Hebrews 134 August 28, 2008
NKJ Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with
wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not
faint.
We are in a study of Hebrews. In
Hebrews 9 the writer of Hebrews is developing his ongoing doctrines related to
the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is at the very
core of the importance (the core emphasis) of Hebrews because in this section
which begins in chapter 7 and goes through chapter 10, that’s really the heart
of the whole epistle to the Hebrews. The focal point is on understanding the
riches, the depth, the breadth of everything that the Lord Jesus Christ has
done for us. But, what it means for us today in terms of His high priestly
ministry. He has ascended to the right hand of the Father and He is seated at
the right hand which is the Doctrine of the Session.
So the question is - what is the
Lord Jesus Christ doing right now? One of the key things that the Lord Jesus
Christ is doing for each of us is interceding for us. He is involved in intercessory prayer. We are coming to a
part of the Tabernacle tonight –a piece of furniture in the Tabernacle
that specifically looks at this aspect of intercessory prayer. That is the
altar of incense.
The altar of incense speaks of the
Lord Jesus Christ who is our intercessor. We are continuing to study the
Tabernacle because an understanding of the Tabernacle, the rituals that
occurred in the Old Testament in the Tabernacle and the furniture in the
Tabernacle and what each piece of furniture did in terms of how it spoke about
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is crucial for us in order to
understand who He is and what He did. As we look at the Old Testament
background, it will enhance and strengthen our understanding of what is said in
Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10.
So we have a few pictures here. Here
is a depiction of the Tabernacle at night with the pillar of fire indicating
the Shekinah or the dwelling presence of God. We see the organization in the
background of the tribes of Israel, each one according to their tribe, each one
laid out in a very orderly, organized manner. We see the inner tent which is
the main tabernacle itself, the tabernacle proper which is composed of two
compartments – the Holy of Holies and the holy place.
In this schematic, we see the
cutaway here of the Tabernacle itself, the outer veil that the priest would
enter into to go into the outer room, the holy place. In the holy place he would see three pieces of furniture. Each
of these we have spent time studying – two of them at least - the golden
menorah, the candlestick which speaks of Jesus Christ as the light of the
world. On the right side which would be on the north side you have the table of
showbread which has 12 loaves or one each for the 12 tribes of Israel made of
unleavened bread, the furniture itself made with acacia wood covered with gold
depicting the hypostatic union, the undiminished deity and the perfect humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the unleavened bread picturing His
impeccability.
Then in the centerpiece you have the
altar of incense, which is the piece of furniture that is the closest to the
presence of God. A priest would enter in and would first go to the altar to
light the incense or to pray at the altar of incense. This is the closest that
any priest could come to God. The High Priest alone could go into the Holy of
Holies once a year.
Now there’s another thing that I
want to point out as we go through this. Go back. Let me see. I guess we’ll just
start with this schematic. There’s an interesting thing that hit me today as
I’m looking at this overview and what happens when the priest enters into the
Tabernacle, all the way into the Holy of Holies. Think about where he is
headed. He is headed into the presence of God, the closest that any human being
in the Old Testament would ever get to God inside the Holy of Holies. What had
to happen in order for that human being to be able to enter into the presence
of God? That’s what is illustrated in each of these steps. So the first thing
that he would do is he would have to go in and there would be the sacrifice at
the altar (the brazen altar) speaking of the substitutionary atonement work of
Christ. Before anybody could come into the presence of God there has to be a
faith-alone-in-Christ-alone (meaning trusting in His substitutionary
atonement).
The next thing that has to happen is
there had to be a cleansing of the hands and the feet which is a picture of confession
of sin - that ongoing experiential cleansing. There’s a positional cleansing
and a positional forgiveness that takes place at salvation; but in terms of our
day-to-day walk, we sin as we go through our lives so there is an experiential
cleansing that must take place. And, we confess our sins. So the laver depicts that cleansing
that goes on in terms of confession of sin.
Then he would enter into the holy
place. In the holy place he sees three things. On his left is the golden
menorah as I said picturing Christ as the light of the world. But what this
indicates as well as Christ being the light of the world is enlightenment that
comes from the living Word. The Word of God that we have (the Scripture) is the
mind of Christ. So, only when you have come to Christ believed in Him in terms
of substitutionary atonement, then been cleansed of your sin in terms of
confession (I John 1:9) can you come then come into a place of closer
fellowship with God where you have access to enlightenment on the one hand; you
have on the other hand (on the right hand) you have the table of showbread
which depicts fellowship and nourishment; and then straight ahead you have the
altar of incense depicting prayer. So these three objects depict enlightenment,
fellowship with God, nourishment and (fellowship with God) communion with God
in terms of prayer all of which cannot take place unless there has been a prior
trust in the substitutionary atonement and cleansing from sin. It’s a
tremendous picture of how you can’t go anywhere in the Christian life in terms
of learning the Word, applying the Word, having fellowship with God or any kind
of effective prayer unless that’s been preceded by trust in Christ as your
Savior and cleansing from sin in terms of confession.
