Hebrews for 500 (Part 4)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Mike Abendroth here. Show 9082. I�m not sure exactly how many new shows we�ve done, but it seems like a lot. In life, you have those ups and those downs, and my goal when I have those is to just keep on plugging, so tired, discouraged for no reason.

That�s the weird thing about these things. You think to yourself all the riches you have in Christ Jesus and family and friends, ministry opportunities, and then you think, �Is my iron low Where is you at?

You can write me, Mike at nocompromiseradio .com or info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you write Mike at info, it will not go through. Someone just recently emailed me and asked me if I�m some kind of social justice warrior because of some of my affiliations.

I think if you�ve listened to the show any time, you would recognize that�s not true. Similarly, if you think I�m an antinomian, if you ever hear me preach one time, you�ll quickly realize that is not true.

Do we disavow people or do we avow people of something? Do you tip your hand or tip your hat when you�re trying to show people your true colors? You can also access a lot of the information that you need at nocompromiseradio .com.

There�s some books there. Remember, if you buy �Sexual Fidelity� any time in March, April, or May, you get free, shipped along with it, things that go bump in the church. All right? Let�s make that a special deal.

It�s not going to say it in the cart, but it will really happen. Now I don�t talk about movies very much here. You can get all the movie stuff about Christianity at The Gospel Coalition. But I was remembering an old movie that I watched.

Maybe you could ask yourself the question, �What are your favorite movies and do they have redemptive themes Remember �The Great Escape. I know my demographic, and it�s usually males that are about 60.

Oh, that sounds like me. If you were a kid growing up in the late �50s or early �60s, you watched a show called �The Great Escape. 1963, and it was kind of the epic war movie. Remember who was in that movie?

Yes. Charles Bronson was in that. Yes. James Coburn. Yes. Donald Pleasence. I think Pleasence also went on to star in Halloween. Richard Attenborough. He was in the movie. James Garner. But of course, at the top of the list, and you can even get Greg Lurie�s new biography on this man, and Greg said this man became a Christian at the end of his life.

I don�t know if that�s true, but I sure hope it is. Steve McQueen, and Steve McQueen starred in this show, and really, it was a show based loosely. I went to the movie last night, you know, based on a true story, okay.

Based on Paul Brickhill�s 1950 book entitled this is strange �The Great Escape and basically what happens in that book, that nonfiction book, is you have an account of the mass escape of British prisoners from a German POW camp in a place called Zag�n, Zag�n, Poland, now, Stalag Luft 3, Eins, Zwei, Drei, so Stalin Luft 3, okay.

And it�s interesting because when these men escaped in 1944, the writer of the book couldn�t escape because he, along with three or four other men, had claustrophobia to such an extent that they stayed behind.

And probably a good thing they did because 76 men escaped, 73 were recaptured, 50 of those 73 were shot by the Gestapo, and four of the remaining 23 tunneled out of a concentration camp just north of Berlin, but were recaptured and chained to the floors of their cells.

And one man, Major John Dodge, he was let go for a ceasefire agreement and three made it home safely. Three out of 76, what are the odds? And then I thought to myself, well, how do you get out of this world alive, right?

That�s the great escape. A great escape is the Steve McQueen brickial thing, but the great escape is how do I get out of here alive, knowing that I�m going to die one day? How do I escape the wages of sin?

How do I escape death? How do I escape hell? How do I escape the wrath of God forever? And I think it�s right to say that there�s no chance on your own. 76 out of 76 will die, be caught, and executed, as it were, if you try to make it out on your own.

If you try to make it out on your own or with some ceremonies or some religious activities and maybe something that you eat or don�t eat, drink or don�t drink, eat or be eaten, beat or be beaten. Who said that?

That�s a song, you know. But, if you have a mediator, if you have the right mediator, if you have a high priest, 76 out of 76, with that mediator, make it out alive. So, there�s my little intro today for the great escape, just so I can keep you up on pop culture and then somehow try to rescue it and make it legitimately no-compromise radio.

