The Gathering Surf City

We're still in Hebrews,

y'all, the object of our faith,

which is Jesus.

Hebrews is all about Jesus.

Hebrews points out from the Old Testament
where we see Jesus through the,

through the promises of God,

the covenant of God,

through the people of God,

through the nation of God,

through the priests of God,

through the tabernacle,

through the sacrificial
system of God,

and how all of that points
us to Jesus,

that we can focus our hearts and our
minds and our identity on who Jesus

is. That's the Old Testament
in a nutshell.

Okay, we get to the New Testament.

We see the gospels,

where it tells us about the birth
of Jesus and the life of Jesus,

and the ministry of Jesus,

and how Jesus has served and
accomplished God's purpose,

plan and progress toward redemption,

for redemption,

our redemption,

so that we are bought back
from sin and death.

And so we celebrate that as we've
been working through Hebrews.

Here's what I realized,

and this is the way I've
been describing it.

Hebrews is the book that provides
the binding for the Old and New

Testament. It tells us the Old Testament
and how it all leads up to Jesus.

And then New Testament tells
us all about Jesus,

and the New Testament congregation
of Jesus,

and the book of Hebrews just kind of
puts it all together like that.

And I'm excited that as we finish
chapter nine today,

we're starting to work
toward the end of it.

Not that I'm glad we're
finishing it,

but I like that it comes to its sort
of conclusion and culmination.

All right,

Hebrews, chapter nine,

verses 23 to 28.

Ready?

Go. All right.

Therefore, it was necessary for the copies
of the things in the heavens

to be purified with
these sacrifices,

but the heavenly things themselves,

themselves to be purified with
better sacrifices than these.

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary
made with hands only a model of the

true one,

but into heaven itself,

so that he might now appear in
the presence of God for us.

He did not do this to offer himself many
times as the high priest enters

the sanctuary yearly with
the blood of another.

Otherwise he would have had to suffer
many times since the foundation of

the world.

But now he has appeared one time
at the end of the ages,

for the removal of sin by the
sacrifice of himself.

And just as it is appointed
for people to die once,

and after this judgment,

so also Christ,

having been offered once to
bear the sins of many,

will appear a second time,

not to bear sin,

but to bring salvation to those
who are waiting for him.

Now, I love the summary of
the book of Hebrews.

Okay.

I love how the book just presents
this very organized,

almost meticulous explanation
of God's plan of salvation.

Because what we get in the book of
Hebrews from chapter one and just

continuing through,

God has spoken.

He says that in these last days,

he has spoken through his son Jesus.

Because in the past,

he spoke through angels,

and he spoke through prophets
and all that sort of thing.

But now he has spoken
through his son.

His son,

who is the heir of all things.

It means Christ inherits everything
that God has done.

Godfather to God,

the Son.

Right? He is the creator,

because through him,

all things were created
and all things exists.

He is the creator of all things.

Jesus is the sustainer
of all things.

And then it goes on to say that he
is the radiance of God's glory.

So if you think of the glory of
God as a shining presence,

as this fire from heaven,

as the pillar of fire that led the
people of Israel out of Egypt,

did you think of fire on the altar in
the tabernacle or abiding on the

mercy seat?

This is Jesus.

This is the radiance of
the glory of God.

And then it says,

he is the exact expression
of the essence of God.

And so by the understanding
of the finite,

to try to have a conception or a
perception of the infinite God,

you see,

God has explained himself and who
Christ is as God the son.

And then we start working our way into
Hebrews as to what Jesus has

accomplished. The superiority of
Jesus as the Son to angels,

to prophets.

Jesus is the superior apostle,

the one who brought the superior
message of God.

Jesus is the superior high priest,

the highest of high priests.

Jesus is the king of kings.

And so you get this sort of
the writer of Hebrews,

by inspiration of God,

has laid it out for us that we should
pay attention to Jesus.

I mean,

every day,

all day,

we should focus our hearts,

our minds,

our lives on Jesus.

Jesus is not just that person and personage
of our faith that we put on a

membership card and stick
in our wallet.

