Let Us Go On To Perfection

Let Us Go on unto Perfection

“Our heavenly Father, we now thank thee that we have boldness according to the very words that we’re studying, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way. Lord, our heart’s desire this afternoon is to enter in. Take away every thing that would hinder, every thing that would distract, all fear, all prejudice, all doubts, unbelief, all stubbornness and rebellion and pride. Cleanse our hearts afresh just now, Lord, in the precious blood of Jesus. Quicken and illuminate our hearts and minds. May we receive with meekness this engrafted word of God which is able to save our souls. Lord, for everything that’s accomplished this afternoon and in this series of studies we will be careful to give to thee and to thee alone the praise, honor and the glory which are due unto thy name through Jesus Christ. Amen.”

God bless you, you may be seated.

The theme of our study today and in the next few days is indicated by the title on your outline, “The Way into the Holiest.” We’ll take as our opening scripture Hebrews 6:1–2 which I will now read to you.

“Therefore leaving the principles [or the elements] of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”

There are two aspects to the teaching of those verses. The first is the need to lay a sound, complete foundation of doctrine. Notice that what the writer is speaking about there is the doctrinal foundation. I’m sure that we all agree, insofar as a person is concerned, there is no other foundation than that which is Jesus Christ already laid. But here we’re talking about foundation doctrine and the scripture says “the foundation.” It leaves no room for speculation; it simply states this is the foundation and it specifies six doctrines. Repentance from dead works, faith toward God, doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, the eternal judgment.

In the year l963 when I first came to the United States, God made it clear to me that there was going to be a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and that multitudes of people from old line denominations who had no Pentecostal background at all were going to be swept into this outpouring. I certainly believe that in the subsequent years from l963 until now that has been and is being dramatically fulfilled. God made it clear to me at that time that many—and I would venture to say most of the people that would come in from these backgrounds would have no real thorough knowledge of basic Christian doctrine, and in many cases, would have no place to go for it. Because, in many cases, the minister of their congregation would not be in sympathy with what God is doing and in any case, even if he was in sympathy, in most cases he would not be equipped to give them this foundation. The Lord laid on my heart to open a radio broadcast and to preach for a year once a week on the foundation. So I prepared 52 messages, one for every week in the year, which I wrote out longhand and then read them onto the tape.

When I look back at the labor involved in that I can only marvel that I succeeded in doing it. I had no fixed place of residence, I was traveling to and fro, living in a suitcase in a motel and many other such places. How I ever achieved that writing out those messages longhand and then reading them onto the tape and getting the tape mailed to the broadcasting station in time is something that I don’t believe I could ever do again.

Out of those tapes eventually was brought forth my Foundation Seriesof books which deal precisely with these six doctrines. I’m glad that they’re available and though I’m the author of them I’ll recommend them to you! They contain precisely what the writer speaks of here, “the foundation of doctrine.” Experience has shown me that people that will thoroughly and systematically go through those books will emerge with a solid foundation. I have letters from pastors of churches and from many, many individual believers who’ve proved that in their experience.

I say this not to promote my writing but to declare the faithfulness of God. God declared there is a foundation and this is it.

In the last year or six months, God has begun to prompt me with the thought “You dealt with the foundation, what about the second part of what the writer of Hebrews says: going on unto perfection.” This is what we’re going to deal with. This is the first time I’ve ever dealt with this as thoroughly and systematically in this way. It has to come to occupy much of my spiritual life. Almost anything I start to preach about, I end up by preaching from Hebrews. It doesn’t matter where I start, I end in Hebrews because I’m living in Hebrews myself spiritually. It’s a wonderful place to live.

I’m deeply indebted to one book that I read and I’ll give you the name of it. It’s an expensive book and if you don’t want to take time and read it carefully, don’t waste your money buying it. It’s called The Holiest of All. It’s by Andrew Murray and it’s published by Fleming Revell and it sells for $7.95. I’ll say that again. The Holiest of Allby Andrew Murray, published by Fleming Revell. I don’t read expository books more than about once every three years and I never read them unless I feel God has put them in my hand. But this book God placed in my hand exactly at the time that I knew he wanted me to go into the study of this epistle to the Hebrews.