I�ve been in the book of Hebrews, as you know, and for many of you, you maybe want me to go back to the old style where we have a discernment ministry, and of course we want to do some of that. You can follow Twitter if you want really a lot of that stuff.

We just were talking about the chapel message at Westminster Seminary that the students arranged or maybe SSA stuff, same-sex attracted stuff, that�s all you can find on Twitter. But today, I want to talk a little bit more about Hebrews chapter 9 and the great high priest.

And, as you know, if you listen to me at all, one of the reasons I do this is because it is Saturday and I need to review my sermon. And one of the ways I review my sermon is I just do a no-compromise version of that sermon.

And what that means is I just put the headphones on, I hit record, and then I begin to talk about the topic. But I�m not really preaching, right? I don�t have a preaching cadence, I don�t have a style or delivery that would lend itself for the public proclamation of God�s Word on the Lord�s Day.

It�s just me sitting in here talking, but talking in such a way where I�m trying to digest it and review it one more time. Now, Hebrews 9 and 10, at least the first half of 10, talks about how great the new covenant is and what kind of superior ministry this high priest, this great high priest, this heavenly high priest, offers for his people.

And you look at the place where this is offered. Is it an earthly sanctuary or tabernacle? You look at what the offering actually was that this mediator gave. Was it an animal�s life or was it his own?

And you look about the horizon and you say to yourself, �Does this work? How long will it work? Does it last just a year and then next year we have another Yom Kippur? Or does this sacrifice of this great high priest have eternal ramifications?

Therefore, in our show today, I want to talk a little bit about those ramifications and how God wants you to approach, but because of your sin, you can�t approach. You�re going to have to have something done for you in order to approach God.

Now, just think about it. You watch some of those other shows and can you approach the king? Can you look in the king�s eyes? He calls you forward. You just don�t kind of saunter on up. You just don�t go there on your own.

God has made us as image bearers and he made us that way so we might have communion, so we might have a relationship with him. I hate to say that. I�m in relationship, but it is true. There is a relationship that the Creator can have with the creature and that is because we�re made as image bearers.

The problem is sin has affected that, yet God wants us to approach him. Now we have to approach on someone else�s merits, but still the approach is desired and the approach is commanded by obedience to the law.

Of course, since we can�t do that, now by faith in the one who is obedient to the law. Notice in this passage in Hebrews 9 and even in all of the Bible that God only allows us to approach him. While he desires it, he only allows us to approach him on his terms.

He�s the one that makes the specifications on how we approach him. When you look at Leviticus, for instance, the detail, the precision, the exactness�that�s a good word, I want to write that down for tomorrow�the exactness required for worship.

He prescribes worship. We just don�t make it up. That is because God is holy and we are sinful. The Bible says, �Who among the gods is like you, O Yahweh? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders

God is transcendent, he�s holy, he�s different, he�s morally pure, he�s other, and really that if you want to boil down holiness, you�ve got the obvious one taught today, moral and ethical purity. The other is different, above, separate, marked off, Habakkuk 1 .13, �Your eyes are too pure to look on evil you cannot tolerate wrong.

That�s the ethical area, ethical aspect of his holiness. But he is so different, �Who�s like you That was the Exodus 15 one. And therefore, in Hebrews, you�re going to see lots of times the word �holy.

And even in our section today, chapter 9, �holiness, holy place, most holy place, holy places, holy spirit. Five times that I can think of just quickly in the first eight verses. It reminds me of Leviticus 11 .44, �I am Yahweh, or the Lord your God, consecrate yourselves and be holy.

Why? Because I am holy. The focus on this section in Hebrews chapter 9 is on, at least initially, the tabernacle and what was in the tabernacle, what was in the tent. When you think of tabernacle, I wonder what you think of.

And I didn�t say temple, because he�s been talking about this replica that Moses had that he saw for worship, and we�re tying it back to Sinai, and we�re tying it back to temple, sorry, tabernacle, not temple.

