Heb 9:8 The Way into the Holiest of All | Elder Mike Moseley | 05/17/2026

So I'd like to turn to a portion of the Hebrew letter and um and then look in the Old Testament at what uh Paul is referencing so we can have a little more of that of understanding for his point and what's relevant for us today.

Um of course as Paul's, I believe Paul, so I'm just gonna say it.

Um Paul wrote or he I think he delivered this message.

Yeah, I think it's a sermon that it was written down uh rather than a letter.

This isn't that's not my intention to try to preach on that.

That's that's just what I think is happening with this.

Um but the uh point is the people that were gonna read this, they had all this background knowledge, right?

Like they knew what Paul was referencing in almost like an aside.

Or um sometimes I feel like what I've got to do is make sure when we understand all the Old Testament stuff when we read this, and it wouldn't be time efficient for me to try to lay out all of that background.

Um, and I don't think very profitable for us in our New Testament day to spend an inordinate amount of time studying.

And when I say inordinate, I mean like really digging into the law so that that's our focus, that we could know what the law said.

Um I do think, and and Brother Owen and I we've done some studying of the law.

We it is good and profitable to study the Old Testament and the law, but always with a view to Jesus Christ, because that's the end of the law to them that believe.

We're told that the end of the law, not not to mean, and it is true that Christ put it away, he finished it and he put away the ritual, sacrificial, um, mosaical law, but that's not what it means to be the end of the law.

It means that it's what it's the point, it's what everything points to it, everything funnels into Jesus Christ.

Now, when we read here in Hebrews 9, it's like I could spend a lot of time on each individual thing, but ultimately it's all about Jesus Christ.

And and that seemed to be sufficient for Paul as he's delivering this message, so it ought to be sufficient for us, right?

Um, but we want to get into a particular part of it and then apply it to us today as we move forward, especially in this service.

So I'm gonna read through uh chapter nine.

Um, and if you'd like to read with me, it'll start with the verse one, Hebrews 9, 1.

Then verily the first covenant, so that's the Old Testament, had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary.

For there was a tabernacle made, the first, wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbridge, which is called the sanctuary.

Now, real quick, when it says the first, he's not talking about there were two different tabernacles, he's talking about two sections within the one tabernacle.

When he says the first, when in the tabernacle there was a uh a first section, and it had these things in it.

Now, each one of those points to Jesus Christ.

And like literally a whole sermon could be just on the candlestick and or just on the table with the showbread, you know.

But we'll move forward.

It says, and after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the holiest of all.

Now, again, this is all within one tabernacle, one pitched uh tent, but there's two sections.

So he said, and within the second section, there's this veil, and behind this veil is a section, is called the holiest of all.

Now, the the first section was holy too.

The first section was to be called the holy place.

The second is the holiest of all, the holy of holies.

Okay.

Then he says, which had the golden censor 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, and over it the cherubims of glory, shadowing the mercy seat.

And I love that.

And then he says, of which we cannot now speak particularly.

That's what I've been saying.

I can't talk about each of these things particularly, but each one of them points to Jesus.

All of this is pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So then he says, now when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle.

So again, the first section of the one tabernacle.

The priest went always into that first section, accomplishing the service of God.

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.

So into the second section, the holiest of all, where the mercy seat was, where the on top of the Ark of the Covenant, with the law, the Ten Commandments, the tables of the covenant inside it, into that area only the high priest went in.

He only went in once a year.

He had to go in with blood.

Those things are important.

And then verse 8 says, the Holy Ghost, this signifying, in other words, he's saying, what that all meant was this thing right here.

That the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing, which is a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make the comers thereunto, or that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and in diverse washings and cardinal ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation.

I lose my place, and then but Christ, being come a 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, 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.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heaver, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, 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.

And I'll stop reading there, but let's try to tackle that.

So he's told us we have this tabernacle.

In the first section went always the priest.

Now, that's meaning not the high priest, but the other priest.

What does it mean by always?

A lot.

I mean, there was literally a sacrifice every morning and every evening.

That's of every day.

Okay?

There were sacrifices that were also just brought for various reasons, uh, sin offerings, uh, trespass offerings brought to the priest, and the priests had to do that for the one bringing it for all sorts of reasons.

If you had a child on the eighth day, there were sacrifices that were made for that, and and I we could go on and on.

Daily, constant sacrifice.

The priests are doing that, and they're going in to the first section of the tabernacle to do it.

That's what it means by they went in always, so much that was happening.

The first of every month had a sacrifice that was specifically listed for that day.

The um, of course, there's the Passover, which is the first month of their year, and that has its own sacrifice.

There's um a Sabbath-day sacrifice.

Now every week there's a sacrifice that was made for the Sabbath day.

Um, but then he talks about this second section.

Now notice how special this one particular thing is, because into the place that they called the holiest of all, only the high priest could go.

Only once a year.

And it says, not without blood.

And I'll tell you, it's not just any blood.

There was a very specific sacrifice that had to be made.

And that was what would be called the Day of Atonement.

It was the seventh month of the year, it was the tenth day of the month.

Now, I'm not going to lay out what I think that all points to.

Uh, because that's, I don't think, important.

If it was important, I think Paul would have said some specifics about it.

