A Greater Tabernacle
Jesus is Greater: An Exposition of Hebrews October 27, 2024 Hebrews 9:1-14 Notes
Do you feel like a VIP with God? Or do you struggle with self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy? Maybe feelings of shame and guilt linger from your past and you’ve never been able to experience complete cleansing and forgiveness? Maybe you’re feeling a disconnect with God today? You’re going through a season of spiritual dryness? In fact, instead of feeling like a VIP, you feel that God is distant from you and not hearing your prayers?
That’s what this message is about today. Because through the ministry of Jesus in God’s heavenly tabernacle we are offered VIP access to God! In Hebrews 9:1-14, the author told the Hebrew believers that the heavenly tabernacle where Jesus serves as High Priest is greater than the old. We can understand that the heavenly tabernacle where Jesus serves as High Priest is greater than the old.
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Continuing our series through the book of Hebrews, today we're in Hebrews chapter nine. We've entitled this series, “Jesus is Greater.” It's based on chapter one, verse four of Hebrews. Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.” And that's what the book of Hebrews is about.
The book proposes to speak to those Jewish background believers of the first century, thus the name, “Hebrews,” to show them how Jesus Christ is greater than all things. He's greater than whatever you're facing today. He's greater than whatever system preceded that. Jesus is greater. And so we're in part 14 now of our series.
We started this in September of 2023, a year ago, and we went through the first five chapters last fall. Then we picked it up at chapter five, and now we're at chapter nine. Now, we won't finish this Fall. We'll take a break for Christmas and for other things in the upcoming year. We'll come back next Fall and get the last three chapters 11 through 13.
It's been our practice that when we're taking on a big book like this, instead of speeding through it and trying to get through it in one season, we take it in “bites.” That's what our practice has been, so stay on the “bus” with us. Stay on the “Bible bus.” We're going verse by verse, taking our time, learning from the book of Hebrews.
This brings us to chapter 9, verses 1 through 14. We've entitled this message, ‘’A Greater Tabernacle.” In Jesus, We have one who serves as our great high priest in a heavenly tabernacle which is greater than the foreshadowing, the symbolic shadow of the true One in heaven. And so He is greater than the one on earth. And through Christ, we have all access, all expenses paid, VIP access to the throne room of God through this tabernacle that Jesus offers.
Now, I don't know how many of you have been to Disney World. You've been to Disney World and you've gone to see Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Alot of people, a lot of young kids dream of going to Disney World.
And it's a wonderful world. And I've been a few times. Maybe you've been, but its high prices and long lines take some of the wonder out of it. But I've heard recently you can get a VIP ticket. You can get a VIP ticket by just paying a little extra.
Here's what the VIP ticket includes. It includes a personal tour guide, a personalized agenda and all access. Skipping to the front of the line tickets, no waiting for rides and shows, priority seating for the fireworks at night, and even free snacks. Can you believe it? How much
you ask? How much for this little extra you need to pay for this VIP ticket at Disney World? Well, it costs $160 on average per person just to get in the gate. You only need to add $900 per person to get the VIP ticket. That's only $1,060.
If you're a family of five. Go ahead, drop the 5K. You can get the VIP ticket. Here's the thing, I'm saying it costs more to have full on VIP treatment like that at Disney World.
And not only that, what Christ offers is He has paid more, He's paid the ultimate price and He offers a better access to God. That's really what we're talking about today. I wonder, today, do you feel like a VIP with God? Do you feel like God views you as a very important person? You might not think of yourself as very important.
I don't think of myself that way. But God must think of us that way. If He would send the very best, His one and only Son to die in our place, He must really place high value on us to give us Jesus. Yet we often struggle, don't we, with our identity about feeling valued. Maybe you're here this morning and you struggle with self doubt, feelings of inadequacy, maybe feelings of shame and guilt from something you did in your past.
Maybe you just can't get it out of your head that whenever you're alone there's like a movie that plays in your head that reminds you of some of the mistakes that you've committed in the past. And there's this inner voice that keeps condemning you for it. Maybe you feel disconnected from God today. Maybe you're here today and you've never given your life to God. And the whole idea of being able to be in a personal relationship with God is something that, well, you'd love to have it, but you don't know how.
Or you know that you are right with God. You're in a relationship with God, but you feel dry today. You feel spiritually distant from God. It's like when you pray, your prayers bounce off the ceiling and just boomerang back in your lap. I don't know where you're at today, but here's what chapter nine of Hebrews is really about.
It's talking to us about how the ministry of Christ is in the true tabernacle, the heavenly place, where in Christ believers have full VIP access to the Father. For those who know Jesus. In this book, chapter nine, the author told the Hebrew background believers that the heavenly tabernacle where Jesus serves as high priest is greater than the old. And I believe as we look at the text today, we'll see three reasons why this is so. So let's dig in chapter nine and we'll begin at verse one through verse 14.
Hebrews 9:1-14 (ESV) 1 “Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 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. 8 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). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. 11 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) 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.
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, 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.” This is God's word. I hope you studied. Did you study this week, reading ahead? We've been talking, I know, as we go through a book like the book of Hebrews, which some have rightly, I think, understood that perhaps of all the books in the Bible, in the New Testament, that it helps us understand how the Old Testament and the New Testament fit together and how one supports the other, how one fulfills the other.
And so I'm glad that you're here today. I hope you're studying and preparing, because these messages are a little more challenging to understand. But let's try to see if we can put the cookies on the bottom shelf, as we do every week. We attempt to do that so the little kids can reach them. And so let's give the first reason now why the tabernacle of Jesus is greater.
1. It offers unrestricted access to God’s throne.
It offers unrestricted access to God's throne. It offers unrestricted access to God's throne. As we look at the opening verses of chapter nine, may I say to you that I believe the author is telling us the story of the Old Tabernacle, the tabernacle of Moses, the tabernacle that was built in the wilderness, fashioned after the actual tabernacle that he saw on Mount Sinai. When God revealed the actual, he went and built a copy of it, a shadow of it.
And so we see in these first verses, the author is describing it. Well, why? Why is he describing it? I think he describes it in order to show us that it did not offer unrestricted access. Indeed, it offered only highly restricted access.
In fact, only one person could go in per year, only once a year. And that person had to be the high priest. And he could only go in if he was carrying the blood of the lamb. Okay? And so he represented God's people.
He went in as a representative. But God's people, they couldn't go in there. And so he's describing the way that worked. I think that that was a good way to remind the Hebrew background believers of the shortcoming of the tabernacle system of the Old Testament, that it didn't give you VIP access to God, it only gave you a foreshadowing of it. And it's also good for us Gentiles to go, what was that all about?
So that we can look at it and say, well, it was a foreshadowing of that which Christ fulfilled, but it did not do all that was needed. It only prepared the way for Jesus. So let's unpack it quickly. He spends five verses describing what he calls the first section and the second section. I am just going to rush through this because he actually tells us to not go into too much detail.
Did you see that? Verse 5? He says, “Of these things, we cannot now speak in detail.” So we'll go fast. But just a few things for those of us that aren't that familiar with tabernacle worship of the Old Testament.
He says in verse one, it's an earthly place of holiness. This is not the heavenly tabernacle he speaks of; it's the earthly. It's the one in the wilderness. He calls it a tent in verse two.
In fact, the word tent is in our text twice. I think a better contextual translation here would have been tabernacle. It's in verse two and verse 11, the word tent. It's an accurate translation of the Greek word, “skēnē,” which does mean tent. But as most translations decide, they decide to call it tabernacle, because the context is he is talking about the place of worship, not just any tent, but a tabernacle.