The tabernacle has been long gone by the time this is written, and the temple is up. But his references and his tie-ins are back into Exodus, that�s why he�s using the language of tabernacle and not temple.

Of course, when you do think of the temple, you would think about the original �temple�, and that would be the tabernacle. Hebrews chapter 8, there�s lots of talk about the new covenant and how it was different than the old.

The old had the priests, and the sacrifices, and how it didn�t really work, it just covered, and the temporary nature, and all that stuff. And so there was this discontinuity, there was a break, there was �on one hand� and �on the other hand�, that was the language used in the Greek.

On one hand, on the other hand, it�s language of contrast and discontinuity. Here in chapter 9, it�s kind of cool, because there�s some continuity here. You�re going to look at things in the tabernacle, that�s why we practice on Saturday, and you�re going to go, �Oh yeah, now I see there�s this tie-in, there is some continuity.

And when I grew up, I didn�t know much about scripture, but when I first got saved, I would read Plymouth Brethren, and I would read other people, and they would say the pomegranate in the tabernacle represents such and such.

And they had this one-to-one correspondence with all the different things, and what does the tent peg, tent stake, mean? How does it relate to Jesus? And I think you have to be careful. But that doesn�t mean you rule these all out, and that�s what�s going to happen here in Hebrews chapter 9.

Some very cool things in the temple, see, I said it again, in the tabernacle. Yikes. It�s been a hard week. I just don�t know why it�s been so hard. Last Sunday, I had my preaching discipleship class, and then I preached a sermon, and I was pretty tired, went home, an hour and a half later came back and officiated a wedding, went home, an hour and a half later went to the reception, there was dancing at the reception.

And then after the reception, I went home, and really, I�ve been just beat since. I�ve just been so tired since. Maybe more mentally than anything else, because I�m still exercising, and maybe that�s making me tired.

I don�t know. I�ve been trying to ride the bicycle some. It�s been kind of yucky out, but I�ve been riding the old bike a little bit. Anyway, just tired. I could yawn right now. Remember, sometimes on No Compromise Radio, I have yawned.

By the way, sermoncritique .com. If you want your sermon critique to a hundred bucks, I�ll watch it, we�ll Skype for an hour, and talk about it. All right. Hey, good thing this isn�t Facebook Live. Hey, I�m going to do that next time.

After this show, we�re going to do it. Maybe that�ll give me some pep, some energy. I just drank like a monster drink, so this is me on monster drink when I�m tired. That�s crazy. When you look at the Mosaic Covenant, and you wanted to boil down the Mosaic Covenant to three essentials, you could probably boil it down to priesthood, sanctuary, and sacrifice.

If you put all of the old Sinaitic Mosaic Covenant through a blender, through a theological grinder, and you said, �Give me the three main theological points in there that�s probably what you could come up with.

You have priesthood, sanctuary, and sacrifice. And Jesus is the greater priest. When you think of the sanctuary, we have now a heavenly sanctuary. And when it comes to sacrifice, it�s the once-for-all sacrifice, something the theological priesthood could never offer.

The right kind of priesthood, permanent. Right kind of sanctuary, heavenly. Right kind of sacrifice, one and done. Not animals, but the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus� offering is superior to all those Old Testament offerings.

So, let me read the verses and see if any of these things remind you of Jesus, knowing what you know about the New Testament. �Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.

For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was the second section, called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron�s staff that budded, and the tables of the Covenant.

Above it were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these we cannot now speak in detail. But I can. Oh, that is funny. Now, what�s happening here is he�s looking at the old covenant and the tabernacle.

And of course, those things could never in and of themselves give you the proper access to God. Hey, only once a year for the high priest even. Those things couldn�t really cleanse you. But what they could do is point to something and point to someone who did and who could.

In other words, these are great pictures, pictures of the One to Come. These are great shadows of the Real One. And so, everything in there, you probably could read those and think, huh, what does that mean?

