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The Inferior Old Covenant Sanctuary, Hebrews 9:1-10
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Feb 19, 2025
Welcome back to our study of the Hebrews, today we'll be looking at Hebrews 9:1-10, the inferior old covenant sanctuary. Let's quickly recall what we talked about last week. We mentioned the better promises of the new covenant inaugurated by Jesus. In the gospels, we read about Jesus last Supper when He tells his disciples that his blood, is the blood of the new covenant. He sealed that covenant when he said it is finished before He breathed his last. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews has been showing with ever chapter that the old covenant was indeed passing away. In chapter 9, verses 1 through 10 , we'll be looking at the earthly sanctuary of the old covenant and its inferiority to the new.
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hello good morning and uh welcome back to our study of the book of hebrews today we're going to begin chapter 9
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and we're gonna um talk about the sanctuary itself last
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week we talked about the better promises of the new covenant and basically what we said was that the writer has been
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trying to convince his readers and us ultimately that the old covenant was indeed passing away and he was going to
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give way to the new covenant so we talked about the new plot the better promises of their old covenant last week
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we say that god himself in jeremiah 31 verse 31 to 34 said that the old
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covenant was indeed going to be passing away because he fought he found our
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fault with the people because under the old covenant people were not able to keep his law because they were weakened
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by their sinful nature and then he instituted the old covenant as a way to
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lead the people to the new covenant we talked about the priest and how everything that the
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priest did could not quite um take away sins because under the old covenant the
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sins of the people were only covered they were not washed away and then we talked about how um
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the um all these things all the practices of the new car the old covenant were supposed to lead people to
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the new uh covenant under jesus because jesus as we said was a new high priest
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under un under the order of melchizedek we talked extensively about melchizedek
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and what he represented and we talked about the blood of jesus being able to be sufficient to take away sins and as a
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result he is the propitiation and expiation for our sins so the writer has been convincing his readers and has been
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shown through scriptures that jesus indeed is uh the one the only higher
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priest that we need and his life is endless so we can go to him and he ministers in the heavenly tabernacle we
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talked about the location of his tabernacle it was in heaven it was not an earthly one and we talked about how
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the earthly tabernacle was a representation and an image of the actual tabernacle in heaven where jesus
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actually ministers so now today and the writer has basically ended chapter eight by saying
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that the old covenant was indeed becoming obsolete and now he's going to
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show that even the earthly tabernacle was arranged in such a way to convey that message so we're going to begin
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chapter 9 and we're going to look at verses 1 through 10 today okay so let's fasten our seat belt and jump into this
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so i'm going to read on the passage and then we are going to try to unpack it so hebrews 9 verse 1 through 10 and i'm
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reading from the esv version now listen to what the writer says here
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now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of
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holiness for a tenth was prepared the first section
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in which where the lamp stand and the table and the bread of the presence it
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is called the holy place behind the second curtained
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curtain was a second section called the most holy place having the golden altar
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of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold in which
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was a golden urn holding the manor and aaron staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant
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above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat of these things we cannot now speak in
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detail these preparations haven't thus been made the priests go regularly into
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the first section performing their ritual duties but into the second only
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the high priest goes and he but once a year and not without taking blood which
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he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people by this the holy spirit indicates that
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the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is
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still standing which is symbolic for the present age according to this arrangement gifts and sacrifices are
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offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper but deal
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only with food and drink and various washings regulations for the body
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imposed until the time of reformation and this is
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hebrews chapter 9 verses 1 through 10. now let's try to unpack all this
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now he begins verse 1 of chapter 9 with now even the first covenant had regulations
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for worship and an earthly place of holiness so the first and the very first question we need to ask ourselves is we
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need to understand why the writer begins with the words recorded in verse 1. so
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he ended chapter 8 by saying that the first covenant was becoming obsolete meaning it was coming to an end because
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it was provisional and god set in motion to serve as a
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temporary alliance between him and his people and to ensure that his people will understand that god designed the
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tabernacle of moses in such a way that its arrangement will even convey that message his structure would convey
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concisely his plan to dwell among his people so god designed the first tabernacle of moses for that purpose
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that he would convey that message that eventually this will come to an end because i'm about to bring a new
