In this sermon, the speaker discusses the significance of the tabernacle and its role as a pattern for things to come. He describes the various elements within the tabernacle, such as the candlestick, the table, and the showbread, which are all part of the sanctuary. The speaker also mentions the holiest of all, which contains the golden censor, the Ark of the Covenant, and the cherubim's in the glory. He emphasizes that these elements serve as a visual representation of the work of the high priest and the offering, and how believers no longer need to physically go to Jerusalem to experience the presence of God.

Had also ordinances of divine services in a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made, the first, wherein was a candlestick, and the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer, the ark of the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded in the tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat, which we cannot speak now particularly. Now when those things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service for God. But into the second went the high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, with which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people, the Holy Spirit signifying that the way of the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make them that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation. Father, we thank you for your word, and as we have been going through this wonderful book, we ask, Lord, that you would take this wonderful ministry, Lord, going on within the priesthood and within the sanctuary, as the people who long to be able to come into a presence with God, Lord, that as the Old Testament tells us how it was, as a picture, as a pattern of that which we would have today, we ask, Lord, that you would open it to our hearts, the relationship that we can have, Lord. Certainly, it's our prayer that every one of us would come longing for a deeper and stronger fellowship, communion with you, that you would work out, Lord, within our lives this wonderful plan, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, here as we have been going through Hebrews, of course, together now for some months, the writer of Hebrews wanting to share with us very simply and wonderfully on how, as he's writing there, of course, to the Jews that were being pulled back into Judaism, being told they can't leave the priesthood, they can't leave the temple, they can't leave the law, they can't leave Moses, they can't leave all these sacrifices. After all, God gave them to him. Why should we abandon these things? And they were thinking, well, I guess we shouldn't. So, they were going back into the old covenant, back into the old sanctuary, back into the priesthood, back into having these sacrifices offered for them. And the writer of Hebrews is wanting to say, you don't need that anymore. That is complete. That is done. It served its purpose very, very wonderfully, because now that Christ has come, he has fulfilled all of these things. We saw back in chapter 7 on how the priesthood of Jesus is better than any priesthood of the Old Testament, and we saw all the reasons for that. And then last week, we saw how Jesus ministers to us a much more wonderful covenant, a much greater covenant. It's one that's no longer based upon the law and man fulfilling the law, but now literally in Christ. When Jesus comes in, he indwells us. He not only lays out a standard, but he now can crawl under our skin, so to speak, and give us the power to do it. In the Old Testament, when God said, thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt, they just, there was no power within them to do what they should or not to do what they shouldn't so much. It was just a standard. But now this wonderful new covenant, where now Christ comes and he indwells us. He crawls under our skin, into our heart, and into our lives and gives us his presence and gives us his power. And he does all of this in a greater sanctuary. He's wanting to tell them, you don't have to go back to the ritual. You don't have to go back to where the priesthood is doing all of these things that we'll be looking at here in moments, because of the fact that now there is a much greater sanctuary. Because as we'll see in chapter 10, there's much greater sacrifices when we get to that. But here we're looking at now the issue of the greater sanctuary that we have now to worship in than they had under the Old Covenant in the Old Testament period of time. And very simply here, as he lays it out, he tells us in chapter 9, verse 1, as we now look at it, where do I worship and how this worship goes on? He says, for then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and it had also, he says, a worldly sanctuary. As we look here, he's going to give us a list here as he goes down into these first seven, eight, nine verses. And he's going to be telling us about the old sanctuary. As he looks at it, it was an extremely, you know, phenomenal place to look at. It was quite an exciting experience, no doubt, for anybody in the world to be around it if they understood what it all symbolized. But it is something, though, at the same time, the writer here tells us, bottom line no one has done, it is a worldly sanctuary. It was one that was simply, you know, it was after an earthly materials. The word there, worldly, this means essentially of the earth. It was just an earthly sanctuary. It was just one resting on this planet here for a little time, talking about an eternal glorious relationship with God far out of this world. One that's in the heavens, it was just a little physical, visible representation of the spiritual and the invisible life that we're to have in God in a spiritual sanctuary. Because the first one, after all, it