Jesus Christ's Real Life Story, Pt. 8

Ron Weinland

April 29, 2017

So again, we are continuing with the current series entitled, Jesus Christ's Real Life Story, with this being Part 8.

We were reminded in Part 7 of how Jesus Christ went back into Jerusalem the morning after the Sabbath and then on Sunday morning, which was the 11th day of them month and only 2½ days before the Passover would begin, it was at that time that he overthrew the tables of the money changers (on that Sunday), and those who were selling within the temple. It's at that point that he said, "Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But you have made it a den of thieves."

Now, that's really awesome what he had to say there because it has far more meaning today than what it did at that time and that's a part of the thrust of this portion of this series. The reason that is so important is that it sets the stage for all the teaching and instruction that he gave from that point forward. He was focused upon the Passover. He was about to fulfill all the meaning of the Passover in his own life in his suffering and his death and he was about to make a great change in how people would be able to worship God from that point forward, once he did what he was going to fulfill, a change from worship at a physical temple to how people could begin to worship in a spiritual one. That is an incredible thing to know and to understand about Jesus Christ because people don't understand this. People don't comprehend and grasp in any fashion or form what he actually did. They talk about the fact that he died and was resurrected, and that's going to be talked about a lot more as we continue forward, but they don't grasp all the reasons why and this is a major focal point for the reasons why he was getting ready to fulfill what he did. He was doing away with the worship in a physical temple and establishing a worship in a spiritual one. It's an incredible story and that's really the story here that we've been going through in the book of Hebrews.

So we're going to continue on and pick up some of that today and be reminded a little bit as we go along about what he said when he made the comment, "My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer," because it never was, concerning the physical temple, nor was it ever intended to be. That was never the focus, but everything we learn begins with those things that are physical, and God gives those things that are a "type" of that which will be fulfilled later on, just as the killing of the Passover lamb when the children of Israel were in a process of beginning to be brought out of the land of Egypt as slaves, those physical things that were done by them year by year in the eating of a physical lamb. The killing and the eating of a physical lamb is that which was going to be fulfilled by Jesus Christ. That's why he was going into Jerusalem at this particular time and establishing a different kind of worship, a worship in a spiritual temple that all nations in time would be able to experience or would have the opportunity at least to be able to experience.

So let's pick up the story here in what we'd covered a little bit of in Hebrews 7. We were in the book of Hebrews and all that is being thoroughly explained here by the apostle Paul. It's an incredible story, and again, one that people just don't grasp and comprehend, but it's an awesome story and it's about the life of Jesus Christ, the true life story, in other words, the real life story of why he did what he accomplished and what he performed. So we're going to just read a few things here close to where we left off.

In Hebrews 7:11 it says, If, therefore, perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, because the Levites served every day in the temple and they had jobs to do; they had a function of things that they were to do within a physical temple, and he said if perfection were to come in that manner, (for under it people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? Because the Levitical system, they were descendants of Aaron in that respect, and there was a lineage that followed as far as the High Priest, especially, and the Levitical system that served within the temple.

It says, For the priesthood being changed, there is also necessity a change of the law. As I mentioned earlier, much of the Protestant world, traditional Christianity, likes to look at scripture like this and say, "See! God is changing the manner of the law. We're under grace now. We're no longer under that old, harsh Old Testament law!" It has nothing to do with that law. What he's talking about here has nothing whatsoever to do with a change in the law. That will become clearer a little bit later in what Paul adds to all of this. He's talking about a change in the Levitical system and the laws pertaining to service in the physical temple. That's all he's talking about. Awesome! But people don't understand it when they read through the book of Hebrews because they've been taught other things that aren't true.

Verse 28, jumping on down (just picking up a few things here), For the law makes men high priests… See, it's the law! The Levitical system, only Levites could serve in the temple, only Levites! So Levites were to serve and they had to serve in a specific way within the temple. There were specific duties and things that they were to accomplish within the service of a physical temple. So it says, The law makes men high priests which have infirmity, men who have weakness, in other words, frailty, as the word means, but the word, and this is the word "logos" which comes from God. …for the word or but the word of the oath, which was since the law, makes the Son, who is consecrated (or completed or perfected) forever, forevermore. So Paul talked about how here is a man from Judah, not from Levi! It's because of what God said concerning His own Son, who was out of the tribe of Judah. He had nothing to do with the Levitical system whatsoever, and yet he was being made a High Priest forever, unlike the Levitical system where priests died. They were weak. They were weak in many respects, but they were really weak when it came to life because three score and ten is basically what people lived. Priests came along and priests died, but here is a priest forever. Awesome story performed and accomplished by God Almighty, and not over a physical temple. So indeed laws concerning worship in a physical temple were being changed and Jesus Christ was about to change it all. So Paul is talking about this one who is made a priest after the order of Melchizedek forever is being established, has been established.

Hebrews 8:1—Now, of the things which we have spoken this is the sum, or this is the main point or the conclusion, Paul says, We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. No physical priest ever fulfilled anything like that. Now, they did things within the temple that pictured that eventually taking place. Jesus Christ would eventually take the place of those things, but no physical priest ever accomplished anything like this. Obviously, it wasn't meant for them, but Jesus Christ did.

A minister of the sanctuary, speaking of Jesus Christ, a High Priest, "a minister of the sanctuary." This is a word that is often translated in different ways. It means "the holy" or is used in other places to describe even the Holy of Holies, but again here, that will become clear as we go along because there are two portions, two sections of the tabernacle, and they are differentiated by how they're spoken of, one has greater purpose and meaning than the other. So here is a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle… That physical tabernacle was just that, a physical tabernacle. It wasn't what it was all about. It wasn't God's purpose and intent that it be established forever. On the contrary, it wasn't too long after the death of Jesus Christ that it was destroyed, totally destroyed, and has remained destroyed ever since and there is no Levitical system at work.

So God saw to it that it wasn't going to continue after a time. Truly, he saw to it that that system would no longer endure and that that temple wouldn't even exist, so that no one could ever try in any fashion or form to resurrect that system. That's why the Jewish people to this day cannot worship God in a physical temple. They don't have a Levitical priesthood. That's why I made comment the last time; basically, they can't even begin to obey God in the things in the Old Testament that they claim to uphold. So, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the LORD pitched, and not man. So here is a comparison, here is something that God has made, that God has done, a different kind of tabernacle, not a physical one that when you talk about the tent, especially, the tabernacle as it was made in the very beginning there, it wasn't made like the one later on and all the rock and the wood that was used, the building of the temple in Jerusalem. They had one they could transport. It was a tent in essence and all the things they did with that.

So here they had to pitch it. That's what it's talking about. When they moved from one area to another area they had to pitch that tent again to be able to do a service to God in it, in the sanctuary, or in any portion of the tabernacle, a physical tabernacle. So here it's describing Jesus Christ, "a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the LORD pitched, and not man." Again, all about Jesus Christ and what God was establishing.