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covenant and my son is going to be the fulfillment of that covenant we talked about that uh a week ago
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now basically this is the foundational piece uh to the writer's argument in this chapter that's why he uses the word
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even he says even the first covenant had had regulation for worship and an
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earthly place uh for of of holiness okay so he wants to
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indicate that the tabernacle erected by moses was set in a way to convey god's
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ultimate purpose clearly without confusion because god is light okay and in him
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there is no darkness at all he doesn't try to conceal his plan in such a way that only a certain number of people
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understand it god makes sure that he's remnant the people that he has chosen will get and understand his plan he's
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not trying to hide his plan from people like you know in the book of first john we talked about how the gnostic teachers
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claimed that they had like some kind of special knowledge okay now this isn't the case here god plain is always clear
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and concise to those whom he has called now heretics likes to twist things up so
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in this case we see that he wasn't trying to conceal his plan from his people all along he wanted to convey that
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eventually jesus was going to come and fulfill uh his his plan
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on behalf of mankind so now we need to know what made the first um covenant weak and inferior to the um
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new covenant now the first reason the reason is it was an earthly uh tabernacle that's so important it was
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earthly it wasn't heavenly it was earthly which means there are many things about it first and foremost
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it was defiled by men's hands because means the priest and the people were not perfect so they were
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performing their duties and they defiled the temple the tabernacle they were imperfect people because of their sinful
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nature because they were they they tainted their sanctuary and the next thing is uh this is why they have to be
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very careful okay they have to be very very careful when they went into the temple uh because if they they weren't
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careful they could be ultimately killed as a result if you look at uh ii samuel
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six verse five to seven we read the account of uh other he touched the ark of god to prevent him
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from falling on the earth and the anger of the lord burned against him and he perished he was struck dead
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so i'm bringing this up just to show you the sinfulness of man before a holy god and and so that's why i wanted to bring
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that up okay and then furthermore even when moses was receiving his instructions to build the
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tabernacle he was warned as to erect it according to the pattern that was shown to him okay which means that the earthly
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one is inferior and a mere representation of the heavenly one so
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basically even moses when he was told see to it that you built on this tabernacle according to the pattern that
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was shown to you god was shown there already the contrast between the old and the new he's saying listen build the
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earthly one based on what you've seen in heaven which means the heavenly one is actually the actual tabernacle and the
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earthly one is much much more inferior because the one in heaven is built by
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god on earth it was built by men with god's instructions so that's the difference right there already okay
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so that's just uh that's just that now also the temple was built with materials
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that eventually would need repairs okay it wasn't like so they were built they built the materials that would
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eventually they would like they need uh they needed maintenance okay so the temple was also limited geographically
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that's also another uh big big difference it had to be dismantled and
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the various parts had to be carried from place to place so and it was only built
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to serve the jewish nation the gentiles were not included directly into this old system
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if you go to acts 7 48-50 and acts 17 24-28 those verses teach us that every
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jewish person was well aware of the fact that god didn't dwell in temples built by mankind so they knew that when they
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went there it wasn't like god god was dwelling in there they knew it according to the verse god does not live in temple
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built by man but this was instituted as a way to to give him um
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some kind of on provisional access into the um we've got just like we go to church we know that
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god doesn't live in a church but we go there as a way to worship him there so
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because jesus hasn't come yet god still showed these people grace by instituting this old covenant but the tabernacle on
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earth was limited it was limited because it was earthly it was weak because
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uh the stuff like the materials that that was used to to to erect it needed
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maintenance and it was also geographically limited people had to go to one place they all had to go to where
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the tabernacle was to worship so if they didn't go there then they couldn't quite worship so you can see that there's a
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lot of weaknesses to it today we don't have to do any of that we can pray and enter the
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holy of holies because as we pray and i keep our gaze on jesus we are entering that place so it wasn't like back then
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so you can see all the contrasts contrasting differences and the weakness of the old
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uh tabernacle of moses it was really limited and only jewish people were allowed gentiles were not allowed in
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there because they were not part of the promise we talked about that last week that even though the gentiles were not
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directly included they were some kind of they were almost indirectly included because
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god still had the gentiles in mind but according to the law the way the thing was placed and the way
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the the tabernacle of moses was built the structure and everything about it it
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was basically for the jewish nation and other nations couldn't really have access so you can see that god