was just simply a little earthly sanctuary made out of earthly materials is what it really means when it says worldly. Divinely appointed, divinely laid out in a sense, but the bottom line was it was simply, as Moses was told back in Exodus 25, it was a pattern. When the Lord actually laid it out in the very first place over and over, He says, this is a pattern. In other words, this is something that is representing something else. I just want to give the children of Israel a physical, visible, you know, representation of a spiritual place that one day they will know this that I'll see on earth. This is that which is essentially is eternal and in the heavens. Some months ago, a few of us went down to Dave Firth's office. Some of you probably know Dave, part of the body here, architect, helped design this place and working on another building over here for us. When we went down there and we're looking, you know, around there, we're sitting in the office and all over the office, they had these little, oh, maybe two by two by two models of houses, you know, little houses. And I'm kind of looking at them. They're kind of cute little models. I, you know, seven, I'm looking at those are kind of neat. Are you actually building those or didn't know what they were? And he says, yes, what we do, we'll design out a house for somebody. And instead of just having it the old way, where it's just all out on the paper, then though, we take it in and it's all put into an act, an actual kind of a replica where they'll get the topography of the land and the layout of it and how it's kind of sitting there. And they'll actually have it, you know, a complete pattern of a house, the square footage, all of us just shrunk down into this little thing that they can make out of sticks and they can lift the roof off and look around and here's the, you know, the exterior and the colors and here's the driveway, how it'll go in the landscaping and the whole place. It's just a little miniature house. And it's quite exciting. Kind of look at that. I imagine somebody going in, it's having a house built. What a wonderful thing to be able to say, this is what it's going to look like. That's what it's going to look like. That is the plan. It's just a little teeny, you know, scale model, a little pattern of that which hopefully that they are planning on having in full scale. Now, I suppose when you have nothing, it all, the model's kind of cute. You know, you're probably quite excited. We go, that's it, honey, look at this. This is it, you know, and I imagine, you know, I mean, it's got to be, you know, quite a thrilling thing, seeing your dream house, sort of a thing there. But could you imagine the foolishness of it if anybody actually thought that was the house? You know, honey, but we got to lose some weight if we're going to live here, you know, sort of a thing. You've got to, we're not going to fit in this thing. And then you wouldn't even dream of actually looking at this thing in a sense of it being real. Well, when God, that's what God was essentially doing. He says, this is just something that you can come up to and you can see it on the outside. My glory will be upon it. It will be beautiful when you watch the priesthood, you'll watch the ministry, you'll watch all of these things going on. And they're all patterns. They are all pictures. They all tell you, as you watch this guy, he's going to get dressed up in this outfit and he's going to go through this whole ceremonial washing and he's going to play the part and he's going to come out and actually be like he is the spiritual eternal high priest of all time and eternity that's doing the work in heaven for you. But he's going to be, and every year we'll have a new high priest and we'll get a new guy gets to play the part and be quite thrilling for him and all of his friends and family. And then there'll be other people. They just simply work in this model, keeping it. So whenever anybody comes around town, anybody comes there and they want to even think about the Lord, they can come over and they can look at this model and they can, they actually can't go in it into certain places in it. In fact, one place, the Holy of Holies, only the high priest himself only go once a year. And then even then he's usually pretty scared to do it. And they tie a rope around his ankle and have to drag him out if he dies. You know, it's just not the most exciting thing. It's not all it's really built up to be, you know, sort of a thing, but it's something there that it's all a picture reveals something wonderful and glorious. And it's a morning Jack, but it's a wonderful pattern of things that are to come for. He says in verse two, he says, for there is a tabernacle made the first, wherein was the candlestick, the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which is the golden censer, the Ark of the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the gold pot that had manna and Aaron's rod that budded in the tables of the covenant and over it, the cherubims and the glory of her of glory, shadowing the mercy seat, which we cannot now speak particularly. But here is he lays these things out. It's simply there. It's a pattern of things that are going on, things that are happening essentially in heaven that God does is you look at these things. They are quite wonderful because again, it's, it's like miniatures almost share of what Jesus Christ is doing in heaven. It's almost like if you took that little architectural stick house or whatever else that you can lift the roof off, you know, the thing and kind of look down, you know, they're through the ceiling and you can see the layout of all the fixtures and all the furnishings, you know, going on within it. Sometimes they'll do these houses. I imagine they do them that way where you