So in Part 7 we ended in verse 10. So let's go back up just a few verses here and get the full context once again. We'll go back to verse 6 here.

Chapter 8:6, and then we'll continue on. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, again, speaking of Jesus Christ, in as much as he also is the mediator of a better covenant. It's different. It's a different covenant. It's not like the old covenant whatsoever. It's a different one, which was established upon better promises. Now, again, the world of traditional Christianity and Protestantism, they say, "See, it's all been changed. It's all been established on better promises. It's all about now we're under grace. We're not under the law anymore. You don't have to keep those Holy Days. You don't have to keep the seventh day Sabbath of God anymore. You don't have to do those things." Amazing how people think. Then you start talking about some of the other law and they agree, "No, those are good laws." You know, don't kill somebody. Don't murder someone. Don't steal from your neighbor. Don't steal from people, period, and whatever it might be, but they want to do away with specific laws. Amazing!

Verse 7—For if the first covenant had been faultless then no place would have been sought for the second. This in itself is really an incredible story, and it tells it all, and it shows what the Protestant world, why the world of traditional Christianity is so far off base by what Paul is explaining here, because really in so many ways it really is quite simple and quite plain. It is the plain truth.

Verse 8—But for finding fault with them… The fault wasn't in anything to do with the covenant, in that respect, it was with the people. It was with the people and the weaknesses of human beings. For finding fault with them He said, Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Indeed physically, but even more than that when people begin to understand the whole story of what God has revealed through these scriptures. I think of the word "Israel" that simply means "God prevails," something that God is going to establish for all of mankind and scriptures that talk about the Israel of God have nothing to do with the physical lineage of people, it's about a spiritual one. Just as much as there's a physical temple and there's a spiritual one there was a physical Israel and there's a spiritual one, but the spiritual one is made up of all peoples. That's why Paul himself was the apostle to the gentiles because now the gentiles had opportunity to do something that even the Israelites never were able to do. They could never do (the Israelites) what the gentiles in Paul's time were able to do, those whom God called and had a relationship, that were able to become a part of a spiritual relationship with God in a spiritual temple.

Then I think of "Judah," the word just means "praised, praised of God," something that God accomplishes, something that God rejoices in and fulfills in life. So it's not just about a physical people. It's far more than that.

Verse 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; since they did not continue in My covenant, so I did not regard them, says the LORD. They didn't continue in it. They went back and forth. Different things would happen and they would have a type of repentance as a nation and then before long they were out here doing all kinds of things again, turning from God and turning to Ba-al worship, turning to doing the very same things in Ba-al worship, worshipping on Sunday, the day of the sun, and worshipping things about the sun and turning away from the seventh day Sabbath. That was happening long before Jesus Christ came along.

So it's telling a story here that human beings cannot be saved through this, cannot be worked with by it. They can only go through a physical routine in life. And Judah, Israel, all of Israel went through a physical routine of life, in one respect, in a relationship (in part) with God, not a spiritual one, never a spiritual one except for a few whom God called at different points in time.

Verse 10. So it tells about a different covenant; For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. This is nothing to do with specifically as an example here with a nation of the physical nation of Israel today any more than it has to do with the entire world. It's really about the whole world. It will include them, but it isn't specifically about them. It isn't zeroing in on a physical people. They're the tribe of Judah as a whole anyway, not Israel.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD, I will put… Ah, look at this. Awesome! I will put My laws… It's obviously here nothing to do with the priesthood because it's already been talking about how the priesthood has been changed. It's already been talking about how there's a change in necessity of how the laws regarding the priesthood and the service in the temple were being changed. That was being changed, not God's law. On the contrary, God says, "I'm going to make a new covenant to where I can put My laws now not on stone but in your hearts, in your being, in your mind." So far from being done away with, they're something we're to live! They're something that is to fill a person's life in a relationship toward God and a relationship with others. That's what the 10 Commandments are all about. The first four are about how to have a right relationship with God Almighty and the last six are how to have a right relationship with people in the world. Those are the things that God is writing and would begin to write in a spiritual manner within the mind of individuals, within the heart of individuals, regarding how we think, how we feel, our emotions in everything regarding our choices in life and how we choose to live life. So it’s far from being done away with, far from the 10 Commandments being done away with. God Almighty is reinforcing them in a very powerful way on a spiritual plane. Awesome to understand this!

I will put My laws into their mind. Before, it wasn't. As a whole, it wasn't. It was only in the mind of a few with whom God worked. I think of King David, different ones through time, different prophets and so forth with whom God worked. …and write them in their hearts, not on a table of stone because the people weren't able to keep it. A matter of fact, no one can. No one can keep all of God's law without God's help. That's why God has to begin a process of writing it in our hearts because our hearts are selfish by nature, and all the history of Israel proved they didn't want God and they didn't want God's laws. That's what their history is. Talk about a special people, and sometimes people take that in a wrong way and become lifted up by it: "Oh, we were the special people of God. We were the chosen people." Hmmm, and all the rest have no meaning in life then, huh? You're the special people. No, you're not. All that you've proved throughout time was that you don't obey God, that the law is not written in your hearts and in your minds. That's what your witness is. That's what your testimony over the past several hundred years, hundreds of years has been.

That would have been the way it was with anyone, with any people that God had called. Human beings cannot live God's way of life without God's help. It begins with Jesus Christ. It begins with the Passover. That's the story that Paul is telling, something the world is not taught, something the world doesn't know and understand. I will put My laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God… You look at the history of Israel and so often He wasn't their God. So often over and over again He wasn't their God. They turned from Him and He let them go. They would begin to cry out, and so in times, different times, God intervened then in their lives to work with the people, having mercy upon them, and they would obey in part for a time and then they would turn away from God again and go right back to their same old ways. Over and over again, the entire story. And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. It's talking about something in the future, things that are being spoken of here by Paul, that he is referring to, are things that are only at this point in time beginning to take place in the world. That's what Paul is showing. He's showing what Jesus Christ had fulfilled, what Jesus Christ had accomplished, and a process that was now only beginning within a body of people.

"And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people." So, in reality that has never happened on earth yet except within God's own Church, a Church that began after Jesus Christ was resurrected on Pentecost, the Pentecost that followed. On that day, on Pentecost of 31 A.D. a spiritual temple was formed. A spiritual temple, in that respect, began to be built very powerfully so in a way that it had never been worked with before. Now, there are others in the Old Testament that had been worked with that are going to be a part of that temple, but never had a temple like this been established where there was a High Priest that was actually serving at that moment in time over the Church. This is the establishment of a spiritual temple we're talking about, and the physical one was being done away with. The service in the physical temple was going by the wayside because it was no longer to be fulfilled; nothing was to be fulfilled in it, but only in the spiritual one. Awesome story!