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chose them for a certain purpose they were supposed to convey uh who he was but this was just provisional
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okay he they served that's a as an example a role model but eventually this
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system had to be done away with because of his limitations and we talked about the first limitation which is
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it was earthly that's number one so now we're gonna go and then talk about uh verse verses two to five so now
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we've already talked about the earthly tabernacle now listen to what verses two to five say for a tent was prepared the
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first section in which were the lamp stand and the table and the bread of the presence it is called the holy place and
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behind the second curtain was the second section called the most holy place
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having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold in which was a golden
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urn holding the manor and aaron staff that budded and the tablets of the
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covenant above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat
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of these things we cannot now speak in details now the first thing that he did was he
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talked about the location of the the the tabernacle of moses he was earthly so we already
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talked we already mentioned that that's the first weakness now second he's going to show that even the arrangement and
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the regulations of the tabernacle on earth was not meaningless there was a meaning behind it there was a message
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behind every one of its elements and each piece of furniture was symbolic a
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copy or replica of the actual heavenly tabernacle and that can be seen it
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cannot be seen by the naked eye we don't see it but we briefly talk about each element and their spiritual meaning
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because it's important because if you truly understand the meaning you can see that the earthly tabernacle of moses was
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only provisional okay now the first piece of furniture furniture that he mentions is the lamp
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stained and the lamp stand is commonly called the menorah okay seven branches
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uh gordon the seven branches golden lame uh candlestick and he's mentioned in
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exodus 25 verses 31 to 40. now what does it represent now it is a symbol of the
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nation of israel and its mission to be a light onto the nations as
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mentioned in isaiah 42 verse 6 it was again i'll repeat that again it
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is the symbol of the nation of israel and its mission its mission is to be the
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light unto the nations and as if you go to isaiah 42 6 i'm gonna go to isaiah 42
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6 and we're going to see that let's listen to what the word of god said
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about the jewish nation isaiah 42 6. listen to what he says here
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i am the lord i have called you in righteousness i will take you by the
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hand and keep you i will give you as a covenant for the people a light for the nations
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that was their purpose i will give you as a covenant for the people a light for the nation so they were supposed to be
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the light of the nation so the menorah represent that okay so it was supposed
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to be shown that the jewish nation was supposed to be light unto us so that we could see them and then see god they
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were supposed to show us the way back to god because of the broken covenant adam
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and eve seemed and they were kicked out and the whole human race was plunged into um destruction and we were
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separated from god now when god made a covenant with the jewish nation they were supposed to serve as a light saying
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look back to god because he is going to restore our relationship with him so that menorah represents that now
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jesus christ today is the real light okay so in john 8 verse 12 let's go to
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john 8 verse 12 and see what jesus himself says he says again jesus spoke jesus spoke to them saying i
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am the light of the world whoever follows me will not
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walk in darkness but will have the light of life so you see
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and ask the followers of jesus okay we we should we ought to let our light
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shine before others so that they may see our good works and then give glory to god in heaven so that applies to us
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today so basically um the menorah is the first element and that talks about uh the
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jewish nation being the light well ultimately it applies to jesus because he is the true
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light of god he is god of god okay lord of lords so he is a true light so the
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menorah was just supposed to be a mere representation of jesus being the true light now the next element uh is the
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table of show bread okay that's also another piece that we need to briefly mention and each sabbath
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the priest will remove the old loaves and put fresh loaves on the table then the old loaves will be eaten only by the
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priest in the sanctuary the lords were called the bread of the presence and the table of the table was
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called the table of the presence now what is the meaning of it it symbolized god's presence that sustained the 12
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tribes of israel okay again it represents god's uh presence that
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sustained the 12 tribes of israel now the gentiles were not involved in the process
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at least not directly so you can see again the limitation there so while they may have been involved indirectly the
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jewish nation as we saw from the menorah was supposed to be a light to the gentiles okay
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but some of them missed the ultimate purpose of god they thought they were the chosen one that was only for them
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but it was supposed they were supposed to serve as a light okay now today the bread of the presence is the lord jesus
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who is the bread the man of god sent from heaven according to john 6. i want to go to john 6 and read what jesus says
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about himself being the bread of god okay if you go people again he just fed