can actually, here's the size of the bed and here's the size of furniture. And you can even look at your house and lay it out and, oh man, we should have this room a little bigger, a little smaller, a little different angle or something where you can maybe even play house with it while you're laying out and saying, whoa, we want to change this or something. But here they essentially, it's kind of like you lift, God lifts the lid off of this great tabernacle. And he says, now here's the things that are going on within heaven and with these wonderful things. I mean, when you would look at it, of course, maybe you have a little bed there and little chairs and little tables and little sofas and all this other stuff. But of course, none of it's functional. The thing doesn't plug into the, you know, the electric company. There's no plumbing and electrical and heating and cooling and refrigeration and anything, you know, functional going on within it. It isn't as if it's a working thing at all. It simply shows kind of the layout. And this is what God is doing as well here in the tabernacle. It's just the layout and the picture of what is going on. As it describes there, you know, within, you know, the list of things in the tabernacle made the first, there was the candlestick and the table and the showbread was called, you know, the sanctuary. And as you would come in, you know, to the tabernacle, there in the Old Testament, there was these wonderful things that you would see. You'd come across this huge brazen altar where the priests offered the sacrifices that were then brought in. These were the animals were actually bound and then sacrificed. When people, you know, came and they wanted forgiveness for their sins, they realized they'd failed. And God, I want to be put right with you. There on this bronze altar that was there, it was a perfect picture though of ultimately Jesus Christ when the Lamb of God, you know, would now come and offer Himself for the sins of the whole world. And behind this brazen altar, there was another large basin or laver essentially there for all the ceremonial washings that were to go on. And again, another picture of Jesus is the great cleanser that when somebody comes to want to be forgiven and then the atonement was made, but then the washing and the ceremonial cleansing that would happen there on the Christ has given us our forgiveness of our sins through the sacrifice of Himself. In the end, the daily washings that they were to have, just like you and me, day by day, the washing, the cleansing, to be able to come and say, Lord, wash me, forgive me, cleanse me. And how that Jesus, He does all of these things for us. And then inside of the holy place there on the north wall stood a table as it was laid out of showbread, which was also called the bread of His presence. But they're a constant reminder there of how that the Lord with His sacred bread feeds us, cares for us. And then on the south side, there's this seven-branched lampstand, you know, that would come out. There is the light and Jesus, again, the light of our world when we come and say, Lord, forgive me, wash me, care for me. Over here, the light for me, light my path for me to be able to go through and to live. And then on the other side of that, when you would pass through, there's an altar of incense that was now there that oftentimes because of the tremendous number of sacrifices and things going on within and around the sanctuary, the odor could be quite worldly, quite human, quite deathly in many ways. And yet one of the things that the altar of incense offered as you now passed into it is that even though on one side the odor and the stench and the sense of our life, you know, could certainly be far from perfect, but yet there deliberately there's this altar of incense that now this incense, this perfumed incense that is constantly burned as a fragrance that would go up into heaven. And that when a person had passed through these things and they're progressively coming into the Lord's presence, now this incense, even though so human, so smelly, so, you know, wretched, the odor of our and the fragrance, you might say, of our life, but now as we go through these processes in Christ as our high priest, there's this wonderful incense that goes up our lives to heaven where God says, this is the odor I want to hear and to smell of the human soul, of the human heart as you come and you let me be your high priest, you let me wash you, let me cleanse you, let me forgive you, let me feed you and provide for you and be the presence within your life. Let me be the light and the lampstand of your life. And then there's this wonderful altar there of incense. And then as you would then pass into where the only once a year the high priest went into where the Holy of Holies itself, where there's the Ark of the Covenant, that was there where God says, there will I commune with thee and thee with me. It'll be our meeting place, a place there that on one hand is the dream of every human being to ever even be able to go and to progressively come. Think of being forgiven. Think of being washed. Think of knowing his presence like this. Think of having him be the light of the world. Think of being an offering that's a sweet smelling savor unto God of our life. And then each veil, each step as we go through and then one day actually I'm dwelling in his presence. I commune with him and he communes with me the most awesome thing that a human soul could even contemplate. I tell you, try let your own mind drift for a while and think of a more magnificent place than the presence of God. Think of anything more wonderful, more awesome. Where else could you go in this world, in this universe, this planet? What experience? Where can you eat or sleep or play or enjoy anything that would