So I just thought I would bring that
out because it has never quite struck me in that way as you look at these three
objects here as enlightenment from Christ, from the Word of God and fellowship
with the table, and then prayer.
So we looked at the table of showbread
last time in terms of it depicting Christ as our source of nourishment,
depicting fellowship in eating a meal. This time we’re looking at the altar of
incense.
So the key passages (the central
passages) for the altar of incense are found in Exodus 30:1-10 and vv. 34-38. The
altar of incense was three feet high (4 ½ cubits). It’s the smallest of the
objects in that it is only 18 inches square. It was to be one cubit square. A
cubit was approximately 18 inches. Like the table of showbread it was made of
acacia wood, which depicted the perfection of Christ’s humanity. It was covered
in gold, which pictures His undiminished deity. The top of the altar of incense
had a crown molding of gold with a horn on each corner. As you can see in the
picture the horns here are depicted with the blood that was put on the horns
and we’ll look at their symbolism as we go through this. There’s a ring on each
corner, which would allow the poles to pass through in order to carry the
altar. The poles themselves were also made of acacia wood and covered in gold.
In Exodus 30:1 we read:
NKJ Exodus 30:1 "You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you
shall make it of acacia wood.
2 "A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its
width -- it shall be square -- and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall
be of one piece with it.
So it’s an integrated whole.
3 "And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns
with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around.
4 "Two
gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You
shall place them on its two sides,
and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it.
5 "You shall make the
poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
This is a picture of the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
In John 1:14 we read:
NKJ John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.
Verse 1 said:
NKJ John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
This is Jesus Christ in His
pre-incarnate state. In His eternality He is entitled the Word. He is the
revelation of God. That word logos
translated Word is loaded with all kinds of meaning, all shades of meaning. It
means thinking. It means studying. It means communication. It means logic,
rationality. All of these things are embedded within that concept of logos. In
the Old Testament it had a very rich meaning in terms of the expression of God
and the communication of who God is. The Old Testament “word” was memra. If you read this as either a
Gentile or a Jew, it had a tremendous connotation for a Jew especially
understood this in terms of the manifestation of God. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. That word for dwelling here is the Hebrew verb skenao which comes from the Hebrew word Shekinah. You can hear the same
consonants that sibilant s, then the k, and then the n. Skene comes from the
same Shekinah. It means dwelling place
or Tabernacle - same word. The idea here is the Word was made flesh and
tabernacled among us.
NKJ John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.
So it is in these depictions that we
have in the Old Testament in the furniture that we have an understanding of the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I’ve pointed out almost every
time we’ve had a lesson on this, it’s so important to understand this because
in the early church the Gentile church by the late 2nd, 3rd
century 4th century AD had such trouble trying to articulate the
Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union or the unity of the human and divine natures
in Christ when if they had fully understood the Old Testament, they would have
grasped that. But, because the early church (the Gentile church) pretty much
divorced themselves from the Jewish background and from the Jewish church in
the early part of the 2nd century, they lost that rich understanding of the
Jewish backgrounds to understanding the gospels, understanding the life of
Christ and understanding a lot of the nuances that were going on there. So the
altar is made in such a way as it is to depict the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ and His function as a priest, as our high priest in terms of His
intercessory ministry.
Beginning in verse 6 we see the
placement of the altar of incense.
NKJ Exodus 30:6 "And you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet
with you.
So it emphasizes that proximity to
the dwelling place of God between the cherubs on the mercy seat inside the Holy
of Holies.
Now the interesting thing here is
that the preposition here in the Hebrew clearly indicates something literally
in the face of or under the eyes of. It comes to mean in everyday language before
or in front of something. So it’s clearly to be placed in front of the veil. However
in Hebrews 9:3, we looked at the beginning of the study and we’ll look at it
again in detail states that the altar of incense is meta, the Greek preposition - after or behind the veil. There it is
emphasizing the fact that what happens at the altar when the incense in burned,
the incense is drawn into the Holy of Holies where you have the dwelling
presence of God. That’s the emphasis here - is that its function is to bring
the incense into the presence of God as a picture of prayer ascending to God
and going into His presence. This is why the writer of Hebrews uses the
preposition meta - after or behind
the veil because that’s where the incense was designed to go.