We should be thinking about
the presence of Christ,

the Holy Spirit,

in our lives all day long,

every day.

For instance,

think about the words you use.

I work construction.

It's funny today that I'll get
around folks you know,

and folks that,

you know,

they abide in the world,

and they'll use the kind of
vocabulary of the world,

and then they'll realize that.

Here you go.

You ready?

This is my other name.

My name's Bobby,

y'all, if you didn't know.

But my other name is Preacher.

Cause that's what everybody
calls me.

But anyway,

so then they'll realize the preacher's
standing there and they'll go,

oh, sorry,

preacher. Excuse me,

preacher. My thought is always,

you know what?

I worked construction
for about six years.

You ain't said anything
I hadn't heard before.

But offending me is not the issue,

right? Offending me
is not the issue.

But you see,

the whole point of this thing is,

is that I need to consider Christ
in the words I use,

in my behavior,

in my actions,

everything that I am,

because I am.

What does Paul say?

Paul says,

we are ambassadors for Christ.

That is our identity.

You know,

there was a song that came
out years ago that said,

what if you're the only
Jesus some people see?

What's that Jesus look like?

I've shared with you the story.

Had the opportunity to visit with
Randy and Cindy a few weeks ago.

Sarah Johnson,

who used to lead the band here,

she once said to me in a meeting,

she says,

bobby, I just don't feel
very jesusy right now.

I love that comment.

Because the truth is,

we know we go through times where
we don't feel very Jesus y,

but the truth is,

we're supposed to be Jesus
y all the time.

That's what Hebrews is all about.

That's why there are four very significant
warnings in Hebrews,

and we're going to get to the fourth
one in chapter ten in just a few,

in next couple of weeks.

So what is this sort of transition summation
that we have right here at

the end of chapter nine?

It's that Jesus Christ,

the son,

the air,

all of these things,

is the superior sacrifice of God.

You see,

he rises above all of those other
sacrifices that we've seen,

all the things that he
talks about in here,

the blood of bulls and goats
and all that sort of thing,

so that when we get into verse 23,

it says,

therefore, see,

he's talked about all this.

The blood of bulls and ghosts,

the shadow tabernacle,

the real tabernacle,

the high priest,

all of the stuff from
the Old Testament.

He said it was necessary for the copies
of the things in the heavens.

Remember, we talk about the shadows tabernacle
versus the real tabernacle

of God,

because God told Moses,

build it like what you have seen.

So God showed Moses the tabernacle,

and it says,

the copy that Moses made had to be purified
with the sacrifices of blood

and blood and goats and
bulls and whatever,

but the heavenly things themselves to
be purified with better sacrifices

than these.

So that almost paints a picture that
somehow Jesus went and purified the

heavenly tabernacle.

No, the heavenly tabernacle is pure.

The heavenly tabernacle is perfect.

The heavenly tabernacle is a holy
place of God's dominion,

dwelling and abiding presence.

So what holy things is being purified
when Jesus gets there?

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary
made with hands,

which is only a model
of the true one.

But Christ entered heaven itself so
that he might now appear in the

presence of God for us.

See, we are heavenly things.

We are eternal.

Now, there's some folks like to preach
out there that when you die,

you just get snuffed out.

Somehow you don't exist anymore.

That's not what the Bible teaches us.

See, we are eternal
in our existence,

not physically,

but spiritually speaking.

And so Christ appeared in
the presence of God to.

To purify people,

to make us whole,

to make us perfect,

to make us in that place and position
and state whereby we can enter

God's presence.

The veil is torn.

We get to walk into the
holy of holies,

into the presence of our
heavenly Father,

the presence of God.

And I look at this,

I go,

wow, this is what we've been.

Sorry, we've been nine chapters leading
up to what it's going to be like,

y'all, when we walk into the heaven,

into the presence of heaven,

our Father.

What's it going to be like to be.

To be at the throne,

to know the perfection,

to know what it's what?

Yeah, it's unexplainable.

I listened this morning to a song that
talked about the unexplainable.

