THE HOLIEST: A PLACE TO REACH AFTER SALVATION
AND BEFORE HEAVEN

Part 2
December 27, 2009 am
MF Blume
Hebrews 8:6-13 Complete Apostles' Bible  (6)  But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises.  (7)  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.  (8)  For finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,  (9)  not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not persevere in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.  (10)  For this is the covenant which I shall covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind, and I shall inscribe them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  (11)  And by no means will they teach each one his fellow citizen, and each one 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 shall by no means remember anymore."  (13)  By the saying "new ," He has made the first obsolete. And the one becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish.

Let us bring ourselves back up to where we left off this morning in Hebrews 8.

The old testament system, or old covenant, had a fault.
  • The people involved at that time were unable to PERSEVERE in that covenant.
  • The KJV says they could not "CONTINUE" in it.
  • They could not keep the covenant.
  • They failed.
  • And failed and failed.

And God said A NEW COVENANT was going to come, which is the one we live within today.
  • He compared the New covenant with the one they had back then by calling it a covenant that was going to be quite different.
  • It was different because it would have God put HIS LAWS INTO THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLE.
  • Also, each person involved would not be held back from personally knowing God for themselves, whereas teaching was only provided to a select few -- sons of the prophets, etc.
  • Synagogues only had bare reading of Law, with no explanation.

But our new covenant has every person with a bible and every family with the ease of opportunity to hear detailed teachings of God in local churches.

So, if the old covenant's problem was that they could not persevere under it, and the new would put God's law into the heart and mind, then putting it in the heart and mind would cause us to be able to persevere.
  • We can continue.
  • It can make us OVERCOMERS so that we can continue without failing.

Hebrews 9 speaks further explanation of how the old covenant could not cut it.

As if to continue explaining reasons as to why the old one was incompetent and a new one had to be instituted, Heb. 9:1 says:
Hebrews 9:1-7 Complete Apostles' Bible  (1)  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 were both the lampstand and the table and the showbread, which is called the holy place;  (3)  and after the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,  (4)  having a golden altar, and the ark of the covenant having been overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were a golden jar having the manna, and the rod of Aaron which budded, and the tablets of the covenant;  (5)  and above it were cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; concerning these things we cannot now speak in detail.  (6)  Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services,  (7)  but into the second part the high priest goes alone once during the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance;

God's Word teaches us that the picture of priests working in a first tabernacle with no one entering into the holy of holies gives us  a message of how OLD TESTAMENT TIMES AND RITUALS fell short of what man needed.
Hebrews 9:8-10 Complete Apostles' Bible  (8)  the Holy Spirit signifying this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing,  (9)  which was symbolic for the present time, according to which both gifts and sacrifices are being offered, which are not able, in respect to conscience, to make perfect the one performing the service,  (10)  concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances which are imposed until a time of reformation.

They were fleshly ordinances.
  • God is saying that while there are only fleshly rituals and rites and activity in effect, only the outward man is affected.
  • But the reason man was unable to continue and persevere without failing again and again in sin was because something had to be done that would affect THE CONSCIENCES of people -- the inner man -- which was not being dealt with.
  • The old covenant only touched the surface of people's problems and dealt with the physical level of things, and never penetrated into the hearts and minds of people.

Recall that Chapter 8 said the Law needs to be written on two kinds of tables.
  • MIND AND HEART.
  • But being written on stone, as the Old Covenant had it, is only representative of touching the physical and outward, and not getting to the root of the problem.
  • It is only affecting the fleshly element.
  • But we are more than flesh.
  • We are spirit and soul, as well as body.
  • And until something can get hold of us and make some changes in the hearts and minds of people, we will never be able to persevere in the things of God without blowing it.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 KJV  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.  (26)  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  (27)  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

All the promises to Israel speak of very spiritual things, and actually go beyond the level of the flesh and the outward.
Deuteronomy 30:1-6 KJV  And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,  (2)  And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;  (3)  That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.  (4)  If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:  (5)  And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.  (6)  And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.


The language used in Deut. is New Testament language, and this is repeated as follows:
Colossians 2:11 KJV  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 KJV  (11)  For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.  (12)  It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?  (13)  Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?  (14)  But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.


These words are found in Paul's epistle to the Romans and are explained as a reference to the New Testament preaching of the Gospel!
Romans 10:6-10 KJV  But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)  (7)  Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)  (8)  But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;  (9)  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  (10)  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Moses' reference to a return to the land is fulfilled in something that is beyond a physical land, of which the physical land was a shadow.
  • The entire old covenant concept was fleshly and outward.
Hebrews 9:10 Complete Apostles' Bible  (10)  concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances which are imposed until a time of reformation.
Hebrews 9:11-14 Complete Apostles' Bible  (11)  But Christ came as a High Priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.  (12)  Not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered once for all into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption.  (13)  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those having been defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh,  (14)  by how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, will cleanse your conscience from dead works in order that we might serve the living God?

Why go back to a lesser covenant?
  • The old one was ONLY UNTIL A TIME OF REFORMATION.

Some teach God will revert back to law for seven years after the rapture, whereas the bible says law was weak and only scratched the surface, unable to cause a man to continue underneath it and successfully persevere.
  • Nothing in the bible hints at a time when God shall revert to law in our future.
  • Plain statements like this state that Mosaic Law is forever over and gone.
  • A new covenant  has been created where God puts his laws into our minds and hearts.

The old only cleansed the FLESH, but we read here that the new one gets in all the way to where we really need help -- our hearts and minds, and consciences.

Would God go back to COPIES OF THE TRUE?
  • How is reverting to copies a progression?

All the rituals and rites of the old testament were symbols and foreshadows of the actualities that God would deal with when the NEW COVENANT came into being.

Every year the high priest offered animal blood and went into the holiest one day and came out again for another year, and none of it ever touched and affected the hearts and consciences of the people.
  • But Jesus came and made one sacrifice of Himself and entered into the holiest and STAYED THERE and SITS DOWN IN THERE.
  • And He is sitting and waiting for us to ENTER THERE, TOO, AND SIT WITH HIM.

The Bible says He is FORERUNNER for us in there.
  • It's the rest we need to enter.