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5 000 people and then they come back the next day and they come back not because
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they saw the sign but they come back because they got something to eat and they want to eat again and jesus tells
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him listen do not work for food that perishes but work for food that endures to eternal life which the son of man
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will give you and people don't quite understand what he's saying and and then he's telling
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them listen moses gave you the man in the in in in the wilderness but you then your your
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father died your father's your your the ancestor died because moses did not give you the true bread i am the true bread
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that come from heaven and he says in 35. listen to what he says here i am the bread of life
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whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never
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thirst you see so jesus is the true bread of life now in the tabernacle the
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bread of the presence was supposed to be symbolic of that he was supposed to point out to jesus who is the true bread
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of life in the lord's prayer we say give us this day our daily bread jesus reminds us of of
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this as well when he responded to satan's temptation with the words man does not live by bread alone but by
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every word that proceeds from the mouth of god so the natural body needs food to
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survive but the spiritual body needs the word of god he feeds on the word of god
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because the word of god is the word of life okay god speaks and things happen god is the
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his word i don't even know there's a song that i used to like
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uh die word is a lamp into my feet and they light onto
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my path your word is a lamp to my feet and the light
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onto my path see i love that song because the he
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conveys the meaning of the word of god the word of god is all that we need really because this word is powerful
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his word is amazing his word causes things to happen he spoke and the whole universe was created so god speaks
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faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god so his presence jesus
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is is all we need he is the bread of life so the the table of presence represented again is is is is uh it
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stands is symbolic but it represents a reality so this is why you can see how weak that
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was because it was only symbolic its true spiritual meaning was finally fulfillment in jesus okay so that's the
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we talked about the earthly tabernacle the golden altar of incense and now we talk about
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the table of the bread of presence and now we're gonna talk about another piece of furniture in this um
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in this uh in this tabernacle the next element was the golden altar the altar of incense okay
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now it stood in front of the veil and he divided the holy of holies from the holy place now each morning and evening
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the priests on duty will burn incense on this altar and in psalm 141 2
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david describes this as a picture of prayer ascending to god it can be a
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reminder of jesus christ our priest interceding for us before the father if
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you go to first verse um psalm 141 verse 2 listen to what david
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says here let my prayer be counted as as incense before you and the lifting up of
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my hands as the evening sacrifice so all these elements are like symbolic but
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they they they give us a representation of something else so this is just symbolic
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um pieces those things were supposed to convey a message that was deeper so you
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can see how weak the old tabernacle was it it was only there for
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for as a way to represent uh some another spiritual truth okay the true
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spiritual meaning of the those elements find his fulfillment in jesus now now let's enter the holy of
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holies and mention one of the most important element in there the ark of the covenant
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okay now the ark of the covenant was symbolic of the throne of god in the tabernacle if you go to psalm 80 verse
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1. listen to what the psalmist says here give ear or shepherd of israel you will
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you will lead joseph like a flock you who are enthroned upon the cherubim
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shine forth and in psalm 91 1 we read almost something similar let's
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listen to what the psalmist says here the lord reigns let the peoples tremble he sits and
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thrown upon the children let the earth quick you see so the ark of the covenant
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was supposed to represent uh the throne of god in the tabernacle so
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what is so important about the ark of the covenant we need to know that see on the day of atonement
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blood will be sprinkled on the mercy seat to cover the tables of the law
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within the ark okay the tables are moses received from god so blood was supposed
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to be sprinkled on the mercy seat and god basically did not look at the broken
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law by the people he didn't look at the broken law he saw the blood and the sins of the people were covered by the blood
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that's what happened so god did not look at the broken law he saw the blood and then he relented from striking his
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people because he saw the blood and the people's sins were covered okay notice
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that i said they were covered they were not uh expiated they were there was no propitiation the sins were not taken
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away the sins were not washed away they were only covered until the time of reformation okay
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if you look at uh jesus christ he is the propitiation and the expiation of our sins i want to go
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to romans 3 verse 25 and read this to you whom god put forward as a propitiation
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by his blood to be received by faith this was to show god's righteousness
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because because in his divine forbearance he has he had passed over former sins see when jesus died on the
