Our Lord’s Entrance Beyond the Veil

Our Lord’s Entrance Beyond the Veil

July 12th, 1981 @ 10:50 AM

Hebrews 9:1-25

Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
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THE ENTRANCE OF OUR LORD BEYOND THE VEIL

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Hebrews 9

7-12-81    10:50 a.m.

 

 

 

 

With infinite gladness we welcome you who are sharing this hour on radio and on television.  All the members of the congregation here in the First Baptist Church, praise the Lord with you for the grace and goodness of Christ that has been extended down to us.  In your Bible, turn to the ninth chapter of the Book of Hebrews and keep it open there for the message; Hebrews chapter 9. 

 

We are reaching the end of the long doctrinal series on Christology, the doctrine of Christ.  In these last several Sundays, we have spoken of The Entrance Of Our Lord Into Suffering, His atoning death; The Entrance Of Our Lord Into The Grave; The Entrance Of Our Lord Into Resurrection Life; The Entrance Of Our Lord Into Heaven; and today the message is entitled The Entrance of Our Lord Beyond the Veil, within the veil.  In the ninth chapter of the Book of Hebrews, he picks up a theme that he has introduced in chapter 6, verses 18 and 19.  He speaks of our strong consolation:

 

 

 

We who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

 

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

 

Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus Christ, our High Priest.

 

[Hebrews 6:18-20]

 

 

 

Now in the ninth chapter of the Book of Hebrews he expatiates at great length upon the entrance of our Lord into the veil.  The first ten verses describe what he calls the worldly sanctuary [Hebrews 9:1], kosmikos, the “earthly” sanctuary.  The first covenant had ordinances of divine service and a kosmikos sanctuary, an earthly sanctuary made in pattern after the one in heaven, our heavenly and eternal sanctuary [Hebrews 8:5].  And this one down here in the earth is like that one up there in heaven.  Then he describes that kosmikos sanctuary, the tabernacle , and the verses that follow after describe its furniture, its vessels [Hebrews 9:1-6], and then the Day of Atonement when once each year the high priest with blood of bulls and goats entered into the Holy of Holies [Hebrews 9:7].

 

Then in verse 11, he describes Christ who is come, of whom all of those pictures and figures in the tabernacle did adumbrate.  And there He enters into the Holy of Holies to obtain redemption for us beyond the veil [Hebrews 6:19-20, 9:11-14].  And so the rest of the chapter bespeaks what Christ has wrought for us in that eternal redemption beyond that beautiful and sacred tapestry [Hebrews 9:15-28].

 

The tabernacle and the Leviticus sacrifices of the Old Testament were types, and pictures, and figures, and adumbrations of the atoning work of our Lord.  God is teaching us in pictorial form what He is preparing to do for our salvation, and He is teaching us the nomenclature, the vocabulary of heaven.  We talk in terms down here of fields, and fruits, and business, and investments, and houses, and homes.  That’s our language here.

 

The language of heaven is propitiation, and atonement, and expiation, and altar, and sacrifice, and intercession.  And God taught us the meaning of those words in types and in figures just as we teach our children.  We have pictures and these pictures represent something that we’re teaching the child.  And it has a name and we teach the child the words. Thus God did with us in the kosmikos sanctuary, in the tabernacle down here in this earth. 

 

So He names the tabernacle.  There is a gate into the court, and on the inside of the gate there’s the brazen altar of sacrifice.  Then beyond, the laver; then the door into the sanctuary, then the Holy Place.  To the south on the left is the seven-branched lampstand of gold.  On the right to the north is the table of showbread.  Directly in front and before the veil is the golden altar of incense.  Then the tapestry in between, and beyond the veil, the presence of God; the ark of the covenant, the propitiatory, the mercy seat, and the cherubim whose overarching wings touched as they look full down upon the mercy seat of God [Hebrews 9:2-6].