be like the pleasure of being able to come before the creator of all time and eternity himself who loved you, who created you and find yourself in his presence absolutely loved by him, accepted by him, cleansed by him, fed by him, lighted the light of your path and provided by him in the odor of your life being lifted up in a sweet smelling savor and fragrance and there he's smiling at you and saying I've been waiting for you to come and be in my presence. And here it was never attainable in the Old Testament. It never really happened. They only dreamed of such a thing. There at the Ark of the Covenant as it was, you know, they're the symbol of his presence inside of the Ark of the Covenant. There was the manna that God had fed them with, a little bit of it put within there. There was Aaron's rod that budded, we're told, and there was the tables of the new covenant, the tablets there of the, you know, the commandments that were now put within it and they're now being fulfilled in God with the mercy seat over the top of the covenant of God's mercy and of his love and now, you know, he looks there at God reminding us and the manna that cares for us, provides for us. Aaron's rod that budded, God's miraculous power to take a rod that was absolutely dead for years and bring it to life and have the thing bud overnight back into life and the commandments fulfilled and to think they're being able to come in and hear God saying, I'll always be all of these things and it was a quite a wonderful thing. What a picture to be able to come to and look at this and every year the all the children of Israel were to come the day of atonement. They were all to be there at the Passover feast. They were all to be there to kind of look at the model again, to kind of go down to the architect's office in a sense, open it up and say this is what's being built, this is what's being worked on, this is what his plan of the ages is working its way towards, but yet at the same time, always unaccessible. Essentially, I mean, there's nothing, I mean, something there that when you're done with it, it says in verse 6, it says, now when these things were thus ordained, the priest always went into the first tabernacle accomplishing the service of God, but under the second, the high priest alone went once a year and not without blood with which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people. This was something there in a sense, it was inaccessible to the people. If you had gone through, in other words, you got to be somebody that got to be in the cast and the crew, so to speak, of this wonderful picture. If you got to be a part of the team and you were part of the, you know, the architectural office, you know, that was laying the thing out, it was there to show the people, but it was something there, nobody lived in it really. It was something, it wasn't a livable place, it was just, it was a charade, it was a play, it was a wonderful one, it was the most glorious thing, I suppose, in all of the world to be able to actually go and see how moving it would be, but it was something there that only the priest, you know, could, you know, could go into the, you know, there into the holy place at all, and only the high priest is already mentioned in the holy of holies, and that was just once a year, and then he had to make sure that he had been fully cleansed himself, he had been fully atoned for, blood had been sacrificed for him, and he went through a huge elaborate cleansing process, and then he went in and he had bells, you know, on his outfit, so when he would walk around, because they would always be moving, they could never stop within it, there's no place to sit down or anything, and they, and the bells would let everybody outside, or while the priest isn't doing these things, knowing, okay, he's still okay, if the bell stopped, uh-oh, who wants to go get him? Not me, you know, but it was just a working model, essentially, but yet when you do look at it, what an unbelievable model, what a glorious thing, in a sense, to be able to look at, in a sense, because nothing in all the world, I suppose, reveals Christ as the high priest does there in this holy of holies on the day of atonement, also known as today more often as Yom Kippur, but as it's so wonderfully summarized there in verse seven, when the high priest, he went in alone, and he went in once a year, but here was something that any time you see any one of those Israelites out there had ever sinned, and this communion with God, as a result, is always broken, and when sin happens, and consequently, all of these offerings for sin, they were always having to be offered, the priest's work was never done, you were constantly going in and offering a sacrifice, endlessly so, it was constantly a reminder, wouldn't it be wonderful if one day there's a completely sufficient offering, but it never happened there, and then though one day, a year, they had the day of atonement, wherefore, all of the sins that you knew you committed, you just didn't remember them, I mean, I don't know how many of my sins I actually know, I know an awful lot of sins, but I'm sure it's a very small percent, I'm sure what, you know, with all of us, it's the tip of the iceberg that we consciously are aware of, and then every time you kind of just cut off the tip of an iceberg, the rest of it has a way of coming up underneath, you know, there's more room up top for me now, you know, it's something, and some matter, sin is kind of like an iceberg, it's if you cut off the top, more just floats up, you know, and all of our life, and you never, it's never finished, it's never a done deal, you know, sort of a thing, the priest are constantly having to go in, and then there's what you don't even know, and it never, ever really worked, and so here, the wonderful