And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for all shall know Me. Now, we're not even there yet. We're not even to that point in time in this earth yet. We're getting ready to. The only reason some people are going to be motivated to listen to what I'm saying right now is because they're scared to death, because they're filled with fear, because they see things that are starting to take place. Only then will people begin to listen, to listen to God. People have to be shaken to the core of their being to understand that without God's intervention mankind is going to destroy himself. They're just that stupid, just that foolish because who is going to say, "I'll stop pushing the buttons," so that this can come to an end. Instead, there are going to be people on this earth, people of unsound minds who are going to keep unleashing power of destruction in a massive way, and God allows one-third of the earth to be destroyed before He steps in. If He stepped in before that there would be as many who would truly listen to God and truly begin to turn to God. He's going to let a witness after 6,000 years come to pass where He's going to allow mankind to come so close, so close to totally destroying himself and unless He would intervene that's exactly what would happen and that's what God says.

He allows a third of the earth to destroy itself. Horrible, what mankind will do, the kind of power we have that hasn't yet been used in a massive way. It was only used in a small way in Japan, as an example, during World War 2. God says there's one more, one more great war, and this time it's horrific. It's sad that it takes that to shake people, to scare people, to move people away from their stubborn pride and looking to themselves for answers, or looking to others who can't give them answers, and finally to come to understand we can't govern ourselves. We can't govern ourselves! It’s exactly what God says, "You can't rule yourself! 6,000 years of human years are showing that. Look what you're doing! And if I don't intervene you'll destroy yourself." So He says He's going to start to intervene and start destroying. He himself is going to start destroying those who are destroying the earth and another third or more can easily be destroyed in all that if they don't start listening to God just by what He does in the last 50 days. It’s sad the world is like that. It’s sad that mankind is like that. It’s sad that it takes that before people will start listening to something like this, because they don't want to hear the real life story of Jesus Christ. They don't want to give up Christmas. They don't want to give up Easter. They don't want to tell their children: "We're not going to put up a tree or have this Santa Claus come by," and tell the truth about the lie that is or these bunnies out here that are laying eggs all over the place and they know exactly what day to lay them on because kids can't think. They don't understand. They don't know and they trust in their parents and they trust in adults and adults teach them lies. It’s evil, evil things, because that's evil. Everyone listening to this is going to come to understand one day that's nothing but evil. It truly is. It's sick and it's perverted and it's evil because it keeps people from the truth about God. It keeps people away from having fulfilled, I mean really meaningful and fulfilled lives, that bring a kind of joy that human beings have a hard time grasping and understand is possible even.

They get used to this crap that goes on in the world, of all the lies that are going on and all the deception, and all the backstabbing, and all the hatred, and all the killing, and all the murder, and all the dope, and all the drugs, and all the stupidity and sickness of human beings, all the greed of corporations and people just so they get theirs. What a sick world! And people become numb to that. That's just the norm. "As long as I have electricity and I have air conditioning coming in, and I have a car to drive and I can go up and down the highway and I can go do my shopping and I can go to the movies, or I can do ‘this,’ or I can do ‘that,’ life is nice. Life is good." No, it isn't! It's a lie. And you're not living the fullness of life that God intended for you in the first place. It’s sad what human beings will accept. They'll accept the norm.

It has to get bad like it is in Venezuela before people will start rising up and saying, "Enough is enough! Look what you're doing! You're lying! You're cheating! You're destroying! You're killing! You're murdering! You're raping the land! You're taking it away from us! You're evil!" So people have to be backed into a corner, brought low, to the point where they see they no longer have electricity, they no longer can go out and get in their car and go anywhere they want to. They can't go out and get gas anymore because there is nothing bringing gas anymore. They're not getting gas through the pipelines for the wintertime either, speaking of that kind of gas. They don't have it anymore. They can't go down and shop at their Kroger or their Safeway or whatever it is, Winn Dixie or whatever grocery store it is that they can go to and get anything they want to off the shelves, all that good food. I say that tongue in cheek because it's not even good food anymore because of greed of people out here and keeping stuff on shelves for so long. They fill it with so many chemicals we have such sickness and cancers and everything else in this world and who rises up and says, "I've had enough! We've had enough!" People don't.

God lets us experience what it's like to have such a life and everything else that goes with it, all the sicknesses that go with it, all the evil that goes with it, all the hurt and the pain and suffering that goes with it. So we have to experience one last thing. We can't govern ourselves and your only hope is if this isn't true it's over with. If this isn't true your life is going to come to an end because it'll only will take a few more nuclear weapons and there'll be nothing left alive on the earth. A nuclear winter, that which engulfs the entire earth, it doesn't take a lot. And there's a lot more that can be unleashed, a lot more. Mankind is sick. That's why God says there's coming the day that I'll write My laws, laws that produce happiness, laws that produce joy, laws that produce peace, I’ll write them on your heart and mind. Jerusalem that means "the City of Peace," the city that God wants to give to us, the way of life that God wants to give to us, true peace, not man's kind of peace that's a big, fat lie. Only if it goes their way. Russia, they can give you peace if it's their way. United States can give peace as long as it goes our way. Great Britain can give peace if it goes their way. The common market, or the European Union, as long as it goes their way. On and on it goes. As long as it goes their way. As long as it's done their way. We can't even agree amongst ourselves. Republicans and Democrats can't even agree about the most basic of things that need to be done in this world. Amazing. Sick!

So God goes on to say, inspires Paul to say, in this case here he's quoting things anyway because it's repeating here certain things that are to be done, certain things that are to be accomplished. As he said here, verse 11 again, And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD; for all shall know Me. What a beautiful time. It's almost here. Almost here, Jesus Christ returning, coming back again after 2,000 years nearly, to establish God's Kingdom on earth for a thousand years. Who out there is teaching that as the Protestant world or the world of traditional Christianity, that Jesus Christ is going to return with a Kingdom that is going to be established to rule mankind for a thousand years?

For all shall know Me from the least to the greatest. Well, that's what it's going to be. Right now it's not that way. There are thousands of churches out here, thousands of different denominations, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of beliefs and ideas about God and about Jesus Christ and on and on it goes, and they don't agree with each other about what God is like and what, supposedly, the story of Christ's life is like. They don't even know because they won't listen until they suffer a lot. Then they'll begin listening. Sad.

For I will be merciful. Why? What is He talking about? All will know me, from the least to the greatest, For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Human beings, we're all weak. We have selfish human nature. That's the way we are. When we come to a point in life where we can begin to see that and understand that then we can begin to change. God will give us the help to change. We can't change on our own. You can't change the way you think and the way you are as a human being, to think and be in agreement with the Great God of the universe, but God says He'll help you. He'll help by beginning to write His ways, His mind, His life, His laws in your heart and in your mind, to become you, a part of you that your life and your thinking will begin to be in unity and oneness with God Almighty. What an incredible thing!

