Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 2 * BOOK 51
For Lost Mankind – Death and Judgement – Part 2
Hebrews 9:15 – 10:1a
We appreciate so much how your letters express you’re studying with us and you’re sitting down over a cup of coffee or whatever the case may be and I think 99 and 9/10 percent of our letters say, ‘Dear Les and Iris.’ And that’s as it should be. I just couldn’t do it without her. I thank God for her every morning. And so we appreciate the fact that you out there in television know that she’s part and parcel of this.
As you know we try never to attack anyone as we teach. All we want to do is just open up the Scriptures and let the Lord do the work. Before we start. I’m going to read part of a precious letter we got the other day. I read it to a couple of my classes here in Oklahoma.
“Dear Les, I’m writing this letter to let you know what your teaching has done for me and my family. My husband has been watching you for years. But I was lost. Very much an agnostic. A college educated unbeliever who scoffed at my husband’s faith. I don’t know how he could stand me. When our second child was born I was up many early mornings and that’s when I first heard you. And you shook me up. I had already been searching for God but not in the right places. You shined a light on God’s Word and led me home.”
How much better can you put it? And those are the kind of letters that I literally weep over. I can’t help it, to think that God can use just an old farmer to bring people to a knowledge of salvation. And this isn’t the only moving letter, as we get them every day. And we just have to give the Lord the praise for it.
Okay, drop in at chapter 9 in Hebrews and verse 20. Again, we like to also call your attention to our Web site (www.lesfeldick.org). My, how that Internet audience is growing around the world. I wish I could get Matt on TV someday, but I don’t think I’ll ever succeed. You see Matt McGee works here in Tulsa and he does our whole Web site. Now he’s got some help as Robert Pennybaker is now helping him, and then we have a gentleman up in Minnesota, Carl Matheson, who also works with Matt on it. And naturally we have Jerry and Lorna Pool and Sharon Martin who do all the transcribing of the books and get things ready for the printer. But anyhow these have all made our Web site what it is – Thank You!
Okay, Hebrews chapter 9 dropping in at verse 21 where we just left off in the last lesson. The blood is the basis for everything in God’s dealing with man’s sin. It’s the price of redemption. Now I think before I go any further here, I’ve been saying over and over since we started Hebrews that we don’t have the plan of salvation per se in Hebrews like you do in Romans 10:9-10, for example. And some of the other places in Paul’s epistles, like I Corinthians 15:1-4, and I Thessalonians 4:14. Paul does not make as big a deal of the blood back in those church epistles as he does in Hebrews but that doesn’t mean he ignores it.
Let’s just go back and review a little bit. Come back with me to Romans chapter 3, and these great salvation verses, the likes of which, like I said, you won’t find in Hebrews. Hebrews is a special diet – if you really want to go in and just feast on some extraordinary things, then you go to Hebrews. But, for the plan of salvation, for the daily life of a Christian and so forth, then of course, we stay with Paul’s church epistles.
Romans 3:23
“For all (the whole human race) have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Because we’re sons of Adam. Now verse 24, and here comes the promise!
Romans 3:24-25a
“Being justified freely by his grace through (what?) the redemption (paying the price) that is in Christ Jesus: 25. Whom God (the Father) hath set forth to be a propitiation (that’s a big word meaning ‘the place of sacrifice as well as THE sacrifice.’ He’s it all.) through faith in his (what?) blood,…” Here it comes, see? The blood is the price of redemption. And when we place our faith in His death, burial and resurrection then it is a given that we are also placing our faith in that shed blood as payment for our sin debt. Now verse 26.
Romans 3:26
“To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and be the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Now that includes His death, burial and resurrection – but never forget the shed blood. All right, let’s come over to another one in Ephesians chapter 2. I always like to start at verse 11, because see here again, what a difference from Hebrews. Hebrews is talking to Jews who’d been under the Law for centuries. But the Gentiles are just now coming into the picture with Paul’s apostleship. And so he reminds us:
Ephesians 2:11a
“Wherefore remember, (call to mind) that ye (Gentiles) being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision…”(that is by the Jew.) Now verse 12,
Ephesians 2:12
“That at that time (while God was dealing with Israel under the Law) ye (Gentiles) were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, without God in the world.”
That was the lot of the Gentile world. They were hopelessly lost. Only Israel was under that economy of Law. But the next word is what? “But.” The flipside! We’re no longer in that darkened area. We are now on this side of the Cross so the flipside is:
Ephesians 2:13
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who were at one time far off are made nigh (that is to God,) by the blood of Christ.”
By the blood! You can’t cancel that out. You can’t throw that aside and say that’s a slaughterhouse religion. Sorry. Call it what you will but God demands faith in that shed blood – as we said in the last program, “It’s the blood that purges us from our sin.” And if you’re going to cast that aside, you’re in trouble. That’s all there is to it. You’re in trouble. I always have to come back to this – I know a gentleman who was trying to show his brother-in-law what the Scripture said in plain English and his brother-in-law looked at it and said, “But I don’t believe that.” And George said, “Then you’re in trouble.”