Andrew Murray was a pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, had the baptism in the Holy Spirit, was dedicated to the truth of God’s word, was far ahead of his generation in many aspects of truth. And this is not theology, it is verse by verse exposition of the epistle to the Hebrews. Every verse in Hebrews is expounded in the book. I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to that book for getting me started.

What we are going to seek to do is go on unto perfection. Unfortunately, the word perfection has a very unattractive sound for most Christians because they’ve come up against some doctrine of sinless perfection or an impossible standard. The people who claim to have achieved it in most cases demonstrated by their lives that they haven’t. The result of this hypocrisy or double standard was that people have been turned away from this pursuit of perfection.

I’d like to give you—and you’ll find them in your outline—three alternative translations of that word which I believe make it much more sensible. Maturity, fulfillment or completion. The Greek word that’s translated perfection comes from the Greek noun meaning “end.” And therefore, it suggests an objective, something to which we are moving as our goal or our objective. I think all of you would agree it’s desirable to have a spiritual objective. It’s desirable to know the goal to which you are moving. This goal is maturity. It’s fulfillment. I’m sure the word fulfillment doesn’t sound unattractive. Everybody wants fulfillment. Well, this is spiritual fulfillment, this is where we’re going.

See, as a preacher God has given me a certain ability, without being unduly emotional, to stir people up. If I preach along a certain line, I can get people to come forward and do something in front of an audience. But my problem has been what am I going to get them to do? About ten years ago I gave up basically making emotional altar calls because I knew people would respond, I knew they’d come forward, I knew they’d go through a little sobbing, a little weeping, a little praying. But most cases they would leave that building without any objective. They stood up, let’s go. But where we’re going to we have no idea. I don’t think there’s anything more frustrating than feeling you ought to be going urgently without knowing where you ought to be going to. So I decided until I could show people where they ought to be going and how to get there, I was going to be pretty cautious about stirring them up to go anywhere.

But I believe God has opened my eyes to the measure where I’m able to tell you where God wants you to go. In some measure I’m able to tell you how to get there. This is the purpose of these studies. The way into perfection is the way into the holiest. This is our destination, this is our objective, this is the place which God desires us to attain to in Christ. So, you can call this the way into the holiest or you can call it the way into perfection, or to maturity, or to fulfillment, or to completeness.

The next thing that I want to make clear to you is that as a Christian, you only have two options. You can go forward or you can go backward. You have no other option. I believe millions of born again Christians are deceived in this respect. They believe they can get into some stationary condition and stay there till they die or Jesus comes. It’s called being saved. I got saved on Wednesday, November the 25th, l964. Now I am quote, saved. That kind of language presents a completely inaccurate picture of what salvation is. Salvation is not a static condition that you get into and just stay in statically. Salvation is a process, it’s a way of life. It implies growth, development, movement. And if there is no growth, no development and no movement in your spiritual life, I don’t believe you got the right to tag on to yourself the epithet “saved.”

The apostle Paul said to the men of Athens about God, “In him we live, and move, and have our being.” If you don’t move, I question whether you live. Every living thing moves. Anything that doesn’t move ever is not alive. And any Christian who does not move is not alive.

We’ll look at two scriptures, the first is in Proverbs 4:18.

“But the path of the just is as the shining light,

that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

Where you read the word “just” you can always replace it by “righteous.” They’re two different alternative translations of the same word. Both in Hebrew in the Old Testament and in Greek in the New. The difference is that “just” suggests a legal flavor, “righteous” talks about the way you live. I prefer to use the word righteous in this context. The path of the righteous is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Notice righteousness is not a place, it’s a path. It implies movement, progress. And when you are walking in that path of righteousness, the scripture says unequivocally the light will be brighter on your path every day. Every day’s light will be brighter than the light of the previous day if you are walking in the path of righteousness. If you are living today in yesterday’s light, today you’re a backslider. Yesterday you may have been right but today you’re a backslider. And the light is going to go on getting brighter and brighter and brighter until the climax, the fulfillment, perfection, whatever way you want to apply that in this passage.

Let’s look in Hebrews 10:38–39. This scripture is in your outline. I’ll read the King James Version but then I’m going to change it because it’s not accurate. Don’t get offended with me, I believe in the King James Version, I think it’s excellent but it has its weaknesses. If you have some of the other modern versions, I think all of them will make the change that I’m proposing. But I’ll read the King James first.

