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Sabbath, February 18, 2006 Newark Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Heb. 9:12, 26-28 Pastor Tom Hughes
 

“Sanctuary Priest”

 

Hebrews 9:12—“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

Heb. 9:16-28—For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
17For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.
18Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.
19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”
21Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry.
22And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
23Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
25not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—
26He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
28so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”

Father as we summarize our messages on the Sanctuary, we want to focus today on our great high priest, Jesus. We want to pull all these messages together and put our eyes right where they belong on our great high priest in heaven. And we ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Over the past several weeks and months, we have been looking into the Sanctuary message. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is one of the few churches that actually preach this message. Very few churches do anything with the Sanctuary concept. The New Testament has Sanctuary messages all through it. The entire book of Hebrews and Revelation are all written in Sanctuary language. All the modern praise songs that some Seventh - day Adventist’s get shook up about are filled with Sanctuary references. If you look at (the song) “We Were Made For This,” it talks there about “dwelling in your courts.” “Coming into Your courts, Lord, I come into the most holy place to behold your glory.”

All through these modern praise songs the Sanctuary message is being sung and being proclaimed to the world. And so I say let them sing about God’s Sanctuary. Let them lift up God’s Sanctuary because this is the very message we need to be hearing. And all those praise songs are pointing them toward the Sanctuary and guess who’s going to come along when all those young kids and all those young adults that praise music appeals to, when they start looking toward the Sanctuary? When they hear our Sanctuary message they will already be prepared to receive it! I say the Holy Spirit is going forth in mighty power and He is reaching out to people in every denomination and He is going to someday very soon bring them all to the point where they’re going to understand what the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is all about. People, we are moving into the last days and things are happening very, very rapidly. You all heard about the beautiful article in National Geographic about our health message and how Seventh - day Adventist’s live longer. In the November Issue of National Geographic they did a big article on Seventh - Day Adventist’s and how long they live. Now guess what—National Geographic is now doing a program about Revelation, and guess who they called on to get his opinion about the book of Revelation: Doug Batchelor. So Doug has already taped the interview, and now on National Geographic, Doug Batchelor the Seventh-Day Adventist is going to explain Revelation.2

Now who knows how they’ll edit it and what they’ll do to the program itself. But National Geographic and their staff now have a great deal of respect for Seventh - day Adventist’s and you’re going to start seeing this! God is turning the attention of the world toward us and you better be ready because when it comes it’s going to come hard and fast. People are going to be showing up in our worship services to tape it, to report on it. And the controversy over Sabbath and Sunday will heat up, as the controversy over the Ten Commandments heated up, so be prepared.

Hebrews 9:12—“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
26“He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
28so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”

Christ IS the Sanctuary Priest who enters the Most Holy Place it says at the “end of the ages.” Are we at the end of the ages? In 1844 He entered into the most holy place to begin the work of putting away sin once and for all! The most holy place—and how does He put away the sin: by the sacrifice of Himself.

He enters the Most Holy Place! So the first message of this biblical passage in Hebrews is three words: Jesus is alive! He is in heaven! He rose on the third day! He ascended into heaven. Jesus Christ is alive this morning! Right now, He’s standing before the throne of God with his priestly garments on listening to our prayers and presenting them to His Father! Jesus is alive!

They talk about spiritual things in this world as if they are not true! They talk about the most incredible spiritual realities as if they’re fairy tales and they talk about the most incredible fairy tales as if they’re real! I don’t care about the Lord of the Rings; I care about the Lord of the Kings! I don’t care about Hollywood and their politics and all the arguments between the Republicans and the Democrats! I’m a Republicrat! I’ve had it with all of ‘em! I don’t look to politics for my answers! I look to God’s word and I look to the most holy place! That’s where I’m looking, I’m not staring at the House of Representatives 24 hours a day asking myself what they’re arguing about and debating. Now while I’m riding down the road on the radio I may listen, but I’m more concerned about the Lord of the Kings than Hollywood’s fairy tales!

What the Bible says will happen IS going to happen. In 1844 the Judgment began. If you want to read about it, you can read about it in Daniel 7:9, 10, and 13—“I watched till thrones were put in place,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame,
Its wheels a burning fire;
10A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him…”

How many angels are there in heaven? Billions! They say that a million angels can dance on the head of a pin. I tell you this, that in the atomic substructure of the universe a billion angels can fit so small they can fly through the head of a pin and never touch it! God is so vast there are so many dimensions in the universe you can’t even imagine! Up there in the most holy place there are billions of angels! He has a huge throne room—hundreds of miles across; hundreds of miles high—and He sits upon that throne “high and lifted up!” the Bible says—fire coming out of it.