This veil indicates that separation
from a holy God, a god who is set apart or distinct. The veil itself which hung
in the Temple (the Second Temple, the Herodian Temple) at the time that Christ
was crucified – that veil was ripped from top to bottom at the time of
the crucifixion and that’s reported in all 3 gospels - in Matthew 27:51, Mark
15:38 and Luke 23:45. Next time we’ll come back and look at the significance of
the veil as we go forward into the Holy of Holies.
The altar of incense is also based
on the heavenly prototype which is referred to in Revelation 8:3 which is very
close to where we’re studying in Revelation right now where the martyrs who are
in heaven are praying to the Lord Jesus Christ that He would bring judgment
(complete the judgment) on the unbelievers, on Satan, the antichrist in the
Tribulation. Of course his response is “not yet.” So that is the altar that is
depicted there in Revelation 8:3.
Now one of the key elements in the
altar of incense is the incense itself and that it was designed to be like
everything else – distinct and unique. It was a specific recipe that’s
given starting in verse 34 and no one else was to make incense according to
this particular recipe.
Exodus 30:34-5 we read:
NKJ Exodus 30:34 And the LORD said to Moses: "Take sweet spices,
stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each.
So they would take an equal amount
of each one. They would grind it up and make a fine powder of it and then blend
it together.
NKJ Exodus 30:35 "You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the
art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.
So it is set apart. It is a specific
recipe of incense and it is specific in its function only in the Tabernacle. Now
this is important because what God is emphasizing in all of this is His
holiness. As I pointed out before, that concept of holiness isn’t the idea of
that which is morally pure or is without sin. It is an idea that - many times
you’ll read theologies that combine both His perfect righteousness and His
justice. But, it goes beyond that because the core meaning of the idea of qadash, which is the Hebrew verb for “to
make holy”, is the idea of set apart or distinct. Perhaps the closest we get in
English is the word unique. It is something that is uniquely oriented to God
and it can’t be used for anything else. So God is emphasizing His uniqueness,
His righteousness, His justice and that you can only come into His presence according
to His stipulations. He has the right to decide what the terms are on which His
creatures will come into His presence. Because He is righteous, He can’t have
fellowship with that which is unrighteous. Therefore His justice will not allow
anyone to come into His presence unless they meet the standard of His
righteousness. That’s what all these things depict - the substitutionary
sacrifice, the cleansing that takes place at the laver. All of this depicts
what is necessary in order for a sinful human being to come into the presence
of God. He defines exactly how this is to occur.
So this incense was made according
to a specific recipe. You weren’t supposed to use just any incense. This
incense couldn’t be used in a profane or common way. People could not use this
same recipe.
In verse 36 the description of how
it was to be made continues.
NKJ Exodus 30:36 "And you shall beat some of
it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of
meeting where I will meet with you.
That would be on the altar of
incense.
It shall be most holy to you.
NKJ Exodus 30:37 "But as for
the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves,
according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the LORD.
How many times have we seen the word
“holy” now? Three times.
The Holy Spirit is saying, “Do you
get the point? How many times do I have to repeat myself to emphasize it?”
Then in verse 38:
NKJ Exodus 30:38 "Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his
people."
Now that seems like a pretty harsh
penalty that if anyone were to duplicate this, then they were to be completely
removed from the people and have no contact with the people. They were to be
completely cut out.
Now let’s go back and look at these different
spices that are used. The first that is mentioned is a word that is unfamiliar
to most of us. It’s the word stacte. This
is a word that is not used in too many other places in the Scripture so we’re
not real sure what it is. It is either a sweet gummy type substance or resin or
it is made from myrrh or it is distilled oil from myrrh. So it is an extremely
valuable, extremely expensive and rare substance.
The second substance that’s
mentioned is onycha. This is made
from the shell of a mollusk - again a rare commodity. When it was burned it
gave off a perfumed fragrance.
The third element that’s mentioned
is galbanum which was also a gum
resin that would emit a somewhat milky sap with a balsamic odor. It was derived
from the Syrian fennel.
Then we have frankincense which is a fragrant white gum that comes from a tree
called the Sali tree found in Arabia. So these substances were mixed together. These
four spices were mixed in equal proportions in order to make the incense.
As the priest would come in, he had
to go through certain preparations before he could come in and deal with
anything in the Holy of Holies in terms of intercessory prayer. So before the
priest could offer the incense of prayer, three requirements had to be met as
I’ve indicated already. First of all he had to minister at the brazen altar. This
is where the blood from the animals was shed – the sacrifices emphasizing
that before anybody can pray they had to come to God on the basis of a
sacrifice.