So for a tent, verse 2. For a tabernacle, look at verse 11. You'll see where we got the title for this message. This was just so great. Sometimes we're like, what's this passage about?
But if you look at verse 11, we know what this passage is about, because he tells us. He says, “then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)” Not made with human hands, but made by the Lord. And so he says, it's a greater tabernacle. We said, hey, we probably ought to call this sermon a greater tabernacle. It's right there in verse 11.
Anyway, so the first few verses, the first five verses, he's talking about the former too.
So, for a tent, he's talking about the former one. He says in the first section, there was a lampstand, a table with bread on it.
Then the second section, and he begins to describe it. So here's what I want to do, just to make this go faster. Instead of me just really unpacking every verse, let's put up a picture, an artistic rendering of what that may have looked like that might help us. Okay, so this is kind of a rendering of what the tabernacle in the wilderness may have looked like. Okay.
And we know that there was an outer court with a curtain entrance right here. Okay. Now, the only people that were allowed in the outer court were Jewish circumcised males. They had to be Jewish believers. And they would come into this court and they would bring their offerings, their thanksgiving offerings, their sin offerings.
They would bring those in and they would be sacrificed on the altar by the Levite priests. They would be washed in the bronze laver right here, this giant laver that they kept water in. And so this is where it was happening. And daily sacrifices were offered right here. If you were a woman or a child, you had no access to even that deep into the tabernacle system.
Okay, this is what we're talking about. They had limited access to God to be able to worship Him directly, because God is holy and man is not holy. And so it's symbolic of that. So only Jewish men could be here. Now go to the next slide.
We're going to enter into the tabernacle tent itself. The first section, called the Holy Place, has these three pieces of furniture. It has the golden lampstand with seven lamps upon it. Right. The modern lampstand is called a menorah.
It has nine, but it's not like this one because it's based on the idea of Hanukkah. But the one in the temple had seven, which is the number of perfection. Upon the table of presents, there were 12 loaves of bread, which represented the 12 tribes. And we see this being talked about.
This is the first section. And then we also see in the first section the altar of incense. Now, very quickly, there is a theological conundrum right there where it talks about this in verse four. I don't think it's as complicated as some people make it.
But verse four says “having the golden altar of incense,” it places it in the second section. But whereas, clearly in the book of Leviticus, it's in the first section, as we see depicted in this artistic rendering. So how do we solve that problem? The book of Hebrews says that it's in the second section. The rest of the Bible says it's in the first section.
What's Hebrews talking about? The context of Hebrews clearly seems to be talking about the day of atonement, when the high priest would carry incense in a golden censer into the holy place. I think there's a misunderstanding here that he's talking about the piece of furniture.
He's talking about the incense being carried in a golden censer into the place because he would come in with the blood of the lamb and the censer. The other thing is, it's right up against the curtain to the most holy place. And so the incense smoke would rise like the prayers of the saints, which would go into this holy place as well. Okay, and so that's what he's talking about. Then he says, there's a second section behind the second curtain and wherein there's the Ark of the Covenant.
And he even tells us what was originally put in the ark. Did you see that in the text? He says that there is a golden container there that contains the manna, an example of manna that God fed them for forty years. There was also Aaron's staff, which actually to prove that he was the true High Priest, it actually budded with an almond blossom. And then also, of course, the two tablets which represented the Ten Commandments. That is contained in the Ark of the Covenant.
On top of that, the cherubim with their wings outstretched over top. And then this is called the Mercy Seat, which is like the throne of God, where the High Priest would offer the blood of the Lamb on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. Why did he tell us all of this? Well, first of all, he knew the Hebrews already knew it. He knew the Gentiles needed to know it.
Okay, but the main reason I think he's telling us this is found in verse 8. And here he speaks of how the Holy Spirit has shown him something. As the author of this passage, he says, 8 “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.” As long as these two curtains are still there, the way is not open. There's no full on VIP access for God's people.
In fact, the only one that can get all the way in is the High Priest. And he can only go in one day a year. And he has to go in carrying the blood of the Lamb. And as it looks here, it describes that when he comes in, in verse seven, it says, “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 so even he, as a representative of God, he's a sinner too.
He has to bring blood for himself. They have very limited access and they're on the payment plan. They have to keep making these offerings. If somebody doesn't make a final deposit to make them good, they're no good. They're on a system that needs reformation.
Did you see that word, reformation, down in verse 10? They need something stronger, something greater to fulfill it. Or else they'll keep on being in this pattern. They don't have unrestricted access to God. They want it.
They have a desire in their heart for it, but they don't have it. But yet, Christ through his tabernacle. So what we have here is an argument from the negative. It's an unusual way to make an argument, by giving you why that temple is lesser. It's showing us why Christ's temple is greater.
So here's what we see. Romans chapter five.
Listen to this. Romans 5:1-2 (ESV) 1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. If you're taking notes, underline the word access. You've obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, in which we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
We have access. We have an all expense paid VIP pass to the throne room of God through Jesus, through His ministry in the tabernacle. Earlier, in chapter four of Hebrews, we read this, Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV) 14 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.He didn't have a sin. He didn't need to pay for his own sin. See that verse 16.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We can come boldly. We can come with confidence. The curtain has been torn. We read the Gospels.
We see that when Jesus was crucified after He said, “It is finished,” paid in full, that there was an earthquake and the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place was rent from top to bottom, thus symbolizing that it was no longer needed, that the way is open. What the Holy Spirit said, that as long as it stood, the way was not open. Now, through Christ, the way is open. We can come boldly and confidently and come to the throne room of grace.
My father died when I was 8 years old. Many of you know that is a big mark of my life. I'm the oldest of four kids. And one of the things is, it's often true, I've noticed in other people's lives that the greatest subtraction in your life is often the place of healing that God gives you. And it becomes the greatest addition in your life from God's grace.
So the loss of my father really was a great subtraction. But God so filled me up with grace and mercy that it became the greatest addition of my life. Which I think even to be a pastor today was because of that loss. But God did that work in me. But I still remember as a teenager struggling.
I had a father wound. I was looking for advice like, where do I go to school? I turned 16. How do I buy a car? We live off of Social Security, we were poor.
My mom didn’t know what to do. Just things you want to be able to do when you're a young teenager and you need somebody. Fortunately, my father had a twin brother and his name was Clyde, my Uncle Clyde. And he was the president of the bank of Damascus in Damascus, Virginia. And so when it was time for me to have a car, I was like, I don't know how to buy a car.
I don't know where to go to get a car. I know I'd like to have a car. I started bagging groceries at Giant Supermarket andI needed to get back and forth. I remember that.
I didn't know how to get a loan. In fact, I would have been intimidated to go to a bank at 16 years old with no work history, not even having a job yet, right? And sit down with a bank manager and try to fill out a loan application as a 16 year old with no work. I don't think that would have gone very well. But that's not what I did.
You know what I did? I showed up at the bank of Damascus on a Saturday afternoon and I asked , can I see my uncle? And the secretary said, hold on a minute, honey. Would you like something to drink while you wait? And I said, yes, I would.
She brought me a Coke out and so I had to wait for him to get finished with his appointments. But then I went into his office; I went into the president's office. I didn't go to the bank manager's office. I went into the president of the bank of Damascus office and I sat with him. He had snacks brought in and we talked about it. He asks, so you want to buy a car?
What kind of car do you want? I said, I don't know. He said, where are you going to get it? I said, I don't know where I'm going to get it. He goes, well, I know the guy across the street who owns a car lot.
We will go with him and we'll go to the wholesale auctions. We'll buy one wholesale so you don't have to pay retail. I said, oh, okay. So we went to the auctions. I didn't know how to go to an auction, but they knew how to go to an auction. So we went to the auction and I bought myself a car.