Well put, right? Then you’re in trouble. If you can’t believe what The Book says when it’s directed to us Gentiles then we’ve got a problem! All right so, the blood of Christ is what brought us nigh to God. Now then, we can come back again to Hebrews and after Moses has now introduced this whole blood concept, not just with sprinkling the altar; not just with sprinkling the Ark of the Covenant – but He sprinkled everything, including the people – and the reason is in verse 22.
Hebrews 9:22
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
That’s what The Book says. And that’s what I always call ‘the absolute’ – the last half of this verse, and you’ve heard me teach it over and over. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” Now in the Old Testament economy, it had to be animals. But as we saw earlier in chapter 9, the blood of animals couldn’t take away sin. It was just a shadow.
I read an interesting thing on the shadow. You know, we see this term all the time that this is a shadow of things that were coming. Well, I had a pretty good idea what it meant but I like this description even better. This gentleman had a big tall pine tree in the back yard and his friend wanted to buy it, to cut it up for lumber. So they were out there looking at it and the sun was shining brightly. And the guy asked $150-200 for that pine tree. The potential buyer said, “That’s more than I want to pay.” “Well,” the owner replied, “I’ll sell you the shadow for $50.” See? Well what was the shadow? It was the likeness. It had the same dimensions with the sun shining in the right way. But hey, it wasn’t the tree.
And then you can take it a little bit further. Sometimes we use the word ‘image.’ The image of things. All right. You could have taken a camera up to that tree and taken a few pictures, then you would have been able to determine by the bark and the leaves and the shape what kind of a tree it was. Well, are you going to buy a picture for $200 bucks? No. Because that picture won’t build anything. But you see, this is exactly what you have to understand. That when we speak of the Law simply being the shadow of things to come, it in itself had no substance. But, when the Truth came, then God expects the human race to latch on to it.
All right, so “Without the shedding of blood.” All the way from Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3 to Cain and Able in chapter 4 and on up through the Old Testament, until we get to the night of the Passover – the lamb’s blood had to be applied to the doorpost or the death angel would strike. And that then became the beginning of the whole system of Judaism or the Mosaic Covenant of Law. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Thousands of animals were killed every year and that blood was shed to placate a Holy God, but it couldn’t take away their sin.
And for that reason the Old Testament believer, even the best of them, David, Moses, they couldn’t go into God’s presence. Their sin was never atoned for. It was only covered with animal blood and so they, too, had to wait down in Paradise [in the center of the earth where Christ went (Matthew 12:40 and then Luke 16) until Christ had shed His perfect, sinless, atoning blood.]. So whether you’re dealing with Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3 or whether you’re dealing with you and I today in 2002 – “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.” It’s an absolute.
God will not even look at someone who tries to approach Him without the shed blood. Now what percentage of Christendom does that take in? A big bunch of them. Most of them don’t want to even think of the blood. I told you several programs back – I remember back in the 1960’s, one of my friends up in Iowa was all shook up (and I’m not even sure he was a believer) because his denomination had called in the hymn books. Later, they issued new ones with all reference to ‘the blood’ taken out. A whole denomination. Well, you see, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But I’ve got news for them. ‘Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.’ It’s impossible. All right, let’s move on.
Hebrews 9:23
“It was therefore (see? Because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin) necessary (it had to be) that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; (that is with blood) but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” There it is again. See the comparison? Oh, the heavenlies. The sanctuary. And that Holy of Holies, into which Christ went after the order of Melchisedec, had to be better than everything that was taking place down in Jerusalem, the Temple or the Tabernacle. And so, the heavenlies had to be purified with ‘better’ blood sacrifices than the animals. And so what was it? The blood of Christ!
I just thank the Lord that we get very little opposition, but when I taught back in Genesis that Eve was in Adam, that shook people up. And then I pointed out that she had to be in order to be part and parcel of ‘the fall.’ And that the Seed of the woman would one day come, in the person of Christ, of course, and be the Redeemer, the Savior of mankind. And I pointed out that the mother’s blood never courses through the baby in the womb. And oh, that shakes some people up. They just can’t comprehend something like that and I come back with this answer. If Mary’s blood would have coursed through the baby Jesus in the womb, would He have had sinless, perfect, Divine blood? No. He couldn’t have, because Mary was just as human as anybody else.
But, Mary’s blood did not course through the infant Jesus in the womb. His blood originated as blood does in all mammals – livestock and everything – it begins with the what? The sire. The father. And so, since God was the Father, the Divine blood of Christ originated with God Himself. And oh, listen, without that, you’ve got a mighty weak theology. Because it had to be the sinless, Divine, perfect blood sacrifice to satisfy the heavenlies. It all makes sense, see?
God is even in charge of the physiology of the human being in order to fulfill His theological things. I always remember old Dr. M. R. DeHaun – many of you remember listening to him on the radio – and one of his premises was that the blood of the mother could never course through the infant or you would not have a Divine blood in the Savior. He had another one that I hope to bring up a little later. All right now verse 24,
Hebrews 9:24a
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true;…”
He didn’t go into the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. He didn’t go back behind the veil in the little tent in the wilderness. Oh, the Shekinah Glory stood above it, I know that. But, Christ didn’t go behind the veil and present His blood in an earthly Temple or and earthly Tabernacle, which were figures, or types, or pictures of the true. But, verse 24 reading on:
Hebrews 9:24b
“…but (he went) into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;”
I didn’t sleep much last night because I go over all these all night long. And it just kept ringing in my ears – come back a few pages in Hebrews. Let’s see, I’ll have to look a second. Chapter 4 just kept ringing in my ears all night long. And it’s just a statement that is put a little differently than what we normally think of at His ascension. I don’t know why, maybe it won’t strike anybody else the way it does me but I just love this particular word.
