General Articles

Hebrews Lesson 34 :: Need for Jesus’ Blood In Particular :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Chapter 9:23-28

“23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at the need for blood sacrifices. There is a movement that has come to prominence of late, and I suspect has been around a while, that decried the savagery of the blood sacrifice that bought our salvation. We have established over the past few weeks with various passages from the Old Testament and New Testament. God, from the very beginning, established a principle that death follows sin; in Genesis 2: 16-17 (Berean Study Bible), we see this pronouncement,

“And the LORD God commanded him, ‘You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Romans 6:23 backs this up: “the wages of sin is death”; the natural outcome of sin is death. In the case of the Garden in Genesis, instead of killing Adam and his wife, God killed an animal and made them coats of skin. While Adam and his wife did not drop dead right there, they physically began the process of dying and were spiritually separated from God. All through the Old Testament and even up to the day that Jesus died, the death of animals was a temporary covering for sin until the ultimate sacrifice came — the one that would put an end to all other blood sacrifices.

  • A Copy of Heavenly Things, verse 23

I just finished reading through the Torah once again, and there is intricate detail about the Tabernacle that is included in the writing of Moses. If you study this carefully, you will see that it took a team of dedicated individuals about 12 months to do all the work necessary to have all the pieces of the Tabernacle in place. Later, a lot later, well over 450 years, Solomon would build an elaborate Temple that stood in Jerusalem until the days of Jeremiah when the soldiers of Babylon razed it and took its treasures back to Babylon. Yet, we are told that there were just copies of the Temple in Heaven. When we get to Heaven, along with the streets of gold, the patriarchs of our faith, and the angels, there will be a Temple, the likes of which no man on earth has seen.

When Jesus was lovingly accosted by Mary at the tomb that resurrection morning, Jesus asked her to stop touching Him, rather, stop holding Him (she did not want to lose Him again), as He had not ascended to the Father (John 20:17). He was going to perform the events of Hebrews 9:24-25. Jesus was going to perform the office of our High Priest and offer His blood as the final and perfect sacrifice for the sins of ALL MANKIND forever. Unlike the purely human high priests like Aaron and his lineage, Jesus was not required to first offer a sacrifice for His own sins; He never sinned. Thus, He was able to do for mankind what the sacrifices of animals could not do; He could offer permanent covering for sin and eternal life.

  • Jesus Died Once for ALL, verse 26

Jesus came at the end of the age; this seems so weird to us to say. It has been 2,000 years since Jesus came; how could that have been the end of the age? Because God is eternal, and time does not register to Him at all. The end of the age, the age of sin, the age of death, and the age of Satan’s temporary rule of the earth began with the birth of Jesus. The final nail in the coffin, so to speak, was His resurrection. Jesus came once, ONCE, to pay the price for our sins. He has ‘put away sin’ by the sacrifice of Himself. Jesus did not die often; He died ONCE. You cannot get saved often; you and I get saved ONCE, and this is for eternity. If we can lose the salvation that has been gifted to us in Jesus, then Jesus would have to come again and die for the sins that were not covered the first time, OR we could not get the salvation back.

You need to read that again. If you can lose your salvation, the one God gifts you (see Romans 6:23b), then you cannot get it back unless Jesus dies again. We are told that will NOT happen; He died once and is now at the Father’s right hand. Thus, you could not get it back, ever.

Once we are saved, our sins are blotted out by the blood of Jesus. Think about it: Jesus died 2,000 years or so ago. He paid for my sins and your sins before they were ever committed. Only Jesus’ blood could do that. The blood of bulls and goats covered sin after the fact, but Jesus’ blood was pre-emptive. This is why we needed not just any blood but Jesus’ blood to cover our sins to blot them out.

  • Jesus Is Coming Back again, verse 28

When I was a young boy, sometimes I would lose track of my mom in a store, and I would wonder if the Rapture happened and I got left behind. I have been hearing about Jesus’ return since I was a lad. It does not take long for us preachers to begin talking about the signs of His return once we get together. I have begun a once-a-month talk on the return of Jesus using modern news clips and scientific studies like the growth of A.I., the movement toward what will become the ‘Mark of the Beast,’ and other things like even inflation and how it affects the poor like the Book of the Revelation says.

The Holy Spirit in us reminds us and encourages us with the fact that Jesus is coming again. Sadly, many churches no longer teach about the end and no longer talk about the return of Jesus. They teach that Revelation is just paraphrasing or allegorical and not to be taken literally. Thus, a lot of God’s people are not eagerly awaiting His return. But there are some of us that are awaiting His return. We long to be free of these bodies that fail our Lord, bodies that still sin and cause us to hurt the One who loves us so much.