And then it was , how do I pay for it? He said, well, we'll give you a loan. We'll put you on a good payment plan. That was my Uncle Clyde.
And so then when it was time to go to college, I needed a student loan. I went to my Uncle Clyde. I showed up on a Saturday afternoon. I got myself a student loan. When it was time to buy my first house, when I was a newlywed,
You know what I did? I just showed up on a Saturday afternoon. I said, hey, Uncle Clyde. He asks , what you need, honey? I said, you know, we're looking at this house.
And he helped me with that. And you know what was even better is after he would help me fill out the loan and help me cut the check, then he'd say, let's go and see what Aunt Irene's made for lunch. And we'd go over to their house and eat lunch afterwards with my Uncle Clyde. Now that is VIP treatment.
You know, there was a great subtraction in my life, but God made provision for me and my family. And I was thinking about what Christ has done is that we're not on a payment plan. We're not trying to earn. In fact, even when we don't know how to get to God and we don't even know the first step, He made the step and built the bridge.
He's given us unrestricted access to God the Father through Christ the Son. Now, listen, if you're sitting here this morning and you feel distant from God, it might be because you've never invited Jesus into your life. That'd be the first thing to do, because he is the way, the truth, and the life. You want access, you have to know Jesus. There is no other but the name of Jesus that you can call on for this.
Maybe you're here today, and you know this, and you have Christ in your life, but you feel distant from God because perhaps you haven't been taking advantage of that open door to just go in and talk to the Father. I was at the men's gathering yesterday morning. We had a men's breakfast for the men's ministry. And one of the questions that brother Randy asked the group was, when's the last time you cried out to God for something? We were talking about blind Bartimaeus and how he cried out to the Lord and said, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.”
When's the last time you did that? What I responded was, I've learned to do that regularly. Early on, I thought I had to do it when I was in desperate condition. But what I've learned is you don't have to wait till you're desperate. In fact, you can go into that room anytime.
You've got unrestricted access to the Father. If you feel distant, go to him and say, Father, why do I feel distant? Why do I feel dry? Why do I feel like a deer panting for living water?
Whenever You're available to me, would you expose to me what's keeping us apart right now, because I know it's not You. It's got to be something in me. Would You show me? You don't have to stay out there.
You can lean in. You have unrestricted access. Well, let's move on. That's the first reason that gets us really through the first part of verse nine,
which is symbolic of the present age. So that whole temple system in the Old Testament is symbolic. It's a foreshadowing of something superior. And so this gets us to the second reason. The second reason the tabernacle of Jesus is greater is:
2. It is able to completely cleanse the conscience.
It's able to completely cleanse the conscience. We're going to look at the latter part of verse 9 and verse 10. Just kind of camp there for a second. I want you to take note, in verse 9, the latter part, it says, “According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,” According to this arrangement, these gifts, these sacrifices that are being offered in this earthly tabernacle under the old covenant cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. So they go through all those motions, they go through all those rituals, and it'll clean the outside of the person.
It says that in verse 10, “but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.” And so it cleans the outside, but it won't clean the inside. It won't perfect the conscience. And the idea of perfection there is from the Greek word, “τελειόω, teleioō,” which means completion to the point of maturity, utterly clean or cleansed. Here is the idea -
it won't get the spot all the way out. It kind of gets the surface clean, but it won't clean on the inside because it's an earthly tabernacle, it's an external religion, it won't get at the heart of the matter. Whereas Jesus, see here again, he's arguing from the opposite. He's arguing from the place of weakness, which is the weak tabernacle, in order to highlight the strength of the greater tabernacle. And so we see this old tabernacle, it was great.
It showed us a lot about what is needed for man and the distance that stands between us and God, apart from a Savior. But it will not cleanse the conscience. It will not show us who we really are. Here's what the Bible says about the conscience in Titus 1:15 (NIV) “To the pure, all things are pure,
but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.” And so our consciences, they're not perfected, they're imperfect. They tell us right from wrong. But if we keep doing wrong, it's like we build a callus up so it stops triggering. It misfires, it's corrupted like a bad computer program that runs too slow or runs wrongly.
And so our consciences are corrupted. And so even with the temple system, you would feel better, you know, when you went to temple and offered your sacrifice, and you'd have to wash in one of those baptismal pools outside the tabernacle and put on white clothes before you went in, you'd feel better on the outside. And on the way home, you'd be singing songs and feeling good about yourself, but then you'd get along with yourself. And that voice in your head would go, you loser.
You're still the same person. You still struggle with the same sin you did when you were 10 years old. You haven't changed at all. In fact, I don't think you'll ever change. And if you were really a believer, but you're probably not.
And so all this doubt and all this self doubt and all this self condemnation, which comes from the flesh, but also comes from the evil one who's the accuser. And so your conscience will not be perfected by this outward approach to religiosity. What we need is a relationship through the person of Jesus. So something goes to work on the inside out instead of the outside in. And so we see this in the fact that he's talking about it from its opposite.
In fact, he says in verse 10, “until the time of reformation.” That's the last part of verse 10. And that word, reformation, is not referring to what happened 500 years ago with Martin Luther. He's not talking about that. But he's talking about a word that could have easily been a word that you would hear at the orthodontist's office or at the orthopedic surgeon's office, because it has the idea to make something that's crooked straight.
Something that's crooked straight. It's the Greek word. I'm looking at it here, “διόρθωσις, diorthōsis.” And so it's the idea, ortho, you can hear it in the middle of the Greek word.
It's the idea of something that needs to be straightened that's not perfectly straight. It needs to be brought into perfect alignment with the Father so that our identity, who we say we are, is in alignment with who God says we are. And that's a work that I can't do and you can't do for yourself, that only the work of Christ can tell you who you really are in Christ and your true identity. And so the conscience which condemns and the evil one which condemns via the conscience, he can purify the conscience. He can make it completely clean.
It says in the Hebrews 9:14 (NIV) “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” Now, at my house, I'm the expert at making stains, and my wife is the expert at getting them out. We've been married 45 years. I was talking to somebody just before the service started, and I said, yeah, opposites attract, right?
Some of us make messes and some of us clean them up. If we have people at home, we always eat our dinner at the breakfast nook, or if it's a big crowd, we'll eat in the dining room. But it was just me and Robin, and it's during work week and we've worked all day and we're tired, we will often eat dinner in our Lazy Boy recliners.
Do you ever eat dinner in your Lazy Boy? I like to do that. And so sometimes I'll be kicked back at my lazy boy. And I'll be eating something in the distance.
You know, it's better when you're sitting at a table, right? If something drips, you don't have that problem. Sometimes things drip and it'll fall back on the plate. You're good to go. But if you're leaning back, pow, right on your favorite shirt.
And then you take a nap.
So then later that evening, I'll tell Robin that's my favorite shirt. Look what I did. She asks, well, what did you get on it? And I say, something from dinner; I don't know.
I dripped something there. Can you get it out? It's my favorite shirt.
She'll say, I think so; put it there where I can see it and I'll get it out. Now if I try to get it out myself, here's what I'll do.
I'll put some water on it, get it really wet and try to get it out. It looks like I got it out because it's wet and it all looks the same color. But the minute it dries, there's that stain again. Do you know what I'm saying?
See, I'm not good at this, but Robin, when she gets a hold of something. If you have something with a stain, just go to Robin. This is what I've learned. She gets it out.
So then when you put the shirt on, you know, later in the week, you say, way to go, hun. You got that stain out. I'm really good at making stains. She's really good at getting them out.
That's still true. We're all really good at making stains and Jesus is the only one who can get them out. We can try to rub them out. And it looks like we did until we get alone with ourselves.
