't just be a willful rebel against God and expect that you would be forgiven in some automatic way.

All right, the Holy Spirit is signifying this. Now here, the Holy Spirit is teaching through this earthly tabernacle that the way into the Holy Place has not yet been disclosed while the outer or first tabernacle is standing, which is a symbol for the present. Here is what the Holy Spirit is teaching, with this first tabernacle connected to the Mosaic Covenant there is not the complete access to God. That is pictured in that no one can come in, even to the Holy Place. Only the priest could come in, the common people couldn't come in. And even the priest is closed out of access into the very presence of God except for once a year, then he must come with blood. That represents a sacrifice. What are these Jews being taught? The penalty for sin is death, there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. And the high priest is himself defiled by sin. So first he comes in and offers the sacrifice and the blood for himself, then he offers the sacrifice and brings the blood in on behalf of the nation. And as long as that old tabernacle is functioning, it's a reminder the cleansing has not been provided for people to come themselves into the presence of God.

The clarity of this picture is lost. We talked about Roman Catholicism and their priestly system, they have just reinstituted the old system in putting a whole order of priests from the pope down to the parish priest in between God and the common people. And these priests are the only ones with authority to administer sacraments so that you can receive God's grace and so on, the heart of which system is the mass, the resacrifice, an unbloody sacrifice of Christ. It should be repulsive to every Bible-believing Christian. It is trying to reinstitute what God says is done. In fact that system they are doing never was established by God. If He did this Mosaic one with covenant, where does this other one come from?

But the Protestants are no better. They have just abandoned the whole idea of the need for penalty to be paid. They think their good works, their baptism, their church membership and their own system will get them there. The whole point is you will never be accepted in the presence of God without the appropriate sacrifice.

The Day of Atonement, come back to Leviticus 16. And this is where the instructions for the Day of Atonement are contained. I want you to note how Leviticus 16 opens up. Verse 1, now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they had approached the presence of the Lord and died.

Back up to Leviticus 10, we're going to come back to Leviticus 16. Leviticus 10, now Aaron and his sons were appointed priests by God. They were given instructions on how God must be approached. Now Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took their respective firepans, after putting fire in them placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord. There is our incense require, they are not going into the Holy of Holies but in their worship, that daily worship they didn't use the appropriate fire from the altar mixed with the appropriate incense. Then they tried to come before God and they are immediately consumed by fire. Moses said this is exactly what God says. Verse 3, by those who come near to Me, I will be treated as holy. You see the seriousness.

So when you come to Leviticus 16 and these instructions are given, what we are reminded in this earthly sacrifice, and we even today as Gentile believers can learn from that Old Testament system is God will be worshiped one way, and one way only—His way. We get sentimental, we think they mean well, they have good intentions, I think they are sincere. There is no discussion here whether Nadab and Abihu were sincere or not. In fact you remember the account, God says, Aaron is not even allowed to shed a tear for the death of his sons. He is not allowed to attend their funeral. In fact he has to continue leading the worship of the people like nothing has happened. You see God will be honored above family, above children. And there is no tolerance.

Now if that were the case in the Mosaic system, and that's where we are going in Hebrews, if they died that way, how much more severe punishment do you think those will deserve who don't come God's way provided in His Son with clarity. We think, there is latitude. There is no latitude. He that has the Son has life, he that does not have the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. There is only one way, this is it.

I got a card in the mail, I was going to bring it and read it to you but I didn't, from the Mormons. It's the second one I received, I received a Christmas card. This card was inviting me to a meeting where we people of faith, witnesses of Christ can get to know each other better. We have nothing in common, we are not worshiping God together. You are a rebel against God, not because we think we are right and everybody is wrong, but because God is right and everybody is wrong. This system here we think, that's old and what do we have to learn from it? We ought to learn that God says, you will worship Me My way and that's true to this day. Because Christ has come doesn't mean now that God doesn't care how He is worshiped. It is even more serious now, he says, in light of the finished work of His Son.

Come back to Hebrews, just to wrap these verses up. So the point he is making is the old tabernacle and its priestly worship was indicative men could not come into the very presence of God. Their representative could and when the high priest came in once a year with the incense and blood he was saying a sacrifice has been made. Everybody has been reminded we are sinners, the penalty for our sin is death and God in mercy and grace is accepting the death of this animal in my place. But the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. But it was constantly reminding them that the requirements of a holy God as God forgave them when they believed Him on the basis of what He would provide in His Son.

So these things, verse 9, were a symbol for the present. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, it cannot provide the inner cleansing. There is the awareness of sin, no matter how much people flaunt their sin and like to pretend they are not sinners. Look at all the different worship systems, in all the people there is an awareness—I'm not right, I'm not clean before God, I'm not what I ought to be. They may say I worship Him my way. But there is an awareness, something is not right, you can't cleanse the conscience. These Jews had to keep coming back, coming back, coming back. The daily sacrifices, the special festival day sacrifices, but above all the Day of Atonement. We come and in it all we are sinners. Even with all the sacrifices and things we are still sinners and this one sacrifice is brought to bring the cleansing from our defilement.

They are not able to cleanse you on the inside. Remember the New Covenant promised He will put His word in their hearts, He will cleanse their hearts. These things relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. Remember the Mosaic Covenant and its Levitical system was until Christ would come and bring the fulfillment of it. How sad, people are still going through the routine. They think they are saved by baptism, they think they are saved by going and partaking of a wafer, doing physical things. That's the very thing it says, they only relate to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body. Physical things can't save you. You need a spiritual cleansing of the heart. It is hard for us to grasp that. I was baptized, I attend church. You need your heart cleansed, I had to have my heart cleansed. We do. That's the barrier. The Old Testament system with its physical activity never cleansed anybody. It took the perfect work of a perfect high priest to bring a perfect salvation. It's on the basis of what God planned to accomplish in His Son that He could forgive Abraham when Abraham believed Him. That's how Moses could be saved, David could be saved, Jeremiah could be saved. But that law and the covenant with Moses and the Levitical system reminded no one will come into the presence of a holy God without the appointed sacrifice. These Jews understand, I can't go back and offer a sacrifice which was only a copy. The perfect sacrifice has been offered and now if I reject that, everything else that I do is an act of rebellion against God. There is no other alternative, there is no other way. The perfect high priest.

That's where we'll pick up in verse 11 and really now down through Hebrews 10:18 he is going to unfold the finality, completeness, richness of the sacrifice of Christ and the salvation found only in Him.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the Savior that we have, our Son, the Son made perfect forever, the Son seated at your right hand in the presence of the Majesty of your glory. Lord, these things we reflect upon from the Mosaic Covenant and Levitical priesthood system. Lord, just a copy and a shadow. Lord, they do vividly portray our wretched, sinful condition that we are unacceptable, we are guilty, we cannot come into your presence as a holy God without a payment being made. Thank you for the One who loved us and died for us. Thank you, Lord, that through faith in Him and Him alone we experience that cleansing, that forgiveness, that newness of life, made new on the inside that transforms us in every area of our being. We give you praise for Christ and we come in His name, amen.