I just remembered some years ago -
it always seems to happen in some sort of political season, but this was a time
back in – I think it was back in the 70’s. Jimmy Draper was the president of the Southern Baptist
Convention. I think he was a pastor of First Baptist Church up in Oklahoma
City. It might have been back when that farmer from Georgia was running for
president. He was asked if God heard the prayers of Jews.
He said, “No, not unless they are
believers.”
The press just raked him over the
coals. The world does not understand this. They do not want to accept the
exclusivity that we have in the Scripture. That’s what you see depicted again and again in the rituals
of the Tabernacle. God says that there is one and only one way “to come into My
presence.” There is one entrance
into the Tabernacle. There has to be a sacrifice first. There has to be
cleansing second. You can’t come into the presence of God in prayer unless you are
first saved. Someone who hasn’t trusted Christ as their savior can’t get
anywhere in terms of prayer, unless that prayer is related to God showing them
how to get saved and to come into His presence. That’s the only prayer that God
in effect would answer – is a prayer to somehow know about God or know
something more about Him, to know how to come into His presence. So the
sacrifice has to be the shed blood of Christ. This is going to be emphasized
within the passage in Hebrews 9.
The second thing as I pointed out is
there had to be a cleansing from defilement on the part of the priest. This is
described in Exodus 30:18-20. It is a depiction of cleansing from sin at the
time that the priest is first installed in office. They would be washed from
head to toe. That is a picture of the positional or complete cleansing that
occurs for every believer at the instant of salvation. But then each time he
would come into the Tabernacle he would have to wash his hands and wash his
feet. This is emphasized in I John 1:6-10 that we have to come into the
presence of God on the basis of being experientially cleansed and it is the
blood of Christ that continually cleanses us.
Every now and then you run into
people (and there’s a lot of this type of people out there by the way) who
think that you don’t really need to confess your sins in order to have
forgiveness or to come into God’s presence. They’ll go to verses for example
like Ephesians 1:7 and others that talk about the fact that in Him we have
redemption the forgiveness of sins. They don’t make a distinction between
positional forgiveness and experiential forgiveness. So they merge these things
together. You have various people.
There’s a guy up in Dallas and he
may be on the radio here in Houston. I haven’t heard him. His name is Bob
George. He has built his whole ministry on bashing anybody that teaches that you
need to confess your sins. The reason that came to mind is we had a group of
pastors meeting this morning and we were talking about this. Somebody brought
him up that had read his book recently. But you’ll hear him.
“These people confess their sin.”
What you don’t understand is, if you
read through I John 1:6-10, I John 1:7 says that the blood of Jesus continually
cleanses us (present tense) from all sin.
Now what they try to make that mean is that because Jesus has died now
and He’s paid the full penalty for sin that we don’t need to confess our sins: “That’s
just legalism. That’s just ritual. We don’t need to do it. The blood of Christ
cleanses us. That’s it.”
My response is well if the blood of
Christ cleanses us, why did John say just two verses later (two sentences
later):
NKJ 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
It seems to me that if I John 1:7
automatically covered it, then John is inserting something unnecessary just two
verses later. He must be real stupid – just not real bright. He must have
fallen asleep between verse 7 and woke up the next morning and wrote verses 8
and 9.
Then you get other people who come
along (and there are a lot of theologians who’ve taken this position) that
there is a distinction between cleansing and forgiveness.
“So we’re cleansed by the blood of
Christ. That’s all we need.”
Forgiveness only occurs if that has
created a problem with people. They get into some warped and distorted
exegesis. But, they lose sight of these pictures that God has given us in the
Old Testament. They’re used by Jesus.
When Jesus is washing the feet of
the disciples in John 13, He says, “You have all been cleansed (positional
cleansing) except one of you (which was Judas) who wasn’t saved.
But He told Peter, “But, I need to
wash your feet.”
What He’s showing is that in the
washing of the feet that depicts ongoing experiential cleansing. That is
necessary as you go through the Christian life. So you can’t pray unless there
is first of all faith in Christ and secondly cleansing.
Psalm 66:18 says:
NKJ Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.
The word there is the idea “if I
look at or if I see or if I observe or if I am cognizant of – if I’m
thinking about.” “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” It’s
just really clear that God isn’t going to listen to prayer if a person is out
of fellowship or they’re not saved.
Then the third thing that would
happen is the priest would come into the holy place and they would offer this
incense. That is a picture of prayer. They have been cleansed by
substitutionary sacrifice. They have been cleansed by the water, and now as
they’ve entered into the holy place they can have fellowship with God. This is
the idea behind Hebrews 10:22 (which we’ll get into as we go through this next
couple of chapters) which reads:
NKJ Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water.