See, I can't stand up here and tell
you what it's going to be like to

enter the presence of God.

I can only tell you that it's.

I can't explain it to you.

Told you a few weeks ago,

that song,

I can only imagine is just a lie.

Cause you can't even imagine
what it's gonna be like.

I can't only imagine.

I can't even imagine what.

When imperfection,

apart from all of my flaws,

apart from this physical body
breaking down in my sixties,

apart from all of those things,

I'm gonna walk into the
presence of God.

And it's not gonna be that
all of a sudden go,

oh, my knee's fixed.

No, that's not gonna be it.

It's going to be,

I walk into the presence of God and
go and fall on my face before the

purity and the holiness,

the perfection,

the overwhelming grace
and mercy and love.

And folks,

I think it's going to be tangible,

like we could touch it
to be in his presence.

You see,

that's the heavenly tabernacle,

and Christ is the heavenly sacrifice
that makes it possible.

Verse 25,

it says,

he did not do this to offer himself
many times as a high priest enters

the sanctuary yearly with
the blood of another.

Otherwise he would have had to suffer
many times since the foundation of

the world.

But now,

now he has appeared one time at the
end of the ages for the removal of

sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The end of the ages for
the removal of sin.

At the culmination of time,

God appears,

Christ appears to offer the
sacrifice for all sin.

You see?

So when I look at this,

I'm like,

wow. Remember I've told you there are
being a pastor all these years and

meeting with folks whose lives are.

I don't know how to
word this nicely,

but meeting with folks
whose lives are,

let's say,

more. Done.

Coming to closer to completion,

right? Is that a good way to put it?

Okay, thank you.

I'm trying to be nice.

And I say,

I ask them,

I love asking them,

because there is an anxiety,

an angst about the fact
that as we get older,

we know we've got less time on this side
of the hill than the other side

of the hill,

right? And once you cross the hill,

I always tell folks,

guess what?

It's faster down the other side,

man, it speeds up.

You know,

I talk about vacations.

The greatest vacation you ever took.

What was it?

Y'all remember me doing this illustration
a few weeks ago?

The greatest vacation you ever took.

What did you do?

Did you plan it?

Well, of course.

Knew where you were going.

Did you plan the kind of activities you
wanted to do when you got there?

Well, of course,

because you,

nowadays, you just go to what,

trip advisor or something
crazy like that.

But you plan it.

I'm gonna do this,

and on this day,

I'm gonna do this,

and on that day,

I'm gonna do that.

And you plan the trip.

I tell folks,

why don't we take God's trip advisor
and google heaven and then work

through God's word and just envision
all the promises of God that deal

with heaven and plan the greatest vacation
that there could ever possibly

be, right?

It's like,

wow, God,

I get to do that.

I mean,

Isaiah saw this vision of the throne
and God on his throne and the train

of his robe filling the temple and the
angels around the throne singing,

holy, holy,

holy.

And I get to sing with angels one
day without some director going,

hey, you're not on key.

Right. You see,

I get to be there in the
presence of God.

I get to.

What we do here is a
shadow of worship,

y'all. Can I go ahead
and tell you that?

I mean,

I think we do pretty good,

but it's just a shadow,

right? It's not being in the throne
room of God and singing his praise

now. Yes.

Spiritually speaking,

yes. You know what he is.

There was a song years ago called
the audience of one.

Theologically, I think it's
an audience of three.

But anyway,

audience of one.

God is our audience when we sing,

y'all, you know,

but I see some of your faces sometime
when the guy singing next to you is

off key,

and you go,

well, you're not the audience.

God's the audience.

He's not listening to the key.

He's listening to the heart.

So when you sing in this room,

are you singing with the motivation
of your heart to praise God,

to exalt him,

to elevate him,

to bring him glory?

That's what our shadow
worship is all about,

is that we lift high
the name of Jesus,

that we worship him.

Because these few verses right here,

this transitional statement,

as we get ready for chapter ten,

as God brings the story of his redemptive
process to a conclusion.