 

Without fail, without exception, in the Old Testament God is always pictured as being separated, as being hidden.  Our sins have divided between us and God [Isaiah 59:2].  He is on one side of the tapestry, and we are on the other side.  Just once a year did a representative man, the high priest, lift up the veil and enter in that sanctum sanctorum with blood of expiation [Hebrews 9:7].   All of the feasts, and festivals, and holy days of the Jewish nation were glad.  They were happy days.  They were joyous days.  Just one day out of the year the Levitical code demanded that they afflict their souls, the judgment of God upon sin.  Today they call that Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  And on that day the representative man with blood appeared before the Lord [Leviticus 16:1-34]. 

 

The teaching of the Scripture in that tabernacle is very faithful to the reality of God.  He is hidden from us.  He is on the other side of the curtain.  Our sins have divided us from Him. 

 

Isaiah so eloquently described it in the first verse of his fifty-ninth chapter:

 

 

 

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

 

But your sins have separated between you and your God, and your iniquities have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.

 

[Isaiah 59:1-2]

 

 

 

God is always presented in the Old Testament as hidden, as separate, beyond the veil, on the other side of the curtain.  But at the same time there is a beautiful visual and pictorial adumbration, promise of an entrance, access within.  Do you notice, do you notice that the separation is not a brick wall?  It is not even made of cedar wood overlaid with pure gold, but it is a veil [Exodus 26:31-33].  It is a tapestry, it is a curtain; it can be lifted.

 

Inwoven into that tapestry are figures of cherubim [Exodus 26:31].  And again without exception wherever in the Bible cherubim appear, they are figures and symbols of God’s grace, and mercy, and loving forgiveness.  Not only was the division between God and sinful man a tapestry, but it could be lifted.  And once a year it was lifted; it was raised for the high priest to enter in, the representative man [Hebrews 9:7].  And that is an adumbration, a token, a promise, that some day a way of access would be manifested.

 

So it is that the author of the Book of Hebrews comes to the eleventh verse and speaks of the marvelous, and startling, and wonderful fulfillment of all of those pictures and types in Jesus our Lord.  He has come, our representative man, our High Priest, and in the tabernacle not made with hands, there in heaven beyond the veil; not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered in once into that Holy of Holies to obtain eternal redemption for us [Hebrews 9:11-12].

 

And that is the amazing story of the coming of God, incarnate in flesh into this world [Hebrews 10:5-10], and He stands with us on this side of the veil.  Though He is Lord and though He is God, He does not stand on that side of the veil, He stands on this side of the veil with us.  He is in our place, sinful men and women; He is standing with us.  The sacrifice of our Lord was on this side of the veil.  The altar was in the court [Exodus 29:37, 42] and when the sin offering was made to God, the body was burned outside the gate, outside the camp [Leviticus 4:12].  Thus our Lord was sacrificed on this side of the veil, where we are, and He suffered outside the gate [John 19:20; Hebrews 13:12], outside the camp, and between Him and the Father hung that tapestry dark and heavy.  He cried, “My God, Eli, why, lama sabachthani, hast Thou forsaken Me?” [Matthew 27:46].  And the light of the world went out.  The sun refused to shine [Matthew 27:45].  Christ, our representative man, in sacrifice on this side of the veil [Hebrews 9:11-14].

 

Then the marvel of salvation in the tenth chapter, the next chapter of Hebrews, verse 20, in the sacrifice of our Lord there is a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, in order that we might have access to God through the veil; that is to say, His flesh [Hebrews 10:20].  When our Lord’s body was torn, when our Lord was sacrificed, the veil was rent in twain, not from bottom to top as though a man had pulled it apart, but from top to bottom as though God had done it [Matthew 27:51].

 

And in the torn flesh, in the broken body, in the sacrifice of our Lord, the veil between us and God was rent in two.  Had it just been lifted, it could have fallen back again.  But being torn and rent it hangs limp on each side, and the way into heaven is open and clear; unobstructed, the sinful man and God through the veil of the flesh of the sacrifice of our Lord [Hebrews 10:20].  And our Lord entered into the sanctuary of heaven, not with the blood of bulls and of goats, but with His own blood, to make atonement, “at-one-ment,” for us and God