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, because we all have sin. Every human being has sin. Now, once we begin to learn God's way and we begin to embrace it and God begins to work with us, then our lives begin to change and there is less and less sin, especially on a physical plane, and we begin to be refined on a spiritual plane in how we actually think so that even our thinking comes under control more and more. We can't do that perfectly, but we can begin to grow in it and people begin to learn how to treat each other out of true respect, out of true respect, out of true care and concern for their fellow man because they're thinking differently. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That time hasn't engulfed the earth yet. It's only been a part of the Church, and a few through time, up to the time of Christ, from that first 4,000 years, those whom God called and worked with and began to work with on a spiritual plane, a few in comparison to the Church that began in 31 A.D.

I often think about that. I think, why can't people grasp, even on a physical plane, what it is they think they believe and where it came from? Why is it that people aren't teaching out here where their beliefs came from, where the trinity, the idea of the trinity came from? Because, you see, if you go back into writings and anything written before 325 A.D. as a whole, it's not out there. It's not out there anywhere because there was a different Church. Incredible! Then all of a sudden there are two churches, another church organization that began to believe in certain things about a different kind of worship toward God and using the name of Christ and of God and telling their little stories and so forth that had nothing to do with the early Church. I think of this Church, the only Church that has existed since 31 A.D. It’s awesome to understand that! God's Church. It's not Martin Luther's Church. It's not the Catholic Church. It's not Seventh Day Adventists Church. It's supposed to be by God's name. The Church carries His name, God's Church, the Church of God. People don't even think because they don't want to.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. He will not remember because their sins will be able to be forgiven. It’s awesome to understand. That never happened in the old covenant. That never happened with the old covenant. As a result of obedience to the old covenant and the Levitical priesthood and going and offering up sacrifices at the altar you could never have your sins forgiven in a relationship with God. You could be made right with the nation of Israel or the nation of Judah and be able to continue in a physical type of relationship with God, but not a spiritual one. They never had a spiritual relationship with God! All the Israelites that came out of Egypt? They didn't have a spiritual relationship with God. They only had a physical one. The best of it was that which was reflected by the physical temple and having a priesthood and the things they went through by ritual. It never, never, never, never, never, never took away sin. Incredible to understand!

Verse 13— In that He said, A new covenant, He has made the first old, because it never, never took away sin. All that they went through in the Levitical system and being at the tabernacle and all the things they offered up on the altar never took away sins. Never did. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away. He was at a time and speaking at a time when it was vanishing away. Some of this was written close to the time that the temple itself was actually destroyed, 70 A.D. Awesome!

Hebrews 9:1. So the flow continues on because mankind put the chapters in there, and so forth. He went on to say, Then indeed, the first covenant even had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. So it's not focusing on a change of the 10 Commandments, it's focusing on something about a priesthood and a worship in a physical temple. It said "it had ordinances of divine service," performed by the Levites and so forth, "and a worldly sanctuary," a physical worldly sanctuary, not a spiritual one! For there was a tabernacle made, wherein the first section had the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. So here is this area called the sanctuary. As you go into this tabernacle there is this first area. It occupied two-thirds of the overall tabernacle. So this is a section being spoken of first and this is where the Levites went in everyday, morning and evening, to do a work. It says, which is called the sanctuary, or the Holy, the Holy Place, and after, or as the word means, behind the second veil, the tabernacle, in other words, or "section of the tabernacle," which is called the Holiest of All, or the Holiest of Holies, if you will. It has different ways it can be translated, or the Holiest of the Holy Places. It's talking about that last third of the tabernacle that was behind the veil. The same veil that ripped from top to bottom as Jesus Christ was dying because that system was being done away with and he was going to begin a new one, and being the part of a building of a new tabernacle, a new temple of God, not a physical one that people went to and offered up bulls and so forth. That's what it's discussing here.

And so it says, this place, the Holiest of all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid roundabout with gold, wherein the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant… the 10 Commandments. So it says here is this place called "the Holiest of the Holies" in the last third of the tabernacle, and it's referring to this particular area here and has a special focus on this because it has special meaning to it on a physical plane for that which is on a spiritual plane. It's a "type" of something pictured in a spiritual plane. It's going through and explaining some of this.

So it says here is that tabernacle, and over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat. Of which we cannot now speak of in detail. So even then there were things that Paul was letting them know that aren't fully understood yet, things that are frankly being talked about even in more detail today, of things that they didn't understand and grasp about the mercy seat of God. Awesome here. You know, we go before a spiritual mercy seat, if you will, and it's not a seat but in human beings minds they had something physical here to help them grasp things that are on a spiritual plane. When He begins to give His holy spirit we begin to grasp and see things that are spiritual, just like a spiritual temple. Well, if we grasp and understand things about the physical temple we'll better see and understand His purpose in a spiritual one and how it's constructed and what God is doing. And so it is about so many things. The physical lamb and then the spiritual one, Jesus Christ, and on and on it goes. And so here is a place, and one of the things it pictures about God's throne, the seat of mercy.

When you go before God Almighty the thing He wants human beings to grasp ever so mightily is that He is a God of great mercy. That's one of the things I really enjoyed about this last book and focusing on some of those things and being able to talk about some of those things, about the God of mercy and the mercy that He's already shown this world, that they didn't already have to go through judgment that they were worthy of receiving where two-thirds of this earth most assuredly would have been destroyed, and much more, but now has opportunity for more to listen to God and change. But that's in the hands of human beings, which hasn't fared well over the last 6,000 years, choices people have made.

Verse 6—Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, in the first part of the tabernacle, that two-thirds section, accomplishing the service of God. That was morning and evening. But into the second, that second section behind the veil, that last third of the tabernacle, the high priest went alone once every year. That's amazing to understand. The Levites couldn't go in there day after day to do a service. They weren't allowed. No one was allowed in there. No one. As far as a service is concerned, only the high priest could enter in that area and he did it on one Holy Day of the year and no other time did any human being step inside there unless it was a matter of the thing being taken apart and transported somewhere else. But as far as a service and a relationship as far as a worship that might be represented and shown toward God, of something to be accomplished, it was only the high priest. Awesome because it portrays and pictures Jesus Christ and what he is doing and what he has fulfilled, of something that was done on a physical plane year by year by year.

And so the story goes on, But into the second the high priest went alone once every year, and not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. This next section is one of the most beautiful things given to human beings to grasp and understand, the holy spirit thus signifying that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. He is revealing something here, and Paul is talking about something here that the high priest did every year, but now we have a High Priest who is in heaven itself on the right hand of God, the mercy seat of God, and that which the High Priest pictured in part, in "type," is being fulfilled through Jesus Christ. What an incredible story of that which is accomplished and done through him.