thing of the day of atonement was to be there, one there, as it says there in verse 9, it says, which was a figure of the time when present when the offerings of both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, there was just this sense that we all have, I mean, right now, this morning, I'm, maybe, you know, some of us, we know very specific sins, maybe like, say, you done it, and something, yeah, you know what it is, yeah, you know, and then maybe I look at you, and I'd say, have you done something, yeah, you know what it is, no, I really don't, can't think of anything right now, but my conscience tells me, I'm, I can't, there's nothing right now, boom, you gotta go and get right with this, and nothing, maybe, right there, but the general human conscience, constantly, really, living, not just, you know, with the sins that are very blatant, and open, and clear, but just the sinner reality, I am still a sinner, constantly, and here, this wonderful day of atonement, where they would go in, and the liberation, essentially, of the conscious, that's what Leviticus 16 would lay out, that God not only wanted a day, where they could go in, I mean, where they could go to the priest, get their sins forgiven, offer a sacrifice, but now, this one day, where they all came in, as Leviticus, this wonderful activity of the day of atonement, where all the people, I, God not only said, I want your specific things, but just your consciousness, I just want to cleanse your own conscience of these things, and on this day of the day of atonement, the high priest, his great thrill of life, or ministry, I suppose, was to be able to be the high priest, going into the Holy of Holies, there to this great celebration, for that, he had a cleansing process, that he went through himself, to repair his life, and his physical frame, and body, and heart, and spirit, then he had elaborate robes, that he put on, he had a breastplate, that he put on over his heart, signifying, there, that he carried the people upon his heart, and essentially, before God, he had this ephod, there, on the shoulder, that signified, that he went in, there, representing, not just himself, of course, but obviously, the whole of the children of Israel, of the twelve tribes, and then, he began the day of atonement, with his daily sacrificing, and unlike Jesus, though, he had to go, and go through a whole process of sacrificing for his own sins, he had to buy his own sacrifice, that was then taken, offered for himself, to make himself ceremonial, clean, obviously, Jesus never had to do that, and as the day went on, pretty soon, there was up to twenty-two sacrifices, that he had gone through, just preparing for the ultimate, there, day of atonement processes, of sacrifices, very busy, and bloody day, essentially, there, for the high priest, after finishing all of these sacrifices, that he then went through, he then took off these robes, of all these beauty, and all this glory, and majesty, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and then, he went into the Holy of Holies, there, with nothing, but just white linen garment on, no decorations, no ornaments, whatsoever, for the sacrifice of atonement, another great picture of Jesus Christ, though, again, now, that when his true, perfect, unadulterated, pure, simple work of atonement, where he stripped off all of his own majesty, all of his own glory, all of his own beauty, he became the humblest of all, there, just clothed, essentially, in white, humble linen, dressing himself in human flesh, in plain, and unadorned, there, he walks in, and he takes the sins of the world upon himself, and he dies, for us, essentially, but here, as the high priest went in to make this atonement, this offering, then, he would then come back out, he would put on, again, now, the robes, for the beauty, and the glory, his high priestly robes, picturing, essentially, still, a further work, now, that he was to go back to, interceding for the people, caring for the people, after he had done the lowly work of sacrifice, in a sense, now, back to the majesty of being the great high priest, once again, as Christ ever lives for us, but then, there, again, while he was in these white robes, he would take coals, off of the bronze altar, on the outside, there, where the sacrifice was going to be made, he put them in a gold censer, with the incense, carried it into the Holy of Holies, again, another picture of Jesus, as he's going in, he's interceding for us, presenting us faultless, then, he goes out after, you know, with atonement, and there's these two goats outside, where we get the picture, as we know, of the scapegoat, where one of the goats is taken, and is sacrificed, his blood is drained out, he then goes in, puts the blood on the mercy seat, atones for it, then comes out, touches there, the other goat, and it is sent off into a barren land, where it is never to be seen, or known of again, and this was the two great aspects of the day of atonement, one is, is the sacrifice that offered for the sins of the people, that they were clean, but then, the scapegoat was now, to take their sins, and drive them far away, and they had their own personal consciousness, cleansed, and free of sin, nothing so wonderful, I suppose, in all the world, of knowing those two things, ought to be every time we leave here, that we could go home, with those things, of realizing, Lord, I'm clean, not because I am, but because Christ has made me clean, and I know I'm clean, my conscience is clean, not because I haven't done anything, but because of the power of Christ for me, to love me, to forgive me, to do what it is that he has done, and so, the first goat, essentially, represented satisfaction of sin before God, and his justice, and the second one, satisfaction for man's conscience, I'm