“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

Verse 38 are the words of God himself. They’re spoken by God, they’re quoted from Habbakuk 2:4. What the Greek says really is this. “Now my righteous one shall live by faith: but if he draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” It is not honest translation to suggest that the subject of the second half is different than the subject of the first. It’s “if my righteous one draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” It is possible to be God’s righteous one living by faith but then to draw back. And when you draw back God says, “My soul shall have no pleasure in the one who draws back from the way of righteousness by faith.”

Then the writer comes in with verse 39 and he makes his decision. He identifies himself with a certain group. He says, “We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but we are of them who believe into, unto—it’s a preposition of motion—the saving of the soul.” You see, there are only two alternatives. You must go on believing and moving on unto the saving of the soul. The alternative is to draw back from the way of righteousness by faith and then end of drawing back is clearly stated, it is perdition. It is to be lost. The word perdition simply means to be lost. These are the alternatives set before us in scripture.

Having entered into the way of righteousness by faith we can go on or we can go back. God will have no pleasure in the one who turns back and we need to make a decision just like the writer of Hebrews. We are not of them who turn back but we belong to those who are moving on into the full salvation of our soul.

The epistle to the Hebrews contains five of the most solemn warnings found anywhere in scripture concerning the dangers of turning back or turning away or failing to move on in God. Those five passages, the references are given in your outline. We are not going to go through them in detail because it would take too long and that really is not our purpose. But I believe it is important to touch on them. I suggest if you have a Bible that you don’t mind writing in a little, you take your Bible as I have done and mark those five sections in such a way that you treat each one of them as parenthesis. If you do, you will find that the thread of the teaching of Hebrews flows much more easily if you miss out the parenthesis. Each one of them is a parenthesis.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. If you come to the end of the second parenthesis which is Hebrews 4:13—you see where we are—the next verse is Hebrews 4:14 which says:

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens...”

And that section ends at 5:10 where it speaks about:

“Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

Then from 5:11 to 6:20 is a parenthesis. Miss out the parenthesis and what do you get? The theme of the high priest.

“For this Melchizidek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God...”

So if you go skipping the parenthesis, see what you get? You go from Hebrews 4:14, “seeing then that we have a great high priest...” to Hebrews 5:10, “called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizidek...” to Hebrews 7:1, “For this Melchizidek....” You see? The thread runs complete when you set on one side the parenthesis. Not that I mean the parenthesis are unimportant but if you want to get the thread of the argument of Hebrews, read it through once leaving out those five parenthesis which are all warnings addressed to Christians about the dangers of not going on with God.

Bear in mind friends that these people to whom this epistle was written were Spirit baptized Christians. This epistle was not written to the world. The world wouldn’t understand one sentence of this epistle. It’s totally written to believers who have a good knowledge of scripture, a definite knowledge of Jesus Christ and of the working of the Holy Spirit. Don’t set these warnings aside and say this doesn’t mean me. It means you and it means me.

I know that there are a lot of theological disputes about the question of security. I don’t want to get involved in them because then you got people divided into two groups: for or against. I believe in security but not if you trifle with the warnings of God. If you take God’s warnings seriously, you’re secure. If you ignore and dismiss the warnings of God, you cannot be secure. So I urge you to study these warnings for yourself and read every word of them as directed to you. I read them as directed to me.

Now we’ll very briefly go through these five warnings, just picking out the salient features. The first warning is in Hebrews 2:1–4, and the key thing against which we are warned is neglect and carelessness. I think it’s summed up in the opening part of verse 3 of chapter 2.

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation...”

It’s not written to unbelievers, you know that. I hope you do. To bring you in on this I’d like all of you to read that together with me. Just that first part of verse 3. Let’s all read it and say it to ourselves, don’t read it to the person next door to you. It’s talking to you. When I read it, it’s talking to me. So we just read from “how” to “salvation”, the beginning of verse 3. Are you ready? “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation...”