Again here, beforehand people didn't have access to God Almighty. Israelites didn't have access to God Almighty. They didn't have a personal relationship with God as a nation of people. Only a few through time did, very specific individuals with whom God worked, but the nation never did. The nation never had the ability to be heard by the Great God of the universe on a personal level, on a personal plane in any fashion or form. God makes it very clear why. It's because of sin. It's because of their sins, because they weren't called by Him. They weren't called into a spiritual relationship. They only had a physical one and had a service within a physical temple that pictured something that would be accomplished and fulfilled later on.

And so, the holy spirit was signifying through all of this that the way into the Holiest of Holies hadn't yet been made manifest while as yet the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was, if you will, a figure (a "type") for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him who did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience. It did not forgive, give, or offer in any fashion or form the forgiveness of sins. It wasn't made available to the nation of people. …which stood only in meats and drinks, and different (various) washings, in other words, ceremonies, and carnal (physically performed) ordinances, rituals day by day, imposed on them until the time of reformation, which in the Greek the word means, "to correct, to rectify, to make right," because as of yet things hadn't been made right. They couldn't even go into the Holiest of Holies. Only the high priest could go there once a year. So people didn't have access, in that respect, to God Almighty and the ability to go in in His presence at any time they chose.

Acts 3. I want to read that because it speaks of a period of time of a time to come, and even here, as it talks about "imposed on them until the time of reformation," a time to rectify, to make right, and here was a time that it began to be rectified and made right. It's not something that happened overnight, it's something that Jesus Christ began to accomplish and fulfill as our Passover, as a result of dying for all mankind and then establishing the Church on Pentecost of 31 A.D., where the way into the Holiest of Holies was now made manifest to mankind because now mankind can be, as a body of people, as a large body of people in a Church, a spiritual temple can be forgiven of sin and have a relationship with God and go before the mercy seat of God any time and anywhere in their lives that they choose, and God will hear. Because of what Jesus Christ did, we have the ability to go before God and ask God for forgiveness, and because of a High Priest and all that he did as our Passover we’re able to be forgiven of sin so that we can continue in a relationship with God Almighty. It's a beautiful story, one the world isn't taught. Sad. Sad.

Acts 3. We're going to come back here to Hebrews. I'll just read this quickly for you. Here in Acts 3:19. This is when people were asking there, "What do we do?" They saw these miracles of things that were happening on the day of Pentecost and some of the things that were taking place and things that Peter was saying, and now he tells them, Repent, therefore… Repent, repent of your sins, and be converted, be changed! I love that word "repent." It means "to think differently." The only way human beings can is with God's help, is by God's spirit as He truly begins to write, as it were, on a spiritual plane a mind that is different, a mind that thinks different. So that word, repent, is to think different. He says, Repent, think different, and be converted, be changed. Don't remain the same as you are, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing, so that began on Pentecost for a large body of people. Before that there were only individuals worked with from time to time by God over 4,000 years. Now a body of people can be worked with and now we're approaching a period of time where all the world is going to have the ability to know, indeed, and they will know when they see God's Kingdom established on this earth. When Jesus Christ comes back in the kind of power and the glory and the way that he does so and those who are with him, 144,000 who have lived at different times throughout the past 6,000 years—Incredible!—that are then going to be resurrected on a spiritual plane to come back with him, to establish a government on this earth.

No longer do we have to vote in, in one nation or another, who is going to be in office (who can't solve our problems anyway), and people don't agree and they have different parties and they fight because they don't know what is right and wrong. They think they know what is right and wrong and what is best for everyone else; it's if you think the way I think then that's the right way and get on board, you know! But they don't agree and then there are just tyrants in the world who just take control. They just take control. Thankfully a new government will be on the earth. There will be no human government like that anymore where people can go out and govern as they want. I so long for that and we're so close to it, to take care of the problems on this earth, to have right answers and right ways of taking care of mankind for the sake of mankind, to live in peace.

Can you imagine 1,000 years not one single war? There will never be a war again after this third world war. Awesome! No more young people having to go off and be (supposedly) glorified and going off to fight in war. There's no glory in that at all, going off to fight and die. It’s sad, praying to the same God sometimes. In World War 2, people killing each other praying to the same god. In that case Catholics fighting and killing Catholics, and other Protestants in the world as well. I'm just giving an example there of what happened in Germany. There were a lot of Protestants there, frankly, Protestants killing Protestants, if you will. That's what was taking place. All praying to the same god. What a sick, sick, perverted world! We're going to have the opportunity to live in a different one. God will never allow mankind to war again. If they try it'll be ended quickly… quickly! There will be no political correctness involved; it'll be exactly what it's meant to be, and it'll be very plain. Awesome!

Repent, therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the LORD; and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive—notice—until the times of the restoration of all things. Jesus Christ has been in heaven nearly 2,000 years now doing a job, fulfilling a role. Again, something that people have no idea of. If they really understood this part of the story they wouldn't believe that when people die they go off to heaven because nobody has ever gone to heaven. No human being has ever gone to heaven except Jesus Christ—the only human being who has ever gone there.

I get worked up when I think about some of these things and I think what a sick, hideous, filthy lie that is! That when people die somehow they think they have an immortal soul. So if you have an immortal soul why do you need God, because you're going to live on for eternity? God is the one who gives life and human beings don't have an immortal soul. When they die they go right back to the dust they were, if they have enough time to decay, or to go into a furnace and just be burned up and made dust quickly. That's what I prefer. Just get it over with and be dust quickly. Go back to the elements of what I was made from as a human being, you know. Not that I know anything anyway, it's just what I prefer to the body, for anybody's body. Get it over with. Get it done. Go back to the dust quickly. Yet human beings think, "No, that doesn't happen. Yeah, the body is buried and there's nobody in it because they're up there or they're down there." I wish I could remember what I saw on the back of a vehicle the other day, something along the lines, "If you die tomorrow will you be in heaven or will you be in hell?" That's a contemplation. Hmmm. I don't have to worry about that because I already know. I'll just be in the grave until God resurrects me. It doesn't matter the length of time people are in a grave. Only God can resurrect people from the dead, but a Protestant world, a Catholic Church, they have taught that man, "No, he has an immortal soul," and when he dies he goes up or he goes down. Yet scriptures make it plain over and over again, no, you don't. When you're dead you're just dead all over. It's amazing what human beings have done. Sad. It’s taken away from the truth of all the story of Jesus Christ and why he fulfilled what he did.

