THE HOLIEST: A PLACE TO REACH AFTER SALVATION
AND BEFORE HEAVEN

Part 1
December 27, 2009 am
MF Blume


The book of Hebrews is perhaps one of the deepest books of the Bible, including Ephesians and Romans and 1 John.
  • It opens up an understanding of how the actual journey of a Christian is far more than getting saved from sin, staying saved so we can one day make to Heaven when we die.
  • It tells us that right here after we are saved, before we die and before Jesus comes, there is a place of spirituality that the cross prepared for us to enter before we die.
  • Hebrews compares it to the MOST HOLY PLACE that was in Moses' Tabernacle.

Genesis 1:22 Complete Apostles' Bible  (22)  And God blessed them saying, Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the creatures that fly be multiplied on the earth.

Hebrews 6:13-20 Complete Apostles' Bible  (13)  For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,  (14)  saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you."  (15)  And so, after he had been patient, he obtained the promise.  (16)  For men indeed swear by the greater, and the oath for confirmation is an end of every dispute to them.  (17)  Thus God, wanting to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His counsel, guaranteed it by an oath,  (18)  in order that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong encouragement, who have fled to take hold of the hope being set before us;  (19)  which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and secure, and which enters into the inner side of the veil,  (20)  where the Forerunner has entered in behalf of us, even Jesus, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus is said to have entered a truly spiritual domain on the inner side of the veil.
  • The innermost and holiest room of the Tabernacle or portable temple that Moses built when Israel was on their way to the Promised land.
  • And he is said to be FORERUNNER when He entered there.
  • In other words, we are meant to follow Him in.

Chapter 9 notes that Jesus went into heaven itself when he entered this holiest room.

Hebrews 9:11-12 Complete Apostles' Bible  (11)  But Christ came as a High Priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.  (12)  Not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered once for all into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:24 Complete Apostles' Bible  (24)  For Christ did not enter into the holies made by hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf;

And we read about this place being Heaven, and without really studying what the Bible says about this any more, we think that His position as forerunner for us into Heaven means we follow after Him only when we die and go to glory.
  • But that is not what Hebrews is teaching us when it mentions Jesus is a forerunner before us into this heavenly place.
  • It actually teaches that this is a place we are intended to come into spiritually RIGHT NOW long before we ever die and go to heaven.

Hebrews 10:19-22 Complete Apostles' Bible  (19)  Therefore, brothers, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,  (20)  by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,  (21)  and having a High Priest over the house of God,  (22)  let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies having been washed with clean water.

Hebrews 4:1-3 Complete Apostles' Bible  (1)  Therefore let us fear, lest while the promise remains to enter into His rest, anyone of you seems to have fallen short.  (2)  For indeed we have had the gospel preached to us just as those also; but the word which they heard did not profit those, not having been mixed with faith in those having heard it.  (3)  For we who have believed enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

These two passages show us that this Holiest, or Rest, is something we can enter any time now as soon as we come to a place of faith.

Hebrews 4:16 Complete Apostles' Bible  (16)  Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

He told us to boldly go to the throne and find mercy, just as the holiest had the ark inside with a mercyseat, just as Heb 10 said we enter with boldness through the veil.

Because it says we enter this place with boldness, it is speaking of a level we come into as Christians where our faith is strong and powerful and is described as full assurance of faith.
  • It's the rest Hebrews 4 spoke of.
  • The inner side of the veil in Heb 6.
  • The true holiest of Heaven itself in Heb 9.

And all of it is associated with what is emphasized in Heb 8.

Hebrews 8:6-13 Complete Apostles' Bible  (6)  But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises.  (7)  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.  (8)  For finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,  (9)  not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not persevere in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.  (10)  For this is the covenant which I shall covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind, and I shall inscribe them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  (11)  And by no means will they teach each one his fellow citizen, and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  (12)  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I shall by no means remember anymore."  (13)  By the saying "new ," He has made the first obsolete. And the one becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish.

The old testament system, or old covenant, had a fault.
  • The people involved at that time were unable to PERSEVERE in that covenant.
  • The KJV says CONTINUE.
  • They could not keep the covenant.
  • They failed.
  • And failed and failed.

And God said A NEW COVENANT was going to come, which is the one in which we live today.
  • He compared the New covenant with the one they had back then as a covenant that was different.
  • It was different because it would have God put HIS LAWS INTO THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLE.
  • Also, each person involved would not be held back from personally knowing God for themselves, whereas under law continual teaching of the people.
  • Synagogues only had bare reading of Law, with no explanation.
  • Only a select few were taught by prophets, etc.

But this covenant has every person with a bible and every family the ease of opportunity to hear detailed teachings of God.

So if the old covenant's problem was that they could not persevere under it, and the new would put God's law into the heart and mind, then putting it in the heart and mind would cause us to be able to persevere.
  • To be able to continue.
  • To make us OVERCOMERS so we can continue without messing up.