It picks up on same imagery that
comes out of the Levitical ritual. So it is only when we’re in proper
relationship with God that we can have confidence that He hears our
prayers.
Now as you would go into (as the
priest would go into) the Holy of Holies and he would approach the altar of
incense there were specific procedures that were laid out. These are described
in verses 7 and 8.
NKJ Exodus 30:7 "Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every
morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it.
So he would come in and offer
incense. Then he would trim the lamps on the golden menorah.
NKJ Exodus 30:8 "And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense
on it,
So the incense burns around the
clock, 24-7. There’s the burning of incense indicating the continual
intercessory prayer.
a perpetual
incense before the LORD throughout your generations
Now as he brought the incense in and
he puts it on the altar of incense, he has to light it. It has to be lit. It
has to burn. Where does he get the fire? The fire comes from the sacrificial fire
there at the brazen altar. That fire at the brazen altar depicts the judgment
on the Lord Jesus Christ in His sin. There is only one particular fire that can
be used at the altar of incense. It had to come from the brazen altar. Now
that’s the background for understanding what happens in Leviticus 10. So if you
have a chance just turn over to Leviticus 10 and we’ll just briefly look at the
first two verses.
This has to do with two of Aaron’s
sons, Nadab and Abihu. They are serving as priests in the Tabernacle and they
decide that they can come to God on their own terms and not on God’s terms
– just like so many people think that they can dictate terms to God and
that God has to let them into His presence on their conditions rather than on
God’s conditions.
So in Leviticus 10:1 we read:
NKJ Leviticus 10:1 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his
censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before
the LORD,
Now there’s a picture of the censers
here in the reconstruction of these utensils. That’s what you see in the
background here on the floor at the base of the altar of incense. These were
the tools that were used to blend and to mix up the incense and then the golden
bowl there is the censer that would carry the fire from the altar outside the
tent.
But the fire didn’t come from the
altar. So, that’s saying that there’s another way to deal with sin. That’s what
it depicts. There’s another way to deal with sin other than the way God says to
deal with sin.
“On that basis I’m going to come
into the presence of God.”
So they bring this incense in and
offered profane fire to the Lord. It’s not the sanctified, holy, set apart fire
that comes from the brazen altar.
which He had
not commanded them.
NKJ Leviticus 10:2 So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before
the LORD.
Instantly God incinerates them. They
are just evaporated on the spot from a fire from heaven. God is emphasizing the
fact at the beginning of that particular dispensation which was the
dispensation of the Mosaic Law in the Old Testament that you can’t define your
relationship with God on your own terms.
You see the same kind of thing
happen somewhere else in the Bible, don’t you? Where? When you get into Acts
and you have the situation where – what are their names? Ananias and
Sapphira (very good, just testing you) – the first one slain in the
Spirit. They say that they sold their land and they gave all the money to the
church and they only gave part of it. They lied about it to the Holy Spirit and
so God instantly executed them. Now He doesn’t do that with every believer that
lies down through the Church Age and He didn’t take out every priest that
violated the standards in the Old Testament either. You can think about the two
sons of Eli and all the horrible things that they did and God did not execute
them either. But at the very beginning when God establishes His pattern, when
there is a violation God lowers the boom in harsh discipline in order to
emphasize that His rules, His laws are not to be changed or manipulated. So in
verse 2 God executed them and they died before the Lord.
The other thing that we point out in
this particular verse is that Aaron enters in twice a day offering the incense.
Now that is not a mandate. There is not a mandate there. You can’t build a
doctrine on that and say that it means that you need to be getting up every
morning and praying and that you need to pray again in the evening. What it is,
is a picture of continual prayer that should characterize a believer’s life. For
example in I Thessalonians 5:17, we’re told to pray without ceasing. (In the
Greek that’s the shortest verse in the Bible, not the verse over in John 11
(Jesus wept). That’s actually three words in the Greek. This is the shortest
verse in the Greek (I Thess 5:17)). We are to pray continuously, not that
you’re always talking to God, but it is to characterize ongoing prayer. See a
number of examples though in the Scripture of those who got up early in the
morning to pray.
This is always good for you morning
people. Those of you who aren’t morning people, you just hate this.
I remember when I was a counselor at
Camp Peniel; I guess I always liked being a morning person. We always had to
get up early before you would start your day, which would usually entail all
kinds of things. You get all distracted. The staff would have a time set aside
for prayer and Bible reading. To begin every day we would have to get up extra
early to do that. There were always a few people who just weren’t morning
people and they just hated it.
“How can God want us to pray early
in the morning?”