…whom heaven must receive, speaking of Jesus Christ, until the times of the restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. But who has listened? And those who claim, those who claim to hold a fondness and an esteem for the Old Testament, or the old covenant, or the books of the law, if you will, the Torah, whatever you want to call the different things that are in the writings there and the different things that are written throughout time by the prophets, and what do they do? They don't do this. They don't do what God told them. They don't believe these things that God gave. Incredible!

Let's go back to Hebrews 9. They don't believe what the prophets wrote, as it says here, since time began, in essence, the story over and over and over again that they wrote about. The primary thing that they wrote about was a Messiah, an Anointed One that God would give to His people, and in time, as Paul is quoting some Old Testament scriptures, in time God himself would begin to write His ways, His laws in their hearts and in the minds because Israel never had that.

So going back here to Hebrews 9:9; again, speaking of the temple and so forth and the things that were being done there by the priests and by the Levites and the ceremonies which took place. It goes on to say, which was a figure (a "type") for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him who did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and different (various) washings, and carnal (physically performed) ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ having become a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle… Awesome! So, yes, there was a change made. It was no longer a requirement of anything ever to be done ever again in a physical tabernacle. No service was ever to be done again that God would work with in any fashion or form because now something was being established on a spiritual plane. The physical one was being done away because it never did anything that was profitable to the removing of sin in people's lives at all. It was just a reminder year by year that they had sin, but it didn't take them away. Only the Passover can do that.

But Christ having become a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, not made by human beings, whether it was the one that was pitched in the wilderness or the one that was cut out by stone and assembled and all the wood that was in there and so forth as they built a temple, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered into the Holy Place. Here the word literally is referring to the Holiest of All or the Holiest of Holies. In other words, that last third that was pictured, in that last third of the tabernacle behind the curtain in God's very presence, the throne of God, the government of God, on the right hand of God Almighty. That's what it's talking about. "By his own blood," because of what he did having lived a perfect life, in that respect, no sin ever. …by his own blood he entered into the Holy Place (the Holiest of Holies), having obtained eternal redemption for us. See, it's a perverted and sick thing to think that other human beings are up there too, because they're not, and it takes away from the deep meaning that's contained in the fact that he is the only one who ever went to heaven and is at the right hand of God Almighty and in heaven by God's throne serving God!

No other human being has gone to heaven. No other human being has ever been in the Holiest of Holies, in that respect, in absolute fulfillment of something like this that has been done. We have access to the Holiest of Holies through prayer, as it talked about, "Isn't My house called a house of prayer?" And people who are part of that tabernacle are able to pray, to go before God Almighty in the Holiest of Holies, in His throne, in heaven itself, in other words, and have a relationship with Him, be heard by Him at any time. The greatest thing a human being can ever do, in that respect, is to say, "Father, forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my sins," over and over and over again, as often as you see sin, and to know that because of our Passover and because of a relationship you've entered into with God you're forgiven. You're forgiven, and then you can go on and pray about other things and know that God is hearing you. Awesome to know that, to have that kind of confidence and boldness in life.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, could sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, in other words, it's just a physical thing as far as a physical nation was concerned, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, meaning without sin, purge your conscience from dead works, in other words, through the forgiveness of sins, to serve the living God? In other words, to be able to have a relationship with God Almighty all made possible by the blood of Jesus Christ, through our High Priest who is now in heaven serving for us, serving for his people.

And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they who are called (have to be called by God to have a relationship with God), might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a covenant is in force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. So again here, it's going through and talking about an incredible thing that God established through the death of Jesus Christ and a new covenant whereby human beings can live, and new promises, different promises that the old never could give.

Verse 18—Therefore, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined, in other words the word means "commanded or charged," unto you. Moreover he both sprinkled with blood the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things purified (cleansed) with blood; and without the shedding of blood there is no remission. So again, those things that they did on a physical plane pictured something that was to be accomplished on a spiritual one – to be able to be cleansed through Jesus Christ. Incredible.

It was, therefore, necessary that the pattern, the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with much better sacrifices than these. So even then, the pattern of things and the things they went through, they had to go through certain rituals and it had to be done the way God said to do it. There was power and there were commands of how that was to be accomplished, to come before your God, to serve in the tabernacle day in and day out as they did, or in the Holiest of Holies, it was to be done exactly the way God said to do it. It had great purpose and great meaning and God upheld that on a physical plane for what was to be accomplished.

But it goes on to say, For Christ has not entered into the Holy Place (Holiest of All) made with hands, which are the figures of the true; in other words, they're a "type" of what is true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, our High Priest. Beautiful! Not yet that he should have to offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the Holy Place, in the Holiest of All, in other words, the Holiest of Holies, every year with the blood of others, in other words, on the Day of Atonement. That's what it's talking about. It's talking about the high priest who went in there once every year, year in and year out for hundreds of years in the service within the tabernacle. As long as that service was being conducted by the Levites faithfully, it pictured something so great.

Verse 26—he then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end of the ages… I like the way it talks about some of this. It talks about "the end of the ages." 6,000 years, and after 4,000 years went by there were 2,000 more to go of something to be accomplished and fulfilled, but it's still toward the end of the ages if you want to look at the time given for mankind and something to be fulfilled then during the time that he was going to be in the tabernacle.

Matter of fact, I'm going to take the time just to go back there. Let's go back to Leviticus 16. I think it would be good to read a little bit of this because this is the portion that is so often read during the Day of Atonement, a High Day, the annual Holy Day in the fall season when it comes, and it has specific meaning because it is what's being referred to by Paul here when the high priest would go into the Holiest of Holies and perform a service. He only did it once a year and so this is that portion of it. I'm going to read a few verses here because it's all about Jesus Christ, what he would fulfill later in his life. So here is something the high priest did every year, because they pictured on a physical plane what Jesus Christ would fulfill on a spiritual one.

And so in Leviticus 16:1—Now the Eternal spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered, as it says here, profane fire before the Eternal, and died. God struck them dead because they didn't do things. See, we read in scripture here just a moment ago about what Paul said how important it was that certain things were done and how important these things were that were physical, but yet represented things spiritual, that they had to be done in a specific manner. They were commanded and charged in this service that it was to be done this way and in no other. There are other examples in scripture of when they didn't do things the way they should, like carrying the ark. When they didn't carry it the way they were supposed to and one died because he put his hand up to hold it because he thought he was doing something good. God struck him dead because it wasn't being done the way God said.

So God said you do things and you're going to perform certain things that are going to be done that picture something spiritual, and it better be done the right way. So even as a physical people they were held to these things and they were to do it that way. So these two individuals they were doing things in a manner within service in the temple that they weren't supposed to be doing, and so Aaron's own sons, as it says here, were struck dead.

And then it goes on to say, And the Eternal said unto Moses, Tell Aaron your brother, not to come at just any time into the Holy Place, inside the veil, in other words, that last third of the section of the whole temple. You're not supposed to come. "Tell, Moses, tell Aaron he is not to come in there just any old time."