Hebrews 4:14a
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens….”
I don’t know why but that word ‘passed’ means to me just a great sweep. With just a great sweep of power and glory He passed into the heavens. Am I making my point?
But you see, it just tells me something. That when He ascended into the Heavens (and I think with that sample of His blood with Him), that He’s now going to present it not to the Temple there in Jerusalem but into that Holy of Holies in the presence of God Himself. And He passed into the Heavens. All right, coming back now then to Hebrews chapter 9:
Hebrews 9:24
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; (or the picture of the true) but (He has passed) into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God (for what purpose?) for us.” For us! See, that’s why we get as part of our salvation the word ‘substitute.’ He became our substitute. He took our place. First and foremost on the Cross. He died the death that you and I should have died. He was our substitute. And now He’s in the presence of God for the same reason. He’s our substitute. He’s there in our place. And all the glory of God is funneled down to us through Him. Oh, I think we’re getting through to people.
You see, to enter into this kind of relationship doesn’t mean that I’ve got to walk around ‘holier than thou,’ wrapping my Pharisaical cloak around me. No. That’s not what we’re talking about. Nothing thrills me more than when someone calls and says something like, “Les, yesterday a fellow came into my office and started asking questions, and I could share The Gospel with him.” Well, that’s just being ordinary, isn’t it? You don’t have to be out there putting on some kind of a ‘holier than thou’ front. We’re just ordinary people. I’m just an ordinary cowman. I make no apology for it. But, I can revel in that Grace of God all day, all night for this very reason, because my substitute is right there in the presence of God pleading my case.
The same way with these women who have had a horrible past. Forget that past and come into the present, that Christ Jesus is now representing us, not our past. Our present, washed and cleansed, as only the blood of Christ can do it. All right, verse 25.
Hebrews 9:25a
“Nor yet that he should offer himself (what’s the next word?) often….” What does that mean? Well, again, flash back to the Old Testament economy. That’s what He’s doing. How many days a week did the priests minister there in the Temple or the in Tabernacle before that? Every day. Non-stop. They had courses of the priesthood so that that could be going on constantly. The Day of Atonement – once a year. But how many years? For as many years as the Law was in vogue. What 1500? Every year. The same thing – over and over and over. But this priest – He appeared in the Heavenlies on our behalf – once! See?
Hebrews 9:25-26a
“Not yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood (animal’s blood) of others; 26. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world:…” If that was the case – if His priesthood wasn’t different. But it is! It’s totally different.
Hebrews 9:26b
“…But now, once in the end of the world….” (ages)
I’ve got this underlined in every Bible I’ve ever had. The word ‘o-n-c-e.’ Highlight it, underline it. Once! The old hymn writer expressed it how? “Once for All.” Once for all, oh happy condition. See? All right and so, “Once in the end of the ages.” Now the word ‘world’ I think is a bad translation. Because coming up out of the Old Testament economy you want to remember Christ’s first advent was the end of everything because it was all in proximity according to the Old Testament, as soon as Christ ascended the Tribulation was going to come in. The Tribulation was only going to be seven years and Christ would return and set up His Kingdom. So all of this is in proximity within a matter of a few years, so this is what it is. That at the end of the prophetic ages, He came once to put away sin. To bury it in the deepest sea.
Now I’ve been looking. I always thought that was a Scripture but I don’t think it is. If somebody can tell me where it is, you tell me. I’ve been looking and looking. But I’ve always had the idea that there was a verse in the Psalms that said – that our sins are buried in the deepest sea. And I can’t find it. So I need help. I don’t want to be like the guy I read about some time ago that always supposedly had a verse of Scripture for an answer. And everybody thought, “That old man knows his Bible. He’s got a Scripture for every occasion.” Well, after he’s dead and gone somebody started checking him out. Not a bit of it was Scripture! It was all just various clichés, see? So I don’t want to be caught doing that. But you understand what I’m saying, our sins are far removed.
Hebrews 9:26c
“…he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
And “he appeared to put away.” Never to be remembered against us. Never when you and I as believers come up before the Lord are we ever going to face God with our sins. It’s done. Oh, we’re going to have to face Him with what we’ve done as a servant, as a child of God. What have we done for reward? But never will God throw our sin in our face. That’s been done. That’s forgiven! It’s washed in the blood. It’s purged.
All right and so, “This he did once in the end of the age, to put away sin by the sacrifice (again, not of animals, but of what?) of himself.” Himself. But listen, this is what we gain by faith. Now, there is not a religion on this planet that can even come close to anything like this. Not one. They don’t have this kind of a payment for sin. They don’t know what it is to be redeemed. They know nothing of it.