Well, it’s not a mandate so you get
off there. But you have a number of people - even our Lord would get up early
in the morning because it’s a time when there are no distractions yet. That’s
always my favorite time before the phone starts ringing – about 9 o’clock
and doesn’t stop until 9 o’clock at night. You get that time when there are no
interruptions. Nothing is going on yet. You can spend that time quietly in
prayer and reading through the Scriptures. The Lord did that a tremendous
amount of times. He would get off by Himself.
One of my favorite stories out of
church history had to do with John Wesley’s mother. She had (I think) 19
children. Now how in the world if you have 19 children – there’s always a
screaming baby in the house – are you ever going to find the time to have
the time to be quiet before the Lord, to pray, to read the Scriptures? So
Susanna Wesley had a signal. That was back in the days (if you don’t know your
history) when women wore a lot of petticoats under their dresses. So what she
would do, she would take her outer dress and she would pull it up over her head
(not the whole thing.) She’s got like layers of petticoats underneath. She
would pull that outer layer up over her head and so all these children
(everybody in the house) would know that it was her time to pray. They were to
leave her alone.
So sometimes it’s hard to find that
time to be alone and get away from the distractions. But, you have to be
creative and figure out a way to do it. So the emphasis here is on the
believer’s to intercede continually.
Now in Leviticus 16:13 we have
another description of what the high priest did.
NKJ Leviticus 16:13 "And he shall put the incense on the fire before
the LORD, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die.
So the “otherwise he will die” is if
he doesn’t like the incense. So this is very important and it depicts that
prayer going before the presence of the Lord, which is indicated by the Mercy
Seat.
Exodus 30:9 says:
NKJ Exodus 30:9 "You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a
burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it.
The idea there is of course there’s
only one way to God and He defines that particular way. Everything is done
according to very precise regulations.
We’ve already seen verses 37 and 38 that the recipe was not to be
duplicated for anything else.
When the priest went in, he was to
take with him the blood from the sacrifice at the brazen altar and then he
would put that blood on the four horns of the altar. Those four horns of the
altar depict the four corners of the earth. I talked about that Sunday morning
in Revelation and that is just something related to the directions or the
compass – the four cardinal directions – north, south, east and
west. It’s an indication of intercessory prayer and prayer for the world that
God’s desire is that all men be saved.
In the Old Testament, Israel had a
missionary program. They were to take the gospel to the Gentiles, not in the
way that the church is by going out – but they were to have a witness to
the Gentiles as Gentiles came to Israel. There were numerous Gentiles that were
saved throughout the Old Testament. You have an example the Menahem the
Assyrian in Elisah’s time. You have the Ninevites at the time of Jonah. You
have Rehab, Ruth, numerous Gentiles who got saved in the Old Testament.
So God was very clear as to what the
correct procedures were at the altar of incense. Now the horns of the altar
(this blood sacrifice) were important for emphasizing that the way to prayer is
paved by the shedding of blood. If you look at Hebrews 9, we learn that it is
on the basis of Christ’s work on the cross that we have access to the Father
described by the blood of Christ. If you look at Hebrews 9 starting in verse
11:
NKJ Hebrews 9:11 But Christ came as
High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
NKJ 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.
So the picture is of that blood that
provides the basis for going into the presence of God. Now prayer is a special
privilege that God has given us. In the Old Testament they could not come into
the presence of God except through a priest and through these different aspects
of ritual. But in the New Testament, we have direct access to God. Every
believer has direct access to God on the basis of Christ’s having torn away the
veil and opened up access to God. So prayer is something that we should not
take lightly, especially the type of prayer known as intercessory prayer. We pattern
that understanding of intercessory prayer on what Christ does for us. Christ is
referred to as our intercessor. He is our intercessor and there are two key
passages (two central passages) for understanding the intercessory ministry of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The first is in Romans 8 – Romans 8:33-4. In the
context of Romans 8:33-34, Paul is talking about the privileges that we have as
believers and the security that we have as believers in the love of God.
He says in verse 31:
NKJ Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
NKJ Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Then he says:
NKJ Romans 8:33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Then we come to our passage. See
what we’ve talked about so far is the security of the believer, haven’t we? That
every person who has trusted in Jesus Christ is secure in his salvation.
Who can bring a charge against him? No
one can bring a charge against him because those sins have been paid for at the
cross. When you put your faith alone in Christ alone, at that instant God
imputes to you the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and declares you to be
just. That is the doctrine of Justification by Faith. You are not made
righteous. That is the Roman Catholic idea of infused righteous. You are
declared righteous. You are still a sinner. Your sin nature is just as active the day after you’re saved
as it was the day before you were saved. You are not made holy or moral. You
are legally given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is the basis for the
doctrine of Justification. So because you are declared just, it’s not on the
basis of anything you’ve done but on the work of Christ on the cross and His
righteousness you can’t be condemned.