In the book of Hebrews,

what we see is heavenly completion.

And just as it is important
for people to die once,

and after this judgment,

so also Christ,

having been offered once to
bear the sins of many,

will appear a second time.

Look out.

I'm going to tell y'all something.

People love to ask preachers
questions like this,

don't they,

Scott?

You think we're in the end times?

I've been saying yes for
about 40 years now.

Cause anybody,

when they ask that question,

they want to know,

is it tomorrow?

Here's what I always say,

two things I always say.

I say,

well, if it.

We're closer today than
we were yesterday.

That's my favorite answer.

Okay. But then I also say,

if it were to happen in
the next 30 seconds,

okay, not this time.

But I wouldn't be surprised now,

because I think God has brought it
all to a point of his exaltation.

Okay, now,

do I believe that there are going to
be people who think they're going

that aren't?

Sure I do.

I think the Bible teaches us that.

So what is the warning of Hebrews?

The first warning of
Hebrews is beware.

Beware of drifting.

And I think it's really a drifting
from the zeal of our faith,

says, beware of unbelief as in
the days of the rebellion.

This is all in Hebrews.

This is the second warning.

Beware of unbelief,

as in the days of the rebellion when the
people of God didn't believe God

was God and he could do what
he said he was going to do.

Then the third one is,

beware the rejection of belief,

of faith.

We're going to get to chapter
ten where it says,

beware of rejecting God.

Just turning your back on God.

You see,

that's the warning.

We've got them this morning.

So I see in this,

the one time Christ,

Christ was offered to pay for sin.

The second time he comes back is to
bring the blessing of salvation,

you see,

to announce the.

And then I've heard the songs.

How many of y'all remember a group?

Now this is going to age me
a little bit in the faith.

You ready?

How many of you remember a group called
Milan Lefebvre and Broken Heart?

Right back in the eighties,

I think,

wasn't it?

They used to sing a song called come
on and crack the sky for me.

And it was a cool song because it was
this picture of being able to

recognize and realize that when Christ
comes in the eastern sky,

I mean,

the Bible talks about it,

that a trumpet will sound that
all of creation hears.

And I'm thinking,

man, I remember a time in my life I
was walking around listening for

trumpets.

This is the promise of the covenant
that God has completed.

Christ is the superior sacrifice that
establishes the heavenly completion

of God's covenant.

This is his promise to us.

This is the will,

the will,

will and testament of our savior
and Lord Jesus Christ.

God has made the promise.

Do you know Jesus?

See, if you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus.

We want to introduce you to Jesus.

Okay? I love this transition
at the end of nine.

Cause next week we get to get to another
one of those statements where it

says, so here's what we got.

Well, I'm just telling you,

here's what we got.

And if you don't have Jesus,

you need Jesus.

We get to sing one more song.

Now, if you know Jesus,

and you're just worshiping in his presence
from your heart and just

devoting and surrendering
yourself to him,

then in this song,

you just sing to him.

Don't even worry if you're off key.

But if you don't know Jesus,

find somebody to introduce
you to Jesus.

If it's me,

I'll be standing right there.

But I promise you,

there are folks in this room that
can introduce you to Jesus.

Okay?

Pray with me.

Father, thank you for today.

Thank you that the promises of
your word are just that.

They are covenant promises.

And so,

God, we can praise you this morning.

And, God,

we can be grateful and thank
you this morning,

and we can exalt you this morning.

And, God,

we can,

for our lives,

mean your glory.

And so,

God, let us be glorifying God.

Let our lives point to you.

Let people in the world that use that
kind of language see us and go,

oh, excuse me,

not preacher,

but excuse me,

Jesus follower.

Excuse me,

because I know you follow Jesus.

God, help us to represent you well.

Help us to be that ambassador
for Christ in our lives.

Thank you this morning for worship,

and thank you for the opportunity we
have to celebrate fatherhood and

fathers. And God,

just lift up every father
in the room and pray,

God, that you would just continue to
give wisdom and grace and strength,

that we might be men who
represent you well.

God, we thank you for loving us,

and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.