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cross and his blood was spilled for us it was to show the righteousness of god god was basically saying listen i am
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judging sin and my son's blood is the one blood that served as an expiation and propitiation
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for my sins so people always say about god that god forgives god is a merciful
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god but yes even though god is merciful his justice has to be applied as well
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and he and jesus christ became the propitiation and the expiation of our sin so god was showing that he was
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righteous that he doesn't just wink over sin and say that's okay god is not like a grandfather or santa claus he's not
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just going to be like oh that's okay no he has to punish sins so he showed his
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righteousness again there as jesus bore our sins on the cross god was showing
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that he was righteous that's important to know okay so jesus
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christ is the actual and true mercy seat because his blood is the propitiation
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and explanation of our sin so the ark of the covenant was there to represent that okay his blood does not just cover sin
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it takes away sin it takes it away it's a it's something that i've been trying to really get in my my head as
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well to like understand that like it doesn't just cover since it takes it away like when
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you sin you're in your sins you are filthy before god and the blood of jesus
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takes away the sin from us he takes it away so this is actually the reality of
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his blood but the blood of god couldn't do that he only covered so that people would be
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externally clean like the priest was externally clean and if the the people's sins were covered god will see the blood
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and then he will relent okay but he couldn't take away the the sins so basically what the
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writer is trying to communicate is to his readers is this while many symbolic truths may be
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wrapped in these pieces of furniture okay they are only symbolic and not the
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spiritual reality because the reality rests on jesus and his work on the cross
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and this is why the co the old covenant was inferior because all it was was
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symbolism that's all it was it was just a symbol okay and his purpose was to
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lead the worshipers to the true realities they were to be looking forward to the coming of the one
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that could take away sin that is jesus so the old covenant was to keep their
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mind on the promised final covenant of god in jesus but unfortunately many got
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caught up in the old and missed the new when jesus came to bring about the reformation that's what happens we get
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caught up we like mankind like routine we like things done a certain way so we've been doing this all our lives this
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is the way we've been doing things okay so when jesus came they missed it some missed it they
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couldn't see that in jesus was the fulfillment of every promise in the old
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testament according to jeremiah 1 verse 31 to 34. so jesus is the fulfillment of
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that covenant but they didn't miss it they missed it because they can see their eyes were blinded and second
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corinthians talked about the veil that remains on their minds because even today when moses is read
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people don't see that jesus is the fulfillment of uh every law that god has ever given us
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because jesus fulfilled the covenant of god because mankind couldn't and in him
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we have peace with god is the propitiation and the expiation of our sins so every piece of furniture in the
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old uh tabernacle of moses the everyone was supposed to be pointing us to jesus
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every piece of furniture was just symbolic it represented a true spiritual reality and those spiritual
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realities were fulfilled in jesus so basically he's shown again the contrast between the old
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and now the new by showing that even the tabernacle and his pieces of furniture and his structure and his arrangement
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and every ritual was supposed to point us to the new covenant you can see how
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he presents his argument so concisely so there is no denying the truth about
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jesus about the new covenant about what he is about to bring he brought about okay
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now if you go to verses 6 to 7 let's listen to the scripture these preparations having just been made
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the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties
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but into the second only the high priest goes and he but once a year and not
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without taking blood which he offers for himself for the unintentional unintentional sins
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of the people now another inferiority of the old system
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was its inaccessibility by the common people you see it
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basically says that other than the levite priest no one else was allowed in the tabernacle okay it wasn't accessible to
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the people people like you and i i mean i guess the the jewish nation regular people were not
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allowed in the tabernacle of moses they were not allowed in there they were not allowed
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i think the fact the family representative was allowed in the into the altar of sacrifice only the
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representatives but they came into the court to offer their um their whatever they
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were bringing the goats their lamb or whatever but only the priests and the high priests were permitted to enter
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on the tabernacle now if you go into the tabernacle only the high priest was allowed in the holy of holies okay and
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that only once a year once a year on the day of atonement that was the only day
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the high priest was allowed into the holy of holies so you can see accessibility was really restricted
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common people can really do this so they literally had to just sit out there and just wait and when they the the and the
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family members they'll be outside and when whenever the representative brought his sacrifice and the smoke will