So Paul goes on to say in verse 34:
NKJ Romans 8:34 Who is he
who condemns? It is Christ who died,
and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
makes intercession for us.
So the intercessory ministry of
Christ in this passage is connected to what doctrine? Security – the
security of the believer in his salvation. Now that’s an important thing to
observe here – that the focus of that intercession is related to our
security despite our sin or any sin that we might have. Now intercession is a
broader category, and within that we have a subcategory known as the advocacy
of Christ. Jesus Christ is our advocate. That is a legal term meaning that He
is our defense attorney so that whenever we are charged with anything, He
defends us. This is the idea in I John 2:1-2.
John writes:
NKJ 1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not
sin.
Oops! You might sin. I know some of
you and you will
And if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father,
See that’s part of Christ’s
intercessory ministry. He stands there in our stead. He is our defense
attorney.
Jesus Christ the righteous.
Because it is His righteousness. The
reason John says it is Jesus Christ the righteous is because it’s Christ
righteousness that’s the basis for our salvation, not our sin or lack of it. Then
he connects it to a very interesting aspect of Christ’s work on the cross.
NKJ 1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Now propitiation is a word that has
dropped out of usage in contemporary English. But it is a time-honored word;
and it’s a good word. It’s become a technical theological word and it’s one
that should be learned. It means satisfaction. It has to do with justice. Once
again it’s a judicial term (a courtroom term), and it means that God’s justice
is satisfied by something that has been done. What has been done is Christ paid
the penalty in full so that the righteous standard of God is met and God’s
justice is satisfied. A penalty has been paid for sin.
A person has to have three things
done in order to get into heaven. The first thing that has to happen is the
legal penalty for sin has to be paid. The wages of sin is death and at the
instant that Adam first sinned, he died spiritually. He was separated from God
and he could no longer have a relationship with God or understand the things of
God. That status of spiritual death is passed on to every descendent of Adam
that is born of man so that Paul can say in Ephesians 2:1 that we are born dead
in our trespasses and sins. We are alive physically, but we are dead
spiritually. But the penalty for death in terms of its universal judgment of
spiritual death was paid for by Christ on the cross. So it can be said that Christ
died equally for all men. He paid the penalty for every sin including the sin
of unbelief. That’s not any different. If you are going to exclude the sin of
unbelief - the only reason the people want to include the sin of unbelief is
they misunderstand the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in Matthew 12, which I
pointed out is a unique sin for Israel and has to do with their rejection of
Christ as Messiah. It doesn’t mean that they can’t be saved. It just means that
the nation is still going to go through the 70 AD judgment.
Okay. So that first thing is paid
for by Christ on the cross. That’s the objective payment for sin. It’s universal.
It’s what’s referred to as unlimited atonement.
But, two other things have to happen
because experientially we’re born dead. So, we have to have life. We’re born
unrighteous so we have to have righteousness. When we trust in Christ, then God
imputes the righteousness to us and we’re declared just and when we are
declared just simultaneously He gives to us the life of Christ. We have eternal
life. So what limits the application of the atonement is volition. If you trust
in Christ, then you’ll be born again or regenerated and you’ll receive the
imputation of righteousness and be justified. If that’s happened, then because
you are justified and born again, Jesus Christ continually intercedes for us.
Now the second great passage on
Christ’s intercessory ministry is in Hebrews 7:23-25. In Hebrews 7:23-25 we
read:
NKJ Hebrews 7:23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from
continuing.
That would be the Levitical priests.
If you remember, in Hebrews 7 the argument was that Christ is not a Levitical
or Aaronic priest; but He is of the order of Melchizedek a distinct order of
priest, a priest that can apply not just to Israel but to all mankind. Melchizedek
was a Gentile.
The former priests on the one hand
existed in great numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing. But
Jesus on the other hand because He continues forever holds His priesthood
permanently.
NKJ Hebrews 7:24 But He, because He continues forever, has an
unchangeable priesthood.
NKJ Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost
those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession
for them.
He’s going to save them what?
Forever. That’s eternal security. So once again intercession is related to eternal
security.
Now the word that is translated
intercession comes from two different Greek words. The basic word is entynchano and it’s intensified with the
preposition huper – hyperentynchano. They have the idea of
meeting someone, turning to someone, petitioning, praying, interceding,
pleading with someone. That’s the basic idea. It is used a number of ways in
terms of the human sense. Paul was pleading with Festus who was the procurator
or proconsul in Israel – Roman proconsul.
NKJ Acts 25:24 And Festus said: "King Agrippa and all the men who are here present
with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned
me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any
longer.
