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HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESSCANNOT COME THROUGH EXTERNAL RITUALHebrews 9:1-10INTRODUCTION The last time we were in the letter to the Hebrews was May 20 th. Therefore, as we begin this morning I want to reorient us to this letter to the Hebrews. This last week I was listening to a sermon delivered by an older preacher named Paris Reidhead. He asked a very penetrating question that gets at the heart of the message of this letter. He asked this question that I also want to ask you this morning: “Do you regard God as the end or as the means to an end?” We might ask it another way, “Are you here this morning because you have become absolutely persuaded that what you need more than anyone or anything else is God himself or are you here because you believe that God will give you what you really want, better children, more friends, a better marriage, sobriety, freedom from worry, escape from hell, a husband or wife, contentment with a difficult situation, financial security, freedom from some besetting sin, etc.? The fundamental assumption of this letter, indeed of the entire Bible, is that God himself is the goal of all existence and that seeking to use God in order to obtain something else is the greatest betrayal in the universe. The reason you and I are living and breathing is so that we might know and love and enjoy God and thus display the purpose of all existence, that God is the most glorious and satisfying of beings. The central theme of this letter is answering the question of how it is that sinners like us can know and love and enjoy and thus glorify God. The author is contrasting two ways of seeking to know and enjoy God. The first way is to seek to draw near to God by means of the OT laws and regulations and religious rituals that God gave to Moses and to the people of Israel on Mt. Sinai, following the Exodus from Egypt. The second way is to draw near to God through Christ alone. The author’s point has been and will continue to be that if you are using the Law given on Mt. Sinai as the means for approaching God you are using it incorrectly and you will fail in your quest to know God. God will reject you. His point is that now that Christ has come the purpose of that Law has been fulfilled. His life, death, resurrection, ascension and present intercession at God’s right hand is what the whole OT law was talking about and thus with his coming that old way of doing things is ended. The author has painstakingly used the OT to prove his point. Most recently (8:7-13) he quoted the prophet Jeremiah in the 31st chapter where God said that he was going to make a new covenant with his people that was not like the old covenant he made on Mt. Sinai. The difference between that agreement God made with Israel on Mt. Sinai and the one he has made with all those who trust in Christ is this: the OC said, “I will bless you if you obey me but I will curse you if you disobey me” whereas the new covenant, of which Christ is the mediator, says to all who trust in Christ, “I will be your God and you will be my child because Christ obeyed me and suffered the hell you deserve for not obeying me.” On May 20 th we examined the four reasons God made a new covenant and replaced the OC. In this passage the author is going to tell us how the OC regulations for worship and the tabernacle showed that the OC was inadequate and that someone greater and something better was yet to come. MAIN POINT The regulations for worship and the earthly sanctuary God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai show that…I. The purpose of life is to know and enjoy and thus glorify God (vv. 1-8) Unfortunately the first thing I need to point out to you is that the NIV leaves out a word that every other English translation includes. If you compare the ESV you can see it, “Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship…” You see the word that is missing from the NIV? It is the word “even”. What does that mean? It means that the reason the first covenant, the OC, the Law of Moses, has regulations for worship and a sanctuary is because the reality it represents has regulations for worship and a holy place, a sanctuary. Ellingsworth in his translation of v. 1 makes this clearer: “The first covenant, too, had its ordinances governing divine service and its sanctuary, but it was an earthly sanctuary.” This word is seeking to repeat and intensify what was said earlier in 8:5, “They (the human priests who were descended from Aaron) serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.” In other words there are regulations for worship and there is an earthly sanctuary because there are regulations for worship in heaven, God's ultimate "sanctuary." The question that this little word, "even" raises is this: what are the regulations that govern worship in heaven? What does it take to go to heaven and to live with God there? The average person in the U.S. does not think there are any regulations governing life with God in heaven. Most people simply assume that you die and then you go to heaven. The average person believes that God just throws the doors open and welcomes everyone, except perhaps those who torture children. However, this little word tells us that there are regulations governing how it is that human beings relate to God in heaven. God has regulations and requirements for how sinful humans can approach him. The rest of chapter 9 and most of chapter 10 are going to describe those heavenly regulations of which the earthly regulations are a shadow. Now, in the text, the author concentrates his attention on particular features of the tabernacle and upon particular regulations. First he describes the tent which was the central feature in Israel's worship. The point of emphasis is that there are two rooms in this tent, the first room, which is called the Holy Place and the second room, behind the veil, which is called the Holy of Holies. The furniture in