And it says, “The court was seated,
And the books were opened.”

I’m going to preach a sermon called “Sanctuary Books.” People mock Seventh - day Adventist’s because they say God is going to go over the books of heaven. “Oh, how out dated! How silly! He probably has video up there, DVD’s! Books are outdated! Forget it!” My Bible says “Books!” Now I don’t know how He records it but when the Bible calls it “books,” that’s good enough for me!

“The court was seated,
And the books were opened.”

11I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
12As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
13I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.”—NKJV

Moveable thrones. Notice it says “thrones.” The Father and the Son and the 24 elders of Revelation with their 24 thrones. There thrones were set up and the Judgment began.

Jesus comes to the Most Holy Place to “put away sin.”

He is finishing his priestly work. The high priest on the Day of Atonement entered in to put away sin, to remove it from the Sanctuary. Jesus, our great high priest, will finish His priestly ministry by winning the trial. He’s going to win his trial. He’s going to win his case. Every case that he pleads will be victorious and you will get off scot-free from ever sin you’ve ever committed. You will be found not guilty because Jesus paid the penalty for your sins! He wins that trial and he destroys all sin in the universe. We’re living right now between Daniel 7:13 and verse 14! In the next verse, Jesus comes again! We’re in between those two verses right now!

Daniel 7:13-14—“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
14“And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men
of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”

When He comes, He destroys Satan, and sinners and all sin by the “sacrifice of Himself.” You know, you couldn’t make Jesus love you any more than He does. You can’t make God love you any more and you can’t make Him love you any less. We think because we sin He loves us less. We think because we’re sinners and we do foolish things that God doesn’t love us as much, or somehow we’ve wounded Him and now He doesn’t love us! You can’t make God love you any more and you can’t make God love you any less—His love never changes.

Even those who are lost, God will still love them ‘til the very end. It’s not a question of His love. If you’ve bought that old lie of the devil that you’re just too bad to be saved—that you’re just too evil, too sinful, too broken for God to heal and fix—I’m telling you right now God can heal every single person. God can save anybody. God’s grace is radical! And what I’m preaching to you today is radical grace! It’s radical!

“Son of Sam” (David Berkowitz) walked up to seven cars and shot 14 people dead. He did it because he said the devil spoke to him through his dog and told him to go kill them. While he was in prison, a person came into prison and showed him the gospel and preached Christ to him, and “Son of Sam” gave his heart to Jesus Christ, and for the last 10 years he has been teaching a bible study group of over 100 people in prison every week! When you look at “Son of Sam’s” face now it beams with the love of Jesus! You can see Christ shining out from his eyes! The demons are banished, the love and peace of Jesus Christ has filled his soul, and he has found help in time of need! That’s radical! (See: www.forgivenforlife.com)

God’s grace could save Adolph Hitler. God’s grace could save Jeffrey Dahmer. God’s grace can save anyone no matter how wretched no matter how evil. That’s one of the devil’s lies: “You’re just too bad to be saved. You could never be saved ‘because you’re too evil.” That’s a lie. Don’t let the devil tell you one of his two main lies. His first lie is “You’re too bad to be saved.” His second lie is “You’re too good to be lost.” And he gets more with that than he does with the other one.

We need Jesus! There is only one way to be saved. The Bible says “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” There’s only one person’s life who can save you—that’s Jesus. There’s only one person’s blood that can save you—that’s Jesus! In the book of Romans it says, “By one man’s obedience many are made righteous.”

Your obedience cannot make you righteous! Your blood cannot make you righteous! No matter how good you are, no matter how often you go to church, no matter how hard you work to become this perfect absolutely flawless Christian, no matter what you do, you can’t save yourself! Your sacrifices won’t save you! Your lifestyle won’t save you. Your goodness won’t save you. Only the blood of Jesus can save you. That’s it! There is no other blood that can save you! He must take his blood into the most holy place and put it on the altar for you! And if you don’t have his blood, you’re not forgiven; and if you don’t have his forgiveness, you’re lost.

Only through Jesus Christ can you be saved. That one man’s obedience doesn’t have room in that text for two people. So if you’re some elitist Christian or elitist Seventh-Day Adventist who thinks somehow you’re going to become this perfect person, so that when you finally get in the door God will say “We’re lucky to have you here,” forget it! It’s not going to happen!

We’re told that the greatest and noblest of men were but a faint reflection of the character of Christ!1 There’s only one way we’re getting in and that’s by the blood. Without Christ’s blood you cannot be saved. Once you’re saved, then by all means live a righteous Christian life and try to be as obedient as you can, but always under the umbrella of grace.