forgiven, I am clean, what a wonderful way here, though, as we see Christ, but all of this, though, it's simply an act, in a sense, an anointed act, a patterned act, a right to scale act, play, sort of thing, but nonetheless, that's essentially what it is, it's just like going into the architect's office, looking again at all the little furniture around, and looking, say, one day, this is going to be ours, one day, we're going to move into this, you know, and almost like being able to go in, I imagine, you know, if the architect walked out of the room, it's just you and your wife, you know, I mean, maybe you wouldn't talk this way, if he was there, but, oh, honey, here we are, we're walking up our little staircase, you know, going in, and here's the grand entry, here we are, we're walking through the grand entry, and here we are, where all of our friends will come in, and be welcomed, and then over here, you know, there's the pools, and the showers, where they'll be cleansed, and they'll be refreshed, and everything, and then over here, the kitchen, where all the food will be prepared, and the dining, the grand dining room, you know, and we'll walk through, you know, and you're just kind of, and it'd be quite fun, I suppose, while it's being built, while you're thinking, you know, of it together, as you just kind of let your fingers do the walking, and this little, you know, oh, and here's our little bedroom, you know, or whatever else, you know, and the whole thing, is this going to be fun, or what, you know, and the architect, well, I don't think it looks that, you know, but anyway, somebody else, but if, but when it's going to be yours, the thrill of it, you know, there, this is actually over here, you know, and then you go to the site, and here's kind of a little hill with brush, and, you know, bulldozers on it, and you, and, you know, you see something's happening, that's all through the Old Testament, equipment's being brought on and off, God's in the processes of preparing the people for this, and it's going to happen, but it is one of those things that then, as it does, you know, there, it's all though a picture of the glorious future that is to happen in heaven, because it is just temporary. Verse 8 says, the Holy Spirit thus signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was still yet standing. In other words, this, while this little working model is here, you can't move into this one and play around with this, you know, I mean, go visit this, look at this, watch it, you know, as it's maybe happening, learn all you can of it to prepare you for the real one when you move into it, but know this is just a symbol, and ultimately, even the symbol itself, it was totally ineffective for meeting any real needs, because verse 9 says, it was just a figure for the time, then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect or complete as pertaining to the conscience, by which only stood in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation, until the time it was really done. These are types and pictures and symbols of what it is that every day when the new covenant comes and the new high priest comes in, the real high priest that all of this is a picture from, it's just like if somebody's looked at, they've gone by, they looked at this plan, looked at this plan, looked at this plan, you can turn this person loose, they can drive up and down all sorts of streets, say there's a nice house, there's a nice house, there's a nice house, not mine, not mine, not mine, and one day they'll drive down the street and they'll come around the corner and they will look and they will see what they've been looking at, now it's there, they see, that's it, whoopee, you know, and they don't need to go back to the architect's office again, they don't need to go, oh honey, wait a minute, we can't leave our model, you know, sort of a thing, all the model did is prepare them for the day that the real high priest came and the real offering happened and the real cleansing and the real forgiving and the real incense was offered up and the real light of the way was offered and when this was happening, they would look and they would, when they see Christ, they'd say, bingo, that's it, I've been looking and looking and looking at him for centuries, he's here, the great high priest, the atonement, the real forgiveness, the real sacrifice, it is all there and here day after day as they just went through, it was just to whet the people's appetite, get them ready for the greatest thing of all because it was one there that ultimately, the greatness of the ultimate sanctuary, that it is real and it is heavenly. Verse 11 says, but Christ being come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and a more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. Here it looks there, it says that Jesus Christ, when he's coming, he will simply take what was there and the greater, the more perfect one, the real one that you can live in, that you can walk in, that you can function in, you can only dream of what it was like when the one high priest who went in there, you may wonder what's it like to go into the holy of holies, what's it like to be, can't you just stop and say, no, I can't. Isn't it great? No, it's not really not because it isn't real any more than it's just a picture to prepare us for it. But now the child of God can sit there and not just wonder what is it like for a high priest to go in because now I'm seated in high heavenly places in Christ. I'm seated. I can sit down. I can go in and sit there and say, Jesus, would you take me in before the father and just let me sit in his presence? Can you take me in and let me know that my sins are forgiven? Can you come in and purge me from a dead conscience and a sinful conscience? Can you wash that out