As soon as we get in a dry spot, there it pops right back out again. But He can get it all the way out. Believer, listen, our conscience can be completely cleaned.
You're carrying a burden of guilt and shame. You're carrying a sense that you'll never be able to scrub it away. He can do it. This is the superiority of His tabernacle and His ministry. He is greater.
3. It secures a once for all eternal redemption.
Greater access, greater cleansing. And then finally, it secures a once for all eternal redemption. We're in the final verses, verses 11 through 14 now. It secures a once for all eternal redemption.
Look at verse 12. It says that His blood, which he brings to the mercy seat there in the heavenly temple. Verse 12
says, “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.“ Thus securing an eternal redemption, a once for all, one time payment that substantially secures for all time our redemption paid in full. And so this secures us; we no longer have to be on the payment plan. We no longer have to be trying to earn favor with God. I was talking to someone after the first service and I thought, that's something I should bring up at the second service.
I was thinking about this, that when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you confess your sins to Him and you repent and you ask Him to come into your life, how many of your sins are forgiven? All. All of your past sins, the sins that you've sinned today are forgiven. What about the ones you hadn't done yet, because will you sin again?
You will. You live in a sinful world. Hopefully you won't do it intentionally, but you might. It might be a bad day, but how many of your sins are forgiven when you receive Jesus? All.
Past, present and future. It's eternal redemption. Once for all. Is that going in your brain? Are you getting that?
What that means and this is what I was thinking about. When you pray and you're feeling guilty because you've sinned again, should you say, Lord forgive me of my sin, I've sinned again? You could say that. And at your level of what you're understanding about that, that's fine.
You're trying to get clean with God. But I was thinking about 1 John 1:9, which says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That's a good memory verse. You ought to memorize that one.
”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If you confess them to Him, He's forgiven them. How many again? Just checking - past, present, future. So when you go to Him again and you've got a feeling of guilt in your conscience, what if you prayed like this?
This is something that I've been doing for some time now. Lord, thank You that you've already forgiven me, but I've stumbled back into something here and I didn't mean to, but sin's a slippery slope. And I know I'm forgiven. I know that. But I feel dirty and I feel unworthy to talk to You right now because this is a sin pattern I've had.
This particular one has gotten me before. Maybe it's losing your temper. Maybe it's an addiction. I don't know.
We all have that weak spot. We all have that thorn in the flesh, don't we? And so then you feel ashamed to go back to Him because you've gone to Him so many times. But you know intellectually and you know from God's word that you're forgiven. Past, present and future.
How do you deal with that? This is something I've been doing. He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. So, Lord, I know I'm forgiven. Would You give me a fresh cleansing of my conscience right now so that I know it from the inside out?
Not just intellectually, but I know it in my heart. Would You help me? Remind me that I'm clean before You. Fully clean. I'm just trying to think practically how this works in my life.
Maybe that'll help you in your life. He goes on here and he's talking in verses 11 through 14. When Christ appears, verse 11, when He appears, and then He brings this greater and more perfect tent, this greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by human hands, and He goes into this throne room bringing His own blood and He secures this eternal redemption. He says, 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, 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.” You see, as long as you're beating yourself up and feeling disabled by sin and shame from the past, you'll never really be able to serve the living God.
You'll always feel unworthy to do anything for God. You'll always be circling the drain. I'm not good enough. Woe is me. This is not the new identity He wants to give us.
In Jesus. I know part of Me knows I'm not worthy to be in front of You. Part of me knows that because I know what my 66 years looked like. But then the true identity that I have in Christ, which is Christ in me, the hope of glory, that identity I have in Christ, says, no, you're forgiven. No, you're clean.
No, you've been made perfect in My sight and your conscience is being perfected. Therefore, I release you now to go preach My word. And now I can do it humbly, without any ownership and without trying to claim my own way, knowing that all that I have and all that I am comes from Him. Oh, it's such a release to find out who we are in Christ. In Ephesians 1:7 (ESV) it says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”
What the law couldn't do, what the old tabernacle couldn't do, God has done through Christ. Romans 8:1-4 (ESV) 1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” What the law couldn't do, what the old tabernacle couldn't do, it could only foreshadow it. It could only point to that which would fulfill it. God did when He sent Jesus. Jesus is greater.
He's greater than anything you're facing today. Even your conscience. He can get in there and clean it up and help you with it. And you don't have to make payments on it. You don't have to keep earning it.
Some years ago, we bought my wife a Ford Taurus. And a few years after that, the brakes needed to be replaced. And so we went to the dealer and he said, yeah, we got this thing called lifetime brakes. And I said, okay, that probably costs extra. Yeah, it costs a little extra, but the life of the car, we'll replace them for free.
I said, okay. And so in 2013, I put these lifetime brakes on. I paid a little extra. Then earlier this year, 2024, by the way, we drive cars until the wheels fall off. That's how we roll.
The Taurus was in the shop and the dealer called me and said, yeah, well, it's going to cost this much. You're going to need new brakes. And I said, I think I bought life-time brakes. And he says, well, let me look. I don't see anything on the computer.
And he said, it's going to cost this much. And I said, well, man, I thought I bought those life-time brakes. I can't remember. But then I remembered I always put the receipts from the dealer in the glove box of that car. And so, when I got to the dealer, I said, can I go look in my car before I pay?
He goes, yeah, you can go look in your car. So I went out there, dug in the glove box, and sure enough, I pulled it out. 2013 life-time brakes. And I walked in there and I said, hey, life-time brakes. And he says, sure enough.
We redid our computer system. It doesn't go back to 2013. I said, well, I have the hard copy right here. Guess what?
It was free. I didn't have to make payments on it. It had already been paid in full. I was happy about that. I was happy about that.
You know what? I have a hard copy right here. I have a hard copy right here. Whenever I'm filled with doubt, whenever my conscience convicts me wrongly because I'm clean, I'm forgiven, I'm born again, I stand before the Father without apology. I can come into the mercy seat of God and I can ask for whatever is on my heart because I am in Jesus and Jesus is in me.
I have the hard copy right here.
We're preaching from Hebrews today. It matters, doesn't it? We have the hard copy right here, the lifetime guarantee.
We have unlimited, unrestricted access, a cleansed conscience because of His ministry, and an eternal redemption that's paid in full. Do you know Him today? Do you know Jesus today? Do you have your confidence in Him? Let's pray.
Lord, I pray for the person that's here today that's never given their life to you. Maybe they're watching online. Maybe they're right here in this room or in the room next door. Lord, You're speaking to hearts wherever they are. We trust that when Your word goes out, that it never returns void.
So I pray right now for you, my friend. Would you give your life to Jesus? Would you confess Him as Lord and Savior? Would you say, right now, I'm a sinner, I repent of my sin, and I believe You died on the cross for me, Lord, and that You were raised from the grave. Would You come and live in me today and forgive me of my sin and make me a child of God? If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, He'll save you. He'll give you access to the Father.
Others are here. And you know this. You know this relationship with Jesus, but you've been feeling beat up. You've been feeling the feelings of shame and self condemnation. You've been feeling unworthy.
You've been feeling distant. Oh, would you come into the throne room? Would you remember what you have in Jesus? Would you cry out to Him and be reminded of the great price that He's already paid for your VIP access to the Father? Oh, we pray it all in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. It's really great to see you. I'm so thankful you're here. We're going to be in the Book of Hebrews again today. We're coming towards the end of this part of the Book of Hebrews together.
We're taking this book in three bites over three years. And soon we'll be taking a pause on it for another season. But we're in Hebrews chapter nine. And we've entitled this sermon, this series of sermons, Jesus is Greater, and rightly so. Not only do we know that's true, but this author, this book is all about it.