The Sacrifice He made on Cross of Calvary gives him the right, he has the blood, he is a Sanctuary Priest, He has the Righteousness and he cleanses the Sanctuary records of sin. The sins of the saints are blotted out and remembered no more! Hallelujah! Praise Jesus!

You know Christ right now still has the censer in His hand. In Hebrews 4:16 it says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy”

Do you need mercy? “And find grace to find help in time of need.” Come boldly to the throne of what: Grace! God’s very throne is a throne of mercy and grace! How graceful are we when we share that message with people? Do we tell people that God’s throne is a throne of grace and that grace is the most important thing that I can share with you today? And we’re satisfied with just a drop of grace! When God wants to give us a lot of grace we want a drop in the bucket when God has a whole ocean! We stand before an ocean of grace with our little thimble full and think we’ve really got enough! Leap into the ocean by faith!

We do a quick prayer in the morning and out the door we run! We get a brief feeling of blessedness, when we could dwell in the Most Holy Place every minute of every day and pray without ceasing! We can have mercy, we can have grace! We can have help whenever we need it! We can have Jesus in us and with us all day long! Let’s get bold; bold I say! Let’s study the word and pray boldly all day long! Let’s take the kingdom of God by force! Let’s praise God all day long, in songs, and in our hearts, and make the devil flee! Boldly, studying, praying, praising Jesus! Even in church! Even during the sermon! If the preacher’s preaching and you’re not getting that much out of it, you’ve got a Bible in your hand, open it up and start reading!

If you’re sitting at a red light, keep a Bible on the seat of your car while you’re sitting there. So what if they have to beep at you, open it up, read a psalm! If you’re sitting at the laundry mat or waiting in line, keep your Bible with you and open it and read it, and pray without ceasing! Church, are you with me? You could be driving the road. Some guy cuts you off. You could just look at him and say, “Praise the Lord, God! I’m so glad that you protect me in this ungodly world! J Please help me, Lord, to be merciful!” You can pray without ceasing every minute of every day. You can lift up your heart to the Lord in prayer and in praise.

16“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Receive His righteousness by Faith, becoming perfect in Him.

Hebrews 10:10, 14…

10By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Notice we “have been” past tense, “sanctified once for all.” When Jesus died on the cross he became our sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). So it says here we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ. Now it’s past tense. We’ve been sanctified and we are being sanctified.

14“For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
By Christ’s offering on the cross He perfected you and me forever because he wrote down “Forgiven” and gave us credit for his life. He says, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
So by this one offering he perfected us forever while we are being sanctified.

H.M.S. Richards, when asked about the righteousness of Christ… “Elder Richards, I want to ask you a question about the righteousness of Christ.” He responded “That’s the only kind there is!”

He was right! There is no other kind. We “have been,” past tense, sanctified “once and for all” and made perfect “forever”; even though we are still imperfect down here on earth, and are undergoing the process of “being” sanctified. Like read in the book we studied by George R. Knight I Used To Be Perfect, we are perfect but not yet perfect; sinless but not yet sinless. Oh yes, it is a paradox but it is so beautiful and so true! We are perfect in Christ, and fully accepted, even though we are not finished with the process of sanctification! Sanctification is simply the process of becoming more loving! Once, and for all, he made us holy with His life! Only one way to heaven: the merits of Jesus! While we are changing into the image of the character of God, He covers our shortcomings and mistakes with his grace.

Now whenever I preach this subject and talk about our great high sanctuary priest, people say, “Pastor, it’s too much grace! It’s cheap grace! You’re preaching cheap grace!”

Once saved, always saved? No way! I don’t believe in that. I might believe in once saved almost always saved. I’ll explain what I mean by that.

In Hebrews 10:29, you can’t read that and believe in once saved always saved. That’s not grace, that’s a disgrace.

Hebrews 10:29—“How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

It says in the next verse a fiery judgment awaits such a person.

Hebrews 10:30-31—“For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The LORD will judge His people.’
31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Now let me ask you a question. Can a person be sanctified and not be saved? No. This is talking about a saved person who leaves Jesus and goes back into the world. Now people always say, “Oh, well, if he goes back and does that then he was never saved in the first place.” That’s not true. That is a lie. You can be saved and reject Jesus and go back into the world. You can accept Christ and then renounce him. If you can be born again into God, you can be born again back into the world. You have to deliberately forsake Him and deliberately leave Him, and deliberately resist Him and deliberately fight Him.

You see, I believe that God’s grace is so powerful that it is drawing everyone and if you just don’t resist it you will be drawn into it and God will save you if you don’t resist. You have to fight against God to be lost.