There is only one time in the year and that's spoken of back here a little bit later in verse 29 when it says, This is a statute forever. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month you shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether you're a native to your own country or a stranger that dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make an atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be cleaned from all your sins before the Eternal. So they went through a process here of showing something done on a physical plane – not spiritual, sins were not forgiven, but it's revealing and showing something here to be done on the Day of Atonement that was to be done later on through Jesus Christ.

So this was that day, "in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month." It's talking about the Holy Day of Atonement, the annual Holy Day. This is what God was telling Moses to tell Aaron. And He said, Don't just come any time within the veil, before the mercy seat, which is on the ark; lest he die. For I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. So at that time there was that which was going to be there manifested on a physical plane in a mist and whatever God did there, as other scriptures talk about.

But let's notice here, dropping on down in verse 7—He shall take the two goats, and present them before the Eternal at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting. And then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats; one lot for the Eternal, and the other for the scapegoat. I hate that word in the English, because it's the word "azazel." Satan would like people to look at him as being like a scapegoat. He's not. He is guilty for what he's done and fighting against God and trying to turn human beings and Israel and all others against God through all time. So it's talking here about two goats that were to be offered up. Awesome significance in these. One was to represent Jesus Christ and one was to represent Satan. Awesome! He's saying here, "You have to cast lots because you don't know which is which."

The reality is in the world today people don't know which is which. They don't know the real life story of Jesus Christ. They're ignorant of it. They don't learn it from the Protestant world. They've been lied to by the Catholic Church for hundreds of years. There is no such thing as a trinity. There is no such thing as Christmas. There is no such thing as Easter. There is no such thing as Sunday worship that God has sanctified in any fashion or form. On the contrary, that's disobeying God. He said for all time mankind, as long as mankind is alive, he is to honor God and keep the seventh day Sabbath, which is on a "Saturday," in this country. Other countries, they have other words for it referring to the seventh day, but again, it’s not the first day of the week, not the day of the sun, not Sunday! That's just disobedience to God. People can't have a right relationship with God if they want to disobey. If they want to kill, murder, do whatever things, adultery, they can't have a relationship with God. You can't have that in God's Church! No human being can.

Then Aaron cast lots for the two goats, one for the LORD, and one for the azazel. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Eternal's lot fell, and offer it for a sin offering. Awesome! God's offering to mankind, the Passover. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the azazel, shall be presented alive before the Eternal, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as an azazel into the wilderness. I think of that which is going to happen in the final 1,100 years here, that Satan is going to be separated from mankind for 1,100 years, and then judgment.

And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, so he's the high priest, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. Beautiful, because it's talking about the work of Jesus Christ and how he is sanctifying, if you will, purifying, cleansing his own house. And who is a part of his house? Well, it's the same thing as a tabernacle or a temple, a spiritual one, the Church of God, God's Church. It's what it talks about throughout scripture, but who's taught these things? …and shall kill the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Eternal, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it within the veil. Beautiful. Beautiful. It’s beautiful because incense is symbolic of prayer, and going back to that scripture and what it says, "Is not My house to be called a house of prayer?" And yet in a physical temple people weren't able to go into the Holiest of Holies before God and have a relationship with God Almighty, but in a spiritual temple they're able to. They're able to have a relationship with God. They're able, "as the holy spirit has now signified and made clear that the way into the Holiest of Holies has been revealed." It's through Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ we have access to God Almighty, to the power of His holy spirit, to His life living within us as human beings. Awesome to understand those things. And now, it’s about to be offered to all mankind, to all mankind around the world! Awesome! Beautiful!

Then verse 16—so he shall make an atonement for the Holy Place. It's about having a relationship with God Almighty, making an atonement so that mankind can have a relationship with God Almighty in heaven, who is in the Holiest of Holies. …because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions for all their sins: and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting, which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out… That, too, is beautiful, if people understood it. No one can enter. No one can actually be a part of it yet on a spiritual plane until a specific moment in time. It's at the return of Jesus Christ when a great resurrection takes place. Then all those who have been purified and cleansed and made ready to be in the Family of God will be resurrected and return with Jesus Christ. God is specific. He says 144,000. Beautiful picture!

So no one's been in heaven. That's why I love the verses when Peter talked about David and he said, because they thought, of all things, David, for those who believed in heaven at that time (even the Jews) that David, of all people, should surely be in heaven. Peter made it very clear he's dead and in the sepulchre to this day. He's not up there. This is about Jesus Christ. That's what he was telling them. He is the one spoken of who is in heaven. No man has ascended into heaven—Incredible!—as Christ himself said in John 3.

So there shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make an atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. Beautiful verses here in what it's talking about.

So there is so much more meaning to the Day of Atonement, and that which is pictured back in the Old Testament, that which is written so long ago, the book of Leviticus, those things that went on for hundreds of years and people working within the tabernacles and high priest living and dying and another high priest coming along. They never understood what it was all about. They never grasped those things on a spiritual plane. Then Jesus finally began, when he came, to reveal the meaning of many of those things. And then the apostles afterward so much more.

So anyway, continuing on here with some of these verses. I'm going to back up here all the way to verse 23 and start again here because all these things have so much meaning. [Hebrews 9:23]— It was, therefore, necessary that the patterns of things in heaven should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered into the Holy Place, in the Holiest of Holies, made with hands, which are figures ("types") of the true; but into heaven itself. He's the only human being who has ever gone there. Beautiful! …now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Then dropping down. We're just drop on down here again. I'll read verse 26 again, he would have had to suffer since the world and the foundation began, as it says here, but now once at the end of the ages he has appeared, in other words, as Passover, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So we can be forgiven of sin. And as it is appointed unto men to die once… This is awesome what's being said here. "It's appointed unto men to die once." As a whole all human beings since the time of Adam and Eve, everyone who has lived over 6,000 years, for all of them, in essence, it was appointed that all of them had to die. All that even were going to be a part of the 144,000 have died. There are only going to be a few who area alive when Jesus Christ returns. I don't know how many. 2? 3? 4? 5? We don't know how many. God hasn't revealed that number, but there are going to be some actually alive and just changed "in the moment, at the twinkling of the eye, at the sound of the last Trumpet." It’s awesome to understand some of these things, to know what is true. So, as it says here, "and as it is appointed unto men to die once," everybody has to die once, but people don't understand there's a second death. We've been talking about that in this series, a second death, that people, the vast majority of mankind, as I was saying, is intended to live in a physical body twice. It’s awesome to understand that, to live in a physical world twice! Human beings don't understand that, but in a different world, one that's ruled by God, beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. One where there's only one Church, one government, not the massive confusion, fighting, and bickering, and hatred, and evil that exists today.