That is what its really main premise is, is that Jesus is better. Jesus is greater. I want to remind you for just a moment that the theme verse for the whole series is Hebrews 1:4, where it says, this shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names. So we're going to be in chapter nine today taking on another topic of ways in which Christ Jesus is greater. Greater than the old law.
The old ways, every other kind of way of reaching God, none of them even come close to what Christ has offered us through his sacrifice. And so you might be thinking, I don't normally dress like this on Sundays. Normally I'm button ups, polos, something, I guess, nicer, whatever you think. But I wear this today mostly just to make your eyes be confused. I don't know.
What are you seeing? You seeing something? Like I see a flower? I don't know. But these are a bunch of little churches.
And I went to a conference this week, a part of Summit Collaboration, which our church is considering joining. And they have a wonderful plan, a wonderful vision, if you will, to plant a thousand churches in their generation. And so I don't know if the count's exactly right, but there's supposed to be a thousand little tiny churches in this square. And so I wore this for you this week to both help us to think and envision of a better future, a greater future that our church, I believe, is a part of. We're a church plant out of Wilson.
Most of you know this, and we have a plan. We have a vision to plant more churches in eastern North Carolina. Now, I don't know who all has considered that lately, but we haven't forgotten that plan. That has been our ongoing vision is to go to places where not a lot of churches are being planted. You may not know this, but a lot of churches, even in this city are dying.
And the reason they're Dying is because their older folks are literally going on to be with Christ and the younger generation isn't there to replace them. And so this is happening all over the United States, but it's certainly happening in a heavy dose right here in the rural parts of eastern North Carolina. It's not necessarily a place for most young seminarians, graduates to go. You know where I want to go, I want to go to Rocky Mountain. It's not up there.
It's not towards the top of the list. And there's a lot of little towns like this out here in the East. And so our vision at the Wilson campus has been and will continue to be to reach places that aren't as commonly sent, you know, not as common places to plant a church. And it's hard to do. It's difficult.
You don't get look around the room. You don't get quick, immediate growth. Typically, although it can happen, the Lord can do as he pleases, but it takes time often in this part of the state. And so that's where we're going to be in today. This idea that God has a greater vision, has a greater.
The word that's often used in this text is he is a greater tent. The word that we're going to use because of that is the word tabernacle. That Christ is a better tabernacle. That means he's a better place for us to go and get rest and see the Lord. And he is access to God the Father.
And some of the things I really learned this week really helped me. It's almost like refreshers that I just needed to hear again. And something that I want to promise you right now, those of you in hearing. And there's some people that aren't here today that I'll have to tell them again when I see them. But I deeply mean this, that I want more for you than I ever want from you.
And that's true about Christ for us. He wants so much for us, way more than he ever wants from us. Now, when we follow Christ, the more that we walk with him, the more that we're going to produce great fruit. We're going to produce wondrous things in his name and for his glory. But at the end of the day, what I want and what Christ wants for you is growth and maturity in him and that your walk with Christ would really bloom.
And so I'm going to be working really hard over the next few weeks to be the very thing I think Christ is and try to be more accessible to you and so this might almost sound like an apology to some of you in the room, but some of you have been getting it right, and I've been trying to do something else. And that is, I've been working really hard to try to be excellent. And that's good. That's a good thing. I'm not always hitting the mark, as you well know, but I try to have excellent preaching and excellent worship, and I want to look good.
I want to be pleasing. I don't want you to walk away going, whoa, that was awful. I want you to go, man, I really. I had an experience with the Lord that day. But you know what?
I think your expectation is more than that, is intimacy. Is that what you really want from church? And this is true of any size church, but it's even more true of a church of our size, is that you're expecting friendship. And that's what I want to be about. And so I know you've come to church today not just looking for friendly people, but you're looking for friends.
And I pray we'll be that today. I will do my best to be that to you. And so let's work hard church on that. Let's be. The thing that Christ, as we dig in today, is to us, he is a true friend.
He is our access. He is always available. That's incredible that the Son of God is always available, that he's more than a friend, but he's every bit of a great friend, too. This idea that we have almost VIP access now, I've never been to Disney World. Some of you have.
I hear the lines are incredible. I hear it's pretty rough, right? And some of you have done this. You walk through the lines. Apparently nowadays they have VIP access where you get like your own personal guide.
This is incredible. You get your own agenda. You get all access. You can skip to the front of the line in certain rides, and you can do all this for just $900 more per person. Some of you might be thinking that's worth it to me if you're like me, man, I hate lines.
I hate crowds. I know that sounds weird, but it makes me feel like I get a little bit claustrophobic when I'm just in a group of people moving around like a herd. It's tough on me, my personality. But anyway, this VIP access, it costs a bunch. And almost anywhere you get the VIP treatment, it costs something.
And I would argue to you today that it did in fact cost a whole lot for us to have VIP access to Christ. But the Crazy part of this is it didn't cost us the VIP treatment that we get before God. The Father didn't cost us, it costed him. That's incredible. That's why the good news is good news.
Do you understand when you say, hey, this is good news? That's why we did nothing to earn it. We have VIP access to the Father now because of what Christ did, not what we did. That's insane. That's amazing.
Do you ever feel like a VIP with God? Are you still in a place of struggle and doubt and self doubt? Feeling inadequate maybe? Shame and guilt still lingers in your life for some reason you're still staying on the other side of the door. You've been given in Christ Jesus VIP access, but for whatever reason, you keep lingering outside the curtain on the other side of where you're allowed.
You're going through a season of spiritual dryness. Perhaps, maybe you feel disconnected. But the truth is this, in Christ Jesus, when you have faith in him and have received him, you've been made a VIP and nothing has changed on his end. Perhaps you've been believing something, maybe a lie, in fact, that I'm too wrong, I'm too messed up, or I'm just not. I haven't been.
I haven't been with Christ in a while. I know he's probably mad at me about that. That's not how this VIP access works. That's not how the true tabernacle works at all. He can't wait to be with us.
And he will restore the very areas where we're broken. We can't often do this on our own at all. He's ready to restore. So here's where we're going to be today. Hebrews 9:1 14.
Now even it says now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared the first section, in which the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that had budded, and the tablets of the Covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat of these things.
We cannot speak now in detail. Verse 6. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties, but only into the second. Only the high priest can Go and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 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, which is symbolic for the present age.
According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. Listen to this church. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, you see where I got my title, the greater tent wasn't that hard. Not made with human hands, that is, not of this creation. 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.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from the dead works and to serve the living God. God bless the reading of His Word. Amen. This is incredible news. Now, I know there's a lot there, and as I read it, you were thinking, huh?
Where's he going with this? There's a lot of variety to this half of the chapter. And the reason is the author is really trying to paint a clear picture for you of how Jesus is in. In fact, the better, the greater tabernacle. And so that's where we're going to spend time, the author here telling the Hebrew believers, Jesus is greater, his tabernacle is greater.
And here's why that is, and here's why that matters. So let's dig into that as well. The tabernacle of Jesus is greater because it offers unrestricted access to God's throne. Now, I've harped on this quite a bit lately, and I think I probably should continue, since the writer of Hebrews did so. That we like to forget.
I shouldn't say like, we often forget, for whatever reason, that we can talk to God at any time. We often forget the luxury that that is. I don't know why that is. You often. And I often struggle in our prayer life.
Maybe we sometimes will say, I don't have time, or it just feels dry. But it's wild to me that we have this opportunity to have VIP access with the Father. And sometimes we feel like we don't have time for that now. Don't feel guilty. I do this as well.
