SERMONS

THE SECRET PLACE is the MOST HOLY PLACE.

Secret, because it is hidden by the veil.

Tonight we are going to study the meaning of being in the Most Holy Place.

Having THAT KIND OF confidence that you simply do not worry about things, but KNOW God SHALL deliver you, that this Psalm mentions.
And the Psalm shows we can DWELL THERE.

The blood of Jesus was His means by which he entered Heaven.

Hebrews 9:12 KJV 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.

And Hebrews says we enter this holiest by that same blood also.

Hebrews 10:19 KJV Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

This means there is an something about the blood of Jesus that we require in order to enter into the most holy place where God, Himself, is.

Something we must understand.
What does it mean for the blood to take us into the holiest?

And this most holy place is a place where we have full confidence

In the Old Testament, the common Israelite watched the blood as it was sprinkled on the altar and they trusted in it for their forgiveness.

Exodus 29:15-16 KJV Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. (16) And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar.

But the priests who actually worked for God and ministered to others had that blood sprinkled directly on them.

Exodus 29:19-20 KJV And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. (20) Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

Many Christians are outer court Christians who only know the blood shed on the cross and they have trusted in it for their forgiveness.

But the blood has not been sprinkled on them and they have, therefore, not entered into the most holy place to start a work for God in ministering to others.

The sprinkling of the blood gives us ACCESS TO GOD.

And we do not gain access to God just for our personal happiness, but to become ministers to reach out and affect other people besides ourselves.

Hebrews 9:13-14 KJV 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: (14) 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?

Verse 13 refers to the cleansing of one defiled by a dead body through the ashes of the red heifer.

A person was cut off and not allowed amongst the worship to God due to coming into contact with a dead body.
The red heifer was killed and its blood weas sprinkled towards the tabernacle, and then it was burned.
The ashes were mixed with water and sprinkled on the defiled person.
This caused the person to get involved again in the worship with good conscience of being totally pure again.

People who are involved in DEAD WORKS are people who are trying to worship and do a work for God without any LIFE OF THE SPIRIT in it.

You can work for God, but is God giving you life to do it, and is it empowered by the Holy Ghost anointing you?
The only way to serve God so that he becomes THE LIVING GOD to you is to have the blood purge your conscience.

Your conscience may be evil and incorrect.

While the conscience tells you what is right and wrong, your evil conscience may be telling you something is not right when it is perfectly right!
Such as you cannot stand and praise God for three weeks after you sin and He forgives you.

If you trusted in Jesus' sacrifice, then you were made complete.

His blood pays for your sins, not your time-out.

Hebrews 10:1-2 KJV For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. (2) For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

We act sometimes as though Christ's sacrifice was no better than sacrifice under law.

We feel we're not good enough.
And never made perfect.
This verse says that if the people who came to the altar with those animal sacrifices could be made perfect, that means the sacrifices would have stopped being offered.
Why offer sacrifices for something already completed?
So if Jesus; sacrifice was done once and stopped, with no repeated ones to follow, that means IT PERFECTED THE PEOPLE WHO CAME TO IT.
WE HAVE TO LINE UP OUR THINKING WITH THAT and look at ourselves differently now.

Hebrews 10:11-14 KJV And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: (12) But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; (13) From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (14) For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Jesus' sacrifice was done once and perfected us!

Who said, "I'm not perfect, just forgiven"?

The people sanctified by Jesus are perfect.

When people brought animals for sacrifice year after year, that means the offering that was made could not perfect them.

It lasted a short while.
But Jesus has not been killed every year for the last two thousand years.
That is because one offering of Jesus perfects the people who believe in it.

To look at some believers, you owuld think Jesus' sacrifice was not better than an animal sacrifice under law.

They have a conscience of sins.
They feel inadequate to enter the holiest before God.

"worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins."

So what is the problem with Christians if THEY DO have a conscience of sins, and yet Christ's sacrifice they believed in perfects us?

