Chapter 9:1-10

“Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. ² For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; ³ and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, ⁴ which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; ⁵ and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

⁶ Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. ⁷ But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; ⁸ the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. ⁹ It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— ¹⁰ concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation” (NKJV).

Happy New Year to you all. I pray that all is well with you. We had a busy time, as I am sure most families did. And, to top it off, my wife and I became quite ill over the New Year’s weekend, and we are both still gradually getting over the illness. God is good, and He continues to make Himself known to us and shows us His love and care. I pray that you are seeing Him as well in your life and that you are more confident in your faith from day to day.

The last lesson we looked at, before the Christmas one, was about the New Covenant written in our hearts when we receive the Holy Spirit. God puts His Spirit in us, and He constantly reminds us of what is right and good, reminds us of God’s character, and is in the process of forming the person of Christ in us.

Galatians 4:18-19, NKJV “Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose—at any time, and not only when I am with you. My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…”

• The Tedious Tabernacle, verses 1-5

When one takes the time (and I am reading through the book of Exodus right now with a group of other pastors as we read through the Bible in 90 days) to see the intricate details laid out about the Tabernacle and its details: how to make the wood, the curtains, the tables, and the Ark of the Covenant, when we see the very costly materials that were necessary to make the covering and the utensils, we can see that the Tabernacle was unique in its construction. It took hundreds of people to care for it and transport it as the Jews made their way through the Wilderness. It was burdensome and required constant care, required one to watch it and the Priests to make sure that the things in it were ceremonially clean and ready to be used by God all the time. It was a tedious task, one that required hundreds and hundreds of man-hours to make it all work.

• The Tarnished Priests verses 6-7

The priests were all flawed men at best. Aaron was the first to fashion an idol for the people to worship when Moses stayed too long on the mountain while getting the Law. These human priests had to offer sacrifices for themselves before they could intercede on behalf of the people. These men struggled with their flesh. In contrast, Jesus is our Perfect priest. He never sinned, never failed, and never erred – not even once. We are told this in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV):

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

These men could not save us eternally with all their sacrifices. The Old Testament saints were never saved by observing the Law. They were saved when they believed the promises of God; they looked forward to our Messiah. They did perform the observances and ordinances of the Law in submissive obedience to the Lord but never to earn salvation. One CANNOT earn the gift of eternal life. Abraham, we are told, believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He is the father of all who believe in Jesus as Savior.

• The Temporary Fix, verses 8-10

The Holy Spirit, we are told, indicates to us that the tedious works of the law and the tarnished men working as priests could not get the participants permanent perfection. The annual sacrifices on the Day of Atonement, the time when the High Priest would enter the inner part of the Tabernacle, were only good until the next year when the ritual had to be performed once again. The daily sacrifices were temporary fixes that appeased a righteous God for a time.

Their rituals, these laws and their observances, were not able to save the participant or able to make him or her perfect. This is what is required – perfection (see verse 9). We are told that these laws could not make one ‘perfect in regard to the conscience.’ The law cannot make you and me perfect. The endless sacrifices could not make you and me perfect. God requires perfection for Him to fellowship with anyone. The temporary sacrifices covered the sins of the people temporarily; even the Passover had to be re-enacted yearly.

In verse 10, we are told that these rituals were there until a certain time happened. Next week, we will look at that time. You may wonder why we seem to be going over this time and time again. Well, Satan knows the importance of the pure Gospel, and he is always at work in every generation, trying to pollute it. One of the main ways that he tries to pollute it is to add works to belief in salvation – one must keep the law to be saved. This is heresy, and it is important that we refute and debunk this so that people can truly be saved.

The purity of the Gospel is the number one responsibility of the local church. Without it, we are powerless.

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

Hebrews 8:7-13

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. ⁸ Because finding fault with them, He says: ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ⁹ not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

¹¹ None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ ¹³ In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

Jesus gave us a New Covenant in His own blood. He eliminated the need for the sacrifice of any animals ever again. Jesus completed all that was or will be ever needed for the salvation of all men from Adam to the last human to ever be born. This is an important doctrine; one of the hardest things to get into people’s heads and minds is that there is no work or works on our part that will save us from Hell and an eternity without God. The work, all of the work, has already been done. Yet, we have several religions that claim to be ‘Christian’ that teach that one has to have Jesus and works to be saved. Not just trust in Jesus alone for eternal salvation. This diminishes the power of all that Jesus has done. Paul, the writer here, goes on to paint a wonderful picture for us about the nature of this New Covenant.

• The Fault in the Old Covenant, verse 8

The fault with the Old Covenant was that everything was temporary with regard to sacrifices. Moses and Abraham were not temporarily saved in the Old Testament. God made eternal covenants with them based on their faith in what was to come. We are told in Romans 4 that Abraham ‘believed God,’ and it was accounted to him for righteousness. But to satisfy His justice, there had to be a temporary way of dealing with man’s sin until Jesus came. God had promised Jesus from Genesis 3:15. He promised Abraham that He would provide ‘himself’ a scapegoat in Genesis 22. He promised to send a ‘Prophet’ like Moses from among the Jewish brethren, and it is to this prophet that the nation should listen. On and on we can go with God’s promises to send the Messiah.

Why did we have to wait? God sent Jesus, the Bible tells us, in the ‘fullness of time.’

Galatians 4: 4-7 (ESV) “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Jesus had to come at a specific time for God’s plan. A time when the Roman Empire was in power, a time when the Romans had built safe, durable roads that extended to countries all over Europe and part so Northern Africa and Asia Minor. A time when the common language of Greek was in place and the language would soon die out, leaving a perfectly preserved scripture. A time when the Roman government would send persecution on Israel and thus spread the Gospel to the very ends of the earth. We can go on and on, but the fact is that Jesus came exactly when God wanted Him to come and not a moment sooner or later.

• A New Covenant Written on our Hearts, verse 10

This was a new thing; this talked about an event that would transform how God dealt with us mere men. This event was the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell us. In so doing, the Word of God would live in us and be written ‘in or on’ our hearts. God would live in us, and we would become the Temples of God. There would be no need for Tabernacles and Temples built by men’s hands, and no longer would we have to go to Jerusalem to worship as the Jews did. God is with us, with you and I, all the time in us, and we could worship anywhere.

John 20: 21-22 “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit'” (NKJV).

The Holy Spirit would speak to us and make us aware of God’s word, God’s ways, and God’s leading in our lives.

John 16: 13-14 “However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you” (Berean Study Bible).

Notice, He will guide us into ‘all truth.’ This new indwelling was a new thing, part of the new covenant that marked us with God’s holiness from the moment we were saved. The Old Testament saints did not have this. And as such, even up to the thief on the cross, when they died, they went to live in Paradise. But Jesus came and died; He rose from the dead, and now when we die, we go to the third heaven. Paul got a glimpse of this in 2 Corinthians 12: 3-4:

“And I know that this man—whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell” (Berean Study Bible).

Notice he was caught UP in Paradise, referring to Heaven. In the past, Paradise was in the heart of the earth. But now, in the New Covenant, we go directly to Heaven. There are so many benefits to the New Covenant. I pray that you are a part of it. The temporary Old one is gone, and only the New Covenant in Jesus remains. Do you have the Holy Spirit in you? If not, you need Him.

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