of me? And a person there that has had all these weaknesses and failures all of his life, has all of this struggle still in his life day by day, still has weaknesses with his anger or his frustrations or his temper or his covetous heart or his greed or his lusts or whatever else. And while I'm there saying, God, every time I think I'm doing a little better, the iceberg just comes up a little bit more up to the top. And they're still, can you make me clean and make me go? I can just sit down before my father and he can do it. Where the high priest never really even worked at all for him. And it's one there that is totally and wonderfully effective for ultimately changing lives and changing them completely. Because he tells us here in verse 12, it says, neither by the blood of bulls and of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered into the holy place once having obtained an eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling in the unclean sanctify under the purging of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit who offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this cause, he is the mediator of a new Testament by that means of death for the redemption of transgressions that were under the first Testament, which they called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For there is a Testament, pardon me, for where a Testament is, there must also of necessity be death by the testator. And how he simply goes into simply describing and he uses the very simple illustration there from verses 12 to 23 of how a last will in Testament works. Maybe you have a will, probably do many of you. And there your will is something where you divide it up. Okay, this is going to so-and-so and this is going to so-and-so and this one gets this one, you know, and this grandchild I'm going to do this for, and I want to do this for that, and that one over there. And you got this whole maybe thing all elaborately written out on everything that happens, but it means absolutely nothing, just a hunk of paper until you die. And then that enacts the will. And here he's saying there that as long as the testator or the writer of the Testament or the will of the Testament lives, it just means nothing. But it is something that once he dies, it is now given. And here the wonderful thing that he goes into to tell us is that what Jesus Christ has to give, and this is what we're going to be seeing much more of in the book of Hebrews before we're done with it, and we'll close with this, but it's to me one of the most wonderful thoughts of all the book and all the Bible to me, is that when you look at Jesus in His last will in Testament, it isn't just eternal life, although it's that, obviously. It just isn't, blessings in this life. It just isn't that He helps us to live and love and walk and grow and mature and to be better and to do good and to live before Him and to have His blessings within our life. But the greatest thing, without question, the greatest thing to me in the sense that Jesus has that He writes in His will, that He has to offer to you is access into His Father's presence, access where He says the very, I now give to you the same relationship I have. I now, not just, yes, I'll feed you and I'll clothe you and I'll house you and I'll help you in your walk and I'll help you in your life and I'll purge you from your sins and I'll take away your, you know, the consciousness and the sorrow and I'll present you before the Father and yes, I will do all that. But you know, after Jesus rose from the dead, you know, when Mary came running to Him, she grabbed onto Him. Remember the first thing He had to say here after His resurrection? Oh Lord, she's so thrilled He's alive. And He says, no, don't, don't cling to me now, Mary. Go tell, you know, the disciples and go tell Peter. He said, I ascend to my God and to your God, to my Father and to your Father. Here there was something Jesus was saying, oh yeah, all the other stuff, that's nothing. But I am going to give to you the greatest thing I have to give in my will, the greatest thing, the greatest treasure I have, communion with my Father. You now, the veil, it was rent when Christ died on the cross and He said it was finished and the veil was rent. Man can now walk in and he can sit in God's presence. He can look there and realize, by the way, thanks for your love and thanks for your forgiveness and thanks for the atonement and thanks for taking away my sin and thank you for cleansing my conscious there of my, just the sins that plague me and my weaknesses. And thank you for the incense that offers up, that gives an odor, that's a sweet smelling one, that the odor and the stench of my daily life and the corruption of it, it's by the time it seems to be lifted to heaven, I'm, I'm loved and I'm accepted. And there's a fragrance that you seem to smell and like, and thank you for all of that. But the most wonderful thing is, is I can come in and when Jesus, when they said, Lord, teach us to pray. And Jesus says, pray after this manner, our Father, which art in heaven. Here He looked there and He, and He, Jesus wanted to say, I am going to give to you something far greater. Heavens and the earth will pass away. This planet, this little teeny speck of dust we call the earth, you know, that people will sacrifice their soul for, you know, to have for a few fleeting moments to be the king of the world or their city or their business or their office complex or their sales force of the week, you know, or whatever else that people will do these pathetic things for you, that'll all pass away. But to think in the process of time, I can actually, living on this little teeny speck of dust, come into where I not only can walk into the presence of such a God who created it all, but one who says, you'll