The next warning begins in chapter 3, verse 7 and goes on to chapter 4, verse 13. It’s a lengthy warning. The essence of the warning here is against hardness of heart and unbelief. Or, hardening your heart through unbelief. The theme of the warning is that God dealt in the Old Testament with Israel in sovereign grace, he saved them out of Egypt through the blood of the Passover lamb, he brought them through a double baptism in the cloud and in the sea. They all experienced the type of salvation, the type of the baptism in the Spirit, the type of baptism in water and yet, the carcasses of many of them fell in the wilderness. They never entered into God’s promised rest because they hardened their hearts in unbelief. We are warned not to do the same as they did.

Let us take two verses and read them as our exhortation to ourself. Hebrews 4:1. Let me just show you the initial words of chapter 3, verses 7 and 8. This is the introductory warning.

“Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts...”

If you will, it’s a decision. Do you will to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to you today? If you do not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, the result will be the hardening of your heart till you come to the place where you cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s take Hebrews 4:1 and read it together. Are you with me?

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

Have you made that decision to fear? Let us fear. The book of Proverbs says “Happy is he that feareth always.” And in 1Peter 1:17–18 it says:

“...pass the time of your sojourning here in fear...”

There is a place for fear in the Christian life. We’ll come to it later in the study of the holy place. There is a fear which is clean and endureth forever. What kind of fear is that? The fear of the Lord. And that’s a decision. In Proverbs 1 it says, “They did not choose the fear of the Lord.” You choose it or you don’t choose it. When you say “let us fear,” you’re making a choice. You say I choose the fear of the Lord.

If you want some time to take that theme, the fear of the Lord, and read through the scriptures that deal with it, I think there is no single thing which has greater or more wonderful or more numerous blessings attached to it in all scripture than the fear of the Lord. If you don’t choose the fear of the Lord, you’re very, very foolish.

We’ll go on to chapter 4, verse 11. We have had “let us fear,” we come to now “let us labor, let us work at it.” The word labor indicates hard work. Hebrews 4:11. Let’s read it together.

“Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

It’s obvious that the same people who are called to labor contain those who could fall. That’s very clear.

The third warning is in Hebrews 5:11 through 6:20. It’s against sloth. What’s the modern English for sloth? Laziness. I think the Roman Catholic church lists that as one of the seven deadly sins. If they don’t, they should have done anyhow. It undoubtedly is a deadly sin. You find much more warning in the Bible against laziness than against drunkenness. I don’t advocate drunkenness but I certainly think laziness will do you more harm in the long run. You see the warning there in Hebrews 5:11:

“Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.”

They’d lost the ability to hear, they become lazy, they didn’t read the scriptures for themselves, they never made any real attempt to find God’s revelation in his word.

We come to some of the most solemn warnings of scripture in the 6th chapter which is, of course, controversial. I think the devil makes some passages controversial because he doesn’t want people to read them or understand them. It says there in Hebrews 6:7–8:

“For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.”

That earth is our hearts and lives. There’s no question about that if you study the context. We all receive the rain of the Holy Spirit, but the rain will make two kinds of things grow: crops and weeds. And it just depends whether your heart is planted with the good seed and well weeded or whether it’s got thorns and weeds. And you know if you have crops and thorns Jesus said very clearly the thorns will spring up quicker than the crops and choke the crops.

People say sometimes, “Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit.” I think that that’s not always the appropriate prayer. “Lord, send the rain.” Well, what’s the rain going to fall on in your life? If it’s only going to fall on weeds and thorns, you’d better not have the rain.

In the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Plow up your fallow ground and don’t sow among thorns.” The writer of Hebrews says, “You’re getting the rain, remember you’re required to bring forth appropriate fruit.” If you do, you’ll be blessed. If you don’t, you’ll be rejected.

Let’s read there in that 6th chapter the first half of verse 1. This is again a decision, it’s a “let us,” and I want you to make it with me. I’ll read the words once myself and then you read them with me the second time.

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection...”

That’s a decision. If you want to make that decision as before God, read those words with me this time.

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.”

We’ll stop there because otherwise we get into a long passage. Let us go on unto perfection. Where are we headed for? What’s our destination? Perfection, maturity, completeness, fulfillment. Doesn’t that make you feel good?

Let’s go on to the fourth warning, Hebrews 10:26–39. This warning is against willful deliberate disobedience. It says in verse 26:

“If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth...”

In his book, Andrew Murray discusses briefly what it means to sin willfully. He says it is hard for the interpreter to declare but he said the only way to be safe is to bear in mind that if you don’t sin at all you won’t sin willfully. Don’t try and get by with a minimum. “Well, Lord, I know I’m sinning, but it isn’t willful.” How do you know?