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go up in the air they will see the smoke and the smell and they will know that okay god has accepted our sacrifice so
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everything was limited it was restricted access was restricted and the high priest were allowed into the
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tabernacle but only the high priest was allowed into the holy of holies okay and then before the hype is entered he had
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to make offers for his own sins and the unintentional sins of the people
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we talked about that that god didn't make provisions for high-handed sins i
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just wanted to quickly remind you of that that's very important so we don't understand how good we have it today
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like back then this is the practice this was the practice okay they had to sit out there and just wait so
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today we have access to the throne of grace where christ is
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seated this is where we have access okay we can approach god's throne the real
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throne not an earthly one not a replica because of jesus work on the cross our sins are not just covered they are
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washed away removed from us that we may come in with confidence because
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when we as when we have sin on us we can come into the presence of god so jesus christ blood wash away those sins so
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that we can come and we when we pray we are actually entering the real holy of
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holies this is why we can be cavaliers about approaching god okay because what jesus did
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again when i talk about these things like i want you to understand something i am struggling just like you to
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understand these realities like i want to know that i know that i know that oh lord jesus christ blood
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really washed away my sins and when i pray i have access into the holy of holies this is where i'm going i am
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going to the throne of grace and now when i come in there i am in the presence of god himself in my prayers
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and how does that change your prayer life that this is where you are actually going if you go to hebrews chapter 4
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verse 14 to 16 i want to read you something so important let's go there again because that verse
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stayed in my mind for quite some times and i want to keep going back to it listen to what the scripture says there
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since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens jesus the son
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of god let us hold fast our confession
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we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses
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but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are
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yet without sin let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of
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grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need this is
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the reality of what we have today and that's because of jesus so we have
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access he's a high priest that is able to sympathize with our weakness because
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he became one like us he became like us he took upon the human nature the triune god
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added the human and as a result he is able to sympathize
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with our weakness and when he died on the cross his blood is infinitely valuable in god's sight
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and is able to take away the sins of those god has called god the scripture said god so loved the world that he gave
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his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life so his blood has that
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much worth and as a result now we have access into the throne of grace and when
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we pray that's where we are going our prayers are there because god in jesus reconciled the world to himself
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and now our fellowship with god is no longer broken because of jesus he restored that
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now this is incredible news but i hope and pray that this what happens to you when you read that every
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emotion of your sister that it becomes part of your dna so that when we pray our prayer life changes our prayers is
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no longer boring repetition of words that are meaningless no no this ought to change the way we pray
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this ought to change the way we we live our lives because we are supposed to be what we're saying in in the lord's
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prayer thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread so when we are
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praying we are asking god to bring about his work down here so our prayers to be
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focused on the kingdom of god thy will be done on earth as it is in
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heaven so our prayers have to be god oriented because now when we go into his presence
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again the spirit of god changes us according to jeremiah 31 31-34 he equips us now because now he
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has put a spirit in us that allows us to pray his word so the spirit of god in us leads us to
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pray prayers that are going to please god because of what jesus has done now the spirit of god comes and lives in us and
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he changes us so that we can reflect uh the glory of god on earth that's the
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whole thing so the our prayers are no longer man centered but they are god-centered
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because of the spirit of god dwelling in us because of jesus jesus gave us the gift of the holy spirit see
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in the old testament didn't have all these benefits okay
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and then if you go to verse eight the meaning of all these things by this
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the holy spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened
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as long as the first section is still standing see in verse 8 the writer is explaining the reasons behind the
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regulations of the old covenant see the tabernacle of moses had two sections the
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holy place and the holy of holies why see those two words sound redundant okay
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holy place and holy of holies so what is the different difference between holy and holy of holies see
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for the sake of showing us the glory of the actual tabernacle of god the writers
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under the holy spirit leading risked redundancy basically it was to show that
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while this earthly tabernacle this week holy place was still operational access the access to the holy of holies