Hebrews 6:4-6— “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

What Paul is saying is this: There is no way, absolutely no way, if you crucify Christ afresh and reject His sacrifice, to be saved! And you will be lost even if you have been saved in the past; even if you accepted Christ in the past. You will be lost.

Now why do I say I believe in once saved almost always saved? Well in order to be lost you have to listen to the devil and one-third of the angels. In order to be saved all you have to do is not resist God. And there’s the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We have God on our side and God is much stronger than anybody else, and then we have two-thirds of the angels! So we outnumber the devil and his angels 2 to 1!

Now, true, there are more worldly people who are going to be lost but I think two-thirds of the angels and God Himself is more than a match for those people! So I think it’s harder to be lost than to be saved. And I think if you just listen to the Holy Spirit and don’t resist Him, God will save your soul! You have to reject the Holy Spirit and deliberately choose to sin in order to be lost! You have to fight against God to be lost!

So before the judgement ends, while he still has the censer in his hand you need to come to Jesus!

You see, in order to understand Hebrews, you also have to read Revelation. In Revelation 8:3-5 it talks about the angel with a golden censer in his hand.

“Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.
4And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand.
5Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

Now while the Sanctuary Priest is making the atonement for us in the Most Holy Place, we should seek to become perfect in Christ through His righteousness. How do we become perfect in Christ through His righteousness? By accepting His free gift of salvation, and letting Him write our name in His book of life, and letting Him cover us with his white robe. There is still time. The door of God’s mercy is swung wide on the hinges of his grace.

Will you go through the door?

Will you look into the Throne room of God?


Revelation 4:1—“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.’”

Revelation 5:3-6— “And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.
4Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it;
5and one of the elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.’
6And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.”

According to Revelation 4 and 5 only Jesus, of all those who are in heaven or on the earth or under the earth, was worthy. He was the only one worthy to open that scroll and secure for us our eternal life. Keep looking into that holy place and you’ll see through the door into the most holy place.

Revelation 11:19—“And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”

See the very throne of Jesus in the Most Holy Place—next to the Fathers throne? See our great Sanctuary Priest pleading our case? Can you see him there? Yes it’s a scary place. Daniel saw him lifted up, and Isaiah saw the Lord “high and lifted up” and they fell as dead men. But what does Jesus say to us? He says, Come, boldly my child to my throne of grace. Come, see me. Look into my sanctuary; look into my most holy place. Hear me, abide with me, live with me, bring your sinful, imperfect character to me, and I will give you mercy, I will give you grace and help in time of need! That’s what Jesus says to us!

Once he finishes his work as Sanctuary Priest, He will cast that golden censer down and then he will put on his kingly robes, and He will come apart from sin it says, “For salvation, to those who eagerly wait for Him.”

So when Jesus throws that censer down they bring his kingly robes and he puts on his kingly crown, and then he comes to the earth to rescue his people. And this time He’s coming as the Lion, apart from sin, to bring salvation!

Finally we will be “once saved, always saved!” We will be delivered from this body of death, this corruptible will put on incorruption and those who are excited, eager, panting as a deer for water, will have their every hope and dream come true when Jesus appears in the sky!

If you want your friends and family to hear this message about the Sanctuary and all that it means, you need to bring them here to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. If you want your children to hear this message, you need to educate them here at the Seventh-Day Adventist Elementary School. That’s where they’re going to hear this message. You’re not going to hear it down at any other local church. Come boldly before the throne of grace and you will find help in time of need!

How many of can see Jesus, that Sanctuary Priest with the incense in his hand and he’s ministering before the most holy place and the smoke is going up—how many of you want to put your prayers in with that incense and have Jesus forgive you for your sins, and win your courtroom trial, and pronounce you “not guilty” and save you when he comes based on His grace? If you do, would you raise your hand this morning?

Lord Jesus, save me when you come back; rescue me, Lord! Declare me innocent based on your pleadings in the most holy place! Mix my prayers in with Your incense and present it to the Father. Put the blood on it, Lord, the only blood that can save me, the blood of the Lamb; the only obedience that can save me: the life of Jesus! Lord, credit me with that life and cover me with that blood! Thank you, Lord, for leading me to this place where this message is proclaimed!

Thank you, Lord Jesus; we come to you, our Great Sanctuary Priest! We praise you, and thank you for pleading our case. You alone are worthy of our praise! Write our name in your book of life, cover us with your white robe, and help us to live in your presence every day. Help us to be faithful in our daily devotions; in or Bible study and prayer time. Help us to be faithful, Lord, every day and save us as we eagerly await your return, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

All Scriptural References: New King James Version
Ellen G. White References: www.whiteestate.org

Transcription: Wendy J. Riebel

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