December 18, 2005
Hebrews 10:1; “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” Now verse 14 “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” I hardly need to comment on the contrast. V. 1 goes back to the days of old; it doesn’t just speak of the daily sacrifices, but yearly ones. It seemed to be a perpetual ordinance in dealing with issues of sins of ignorance. Yet they never made them perfect. This morning we went to Calvary. We saw one sacrifice, oh, what a sacrifice: the precious, sinless, beloved Son of God, our Saviour and Lord, who bore our sins in His own body on the tree so that the divine records can testify that we are perfect forever. No wonder we come back here; we worship, we love Him because love held him to the cross. We have a portion in eternity because of Calvary and the Christ of Calvary. Nothing remains for us to do. We are perfect; our conscience, purged.
EG Hymn 19–Nothing, either great or small, Prayer • Proverbs 23:26—Is this verse just speaking to boys and men? It says “my son” but it includes everybody. This shows us the “given heart.” How can we give someone our hearts? You can’t give away your physical heart and still be alive; God wants your spiritual heart. What does He mean? Well, your heart is where your love comes from. God is really just asking us to love Him. If He has your heart, He has you. When you love someone, do you do things that would displease them? No, you want to make them happy. How can we show the Lord that we love Him? Below are the 5 languages of love, which we can show mainly to people, but also to God (when something is done as unto God, it is done to God): 1. Acts of Service—We can give out tracts to do something for God. 2. Words of encouragement/affection—“I love you.” 3. Physical touch and closeness 4. Gift giving—We can use our resources and time for God 5. Quality time—We can spend time in reading and prayer
Hebrews 9:6–12 • V. 4 ends speaking about Aaron’s rod. That comes from Numbers 17. V. 8 of that chapter gives us 3 things that were seen on the rod that should be in a Christian: 1. Life 2. Fragrance 3. Fruit The rod had budded to show who was high priest. In Hebrews we are thinking about our High Priest. He had these three characteristics in Him. “To all our prayers and praises Christ adds His sweet perfume. And love the censer raises, these odors to consume.” • The last things that were mentioned in the Holy of Holies are the tables of the covenant and the mercy seat. The tables of the covenants were what God wrote the law on. This is the second set, because Moses broke the first set. If he had brought the first ones into the camp of Israel while they were worshipping the golden calf, they would have all been condemned to death. Someone has said that the only place that the second ones could remain unbroken was in the Holy of Holies, because there was no sin there. The only one who kept that law perfectly was Jesus, the perfect man. Then there was the mercy seat, the covering to the ark, with its two cherubim on top. The mercy seat is where the high priest put the blood. The cherubim, signifying God’s holiness and judgement, were always looking down at the blood; God’s holiness and judgment were satisfied. “But justice now withstands no more, and mercy yields her boundless store.” • V. 6—“The first tabernacle” means the Holy Place. The priestly family went into the Holy Place to do God’s service. What did they do? There was the maintenance of the candlestick, the loaves to change each week, etc. But as v. 7 tells us, only the high priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies, “not without blood” when he made an atonement for the people. This was a picture of the Lord atoning for us. The high priest went in alone, but our High Priest is not alone. The Jews are waiting for their High Priest to come out of the Holy of Holies. He has gone in for us also, but we may go in behind him. Also in contrast, our High Priest does not have to atone for Himself before He atones for us as did the Jewish ones. It says they went in for the errors of the people; for their sins of ignorance. There was no sacrifice for premeditated sins. However, when David sinned, clearly not sins of ignorance, God still had mercy. At the end of v. 7 it says the atonement was for the sins of “the people”, not the sins of the whole area. In contrast, Jesus’ blood was offered for “whosoever.” You can imagine that Aaron might have been a bit uneasy when he went into the Holy of Holies: “I wonder if I remembered to do everything.” We will learn in the next chapter that we can go in with boldness. This boldness should not nullify the holiness of God, nor should it be mistaken for brazenness. We cannot expect to be in the presence of God if we have things in our life that are not pleasing to Him, which are not pleasing to him. Hymn 338–I love my Saviour, Prayer