Their consciences have not been sprinkled with the blood yet.

Read these two verses together:

Heb 1:2 ...worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

2Peter 1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

What is worse than forgetting you were purged is NEVER HAVING KNOWN you were purged.

Hebrews 10:3-4 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

At this point I want to differentiate between the two words CONSCIENCE and CONSCIOUS, since they do not mean the same thing but are connected together, and since some people mix them up.

A CONSCIENCE is what tells you that something is good or evil, including yourself being a good person or a bad person.

CONSCIOUS is being aware.

Somebody who is UNCONSCIOUS does not know what is happening around them.

When people have an evil CONSCIENCE, it causes them to be sin-CONSCIOUS.

They are always thinking of sins and what is evil.
When you're sin-conscious you are always thinking in terms of not being good enough for God, for example.
Or you are always thinking of how bad someone else is because of the things they do.
It is focus upon things to do with sin all the time.
You live your entire Christian life by thinking so-and-so is not doing good enough.
You always think of what not to do as a Christian and what to do.
Your impression of living for God is NOT DOING THINGS AND DOING OTHER THINGS INSTEAD.

Acts 23:1 KJV And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

Paul sincerely felt he was serving God by slaying Christians!

His conscience told him God wanted Christians dead.
But it was msitaken.
He felt convicted, and everyone who claims a conviction of something may only be convicted by an incorrect and evil conscience.

What is the impression that church leaves you with all the time?

You dress a certain way and not another way, and you cannot go to some places, and you have to stop doing certain things.
Is that your impression?
Or is it the impression of GOD'S LIFE taking you higher and higher with Jesus?
Where does your mind go when you describe to a person what being a Christian is all about?

When someone claims to be a Christian, are you immediately questioning how how true that is by the way they dress?

Being sin-conscious is thinking that way.
It is thinking of everything in terms of what and what not is sin.

When you hear the word holiness, if you think of dressing a certain way, you are too sin-conscious.

Holiness means BELONGING TO GOD.
And it should make us think of that!

We refrain from certain things, sure!

But not because we have to do it to be a Christian, but because WE LOVE JESUS SO MUCH!

Sin-consciousness makes you overly criticial of everyone.

We need to be LIFE-CONSCIOUS!

When we think of serving Jesus we think of having the Holy Ghost give us power to do His will!
We think of how we died with Jesus, and how we are new creatures with a new life, and the first thing that comes to our minds when telling others what Christians are is NEW CREATURES WITH HIS LIFE ACTUALLY inside us alongside our human life.

Hebrews 10:5-10 KJV Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (6) In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (7) Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (8) Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; (9) Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. (10) By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

To see some Christians and how they feel, you would think Jesus' sacrifice did no more than the animal sacrifices.

But he removed the first SYSTEM TO ESTABLISH A SECOND ONE THAT PERFECTS PEOPLE.

The true Christian conscience is one that understands that, and has been taught about it, and knows they are so cleasned by the blood of Jesus, that they can boldly enter and stand before God!

This position of boldness and opening yourself up for God to use you, because you know THE CROSS MADE YOU WORTHY, is what it is to live in the holiest of holies.

Psalms 91:1-3 KJV He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (2) I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. (3) Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

SURELY he shall deliver!

Who has the true Christian Conscience to be able to have that surety!
DWELLETH in the secret place.
LIVES THERE.
Not just visit it every Sunday.

They do not look to themselves for support, but GOD IS THEIR FORTRESS.

They depend upon HIM.

An evil conscience makes you think you are no-good even after the blood of Jesus washed away your sins.

Preachers need to be LIFE-CONSCIOUS.

A life-conscious preacher does not hammer and bang and smash people and always talk about do not do this or do not do that.
They KNOW people need God's power to get by.
They leave people who feel ENLIVENED!
So intsead of getting to the SYMPTOMS of a weak christian, they get to the ROOT where the LIFE is.
Instead of telling eveyrone what acts are good or evil, they tell christians how to depend upon the Holy Ghost by learning to yield to him and asking God to live through htem and deliver them.