be with me forever. And my child and the spirit himself, he bears witness with our spirit that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Here, this wonderful thing he tells us, he says, Jesus said, all that the Father has is mine and all of mine is thine. And the Holy Spirit, he will take of mine and give it to you. And when we begin to lift up our eyes and we realize this heavenly sanctuary where the Lord says you're in it, you're in it right now. If you realize the greater covenant of grace, you realize the greater high priesthood of Jesus saying, I'll never leave you or forsake you. And then he realizes you dwell in this sanctuary in any moment you want. You can walk right through the veil and into the presence of the living God. In the Old Testament, Moses, he went up into God's presence on the mountain. And you recall the story. But as he came down, the glory, the Bible says the glory of God, it was shown from his face. But as he walked away from God's presence, the glory faded. But Paul tells us in Second Corinthians 318 in the new covenant with the new high priest in the new sanctuary that is now everywhere. He says the Spirit himself, he bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and have children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. Second Corinthians 318, all we with an unveiled face. Oh, that's well, they're all wonderful verses. Learn them all. Yes, I know. But anyway, all we with an unveiled face continuing to behold, we reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord in our chains from glory to glory is by the Spirit of the Lord. As I can now, wherever I go with my high priest, with the offering, every, any moment of any day, I don't have to go to Jerusalem. I don't have to be there on the right day of the year. I don't have to watch this little go and look at this little architectural drawing. But any moment of any day, I can go into the greater sanctuary and I can walk right up to it. There, Jesus Christ is my high priest. He takes me to the altar, brazen altar offers, you know, they reminds me the offering of his sacrifice once and for all takes me right past that, takes me there to his washing and cleansing and forgives me, takes me in, shows me there his showbread, shows me there the candlestick, shows to me the incense, how he's offered. The veil has been rent. The ark of God's presence is open to me. And he says, come into my presence, dine with me, sup with me. If any men open the door and hear my voice or hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him. And he with me, Jesus says. And how wonderful for you, for me to be able to say, Lord, that's what I want. You don't need a ritual. You don't need a priest. You don't need a church. You don't need a building. You're already in it. Not because this is it. You'll be in just a spiritual place when you get in your car in the parking lot or when you're on the freeway. If you want it to be the temple, it is. If you forget and it's just an earthly thing, you can get into earthly trouble as we all do on freeways when we're out of his presence. Or anyway, but when you go to work tomorrow, you can walk into that office and say, Lord, I want to rent the veil. Cleanse me. Take me in. I want my chair, my office to be the holy of holies. I want to sit in your presence. I want to know the high priesthood sacrifice of Jesus. I'm clean and I'm loved. And there's a fragrance that you smell from me that you love. Wow. Help me. And when we realize I want that to be my living room, I want that to be my dining room. I want to be in that, you know, in the yard, in the neighborhood when I walk around. The veil opens, the veil opens, the veil opens into his presence, I go. Wonderful book, Hebrews, isn't it? Well, there's more in this chapter, but we'll hold it there. Let's pray. Dear Lord, how we thank you for this wonderful picture that you give to us. Lord, thank you that in the Bible you take us down to the architect's office and you show us, Lord, just a wonderful working model of what there is right now in heaven. And Lord, I pray that we would never accept another model again. We would find ourselves saying, Jesus, show me that which my eyes cannot naturally see. By faith, Lord, may I realize that faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And Lord, may I see not by sight, but by faith. May it be the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. Lord, I long today to dwell in your presence, to know your power, to know your cleansing, to know your goodness. Lord, may each one of us right now be able to say, Jesus, do make me clean. Wash me, present me faultless. Be the light of my life today. Guide me. Lord, be the manna that feeds me. Be the Aaron's rod that budded in the power of life that surges into my death and gives me your life blossoming, budding out of me. Lord, may your spirit so work within as we just see the veil rent, hear your voice as it is finished. And now, Lord, may we see you as you look and say, I'm going to my father and to yours, to my God and to your God. May I take you with me? And Lord, may our hearts cry out and say, yes, by all means, take me. And Lord, keep me in your presence. And Lord, when I fail, whether it's today or it's tomorrow or I'm back in this world and I'm back in an earthly tabernacle and doing earthly things, caught up with the dust and the dirt and dirt and the stench of this life. Lord, make me clean again. Bring me back into your presence. Purge my conscience. Make it clean again. Make me an offering unto God that's acceptable. And Lord, as you continue to work in my life over and over, prepare me, Lord, that one day I will wake up in that sanctuary, perfected and completed because of what you've done. Teach us these things, Jesus. We ask it in your wonderful name. Amen.