See, I find so many Christians asking God what’s the minimum I have to have to get to heaven. I think if you have that attitude toward God, you won’t get to heaven. I put it this way: Anyone who makes heaven their second choice will never see it. Hebrews 10:26:

“For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins...”

Go on to verses 28 and 29. These two verses reverse the thinking of the average Christian.

“He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God...”

I find the average Christian says this. “Now, under the law of Moses they couldn’t get away with it. But under grace I can.” In other words, God doesn’t expect so much of us under grace as he expected under law. That’s the exact opposite of the truth. God expects more of us under grace than he did under law. Jesus said to his disciples, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, he shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.” Because we have a better covenant established upon better promises, God expects more of us. How could he expect less?

And if the punishment of those who rejected the less good covenant was severe, how much more severe will be the punishment of those who reject the better covenant? This is all logic, it’s unanswerable.

We’ll go on to the last verse of Hebrews 10, verse 39 and read it together, if you’re still in that frame of mind. If you aren’t frightened, Hebrews 10:39. A lady came up to me after I preached once and she said, “Brother Prince, you scare me.” I said, “Lady, I think you needed to be scared.” I think 50 percent of Charismatics need to be scared out of their wits. That’s my opinion, for what it’s worth. Hebrews 10:39. We’ll read it together if it’s your decision.

“But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

Praise God! You’re entitled to say Praise God when you’ve made that decision.

We go to the last reference very quickly, the last warning which is in Hebrews 12:15–29. This warning is against falling short of the grace of God. The example set before us is Esau who for one morsel of meat despised his birthright. When he afterwards would have inherited the blessing, he couldn’t get back because he found no way to repent or change his mind. Without going into that in detail I’d like you to read with me the last two verses of Hebrews 12. That’s Hebrews 12:28–29. These are beautiful verses. We’ll read them together.

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve god acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”

That’s sufficient for the introduction. Now we’ll come to the particular theme of going on into the holiest.

Before we go into this in detail it’s necessary to establish some basic principles about the way that God teaches through the tabernacle. This is going to be our primary text, the tabernacle. Turn to 1Corinthians 2:9–13.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

What God wants to reveal to us cannot be received by the senses, by the reasons, by the imagination of natural man. Those ways of knowing the truth are ruled out. Then Paul leads us into God’s way by which we can know the truth. Verse 10:

“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

The only one who knows the things of God is the Spirit of God. Therefore, if we want to know the things of God we must receive it from the Spirit of God. Verse 12:

“Now we have received, not of the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

Why have we received the Holy Spirit? That we might know what God has already given us. It’s already given on God’s side but if we don’t know it, we cannot enter into it. The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals it to us. Verse 13:

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

Or interpreting spiritual things by spiritual things, which is probably a better translation. So not merely are we dependent upon the Holy Spirit for the revelation of God but if we are to receive the revelation we must use the right kind of language. It is not the language of man’s wisdom. Listen friends, it’s not the language of philosophy, it’s not the language of psychology, it’s not the language of psychiatry and it isn’t the language of theology either. It’s a language that’s given us in the word of God and we have to stick to the language of scripture. I’m not saying the King James Version, don’t misunderstand me, but we have to stick to the language, the concept, the modes of expression, the examples and illustrations that are given us by the Holy Spirit. That’s the only way to express spiritual truth. As soon as I hear people using the jargon of philosophy or psychology to preach Bible truth, I know they’re not on the center of the track. Whenever you hear anybody who can only talk about the subconscious, be on your guard.

Probably the greatest—that went over like a lead balloon but about five minutes from now you’ll begin to see what I mean. If you don’t, that means you don’t need to. Probably the greatest single example of Holy Spirit given patterns, language, terminology in the whole Bible is the tabernacle. I really don’t believe there’s any other thing that can challenge the tabernacle for that place. So in turning to the tabernacle for divine truth we’re turning to the words, the patterns, the example set forth by the Holy Spirit in scripture and we can rely on the Holy Spirit to give us revelation because we’re going his way.