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the actual tabernacle of god will be denied see which means that the holy place
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had to be set aside and replaced eventually see as long as the old tabernacle of
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moses was standing access to the holy of holies was not uh
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there was no access it was restricted to the whole the high priest that came in there only once a year so that means
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that the holy place had to be set aside the first covenant had to be set aside see while the old
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was still operational god was showing that jesus hadn't yet completed his work jesus had to come
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even though for all eternity god decided how we were going to be saved
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prior to the advent advent of christ the old covenant had to be put in place to serve as a temporary provisional remedy
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okay that's the that was the purpose of the old covenant but once jesus said it
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was finished and braved his last as recorded in matthew 27 15-51
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the curtain was torn from top to bottom and the holy of holies was made
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accessible which means this is the end of the holy place and all the other
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regulations now i just want you to think about this now can you imagine
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what that would have been like when the veil was torn v there was a veil there and not not one
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of these high priest of even the high priest would dare look at the the ark of the covenant they will
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be struck dead so imagine what happened the day jesus braved his last and say it
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is finished and the veil was turned from top to bottom i bet you as soon as they saw that they probably covered their eyes because they didn't want to look
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they were probably gripped with fear like what is this this is scandalous the
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the veil is torn i don't even know how they went about repairing the the veil i mean i'm sure they were terrified
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but god made sure they understood that this is not the main thing this is god thing because the veil was thrown from what
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from top to bottom which means no man came in there to tear it up it was a work of god god was shown again was
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speaking to them but i don't know if they all understood what the message was because now access to the holy holy of
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holies was open everyone could see into it because they were covered now by the
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blood of jesus christ so i mean i just want you to to to think about this how that must have
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felt like for the priest to see the veil being torn from top to bottom it was scandalous he was crazy they had never
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witnessed anything like this before now they had access but i think they didn't get it they probably went back and fixed
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it and and again they they resumed their old practices they didn't get the
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message of god and now you know like today we have all these benefits but then we don't we don't see how important
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that is and i hope this changes us okay and in verses 9 to 10 uh he goes which
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is symbolic for the present age according to this arrangement gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot
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perfect the conscience of the worshipper but deal only with food and drink and various washings
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regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation again another
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weakness of the old covenant is that the sacrifices offered on the mercy seat could never change the heart or the
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conscience of the worshippers okay they couldn't do it because their conscience was still struck their
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conscience was still feeling guilty they were still guilt they knew it okay so all of the ceremonies associated with
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the tabernacle had to do with ceremonial like purity but not moral purity so they were externally clean but
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inside it was still faith their conscience was not clear okay those were just carnal like ordinances that
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pertained to the other men but could not change the inner man basically the sacrifices offered under the old system
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did not free the worshiper from a guilty conscience for they could not remove sins exactly so the sin was still on the
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people he could not remove the sins so they still felt the weight this is why they went back and back and again
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because their weight was so strong god did not remove and free them from their conscience so their conscience was still
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struck like today we've become so callous
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so heartless that we don't even feel guilty because our conscience has been seared
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as we heard iron like the scripture says when i say our conscience i'm not talking about the believer that actually
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is true i'm not talking about a believer i'm talking about people who
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don't even have or even feel guilt anymore
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because we we've become so sinful in our generation that
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we don't even care like when you call somebody a sinner they laugh they say like oh yeah i'm just you know so what
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we don't see the weight of what that means before a holy god we don't understand the weight of sin
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we just actually enjoy sin because yeah i'm a sinner so what but call somebody evil they get mad see
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tell somebody you an evil person they're not gonna like that but when you call somebody a sinner
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they're okay with it why because we are evil before the sight of god when we are tempted with sins and the people back
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then they understood that their conscience was guilty because they knew that the only thing
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this the blood of gods and bulls did was just make them externally clean because their
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conscience was still struck but when jesus now died on the cross
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the sins were removed and now we have a free conscience now we can come to the throne of grace with confidence to get
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our mind sprinkled from a guilty conscience because now he's blood when we confess our sins the scriptures say
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he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness and now we can go and say i am free to serve