How does that work? Does that remind me of the Lord Jesus Christ in any way, shape, or form? And maybe you wouldn�t know exactly from just reading that passage found in the Old Testament, or passages describing those things found in the Old Testament.

But now, knowing what you know about Jesus in the New Testament, it�s pretty simple to think of. Let me just give you one, because I know we�re going to run out of time pretty soon. If I say to you, �Manna, you ought to be thinking what

Oh yeah, I think you probably think John 6, there�s the real bread that comes down from heaven, and it�s not manna. The ultimate bread that satisfies isn�t the manna, it�s the Lord Jesus. I am the bread of life.

And that�s where we�re going here. Verse 1, �Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. God told them, God prescribed, God said, �This is what you�re going to do.

Now, you�ve got regulations for worship, God tells you how to worship Him, and then there�s this earthly sanctuary that He is discussing based on Exodus 25 -30. It belongs to this world, this earthly sanctuary.

And even then, God is trying to tell the people, �This is how you worship Me. And then in reverse order, He discusses these. He first talks about the sanctuary, and then He talks about regulations for worship.

And so, the sanctuary is talked about in verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And all this is kind of coming from the discussion at the end of chapter 8 with the new covenant. And it says in verse 2, �A tent was prepared, for a tent was prepared, the first section in which there was a lampstand, table, bread of the presence, it�s called the holy place.

And then, after that, you�ve got the holy of holies, or the most holy place. And we�re going to look at those things that are in there, and then I want you to be thinking, �Oh, how does that remind me of the Lord Jesus Christ

Now, what I�m going to try to do here for a second is look at my message translation and see what it says. That first plan contained directions for worship and a special design place of worship. A large outer tent was set up.

The lampstand, table, and bread of presence was placed in it. This was called the holy place. Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it, a smaller inside tent set up. Really? This was called the holy of holies.

In it were placed the gold incense altar and gold-covered ark of the covenant, containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron�s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-winged shadowed mercy seat.

It�s like Klein, you have so many dashes. We don�t have time to comment on these now. Okie dokie. Well, that�s not that bad, because it�s just describing what�s in there, so it�s hard to mess up a theological point, although I noticed one in there that we�ll have to talk about at another time.

What else is here? The tent. What�s going on with this tent? The tabernacle was a tent, right? You�re in the wilderness, and you go from place to place to place, and you put down the tent, take down the tent, and you put up the tent.

You prepare it, you unprepare it. You set it up, you take it out. What was going on with that? Well, God is dwelling among his people, and this is an impermanent situation, right? This is not permanent.

This tent was prepared. That�s not the word for pitching a tent, but this is like, what do you set up inside the tent? You prepare it. If you pitch a tent, you put up a tent, and then inside you get everything ready.

You get your air mattress, you get your canteens. What did I like to put in the tent when we went camping? Last time we went camping, I think it was in, I was going to say Yellowstone, but I don�t think it was Yellowstone.

Yosemite. There you go. And what did I put inside there? I don�t know. My mace. Not my food, because the bears could come in there. Whatever you prepare on the inside, and that�s what we�re really after anyway.

It�s not the tent. It�s what�s in the tent that�s going to remind us of who Jesus is. And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain, Exodus 25, 40. So God shows Moses this pattern, and now Moses does it, and now the writer Hebrews is saying, �I�m going to tell you why Jesus is better than your old covenant priesthood, and look at all the things in the tabernacle, and look what they�re representing, and you are going to be really encouraged by that.

And really some cool correspondence between things that were in the tabernacle and the Lord Jesus. Well, it�s not like I�m stalling. I am, because if I get going on these, then I�m not going to be able to stop.

My name is Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. Why don�t you tell your friends? Why don�t you give us ratings? Why don�t you tell your millionaire buddies? And all will be well. And maybe the best lesson I could give you today is, when you�re having a good week or a bad week, you just keep plowing through and just do the next thing, right?

You just do the right thing. Lord, help me when I�m weak, I�m strong. Strength manifested in perfect-powered weakness, and you can mess up other verses like that. I�m Mike Abenroth.