People who hear a sin-conscious preacher walk away beaten down and condemned.

People who hear a life-conscious preacher walk away encouraged to believe God after having tried on their own and failed.

Hebrews 10:15-17 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

THIS IS SPRINKLING THE HEART:

Putting HIS LAWS into your heart.

He quoted Jeremiah 31:33-34.

* That covenant is the one we now have.

Now let's read Paul's remarks.

Hebrews 10:18 Now where remission of these [is, there is] no more offering for sin.

When Jeremiah prophesied that God would forget our iniquities through some new covenant, God implied that THERE IS NO MORE OFFERING FOR SIN.

Jeremiah said, "THEIR SINS AND INIQUITIES WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE"

WHY DO WE REMEMBER THEM???

It is because we have not been taught about THE WORK OF THE CROSS.

SYMPTOMS OF AN EVIL CONSCIENCE.

    * YOU FEEL DOWN ON YOURSELF.
    * YOU LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND THINK, "LOSER".
    * YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF AND THINK, "WHAT A DEFEATED EXCUSE FOR A CHRISTIAN".

Colossians 2:20-3:4 MSG (20) So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? (21) "Don't touch this! Don't taste that! Don't go near this!" (22) Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? (23) Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they're just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important. (3:1) So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. (2) Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. (3) Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators--is with Christ in God. He is your life. (4) When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too--the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

Notice that living in the world and acting like the world is something that is not supposed to be true of us any more.

We are supposed to be dead with Christ from the rudiments and low things of always focusing on what we should not eat, touch or handle.
Sprinkling the blood means we've been taught about what DEATH with Christ has done for us.
When you learn what it means for us to read He offered HImself once and then sat down after expecting his enemies to be made his footstool, then that gives you confidence about yourself!
Christ is seated in glory, and we should follow the pattern with the sorts of things that have to do with HIGHER THINGS IN HEAVEN.
What does Paul say these are?

Colossians 3:12-17 MSG So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. (13) Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. (14) And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. (15) Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. (16) Let the Word of Christ--the Message--have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! (17) Let every detail in your lives--words, actions, whatever--be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

Look at the references to faulty consciences:

1Corinthians 8:7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

1Corinthians 10:29 Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?

It's not true that one person's conscience will convict another person of the same thing, as though all convictions in our consciences are of God.

1 Corinthians 8:4-12 MSG (4) Some people say, quite rightly, that idols have no actual existence, that there's nothing to them, that there is no God other than our one God, (5) that no matter how many of these so-called gods are named and worshiped they still don't add up to anything but a tall story. (6) They say--again, quite rightly--that there is only one God the Father, that everything comes from him, and that he wants us to live for him. Also, they say that there is only one Master--Jesus the Messiah--and that everything is for his sake, including us. Yes. It's true. (7) In strict logic, then, nothing happened to the meat when it was offered up to an idol. It's just like any other meat. I know that, and you know that. But knowing isn't everything. If it becomes everything, some people end up as know-it-alls who treat others as know-nothings. Real knowledge isn't that insensitive. We need to be sensitive to the fact that we're not all at the same level of understanding in this. Some of you have spent your entire lives eating "idol meat," and are sure that there's something bad in the meat that then becomes something bad inside of you. An imagination and conscience shaped under those conditions isn't going to change overnight. (8) But fortunately God doesn't grade us on our diet. We're neither commended when we clean our plate nor reprimanded when we just can't stomach it. (9) But God does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a Christian still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off track. (10) For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn't there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused--maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong. (11) Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn't you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him--because, as you say, it doesn't really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! (12) When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn't worth it at the cost of even one of these "weak ones."

Your conscience may convict you of something God never convicted you of.

That is an incorrect conscience.

KING AND PRIEST NOW ON THE THRONE