And I'm curious with myself why that is when the tabernacle of Jesus has allowed me to be behind the curtain. That's the argument he's making here. Behind the curtain. No longer on the other side of the wizard of Oz. You know what's behind there?
No. You're back there. You have opportunity to speak with God the Father. You have an opportunity to do something that none of us would have had the opportunity to do. Do and go behind the curtain into the what?
The most holy place, the holy of holies. We don't often think about how incredible that is. I have a few images for you. My TVs aren't the biggest, but hopefully you can kind of see this. So pop the first one up for me.
This is the way the tabernacle would have looked somewhat from the outside in the wilderness. Go to the next photo for me. There's what's going on here as you've got these items which he has described. And he also says, I don't know if you noticed, in verse six, he says, I don't have time to talk about this in detail. All right?
And the reason is because he's got another objective and so do we. This morning we have another objective. So he briefly mentions these items that are behind or in the first section. This is a section that you and I couldn't go to begin with. Alright?
The priests are allowed in there. The Levitical priests are allowed in there. So we couldn't even go in this building at all. But some are allowed behind, or one at a time was allowed behind the high priest. And he's only allowed back there once a year.
And so you can kind of see that burgundy ish curtain there going into the place where the Ark of the Covenant is and all this mysterious and amazing things. A couple of other guys tried to go back there in Scripture, one that comes to mind was one of the Kings of Judah. He went back there and got. The Lord was actually in a way merciful with him. He didn't die, he just got leprosy.
But either way, not a good thing. You don't want to go back there. It's designed only for the high priest now, the heavenly temple, the heavenly tabernacle. This is still true, only technically, only the high priest is allowed back there. But what's happened now is incredible because this high priest, who is Jesus, has Said, all right, and I'm taking you by the hand and we're going back there together.
All of us now have access through him, and he's given us that right? So first section to second section. Now, the incredible thing that happens at the death of Christ, we read historically, is that the veil itself was torn. So it's beyond illustration at that point. Jesus at the time of his death, physically.
Now, suddenly we have access between the holy place to the most holy place. All of that stuff. It's not accidental. It's meant to tell us a very beautiful story. Now, he goes on in verse 8 and verse 9 to tell us something that tells us a little bit historians in the room.
I know that's not everybody, but it tells us a little something here about when the date of Hebrews most likely is. If you know anything about Jewish history or the history of that Middle Eastern area in the first century, somewhere around 70 A.D. and we know this pretty certainly the siege of Jerusalem took place and the temple was destroyed. And so when he says here in verse 8 and 9 that the Holy place was in a sense, still standing, do you see that in verse eight that the first and second sections are still standing, which he has in parentheses is symbolic of the present age. This tells us that Hebrews, I would argue, must be written before 70 A.D.
it's got a pretty early date, because after this, it's like, I have no doubt that God allowed that whole thing to take place, because no longer should people be going to that place to worship. Our access, our worship is in Christ Jesus. We have a new and better future than this. But he says, look, as long as that's standing, the way is shut. And the reason it's shut is because you Jewish believers continue to go there offering food and drink and doing these things that are no longer demanded of you.
Now, I spoke some last week about this, that we as Christians do this as well. We don't often think about this, but we do this as well. We have our own laws, we have our own church regulations, if you will. And we think if we don't do them, God will be displeased and our access will be broken. We'll be disconnected.
And I was talking to a young man yesterday about this very thing, about the church he grew up in was extremely legalistic on a lot of issues. And there's churches all over the nation like this. And I believe often started with a right behavior, a right plan, but it turned into something misguided when you start saying, hey, you know, if you show up women. If you show up today in jeans, some of you might have, I don't know, that you wouldn't belong in a place like this. There's churches all over the nation like this that have.
Have turned things that were probably important, like, I think it's important that we come and worship Christ in our best, that we give him our all. But that has so much more to do with our heart and our behavior than it does our uniform. And there's. I could go here and there, all this different thing, all these different places that we could talk about the legalistic nature of a lot of different faith groups. And that's what he's saying to them.
Look, you. You have to leave this behind because as long as you're considering the food and the drink of this present age as being something that sanctifies the way is not open to you. You don't even understand the unrestricted access of Jesus because you're still doing the earthly tabernacle thing. Paul, in other places goes into some similar details. Romans chapter 5, it says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God through faith. This has happened, not works. Faith produces works, absolutely. And that's not the scope of today's sermon. But faith is what grants access, faith in Christ Jesus.
And it's this incredible work of Christ in the heavenly tabernacle that we can have this confidence. We read this, I believe, last year when we were in Hebrews chapter 4, it says in verse 14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of the need.
I don't know who needed to hear that part of the scripture today. I don't know who's come in here today feeling a distance from God, a disconnect, feeling like, I don't know that I can confidently draw into that throne room. But I want to assure you, my friend, if you have faith in Christ Jesus, you have VIP access and he will never remove that from you. You have it. And so the feelings you have of not going into that place are the exact opposite of what Christ would desire.
And this is how we are, isn't it? Isn't this how we are at times in our sin nature, that the very thing we want to do is the very opposite of what we do. And the very thing that we absolutely need to do, we think we can't do. And when it comes to our spiritual faith, we think, oh, he must be upset. I can't come in in prayer, I can't spend time with him because of X, because of what I've done.
And it's the opposite of that is true.
We have unrestricted access. I'm kind of a sports buff. I like to watch a lot of different sports. Some of you are this way. I've seen again and again lately, especially if you watch NBA at all.
And I know that's not everybody's cup of tea, but the World Series is going on right now, football's in session, there's lots of different things. And if you pay attention to the sidelines, you'll see little kids in some really great places sometimes little kids that have VIP access. And if you ever just pay attention to this, especially in the NBA, you'll see little kids sitting right behind the bench of the players. You're like, man, I don't know what their job is. I would think a little five year old wouldn't be working that hard.
And then if you keep watching, you'll find out, well, that's little. You know, back in the day it was a little brawny, you know who's playing now? He's not great. But anyway, you know, it's true. Quit saying stop.
We all know. But these kids, these children of the players, they have this incredible opportunity to see games. They don't even realize it. They don't realize how blessed they are to get to be a part of this glamour, this amazing event that they get to see. They're basically on the field.
And it's so incredible to think about this. It reminds me of another photo that I just now thought of, or otherwise I'd put it up for you, but there's this wonderful photo of JFK's boy sitting under the Resolute desk, right? And I think I've showed that image here before. But the President of the United States, I can't go sit under his desk. I can't go sit behind the bench where Braun and all them are playing.
I can't do that. And you know what's crazier? There's no amount of money I could pay to do that, there's nothing I can do. So this VIP access comes from sonship, adoption. It comes from being a son or daughter of the king.
And you have it. And you have it way better than the Resolute desk. You're in the throne room. You're in the holy of holies. Do you realize this?
What kind of access, kind of incredible access. Now, what do we do with that? How do we apply that piece? Well, certainly when the voice tells you, hey, you're not in the right place to be in prayer and to spend time with God, no, that. That is not of God.
Know that every single time that that comes to your mind, know that that is not the Lord. Now, whether that's your weak flesh or something more dark, I don't know. But I can guarantee you this. It's not the spirit of God who draws you into his presence every single day, every single moment. Also, I think an application might be that we're called to be like him, that we're called to be Christ like.
And so the kind of access that he has granted us, we ought to strive to have that level of access with others. This is a hard one for me because I am very introverted by nature. And you know what's happened to me? I got married and had four kids. That feels like all I need.
And so I almost am tapped out just from the people that are in my immediate family. And that's not your fault. That's just what's happened. And so in order for me to be more Christ like, I've got to. I've got to open up a little bit.