That’s that word for intercession. The
Jews were petitioning Festus to punish Paul.
Romans 8:26-27 talks about the Holy
Spirit that He’s the one who interceded for the saints. So the Holy Spirit
intercedes for the saints.
NKJ Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For
we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself
makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
NKJ Romans 8:27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for
the saints according to the will of God.
Then Romans 8:34 which we just
looked at… Romans 11:2 talked
about Elijah pleading with God against Israel – same word for
intercession; and then our passage in Hebrews 7:25. So it’s the idea of pleading
with God.
Now there’s an argument among
theologians whether the presence of Christ in heaven is enough or whether He is
verbally articulating His prayer. I would say on the basis of the Romans 8
passage where the Holy Spirit is interceding for us because we don’t know how
to pray that that indicates a verbal articulation of the intercessory prayer.
It’s not just Christ’s physical presence in heaven as our interceder, but He is
praying specifically for us.
We have an example of His prayer in
John 17. So I want you to turn with me and in our closing minutes I’m going to
summarize John 17 for you which is the real Lord’s prayer, not that prayer over
near the beginning of Christ’s ministry where He’s taught His disciples to pray
– “our Father who art in heaven”. That’s the disciple’s prayer. This is the real Lord’s Prayer.
It emphasizes His intercession for us. It begins in verse 1.
NKJ John 17:1 Jesus spoke these words,
This is when He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane –
excuse me, when He gets aside from Himself on the way to the garden on the way
over across the Kidron
lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father,
the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
There’s a lot that Jesus says in
this chapter that is not related to a request. He is praying to the Father in
terms of Himself, but He makes several specific requests in terms of the
disciples. But He also states specifically in verse 20 that theses prayers are
not just for these, but for those who “believe in Me through their word.”
So let’s look at what He says. In
verse 11 and 12 you have the first petition that relates to the disciples and
to us.
NKJ John 17:11 "Now I am no longer in the world, but these are
in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom
You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
The Greek word is tereo. This is a word that is used in
several places related to eternal security. It means to keep or to guard - to
protect. So it is a prayer related to keeping and eternal security.
He says in verse 12:
NKJ John 17:12 "While I was with them in the world, I kept them
Same word, tereo.
in Your name.
Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of
perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
That was a title for Judas Iscariot.
He is called the son of perdition because he was lost. The same Greek word
that’s translated perdition is the word that is translated “those who are
perishing” in John 3:16. So he was never a believer.
In verse 13 we read:
NKJ John 17:13 "But now I come to You, and these things I speak
in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
So the first request is related to
maintaining security – keeping them. Second request is related to joy. Then
the third request is in verse 15.
NKJ John 17:15 "I do not pray that You should take them out of
the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
This is the idea that we cannot be
returned back into Satan’s domain. We are transferred from the domain of Satan
into the kingdom of His Beloved Son at the instant of our salvation. So, this
idea in verse 15 is that we are kept from Satan. Again, it relates to eternal
security.
Then we have another request in
verse 17.
NKJ John 17:17 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
So it’s a prayer for our spiritual
growth and advance.
Then in verse 22 we read:
NKJ John 17:22 "And the glory which You gave Me I have given
them, that they may be one just as We are one:
Now this is a verse that’s often
taken out of context and people use that to talk about experiential unity in
the body.
“Oh, we just need to be one.
Christians are so divided. Christ prayed that we would be one. If you look at
the context, He’s talking about being united in glorification which is again
related to eternal security. He’s not talking about experiential unity in that
particular text. He says starting in verse 20:
NKJ John 17:20 " I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe
in Me through their word;
NKJ John 17:21 "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also
may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
NKJ John 17:22 "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,
that they may be one just as We are one:
It’s related to glorification
ultimately. So conclusion – that in the themes of His intercessory prayer
in John 17, a dominant theme is security and keeping the believer. He’s praying
for our spiritual growth. He’s praying that our joy may be full. But in at least three of the requests
He is focusing on aspects related to keeping us, guarding us, protecting us
from the evil one and bringing us all into heaven in a unified body of
believers which will occur at the rapture.
So the intercessory ministry of Jesus
is incredibly important. We’ve seen in Romans 8 it’s related to eternal
security. Hebrews 7 it’s related to eternal security. And in His high priestly
intercessory prayer in John 17 it is related to other things, but eternal
security is a primary element in it. So this is a focal point and it goes up
continuously as is indicated in the picture of the altar of incense.
Next time we’ll come back we’ll look
at the next aspect of the Tabernacle. We’ll get into the veil and then to the
Ark of the Covenant.
Let’s bow our heads in closing
prayer.