El Shaddai Ministries

Pastor Mark Biltz: Let's take a look at Hebrews through Hebrew eyes. We're almost done. Do you believe we're almost done with the book of Hebrews? In a couple more weeks, we're going to be done. Then I'll have to think of what book I want to jump into next. We'll have to see.

Hebrews 9:1-5 says this: "Even the first covenant had regulations for worship. It had an earthly place of holiness. Moses' tabernacle was all prepared. It had a first section where was the menorah, the table of showbread; it's called the Holy Place. Then it had a second curtain, and behind it is the most Holy Place having the altar of incense, the Ark of the Covenant; it had the manna, Aaron's staff that budded, the tablets of the covenant, and then above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat." Then he says, "We don't have time to go into that right now."

There's so much going on. We also know the laver. He didn't mention the laver because that was outside of the Holy Place. In Exodus 30, concerning all the different regulations for worship, look at verses 20 and 21. It talks about when they go in the Tabernacle, they have to take a bath. They've got to wash with water so that they don't die. That's what some people may tell their kids when they don't take a bath at night: "You better take a bath!"

It says when they come near to the altar to minister, they have to do a burnt offering by fire to the Lord. So, they wash their hands and their feet so they don't die again. Look how important it is. I think that's a pretty important regulation. If I didn't do that, I'd be dead. If I was a priest, I'd make sure I washed my hands and feet. It's to be a statute forever into all of Aaron's generations.

Basically, what is God telling man? We are unclean. We're unclean, and before we come into God, we’ve got to get cleaned up. It's not just external cleansing. What else did God want? Internal cleansing. That's what was the most important. That's why in Hebrews 9:6-7, it says, "the preparations having been made, the priests go regularly"—that's every day—"into the first section, performing their ritual duties. But into the second part, the Holy of Holies, only the high priest gets to go there, and that's only once a year. He always has to bring blood in, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins"—notice that; it's for the unintentional sins—"of the people."

We have to remember everything on earth was patterned after what is in the heavens. We find in verses 11 and 12, "When Messiah appears as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent"—he's talking about the one in heaven that wasn't made with hands—"Messiah entered once and for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but by His own blood, securing an eternal redemption."

What was going on on earth? They had to have a lot of priests because, guess what happens to the priests? They die. Not only that, the priests are all sinners. So every day they're having to go through this ritual of what's going on in the heavens, but they're not having to go in every single day in the heavens. They're just having to do this on earth because it's an earthly Tabernacle and we are humans.

Messiah, the high priest in the heavenly Tabernacle, only went once. He took His blood one time and that is it. In verses 13 and 14—and this is important theologically—he says, "If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled people with the ashes of a heifer sanctified for the purification of what?" Not the heart. It had nothing to do with purifying the heart. It was the flesh. "How much more will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify now—it's not fleshly, now it's conscience—from dead works to serve the living God?"

That's why in verses 15 through 17, it says, "That's why He's a mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant." How many of you know if there's a will involved, it doesn't go into effect until when? They die. A will only takes effect at death, since it's not in force as long as the one who made it is still alive.

A new covenant had to take place. In verses 18 through 22, it says, "Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, what did he do? He took blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and he sprinkled the book and all the people, and he said, 'This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.'" Then he goes how he also sprinkled the Tabernacle with everything. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins, it says.

In verses 23 and 24, what do we have? It comes right out and it says it: "If it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves have better sacrifices." They're not killing bulls and goats in heaven. What happens on earth is a copy of what's going on in heaven, but it's not the exact thing.

It says, "Messiah entered not into the holy places that are made with man—they're just copies of the true thing—but He entered into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." In other words, the heavenly is the major leagues, and the earthly is the pee-wee league. Professional baseball players don't play in the pee-wees or the minor leagues.

Verses 25 through 28: "Nor was it to offer Himself repeatedly." Messiah didn't have to do it over and over as the high priest enters the Holy Place every year with blood that's not even his own, for then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. In other words, Messiah doesn't have to keep dying like man does. This is a once-and-for-all thing. It says, "As it is, He has appeared once and for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as it is appointed for man once to die and then comes the judgment, so Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of everyone, now is coming again. This time He's not going to deal with sin, but He's going to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him." Is anyone here eagerly waiting for Him? I am very eagerly waiting for Him.

Hebrews 10:1-4: "The law is but a shadow of good things that are coming instead of the true form of these realities. It can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually burned year after year, make perfect those who are drawing near." The purpose of the blood of bulls and goats and offering all the time, every day, over and over, didn't make us perfect. What we were supposed to do is learn that something is going to happen in the heavens. What am I supposed to learn here?

It says, "Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices, there's a reminder of sins every year. It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." The Jews knew that. How many of you knew the Jews knew that? People think the Jews never figured that out. It's a Jew who's telling us they always knew the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin.

Hebrews 10:5-14: "Wherefore, when Messiah comes into the world, He said, 'Sacrifice and offerings You didn't want, but a body have You prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. And then I said, "Lo, here I come in the roll of the book; it even talks about me to do Your will, oh God."'"

Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You would not—You never had pleasure therein, which are offered according to the law. Then He said, "Lo, I am come to do Your will." What is going on here? How many of you know it's all about relationship? God doesn't get hungry. God has everything He needs. God did not want to have bulls and lambs and goats sacrificed because He's some bloodthirsty God and the only way you're going to be right is if you go kill something.

That wasn't the plan. The plan was for them to get the idea that He was going to be sending His Son, who's going to die personally for you so you would fall in love with Him and look at the sacrifice that He made for you. That's what it was all about. How many of you know if there's a law that says "Don't speed," you just love that law? You just think about it every night? I mean, that's really dumb. But it's only when you love the spirit behind the law that you can really embrace it. That's the thing. God has these laws, but it's not because He's some guy that the IRS came from. He doesn't love laws for the sake of laws. He cares about us. He comes up with these laws because He says, "I don't want you to get hurt. Don't play in the street." "Oh, God hates me. He won't let me play in the street." I mean, that's craziness.

Look what it says here in Hebrews 10:15-17: "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us after He said, 'This is the covenant, this is what it's all about, I'm going to make with them after those days,' says the Lord, 'I am going to put my laws where?'" Just like in real estate, everything's location, location, location. The whole thing God says the problem with the law is they hate it. I’ve got to get them to love it. But so many have gone from hating it to just throwing it away. But God says, "No, we need to learn to love His law." So He says, "I'm going to put my laws on their heart. And then upon their minds I'm going to write it." Then He said, "And their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more."

The whole idea of the sacrificial offerings even back then was to be a type of the heavenly one, which all has to do with God's laws being written on our heart. Look at Jeremiah 17:9 and 10: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing." What do we know about the heart here? It's deceitful, desperately wicked. But you know this is not talking about the person who's a believer. This is talking about before you become a believer. Because after you become a believer, He gives you a new heart.

Think of yourself on the operation table. God is taking out your old heart and He's putting in a new heart. That's why it goes on to say in Hebrews 10:19-25: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holy Place by the blood of Yeshua, by the way which He dedicated just for us—a new and living way through the veil, that is to say His flesh—having a great priest over the house of God, let us now draw near with what? A true heart." So you can't say the believer's true heart is a desperately wicked heart and who can know it? You now have a nice, pure, good heart that God has given you.

One of the biggest problems in the world today is identity. That's why people go to ancestry.com. That's why they want to know all about the roots. "Who am I? Why am I here? Who am I? Am I from Manasseh? Am I from Ephraim?" Everybody wants to find out who their identity is. We have to find our identity in the Messiah. But the problem with some theology in Christianity, which is just the worst theology in the world, it says that you were born sinful. That is not true. You were not born sinful. You were born broken.

There's a big difference. How many of you can repent of brown eyes? Can you repent of green eyes? You can't repent of something you're born with. God only tells us to repent of things that we have choices over. We were born broken and we've chosen sin, and now we've become sinful. But when we repent and we get a new heart—God doesn't want to take your old heart and make it better; He wants to throw it out and He wants to give you a new heart—a true heart.

And so it says, "with fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience"—which means it's gone—"having our body washed with the pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that we don't waver because He's faithful that promised. Let us consider one another now to provoke each other to love and good works, not forsaking our assembling together as the custom is of some, but we need to be exhorting one another, so much more as you see the day drawing nigh." How many of you see the day drawing nigh?

Look at Psalm 119:142. Here in Hebrews, we just read we're supposed to draw near to God with what kind of a heart? A true heart. Psalm 119:142 says, "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and the law is the truth." A true heart means you have God's laws written on your heart, which does not mean you've memorized them. It means you do them. Too many people are so impressed with their theology or what they know. Well, that is worthless. God wants to know what you do.

Hebrews 10:26-31. This is a scary one. I don't know how many of you have your scariest verse. I have my favorite verse. This is probably one of the scariest verses in the Bible: "If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, the fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries." This is in the New Testament.

"A man that has set at nothing Moses' law dies without compassion on the word of just two or three witnesses. How much more of a sorer punishment do you think will be judged worthy of those who have trodden underfoot the Son of God and has counted the blood of the covenant where he was sanctified as something that is unholy and has done despite unto the spirit of grace? For we know Him that said, 'Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense,' and again, 'The Lord is going to be judging His people.' It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

And here we are approaching Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur. But there's something fascinating. I think I need to go over this, too, in case I scared the bejeebies out of anybody. How many of us know every single one of us has probably sinned willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth? So what's going on here? Well, first off, there's like 10 different Hebrew words for sin. So which one of these is he talking about?

Here's how I see what true salvation really is. The first idea of sin is to miss the mark. That's one sin. So let's say over here's the target. I'm shooting at the target and I'm missing the mark. But at least I'm shooting at the target. Then there's another Hebrew word for sin where not only are you missing the target, now you are purposely twisting the truth. Then there's another level of sin where you stepped over the line. You've gone too far. Then there's another level of sin where you become wicked. And there's another level of sin that's even worse when you become rebellious. And then there's another level of sin that is the worst level, which is what happened in Genesis 6 with the destruction with the flood and Noah: "man's heart was only evil." And the Hebrew word for "evil," that level of sin, is "ra," and it means to completely and utterly destroy beyond the possibility of being repaired.