each room is briefly mentioned. However, the author’s concern is not with the furniture but with the fact that there is an outer room and an inner room, separated from one another by a curtain. After describing the earthly sanctuary he then describes the regulations for worship. In v. 7 he makes a general statement that all the priests regularly entered the outer room to carry out their acts of service. While he doesn’t describe them this would include the twice a day work of making sure the lamp stays lit and the incense is burnt and the weekly work of removing the bread of the presence and replacing it with fresh baked bread. But again, the focus is not on what happens in the first room, the Holy Place but with what takes place in the second room the Holy of Holies. Verse 8 is a brief description of the Day of Atonement that is fully described in Leviticus 16. On that day, the tenth day of the seventh month, and only on that day, the high priest and only the high priest, gets to enter into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the bull and of the sheep to splatter it on the Ark of the Covenant to atone for his own sins and the sins the people of Israel committed without knowing it. The next verse is going to tell us what God intended for every believing Israelite to know from these acts of worship on the Day of Atonement. Before we look at that I want you to see that it is entry into the Holy of Holies that is the climax of the entire system of worship that God established on Mt. Sinai. That’s the point the author is driving home. Entry into this second room is the ultimate purpose of the tabernacle and of all the regulations of worship. Why is that? Repeatedly in the descriptions of the sanctuary and the regulations God says things like what he says in Exodus 25:22, "There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you…" And then in Exodus 29:42-46, "For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory. 44 "So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God. God set up the tabernacle and established the priesthood and all the regulations regarding their service so that his people could know him, so that he could dwell with them and he with they. His glory, his presence is in that inner room, over the Cherubim of Glory on the Ark of the Covenant. What human beings lost when Adam and Eve sinned and God put them out of the Garden of Eden and put two cherubim at the entrance to guard the way into it, was God himself. We are separated from him by his holiness and by our hatred of his holiness. God’s goal from before the world was made was to make a way for his people to live with him. He wants all of his people to join him in that holy place and to live with him forever there. He wants this because he loves us. He wants to give to his people the best thing he can give to them and the best thing he can give to them is himself. As John Piper says, “God’s love for you is not expressed in his making much of you but in his enabling you to make much of him.” To say it another way, the tabernacle and the priesthood didn’t exist and Jesus didn’t come to earth so you can feel good about yourself but so that you will feel great about God. When you come into the Holy of Holies you are not the center of attention, God is. Your joy is not found in contemplating how great you are but in contemplating how great he is. This entire system is not set up so you won’t feel guilty but so that you can safely enter into God’s very presence to know him. You don’t enter the Holy of Holies to get something other than God. You enter into the inner room to be near God and with God. The Day of Atonement demonstrates that the sacrifices and other acts of worship are not to get God to destroy the enemies of Israel or to give them plenty of food and children and herds but so that they can live with God. You single women, how would you feel if a young man who was seeking to win your favor said things like this: “I’m so glad to know you because all my friends think I’m so cool because you’re my girlfriend. You make me feel so good about myself. Oh and I just love coming to your house because it so well decorated and the meals you serve are so good to eat.” Are those the kinds of things that someone who loves you will say? Who is the center of attention here? The guy is. Don’t you rather want a young man who says something like this: “I’m the happiest when I am with you. The highlight of my day is seeing you and simply getting to be with you.” This is love: when my joy is found in the beloved, not in how the beloved does stuff for me and makes me feel. God has not opened the way into his presence so you can use him to feel good about you but so that you will feel good about him. He aims to overwhelm you with himself and with the amazing love he has shown to you in making it possible for you to live with him. The regulations for worship and the earthly sanctuary God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai show that… The purpose of life is to know and enjoy and thus glorify GodAnd they show that…II. God cannot be known through them (v. 8) Verse 8 simply says that the point of the priesthood, the tabernacle and all the regulations associated with them and especially the rituals on the Day of Atonement was to demonstrate to everyone with eyes to see that the way into God’s presence was not yet revealed as long as this system was in place. It is no one less than God the Holy Spirit who uses this tent and these rituals to show throughout the long course of Israel’s history that the way to God was not to be found in these things but in something and someone yet to come. I've been asked scores of times if the Holy Spirit was present in the OT. Here is the answer. He was present, speaking in and through the tabernacle and its regulations every day for hundreds of years prior to the coming of Jesus. In the middle of the verse, when it says that the way into the Most Holy place was not yet disclosed, "Most