That’s why we’re going to the tabernacle for this truth, because that’s what the Holy Spirit has put in the scripture to teach us. There’s a scripture in Hebrews not in your outline that you may want to write down, Hebrews 8:5 and 9:23–24. These verses substantiate the fact that the tabernacle is a means of divine revelation of spiritual truth. Hebrews 8:4–5:

“For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”

When Moses made the tabernacle on earth he had a divine pattern which had been shown him in the mount. And that original is heavenly. The tabernacle is an earthly replica of something that is real, eternal, not made with hands, in the heavens. And if you look in verse 5 of Hebrews 8 you’ll find the three words that we might take. Example, shadow, and pattern. That’s what we have in the tabernacle. We have an example, a shadow and a pattern of heavenly things.

We’ll look also in Hebrews 9:23–24. Again, to demonstrate this, we’re dealing with divinely given patterns of heavenly things.

“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [the blood of bulls and goats and so on]; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures [or patterns] of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

It is very clear that the holy place of the holy of holies in the tabernacle of Moses, which we look here on this diagram which we’ll look at more closely later, these are patterns of things that are eternal, not made with hands, in the heavens. Jesus did not enter into this tabernacle as our high priest but he entered into the real tabernacle of God in the heavenlies of which this is a pattern. But this, as I say, is, I believe, the God ordained pattern of these heavenly truths and realities. That’s why we’re studying the tabernacle. It is the lesson book that the Holy Spirit has given us to study unseen, eternal, heavenly things.

Now, with that in mind, let’s take two scriptures there in your margin, Hebrews 9:8 and Hebrews 10:19 and set them side by side. In order to get a complete sentence we’ll read Hebrews 9:7–8.

“But into the second [that’s the holiest or the holy of holies] went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost this signifying...”

You see, the Holy Spirit was teaching through that. We have absolute scriptural authority for this form of teaching.

“The Holy Ghost is signifying this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.”

So there is a way into the holiest of all. The tabernacle gives us a pattern but it does not give us the real access into the holiest. It was not yet made open under the Mosaic covenant.

Now let’s turn to Hebrews 10:19 which takes on just in the context of what we’ve read:

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

What they did not have under the Mosaic covenant we do have under the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. We have complete boldness to enter into the holiest. So we are going to study the way into the holiest on the basis of the types, patterns, shadows of the tabernacle. I believe I have established an absolutely sound, scriptural basis for studying it this way.

Actually, the tabernacle of Moses is either a lot of dreary reading which you skip through as quick as you can with a sense of duty, or it is the most fascinating thing you ever got into. I would judge your spirituality largely by which of those two categories you happen to be in. Don’t put your hand up because I’m not asking for a show of hands. I will say this of personal experience. I’ve been a Christian over 30 years and during those years I have continually sought to serve the Lord. I have never, by his grace, been a backslider—for which I give him all the glory. I’ve always realized that God is holy and that he requires holiness in his people. But nothing in all my experience has ever given me such a sense of the holiness of God as the study of the tabernacle. This is the first time that holiness has really begun to make sense to me and to relate to my practical living. I just trust and pray that it will do the same for you. The Bible speaks about the beauty of holiness and when your eyes are open, there is nothing more beautiful than holiness. It’s the summit of spiritual beauty.

Let’s stand to our feet and just praise the Lord in closing prayer. “Thank you Jesus. Praise your wonderful name. We thank you. We praise you Jesus, we give you the glory, the honor and the praise. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise your name. Thank you, Jesus.”

Let’s worship the Lord in the Spirit quietly and reverently, but let everybody worship him. “We praise you Jesus, we praise you. We praise your name, Lord. Glory and honor and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb, forever and ever. Thank you, Lord. We bless your name, Lord. We thank you, we praise you, we bless you. Hallelujah, glory to your name. Praise your wonderful name, Lord. Forever and ever and ever thou art to be praised. Amen.”

“Father, I thank you for the people here this afternoon. I thank you for such a large number of people that just want to know what your word has to say. Bless every word of truth that was imparted this afternoon. Let it not return to you void, Lord. Let it accomplish your pleasure. Let it work effectively in every one that believeth. We commend your word to you that the Holy Spirit shall use it to work out your perfect will in the lives of each of your children that we may indeed go on unto perfection. In Jesus’ name.” And all God’s people said, Amen. God bless you.