The comparison would be the little kid running through the house, knocking a vase, breaking it in two. You glue it back together. Versus the teenager picks up the vase, looks you in the eye, and hurls it at the wall, shattering it. How many know there are two different levels of sin? Well, there's a lot of levels of sin in the Bible as well. But what God is talking about here is for someone to have grasped the concept of the Messiah coming and dying to save you—what other tool does He have? If you reject that, it's not that you won't miss the mark again. All of us, I can tell you right now, all of us are going to miss the mark again. But what He's saying is those people who take and turn and throw that away, they're going the other way. They're shooting the arrows this way, the target's over there. That's what He's saying. If you've totally rebelled, you've gone against God, you're going the opposite direction, what does God have to bring you back? What tool can He use? I mean, if let's say you wanted to repair a relationship, and you've been over backward. Well, that's what God is saying. If we've had a bad relationship and you see what I've done to restore it and you come back and were restored and then you turn from that, what other tool do I have?

Hopefully you don't feel condemned or anything like that because that's not my point. But it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God because how many of you know He's got a great record book? He's recording everything.

Now we talk about faith. Hebrews 11:1-6: "Faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for, it's conviction of things not seen." That reminds me of something else I wanted to share because I don't know if I'll remember to share it on Rosh Hashanah or not, so I'm going to just share it right now. I always am learning. I'm just a kid, I love to learn, I love to study, I love to listen to all kinds of different things. And I was listening to this one teaching by this one rabbi concerning Rosh Hashanah. And the question is this: why is Rosh Hashanah on the first day of the year instead of the last day of the year? How come God didn't put Rosh Hashanah on Elul 30? Why is it the day later? You would think if Rosh Hashanah is all about the sins of the past, then it should be on Elul 30. The reason God put Rosh Hashanah on Tishrei 1 is because God is forgetting the past already and now He's judging what you're going to do with your future.

The judgment between the 10 days of awe, Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, are not about the past. It's about the future. What are your goals? What are your plans? Where do you want to be in the relationship? So we need not think of coming into Rosh Hashanah as "Oh goodness, I'm afraid of the past." God says, "No, the past is over. All things have become new." The question now that you're going to be judged on is what are you going to do with your life this next year? And I thought that was kind of interesting.

So we look at the faith chapter. How many know Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter? That's what it's called. And it's the assurance of things that are hoped for, conviction of things not seen. And it says, "By faith, we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so what is seen has not been made out of what appears. It was by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice. By faith Enoch was translated that he wouldn't see death." And so it goes on. It says in this last verse here, "And without faith, it is impossible to be well-pleasing to Him for he that comes to God must do two things: must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder." He didn't save you to kill you. He rewards those who diligently seek after Him.

In verse 7 through 12, we see it was by faith Noah was warned of God concerning things not seen. By faith Abraham, when he was called, he obeyed to go to a place to receive an inheritance, and he didn't even know where he was going, it says. It goes on to say even by faith Sarah received power to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful who had promised.

And then verse 13 through 16: "All of these died by faith, not having received the promise, but having seen them and greeted them from afar off. And they confessed that they were just strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And those who say such things prove that they're seeking after a country of their own, not the one we're in. So if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But they wanted a better country." And how many of you know God is not ashamed of them to be called their God because He's prepared for them a city? How many want to see the New Jerusalem?

And so in verse 17-19: "It was by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he received the promise—look at this—offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said, 'In Isaac shall your seed be called.'" Now think about this. If you're Abraham and you not just believe God exists, you know He exists. And more than that, faith doesn't mean believing; faith means trusting in. If you have faith in God, it means you trust God. This explains it all. Listen to this. Abraham, the reason he was willing to offer up Isaac was because God had promised that the seed would come from Isaac. Isaac wasn't married yet. Isaac didn't have any kids yet. So Abraham's thinking, "Okay, if You want me to offer up Isaac—which I know You're really not into human sacrifice—You're going to raise him from the dead. So okay, I'll do it because I know You'll just raise him from the dead." That's what this is saying. He knew that God would raise him from the dead, and He had the ability to raise him from the dead, so it really wasn't any big deal to offer up Isaac.

And that's what happened. So faith is not just belief in God; it's trust in God. So we'll close with Hebrews 11:30 through 38. It talks about how by faith the walls of Jericho fell down, by faith Rahab the harlot perished not with those that were disobedient. And then he says, "I don't have time to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and all the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness and obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions." He goes through and he lists all of these things. And it ends with this verse where they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they went about in sheepskins, goatskins, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth.

This is what is so amazing to me. How many know there's not one Christian mentioned in here? The whole faith chapter is about Jews of faith. That's who we're grafted into. Verse 39 and 40, it says this though: "Having had witness after all these people he's mentioned, having had witness borne to them through their faith, they did not receive the promise. Why? Because God is providing some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." Wow. You are part of that promise. Without you, the whole body needs to be a whole body and a healed body. God is waiting for the whole body to mature so we can all come together as the one new man. Amen? Amen. So let's stand and we'll pray.