Holy Place" is not referring to the inner room of the earthly tent but to heaven itself. The reason we know this is because it is put in contrast to the earthly tabernacle at the end of the verse. Thus, the Holy Spirit, as I said in my first point, was always teaching through the existence of the tabernacle and especially the inner room that the goal of life was to live with God, in his very presence. How did the HS show through the tabernacle and the Day of Atonement ritual that the way into the heavenly holy place was not yet revealed? How did the Holy Spirit reveal that this tent and these rituals could never bring a person into God's presence? There are several ways that this system showed that the way to know God and be accepted by him into his very presence could not be provided by this system. First, the entire arrangement of the tabernacle and the courtyard and the whole ritual of sacrifice limited access to God. God said he had come to live with all the Israelites and yet only one Israelite could enter into his presence and then only on one day each year. Second, that one person could not enter into God’s presence without killing a bull and taking its blood into God’s presence with him. The death of an innocent victim had to occur each year in order for the high priest to enter the inner room. Third, this ritual was repeated year after year by a succession of priests. Nobody remained in God’s presence forever. It was always temporary. Fourth, while the cloud representing God's glory rested over the tabernacle and over the Ark of the Covenant, everyone knew the cloud is not God but merely a representation of God. Entry into the Most Holy Place was not entry into God's actual presence but into the representation of his presence. Fifth, notice that the blood of atonement for the people was only for the sins committed in ignorance. The author, by this one word is drawing attention to something that receives extended explanation in the OT. In Leviticus 4-5 and Numbers 15 the law specifically says that a sin offering, which is what the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement was, only covers the sins which people commit unintentionally or “in ignorance.” In Numbers 15, as was read for us earlier, sins which are committed on purpose, arrogantly, in direct opposition to God, cannot be forgiven through these sacrifices. Those who committed intentional sins were to be killed, just like the guy who picked up sticks on the Sabbath was killed as recorded in Numbers 15. Every believing Israelite knew that while they committed many sins in ignorance, they also committed sins on purpose. Therefore, they knew that until there was a provision for intentional sins there would be no safe entry into God’s presence. I want to have you think with me how this actually was supposed to work. Let's say you are just an average Jewish woman living in those early years after Israel had entered the Land of Promise. You come to the tabernacle which is at Shiloh with your husband because you believe the promise that God wants you to know him. Each year at the three feasts you and your husband bring your lamb to be sacrificed at the tabernacle. However, you, because you are a woman, have to stop at the wall of the courtyard and watch as your husband takes the sheep in to be slaughtered. He enters behind the curtain of the courtyard to where the brazen altar is but then he can go no further. All you can see is the smoke from the altar of burnt offering as the animals are burned and cooked and the top of the tabernacle. You can hear the bleating and mooing of animals. You can hear the murmur of the voices of the priests and men as the animals are sacrificed. You know about the work of the priests in regard to the tabernacle and how the high priest enters the Most Holy Place on 10th day of the seventh month of each year. However, you never see the ceremonies, much less participate in them. You think to yourself, "I know that God wants me to live with him forever. I know he wants me to behold him in his sanctuary and to meditate on his beauty. But I can't get near him. This entire system separates me from him. And its not only me but none of us can get near him, not really." Then the thing that really grips you is when you remember how you took an extra pomegranate from the street merchant when he turned his back the other day and you remember how you lit a fire and baked a loaf of bread on the Sabbath day a month ago and how you lied to your husband about how the chair was broken and you realize that the animal sacrifice your husband is offering for you is only sufficient for the sins you don't even know you've committed. These sins of stealing and Sabbath breaking and lying are not and cannot be forgiven by anything that is happening in the tabernacle. You know that you deserve death for these sins and that no animal sacrifice can pay the penalty for you. If you are an Israelite who has eyes to see you hear the Holy Spirit telling you that these things are not given to you in order for you to know God. Rather these things are given to teach that someone greater than the priests and something better than animal blood and washings with water are needed for you to know God. It is through these signs and symbols that you place your faith in God's provision of a Savior who is going to come and who will make a once for all sacrifice that will actually cover all your sins. Verse 8 is such a remarkable statement. Throughout the long centuries, year after year, the Holy Spirit was speaking to the Israelites through the tabernacle and the rituals associated with it, especially the Day of Atonement. What he was saying was that God was going to make a way for sinners to know him but that way was not by means of these rituals. Everything about the priests and the animals and the tent itself screamed out that God could not be known by human priests offering animal sacrifices in an earthly tent but that someone or something infinitely better had to replace it. These ceremonies and objects were always intended to point beyond themselves to someone and something greater and more real. As we will see next week that someone is Jesus, the Son of God and that something is his obedient life and death for sinners. It is through him only that all of your sins, those you don't know about and those you do know about can be forgiven and thus you can know God. The regulations for worship and the earthly sanctuary God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai show that… The purpose of life is to know and enjoy and thus glorify God