I've got to come out of my comfort zone a little bit and say, you know what? The people of God have access to me. If we're going to be a church that makes friends more than just being friendly, then we have to be accessible.
Here's the second reason, incredible reason that Christ is a better, a greater tabernacle. It's because it is able to completely cleanse the conscience. This is really the great, great news. I mean, unrestricted access, incredible. But the fact that this thing actually works is so, so good.
Such great news. Because the people of old, they would have known this all along. They would have known, okay, I've come and I've brought a sacrifice today, but I'm probably going to have to bring a sacrifice tomorrow because I just keep messing this thing up. And it gets into this section here, which is really fascinating, this idea of verse nine, yet again, the author is coming out and holding nothing back. He's saying, look, the old tabernacle, the old way, the old covenantal system cannot.
Perfect is the way the ESV puts it. The word there is teleo. Telos means end or complete. So this is the idea that it can never bring to completion. It can never make you right.
And everyone would have known this is true. There is tons of different ways of living in this modern life that you would know at the end of the day, if you were honest with yourself, that it's not going to bring you to completion. I would argue that the world's religions are all this way, that you have to continue to work, you have to continue to do. And there's always, I would argue, an uncertainty about the outcomes. And yet true, authentic Christianity says you were never going to be able to do this anyway.
You couldn't bridge the gap. The chasm is far too big. Only Christ can do it. And so your sacrifices have now been turned into worship and prayer.
We still have an opportunity. We still have a heart where we should be, in the temple of God. But we can do this from our home. We can do this certainly on Sunday mornings together. But we're not bringing sacrifices like they did.
No, we're bringing ourselves. This is why Romans 12 says, now you are a living sacrifice. Something has shifted such that now we're walking with him, him with us. And what he has accomplished by his sacrifice is actual perfection and completion, if you will, of our conscience. You see, conscience appears here in verse 9 and then again in verse 14.
What we see in verse 9 is that the conscience of the worshiper could not be perfected by the right eating and the right drinking and the right purifications that couldn't do it. But then verse 14 tells us that Christ Himself, by the eternal Spirit, by His offering, has purified our conscience from dead works to serve a living God. Now he's done it for a purpose. You've got to argue that for sure it wasn't just because, although he certainly did it out of a heart of love, but he did it for us, that we might serve a living God, that we might get to be a part. Look, heaven isn't going to be a place where you're just sitting around doing nothing.
And the walk here, the kingdom of God in this present age is not all right. I've got my fire insurance. I've believed and now I can just rest on my laurels, if you will. I can just do nothing. That's not the call of this text.
Your conscience has been purified such that you can Serve the living God. And guess what? That's where joy and peace is anyway. Sitting back. How many of you can sit still and enjoy it a day, for a whole day?
How many of you can do this? Some of you can. I'm pretty close. I can do a whole lot of nothing for almost a whole day. But by day two, I start getting itching like I'm a do nothing.
I start feeling pretty awful about that. And that's most people. Why? Because we were made to serve. We were made to worship.
That's how we were designed. And now with our conscience is purified by something that's actually effective. Now, verse 10 tells us that a reformation was coming. I love this. This is the idea that the regulations put on the body were simply there as a guard, simply there to remind us that something more permanent is coming.
A true reformation. Apart from Christ, our consciences are far from pure. I don't really have to argue that point. I think you know that about yourself. Apart from Christ, you will think things that are radical, that are not great at times.
Your conscience is certainly corrupt. Apart from Christ. The Bible speaks to this many times. There's more than just a heavy curtain between us and God. It's a way of thinking our hearts are far from him.
Paul writes to Titus in chapter one, to the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and their consciences are corrupted. That's essentially what it's saying right here in 9 14. Look at 914 in the NIV.
It says, how much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God? He's brought to completion something that we simply could not do apart from him. Now, when I think about this, this is going to sound like a really rudimentary example, but I'm going to let you in just a little bit of my life. I grew up getting called a nickname that I would not prefer you to call me. Now, if you love me, I would prefer you not call me this.
But around the dinner table. Growing up, my father had a little song for us. And you're going to think either more about my dad, Gary, or less about my dad. Now, I would argue think more because these jingles were fun. All right.
I had a tendency at almost every meal to spill something. Yeah. And for whatever reason, he's at the head of the table. I'm on his right. And he claims that at least once a week, I would spill my whole drink into his plate.
To me, that's at some point, your problem. All right, that's just my thought. Like, get me once, shame on me. Get me twice, shame on you. I mean, obviously, I'm a predicament.
I've got a problem. You don't need to be sitting near me. And so he started making these jingles. And so my sister was a very. She cried a lot, let's just say that.
Very emotional little girl. And my brother never, ever shut his mouth. Never. He's kind of still this way. If you really get to know him.
He talks a lot. So my dad had this jingle that went, whiner, slimer and Gatling gummouth. Whiner, slimer and Gatling gummouth. I can't remember if there were more lines to that, but I remember that part. And I'm slimer.
I'm slimer. And I would go to see uncles and aunts. I had this one uncle I really loved, and every time I would visit him, he would get me the coffee carafe for my drinks. It had a really wide base and a small top. I couldn't spill it.
It was unspielable. And he's like, I love you enough to give you something that hopefully will deal with your problem. I went on to wait tables, y'all. As scary as that is. I spilled an entire tray of drinks on the table.
Once that has happened, there's a little bit of slimer still in me, I guess. But this idea of being cleansed, this idea of being completely cleansed, I have this habit even now, ironically. I don't know how it always works out this way. You can ask my wife. As soon as I buy a new pair of shoes or shirt or pants, I'm likely to eat spaghetti that day.
It's like, what? Why does that always happen? Why do I always ruin. I can't ever have anything nice for more than a day. And these, you know, they don't make a lot of stain removers.
I think, that really make things fully disappear. There's always a sign. I can always look and go, yeah, that was last night's. Whatever. I walked through the yard yesterday with new shoes on.
I'm like, what am I doing? Why did I do this? There's grass clippings everywhere. What a mess I've made. I just wish there were better stain removers.
And that sounds like a rudimentary example, but it's been really true for myself. That this idea that my conscience could be completely cleansed, that my slimer behavior could actually be fully purified, that there would actually be something that does far more than get the red spaghetti dots out of my shirt, that there would be something that could not only make me look clean, it would make me new. Do you understand this piece of the puzzle? How wonderful it is that Christ Jesus in the greater tabernacle has wiped every stain away. Some of you have carried some baggage into church today.
You walked it right in here and you think this is still who you are. And it's not who you are in Christ Jesus, the stains of old, the alcoholism, the brokenness, the addiction, the way in which you used to treat people, a broken marriage, you fill in the blank. That stuff are stains that have been cleansed. Christ Jesus, do you believe that? Do you really believe that?
Then if you really believe that, then your unlimited access to Christ you will be taking every day because you'll no longer live in guilt and shame knowing that the stains are gone. The old you has passed away. Behold, the new has come. The scripture says, what incredible news. I'm so glad that I can come before the King and say, take old slimer away.
And I've been sliming a lot of other things in my life for a while. So it's not just the way I behaved then. It's the way I've thought, the way my heart has been. And I'm thankful today to know that the tabernacle in Christ Jesus has fully cleansed me. Here's the third and final way in which the tabernacle in Christ Jesus, the divine tabernacle, is greater because it secures a once for all eternal redemption.
The job is done. That's the argument of 11 through 14 that what was happening before was temporary. And I've been talking about this for weeks, but just reiterate that for just a moment. It says a couple of things in this text that are new. First of all, it says in where was it in verse seven that the priest not only has to come in, but yes, he can only come in once a year into the ark of the covenant.