One day soon, we will meet Jesus in the air (1 Thess. 4:17), and then sometime later, He will return (Revelation 19) and establish His kingdom on earth (Isaiah chap. 2 and 6). Soon our eyes will see the One, that beautiful One who died for our sins and bought eternal life. Are you excited about meeting Jesus? I am, and I am not; I long to see my Savior, and I am ashamed of my failures and sin. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca; support@mmbchurch.ca

The Trouble With Being Human :: By Jim Towers

Published on: by RR10

From the time we are born until the time we die, we are engaged in spiritual warfare with our enemy, the devil. Taunting, teasing, accusing as well as prompting us to make bad choices.

Satan is also referred to as the “accuser of men.” He taunts us and tempts us, then has the audacity of accusing us before the father. He does so not just to unbelievers but to believers in Christ as well. Even Martin Luther was subject to his accusations and for a long time felt guilty about his sinful nature, that is until he found the answer to his dilemma in the Bible where the apostle Paul says, “Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me…. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Indeed, we all have a sinful nature, and like the Bible says, “There is none righteous – no, not one.”

Even our leaders, who should be the paragon of virtue, are susceptible to the evil one’s urging to do wrong. Take, for example, the Biden crime family who colluded with evil governments to rake in millions for dummy corporations, lining their pockets with ill-gotten gain. Consider the Pharmaceutical companies and doctors who are still doing the same, even after killing millions and critically harming others with needless and harmful injections. Evil judges and lawyers who should know better are breaking the law in lieu of money. Teachers, rather than teaching Math, History, and English, are indoctrinating children to disrespect parents and question their very sexual identity.

As for our leaders and the other examples, the Bible says, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Their actions speak louder than anything they can say.)

Woe to those who call evil good, for we all must appear at the white throne judgment seat of God one day soon.

Already, we can see God’s judgment across the world, what with wild weather swings, tornadoes, volcano eruptions, flooding not seen since the time of Noah, and massive earthquakes everywhere. In Syria and Turkey, the recent earthquakes were so severe that people were praying in the streets in repentance (to a non-existing god, Allah.)

Next may be nuclear war.

But at present, among Christians, the personal introspection continues, and the problem lies in our trying to be self-righteous. Then when we inevitably fail, we condemn ourselves. It took me a while to accept that as long as I was in the flesh, I would have this problem.

Nowadays, I confess my shortcomings and keep plugging away in this thing called life. For example, when I felt that I had erroneously committed sin by filming a cigarette commercial while I was still “young in Christ,” I confessed, tore up my headshots, and swore to quit the film industry. Nevertheless, a few years later, as I was restarting my chosen career at the urging of my agent, I appeared in three or four beer commercials almost back-to-back. It was then that I learned that we humans can justify our every inconsistency; after all, which is worse, smoking or drinking? Actually, both are bad for the body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, but to survive in this dog-eat-dog world, what was I to do? What would you have done?

But that was the past. Today, I’ve put all of that behind me. But I wouldn’t have been able to overcome my self-incriminations if I didn’t know scripture. What shall we say then? Shall we continue sinning? NO. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” So says the apostle Paul. But “the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus Christ] the iniquity of us all.” And so we are free from condemnation, and if God sets us free, we are free indeed.

Knowing and practicing the admonitions of the Bible is life-giving and powerful. Such is the title of my soon-to-be-released book, Miracles, Peace & Power. God favors those who follow His admonitions, but if your intent is to become wealthy by doing so, your motives and intents are faulty, and God doesn’t appreciate being used.

Through miracles (what we usually call coincidences), He will bring about His plans for you – if you give Him first place in your life. Another benefit is the peace you will experience as you give your every care over to Him. God also gives you the power to proclaim Christ fearlessly in an ever-darkening world.

And so, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, and self-control.

Having been sick for months, I wasn’t able to hit the streets or my mission station (the Naples Pier). I checked on it yesterday, and it had been destroyed by the recent hurricane. Having the urge to get out and resume, I instead witnessed to a man at the Cracker Barrel restaurant. The man had made a remark about my beard, and we began conversing. He was wearing a Michigan State sweatshirt.

“I can see by the sweatshirt that you are from Michigan.”

“How did you know?”

“It’s written right there on your sweatshirt.”

“So it is.”

“I’m from Lansing myself.”

“Yada, yada, yada.” After inviting him to sit with me, he told me he had just gotten out of the hospital after a severe heart attack, so I asked if he was ready to meet his maker.

“Oh, yes,” he replied, “I’ve been a good man.”

“Do you know what the Bible says about that?”

“No, not really.”

“For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

YBIC

Jim Towers

Write me at jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com or visit me at www.propheticsignsandwonders.com