And they show that…III. Knowing God requires an internal change that no external ritual can accomplish (vv. 9-10) The main point of vv. 9-10 is to make very explicit what I just said about v. 8. The tabernacle and all that happened there and all the food laws and cleansing rituals are not able to accomplish salvation but are only a parable, an illustration that points ahead to the ultimate reality which is Christ and his work. The tabernacle and its ritual are a living story of Christ and his salvation and thus when Christ came the tabernacle and all of its food laws and rituals and sacrifices were done away with. Unpacking the reality that all these things pointed toward is what the rest of chapter 9 and 10 are about. However, there is a contrast in these verses that I want us to be sure to see. Notice in v. 9 how salvation is described. The gifts and sacrifices are not able "to make perfect the conscience of the worshipper" but only relate to the external person. The priest washing in the basin outside the tabernacle is not actually cleansed from sin and thus able to go to heaven but it only makes it possible for him to enter the first room of the earthly tabernacle to trim the oil lamps and replace the 12 loaves of bread. The point is in order for you and I to know God we need to have our conscience made perfect. What does this mean? What is a "perfect conscience" and why do I need one in order to know God? Conscience refers to the interior life of every human being where moral decisions are made, where our values and affections are seated. Our conscience is that place where we love and trust and fear and desire. The more common biblical term for this is "heart." Hebrews 10:22 shows the identification of conscience with heart when the author describes the effects of Christ's work for us in this way, "having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a conscience of evil." What this word tells us is that our problem is not that we behave wrong but that we love and value and trust the wrong things and therefore we do the wrong things. This word tells us what is wrong with us. Why do you fight with your brother and sister? Why is it so irritating to you when your parents ask you to help around the house? Why are you so jealous of your friend? Why do you yell at your children? Why do you find so much happiness in shopping? Why are you so offended when people ignore you? Why do you get drunk? Why are you so afraid of people that you avoid them or that you can't live without them? Why do you look at pornography? Why do you lie to your husband, your wife? Why do you despise black people or Latino people? Why do you do nothing to care for those who are poor? Why do you refuse to forgive those who have offended you? The answer is because you have an imperfect conscience or as 10:22 said, a conscience of evil. Jesus defined our problem in Mark 7 when he was arguing with the Pharisees about their obsession with these various washings and the regulations regarding food that are in the Law. His point there is the same as the one here. Our problem is an internal problem and thus external religious acts can do nothing for us. He said, "What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean." In another place he said, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." In order for a human being to know and enjoy God he has to have a new heart. His conscience must be made perfect, that is, it must be cleansed of its love for evil and fitted for loving God and what is right. There is no external act that you or I can perform that can touch our heart or make our conscience perfect. Reading the Bible won't make your conscience perfect. Coming to church won't make your conscience perfect. Not watching TV won't make your conscience perfect. Praying won't make your conscience perfect. Eating or not eating certain foods won't make your conscience perfect. You need a perfect conscience, a clean heart, a renewed spirit if you are going to know and enjoy God and there is nothing you can do to make it perfect. You need a heart that doesn't love evil but loves God, that doesn't trust in money but trusts in God, that doesn't fear men, but fears God. There is only one power able to make your conscience perfect and that is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It is not within your power to create a new heart. It requires the perfect Son of God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. It is this great work of Christ that we are going to be seeking to understand and rejoice in over the next few weeks. Right now my prayer is that all of us feel how helpless and how hopeless we are to do anything that will enable us to know God. You must have a perfect conscience and you cannot make it so. This ought to be a source of great sorrow and fear for us. Yet also, as we observe the tabernacle and the regulations of worship we should be full of hope that God has done something to do what we cannot do. Our hearts are to be drawn to the great Son of God who, as we will see, is the fulfillment of and the one who fulfills all that the tabernacle and regulations for worship pointed toward.
The regulations for worship and the earthly sanctuary God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai show that…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
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