And as it is appointed unto men to die once, but after this the judgment. Now, that's one thing I loved about what it said about Martha. Jesus Christ had spent time with Martha and Mary and Lazarus and was very close to them and had shared much with them about life and so forth and God's plan and Martha, when she was asked about living again, about Lazarus, she understood, she believed he was going to live again "in the judgment," in the hundred years at the end of the Millennium, at the end of 7,000 years of mankind. She understood about the judgment and what Jesus Christ was teaching. And there'd be a period of time when he would live a second time, but he was resurrected then to continue on with life. But again here, "it's appointed unto people once to die, but after this a judgment." In other words, a second life. That's what it's talking about. Beautiful!

…so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; in other words, he came once to be Passover; and unto them who look for him, not that they know it, not that they understand it because they don't. Those who have died over the past 6,000 years they don't know what's coming. They believed in different things. They believed in all kinds of things. If they were in Egypt they believed in all kinds of gods and if they lived in other parts of the world they had all kinds of ideas just like today. So this is talking about something that's going to be fulfilled in the future. …and unto them who look for him, he shall he appear the second time. It isn't just talking about here, and it's not zeroing in on his second coming. It's far more than that. It means much more than that. So indeed he's going to come as King of kings, but what about all the billions who have ever lived and died who are going to be resurrected a second time in the judgment because this is what it's focusing upon. He is their Passover as he is everyone's Passover, but talking about them having life again.

So again here, it's focusing on those who will have life again, "unto them who look for him." They don't know it. They don't understand it, but at that time they're going to be able to look on him in the right way – as their Passover! This is what Paul is talking about. Finally! …without sin unto salvation. They're going to have time now to be forgiven of sin and to work through a process of salvation during that second life because in their first they were never offered that.

So again, incredible meaning here in the things that Paul is talking about.

Chapter 10, he goes on to say, For the law, it's talking about the sacrificial law, the law of the temple and so forth, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of those things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. It never did. It never did forgive sin. The law was not being written in their hearts and in their minds. For then they would not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged, in other words, purified or cleansed, should have had no more conscience of sin. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins made every year. They went through the motions and it was to remind them, yes, they have sin, a lot of sin. They were to strive to obey God, but never forgiven of sin, never to have a spiritual relationship with God.

Verse 4—For it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Therefore when he came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering You did not desire. That's not what it was all about. It says God isn't pleased with those things. It pictured something for the future. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for me. This is that which Jesus Christ is saying to God. So it's that which is prophetic that he fulfilled in his life. So he's saying here, "This isn't what You desire, God, but You prepared for me a body." It's the Body of Christ, the Church of God, a spiritual temple. It's talking about something that is far greater, an old temple, a tabernacle being done away with and a new one being established.

…in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I come (for in the volume of the book it is written of Me), Jesus Christ, that's what it's talking about, to do Your will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin You would not, neither had pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; in other words, again, those things in the Old Testament and things that were done there. Then said he, Behold, I come to do Your will, O God. So that was Christ. He desired to do God's will and those who are able to become a part of that tabernacle, that temple, are able to do the same, to learn to do God's will.

He took away the first, that he might establish the second. The first what? The first tabernacle. The first temple so that he could establish a second one, a new one, a spiritual one. By the which will we are sanctified, in other words, set apart for holy use and purpose. That's what it's talking about, those who are able to become a part of that temple. …through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

So as him fulfilling the role of Passover we are able to be forgiven of sin and have a relationship with God Almighty. This is what it's talking about. It's talking about how we can be a part of a spiritual temple.

Verse 11—And every high priest stands ministering daily and frequently offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man (Jesus Christ) after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; from that time forward waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified, those who are able to be purified and cleansed to be a part of that temple.

Verse 15—The holy spirit also witnessing to us: for after he said before, This is the covenant I will make with them in those days, said the LORD, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and, or "also," as the word means, or "then adds this," this is what  is added to it in the Old Testament, their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. That's in Jeremiah 31:34. So it talks about this process of the law being written in our hearts and minds. How? Because of a relationship we're able to have with God because God forgives us of our sins. He says, "Their sins and iniquities I'll remember no more," because we're able to be forgiven of those things through Jesus Christ, who is our Passover. …now where remission, or "release," or "forgiveness" of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Verse 19—Having, therefore, brethren, boldness. So it's speaking to the Church. Paul was speaking to the Church, those who are blessed to be a part of a temple, a new tabernacle, if you will, a spiritual one. And this word "boldness" really is a word that means freedom or a liberty that we have through our Passover. So it says, Therefore, brethren, boldness, or freedom, liberty – and indeed a confidence that goes with that – a liberty and a freedom to enter into the Holiest, the Holiest of Holies, that portion, the last third of that tabernacle pictured and represented, the throne room of God, to have a relationship with God Almighty given to the Church. Beautiful verses there.

…by the blood of Jesus, by/through a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. So that veil that was ripped from top to bottom at his death picturing these things, and that now the way into the Holiest of Holies has been fulfilled. Jesus Christ died as our Passover and now the way to God's presence, God's throne, was made available to human beings for the first time as a body of people, as a tabernacle. What a beautiful picture that Paul has given here! …and having a High Priest over the house of God, the tabernacle, the temple, the house, the Family, if you will, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. This is what faith is about, faith and belief in these things about Jesus Christ, in the real life story of Jesus Christ and what he did. ...let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water, not the physical routines they went through in the temple, and so forth. This is a spiritual one. I tell you, it's a beautiful story. It's an awesome picture that God has given to us through this, that if we're not careful sometimes we hear year by year and we begin to take it for granted. Yet there are millions and millions and millions and hundreds of millions and billions who have never heard this story. I so look forward to the time that God can begin to pour out His spirit on this earth, as people begin to listen, for those who choose to listen. Awesome!

Well, the real life story of Jesus Christ continues within the flow of what we have been covering and scriptures that go on and tell that story, but this specific series is going to end here with this title, but we're going to continue on with the story. It's just that after so many of these (this was Part 8) it gets rather long, and so for several different reasons we're going to go on with this particular series, in essence, as far as content is concerned. So those who are listening to this can know that it's continuing on in a new series, but this particular series, I should say, has become so long that it makes it a little more difficult. We can begin to use this in other ways as well for what's going to follow this.

And so we're just going to break it up into two different sections here. The real life story of Christ, in essence, is going to be broken up.

So this next series that will start this next time is called The Real Truth about Christ's Death. Again, we're going to begin focusing on that and there'll be several parts to that, but we're going to go in more fully into things that are so misunderstood in the Protestant world out here about his death and how he died and how long he was in the tomb and all these things that have so much meaning to it we're going to cover in this new series that's entitled, again, The Real Truth about Christ's Death.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1