curg15

Can You Reach God

Lesson Fifteen: by turtle

Can you reach God through your own means. One looks at ancient times whether Israel’s or others,
one get a distinct feeling God required sacrifice. However the difference in the sacrifice to God of
Israel and to other gods was what was required. Also other gods were stone images of things
destructible. Anything that God created that was worshipped could be destroyed. Whether it be
animals, man, or plants. Many of us adore are pets, but we do not worship them in the since of bowing
to them. However cat that own their owner would disagree. Dogs that are spoiled rotten would say
they were boss. Some people have that godlike quality of being in charge, yet they are not God.

If something is required it is not an offering. Offering is a gift, or sacrifice to God. Offering is a way of
saying thank you, or making up for one wrongful actions in the since of a sin offering. Apology to God
was a form of repentance but a gift to God for sin was a payment for that sin. God had a requirement
of what was acceptable to offer for payment for sin. The High Priest would offer the sacrifice of sin
for the nation once a year as well as sacrifice for individual sin. High Priest was need to perform the
sacrifice. It had to be someone holy before the Lord. The offering for the nation was bull, goat or a
ram. There were also other sacrifices. However we could spend days on the subject of sacrificial law.
If you so desire to study the old system I suggest you pull out your Bible and Read Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers and Deuteronomy. True this study is going through the book of Hebrews, but something we
have to remember it is in the New Testament of the Bible and our main focus is what Christ did on
Calvary, by abolishing the sacrificial law. However looking back at the old system reminds us of what
Christ truly did for us, by sitting us free from the work of the law.

One of the first examples of sacrifice is on the trail toward the promise land. The tabernacle would be
in place until Solomon would build the temple. The Holies of Holies would be a place only the Priest
could enter in. And they would be consecrated and pure before the Lord to perform their duties.

Exodus 30:6-10 KJV
(6) And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that
is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.
(7) And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall
burn incense upon it.
(8) And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense
before the LORD throughout your generations.
(9) Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye
pour drink offering thereon.
(10) And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin
offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations:
it is most holy unto the LORD.

Exodus 28:41-43 KJV
(41) And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them,
and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office.
(42) And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the
thighs they shall reach:
(43) And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the
congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not
iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him.

The sacrificial law had to do with the first covenant it was made with human hands, though it was set
up by God.

Hebrews 9:1-7 KJV
(1) Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
(2) For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the
shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
(3) And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
(4) 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;
(5) And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak
particularly.
(6) Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God.
(7) 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:

However because of the ritualism of the first covenant of all the laws and rules and regulations, the
heart was not necessarily changed. It was outward sign of repentance, but not necessarily inward sign
of repentance and change in a believers heart.

Hebrews 9:8-10 KJV
(8) 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:
(9) 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;
(10) Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on
them until the time of reformation.

When Christ came He would do away with the ritualism and get to the heart of the matter. The change
that takes place in the heart of every believer. When Christ died for each of us, He became the
atonement for sin. He became the sacrifice. When He arose again He had victory over death. Through
His victory and atonement for us that we to will have the victory.

Hebrews 9:11-19 KJV
(11) 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;
(12) 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.
(13) 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?
(15) 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.
(16) For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
(17) For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth.
(18) Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
(19) 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,

Stop wait you get the part about the sacrifice but what is a testator. Well it is like a person with a will.
The will is no good unless the person dies. When the sacrifice was killed and blood applied then the
covenant between God and man went into effect. Christ had to die for the will or the contract to
become of effect. Christ death we were atoned for sin, With Christ resurrection we receive eternal life.
We receive the promise upon belief in Jesus. When someone dies there is inheritance provided.
However Christ resurrection victory was given.

Hebrews 9:20-28 KJV
(20) Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
(21) Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
(22) And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
remission.
(23) 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.
(24) 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:
(25) Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every
year with blood of others;
(26) For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
(27) And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
(28) So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he
appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

For this and other lesson it is important to listen to God’s word more so then my words. This lesson is
no exception. Until Christ returns we will all face physical death.

Romans 5:7-11 KJV
(7) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die.
(8) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
(9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
(10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
(11) And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now
received the atonement.

Romans 6:23 KJV
(23) For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 KJV
(14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God
bring with him.
(15) For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
(16) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
(17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.