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god now that doesn't mean that we don't like in my own life when i still remember the
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things that i did in the past some things that i was not proud of they really really um
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i think sometimes god allows certain things to remain so that we don't go back into a life of
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sin again until he comes that day and gives us like the perfect body sometimes
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we still struggle with those thoughts but the scripture tells us god is greater than our heart and he knows all
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things in first john really for our hearts condemned us god is greater but i think sometimes it is good when we
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we remember the things that we did that we are not proud of because it keeps us from going back into sin again so i
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think god does not sometimes take away uh he might have taken away the sin
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but i think he allows us again that's not me saying that this is what god does but because in my own life
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i've seen that certain things god has allowed to keep me from being what conceited
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okay remember what paul said uh in second corinthians 12 verse nine there was given there was given him a thorn in
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the flesh a messenger of satan to keep him from being conceited i don't know what that was but i think god paul knew that he was
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forgiven but there's still a throne sometimes god allows certain thoughts to keep us from being conceited
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and i am glad for those thrones in my life because i think without it god knows that maybe i i i'll go crazy
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and he allows certain thoughts to remain there as a way to remind us to to to live the life that pleases him
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so his holy spirit lives in us and gives us the strength to live to please god every day
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it's an ongoing fight see because for the first time now we have the capacity to obey god because he
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has given us of his spirit now the sinful nature still wants to fight but god is seated on the throne of our
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heart and now he gives us power to live before him that's what we confess our sins that's why we don't just keep on
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living in sin because if you live in perpetual sin if you live the scripture tells us first in in the book of john
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no one will continue to live in sin knows god because the seed of god remains in him
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he cannot continue the sin so if god sees remains of you you won't continue to live a life of sin
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eventually you repent of your sins so i say examine yourself to see if you're
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in the faith now to to finish this i want to go to zechariah chapter 3 and
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show you what jesus does for us this is a picture of what happens listen to what the scripture says here
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then he showed me joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the lord and satan standing at his right hand to
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accuse him and the lord said to satan the lord rebuked you o satan the lord who has
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chosen jerusalem rebuke you is not this a brand plucked from the fire
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now joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments
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and the angel of god said to those who were standing before him remove the
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filthy garments from him and to him he said behold i have taken your iniquity
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away from you and i will clothe you with pure investment and i said let them put
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a clean turban on his head so they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him
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with garment and the angel of the lord was standing by you see that and the angel of the lord
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solemnly assured joshua thus says the lord of hosts if you will
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walk in my ways and keep my charge then you shall rule my house and have charge of my court and i'll give you the right
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of access among those who are standing here now you see that
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this is incredible this is a representation of what god does for us
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like he removes the filthy garments from us and he he says to us i have taken your
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iniquity away from you and he clothes us with pure vestment his righteousness
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and then he put a clean turban on our heads because he removes our guilty conscience now this is what i'm thinking
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the clean turban means a turban is on your head so he frees our conscience oh god this is incredible
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news now you see like every scripture drips with the truth about jesus it's
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incredible the more you read the scripture the more the holy spirit shows us that this is a divinely inspired word
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this is why i cannot deny the the the divine inspiration of the holy scriptures because
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every scripture scripture written by different writers written over i don't know how many years
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and they all converge to the same point that is jesus it's like every scripture has been put
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together and the story written over that many years with different writers
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and how do they all know that their stories will fit together to give us one that one story about jesus it's
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incredible so what do we learn today the old covenant even its regulations
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were weak and they were supposed to point us to jesus i hope this gives you uh great news because god has done in
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jesus an incredible work and we ought to be we ought to have a sense of urgency my
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pastor talked about it yesterday do we care about people that are perishing
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do we want to share the gospel do we want to share these good news because it is truly good news
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because we don't want to be too comfortable it is hard to to continue to live to live for god but we have the
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holy spirit and we we ought to ask god through his holy spirit to give us the strength because it is him who gives us
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strength to do the will of god so we ought to totally depend on the holy spirit and to say keep our eyes on
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what is important keep our eyes on jesus okay so i hope this helps you and
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i look forward to seeing you next week have a wonderful day and then happy thanksgiving to you bye