So that's problematic. What do I do for the other 360? And he has to bring sacrifice in not only for himself because he's a broken person, but also for the people. And the verse says something very interesting there. He's only offering in the holy of holies an offering for the unintentional sins of the people.
What does that mean? That means, okay, the things that they didn't realize or didn't think of that's part of this once a year offering. What does that mean for all the intentional sins? Are you guys, are y'all so holy that you only commit unintentional sins? Praise God for you.
Every once in a while I premeditate to my everlasting shame. Sometimes I think I'm gonna be angry at this person and I'm gonna show it. I'm going to we premeditate. What do I do with those? Oh, this offering isn't even for that.
You've got to come week in and week out and say, look what I've done again.
It's a never ending process.
That's not true in the end here. That's not true in 11 through 14. Look at 13. It says, the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling for defiled people, all of that stuff was having to happen over and over and over, but much more. The blood of Christ has permanently defeated the sin in our life.
Now, yes, we're going to go on to still have struggles, but no longer do we make sacrifice. Now we come in repentance and say, I know you've already paid for it. Cleanse me and purify me. Make me new. This is greater and more perfect.
It says in verse 12, he entered once and for all, he has accomplished this. The earthly priests had to go year in and year out, day in and day out. But Christ has done it once and for all. In Christ Jesus we have redemption, total forgiveness for all sins, for all time. Ephesians chapter one in fact says in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.
Believer in the room. Today your sins are paid, they are done. He has accomplished this. No longer do you have to rest and stay or struggle. I should say not rest, but struggle in your guilt and shame.
The old tabernacle system of law could not do it, but Christ has done it. Romans chapter 8 goes on to say, there is therefore now no condemnation. So believer in the room that condemnation you're feeling. Similar to the thought I said earlier. If you're feeling condemnation, know this.
It's not of the Lord. We have a different word for what you're feeling in Christ Jesus. Conviction. Conviction. The Spirit of God does this.
The word is clear. It has come to convict. It says in another passage of Scripture, not just us, but convict the world. But does it condemn? Oh no, you can't.
How could you be condemned if the blood of Christ is sufficient? So yes, it comes to condemn or comes to convict, but not to condemn. So when you feel condemnation, know this, it's not of God. Turn that over and lay it at his feet and say, I know this isn't true. Let's talk Romans goes on to say, there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin he condemned sin in the flesh. Oh, so there is condemnation. But it ain't for you.
It's for that sin mess that was in your life. He's condemned it in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. I hope you feel encouraged this morning church knowing this wonderful truth. And maybe it's something you never really consider because it is something that's not something we've experienced. We didn't experience first century temple worship.
So for us we kind of have to stretch our minds and think about this. What would it have been like to not be able to be in the presence of God?
But it shouldn't at all lessen our joy and our wonderful that we get to come in the presence every moment of every day that we have this eternal redemption and that the Spirit of God has come not to condemn us, but to convict us. Why? So that we might look more like Jesus tomorrow than we did today. That we might walk out of this place being more accessible to our friends and family. I know there's a temptation for us to close off, but I don't believe that's of the Lord either.
That we would have open lives. I heard a church this week. I'm tempted to steal this in at least the way I think he said. We believe four words at our church. Open Bible, open life.
And that's not bad. I mean, that doesn't have to be our church's vision. We got a pretty good one. Come just as you are and be forever changed by the love of Jesus. I'm digging that.
But for you personally, if you'll constantly be thinking my life is going to look like an open Bible and an open life, I'm not going to be closed off to people. I will say I'm going to go ahead and warn you as soon as you make this decision because somewhere Monday, Tuesday I started going. I need to do better. Guess What God has done since. People just want to talk a lot.
Do you mean what you say? So I said, all right, I'm going to be in the Word and I'm going to open up access. So yesterday I got to tell you all this church. Yesterday, my son's soccer team was at my house a whole lot. That's a lot of people.
And they brought their families, right? We cooked 100 and some hot dogs. It was wild and it was warm. And we're running around outside sweating and all that. I'm thinking the shindig is over.
It's coming to its conclusion. Kids are starting to leave. I'm thinking, Saturday's for the boys. We're about to chill out. We're going to watch some football.
It's going to be good. This one little pocket of boys sit down on the couch. Cool. All right. And one of them, his name is Samuel.
I'm praying for the Lord to use him in mighty ways. This kid is reading St. Augustine. He starts talking to me about the City of God and the Confessions of St. Augustine.
I'm like, what are we doing right now? He starts giving me all these details about what he's studying. He starts quoting scripture. He's got stuff cited better than I do. I'm like, I know the Word, but honestly, I don't always know where everything is.
I kind of got to think about it. He's like, philippians this. And I'm like, what is going on right now, Lord? Three hours or something. We sat and talked about how he's struggling with whether or not the Lord's calling him to missions.
Oh, the Lord is calling him to missions. Like, dude, what are you talking about? I don't know. Another 17 year old that is reading St. Augustine and loves Paul Washer.
That's weird. If you've not seen Paul Washer, check it out. I mean, we're talking some Reformed theology. This kid's digging into. Starts talking to me about double predestination.
I'm like, I'm tired. I wasn't ready for this. Now it was good for him. I pray that. I really do.
Genuinely pray. The Lord's gonna send that kid somewhere and he's going to take. He's going to take the world by storm. I know this. But for me, from my side, I had to continue to say, this is who you're trying to be, Jonathan, Because I could have killed these conversations in a loving way, but I could have.
There's just ways. And you know this. There's ways to stop conversations if you're done. But I just kept asking him more questions and just kept prying. I'm like, I'm going to be here a while.
Let's see what happens. I'm not great at this church, but I want you to know something. If you make the goal open Bible, open life, I want to be as Christ like as I can on this earth. He's given me incredible access. Shouldn't I also be someone that people can reach?
Shouldn't I be open?
You've been given unrestricted access. You've been truly cleansed. Your conscience is clear, and you've been given redemption once for all. I pray that that encourages you today. Church, let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, I thank you so much that you are indeed a greater tent, a greater tabernacle. And that means so much to me as I consider it. I never got to see what it was like to not be able to go behind the curtain or even to go in the tabernacle at all, as most of your people were in that space. They couldn't even go into the holy place, much less the holy of holies. Oh, I never got to see that, Lord.
But I'm asking you that you would encourage me in this, that I would know it. For my part, just the wonder, the encouragement that we have in you, that we can come before you at any moment in our deepest, darkest suffering. You are there. When we feel in the most pain, when we feel even the most alone, you are there. The psalmist says, we could go as high as possible, even to heaven, and you'd be there.
We could go as low even to Sheol, and you'd be there. God, I pray that your people, that I and your church would know this, that we have perfect access to you. And when we feel distant, when we feel like we can't go into that place, would you encourage us, God, and remind us, oh, that's not you. That's not you. You've wiped every tear away.
You're doing this in us. You're perfecting those in which you have made holy. You're doing this.
I pray, Lord, that your people would never be reluctant to come into your presence. I pray for your church in this room. I pray for those of our church that aren't here with us today. Have various things that they're doing that caused them to not be able to be in our presence today, that you would bless them as well, that we would be the kind of church that is accessible, that in our workplaces, among our friends, that we would just make the decision. I'm not going to shut down conversations anymore.
I'm just going to see where this wild road takes me. Seems to be so much about your character, Jesus. You're just out there talking to the weak and the poor and the broken and the sick and you have time for them. Oh, that we would have time for them. God, I pray that first and foremost we would take the every opportunity to be in your presence and that that would change us in such a way that we would be taking every opportunity to allow others to be in our presence.
Do this in us, Lord. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.