But it is important.

There's everything Christ God told the Israelites to do is important.

That's not, I can't speak of that particularly right now.

But he had to go in with the exact sacrifices on the exact day.

Now, by the way, this was a day.

This was just a this was a day, so guess what?

There was a morning sacrifice that day, right?

There was an evening sacrifice that day.

And that was not part of the actual Day of Atonement service for the special part of that day.

So it was in addition to that.

And then if you go to Leviticus, I think 23, he's going to tell you some other sacrifices.

God gives him other sacrifices for the Day of Atonement that are not part of the service of the high priest specifically.

So there was a lot of other sacrifices that had to be made in that day.

And if nothing else can be taken from all that, it's this.

Death is the wages of sin.

But God is laying out in his law that he has devised the means.

He has fixed the remedy for sin.

And that instead of the sinners, the Israelites themselves dying, there would be a sacrifice in their place.

And there was a lot of sacrifices.

But this one particular day, this day of atonement, and we can read in Leviticus chapter 16, particularly about the Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

And there's very special things that happen.

Now remember, it says the high priest could only go in to this holiest of all.

This is where the ark is and where the mercy seat is.

And what is so special about that, okay?

Um, before we read about the Day of Atonement and remembering that the Holy Ghost is signifying something here.

What's so special about the holiest of all behind the veil is not just that the ark was there.

Yeah, and sometimes they thought the ark was something that it wasn't.

You know, for instance, I'll give you an example of a historical time.

They were fighting the Philistines and they were losing.

So they thought, well, let's bring the ark.

The Israelites said, let's bring the ark to the battle.

God didn't tell them to bring the ark to the battle, but they said, let's bring the ark of the covenant to battle, as if they were thinking they could carry God wherever they wanted.

Right?

So they brought the ark of the covenant out of where it was supposed to be, behind the veil, and they brought it, and guess what?

The enemy at first, they were afraid.

The Philistines cried out and said, God has come into the camp of Israel.

Like they were afraid.

They had heard of the God of Israel, but they ended up, the Philistines won, not only won the battle, they killed the uh the priests' sons that were there, Eli's sons, and they took the ark.

The Philistines like captured the ark and took it with them.

Now I could uh tell you the rest of the story.

It does come back to Israel because God wasn't going to allow the Philistines to keep it, but God did allow them to take it.

Why?

The Israelites needed to understand that it's the God of the Ark that matters, not the Ark of God that mattered.

Okay?

God can't be carried around just because you carried around the box God told them to make.

But the ark was very special because God did tell them to make it, and God told them how to make it.

God told Moses to make sure you make everything according to the pattern I gave you.

The mercy seat, see, this is what God said.

There will I meet with you.

That's where, that place, that place above the ark where the cherubim's wings overshadowed it, that he said, That's where I'll meet with you.

So, really, what mattered about the ark and the mercy seat and the veil and all of that is God saying, That's where I'll be, and that's where I'll meet with you.

Now, remember, he could only meet with the high priest, and only when he did it right and brought in the blood.

So when it says in Hebrews that all of this, the Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiness was not yet manifest while the first tabernacle was standing.

So, what does that mean?

He's saying that whole thing where nobody could go in but the whole high priest, God was telling us something.

I mean, he was really telling you and me and them that there is a way that you're gonna be able to meet with God, that you're gonna be able to come and be in the presence of a God that by your own nature you have no right to approach.

By your sin you can't approach, that's a how could I possibly come and be with God when I myself am such a wretched sinner and God is so holy?

How can I come to him?

When he's told me to come to him, but how can I do so?

Well, I don't know.

You could be like Job, and you could say, at that time, you can say, I know it is so of a truth, but how shall man be just with God?

That's what Job said.

Well, Job lived before the law service.

Job didn't have this signification that told us that there's going to be a high priest and there's going to be a sacrifice.

And he has access to the holy place because he has the blood that God requires.

There is going to be a way in to the presence of God.

But the Holy Ghost was telling them at the time, it's not yet manifest while that tabernacle is standing, what that way is.

Now, we're on this side where we get to know the way.

In fact, he told us, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

See, he's what way?

What way is he?

He's every way.

I mean, we can say he's the way we should live our lives.

He's our example that we should live after as he's taught.

Certainly, he is the way we should treat one another.

He is the way that we should love our neighbor and so forth.

But when Christ said, I am the way, he was referring directly to a question his disciple asked him, who said, We don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

And then Christ said, I am the way.

Well, where did Christ say he was going?

He said, I'm going to my father.

I'm going to my father.

And where I'm going now, you can't go, but you will come after.

And that's when the disciple said, I don't, we don't know where you're going.

How do we know the way?

And he said, I am the way.

Or in other words, there is a way to be with God, and that way is Christ.

But that hadn't been revealed while the old tabernacle was standing.

So let's look at what the old tabernacle, what that day of atonement looked like, and then maybe if we see Christ in that, we'll see something that we need to remember every day of our lives, and especially at this time when we're going to try to commune with God.

Leviticus chapter 16, and I can't read all of 16, so I'm going to take highlights, but you can read it yourself.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

You should read it a lot, but the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord and died.

Now, point out that means Aaron the high priest had two sons who offered in a way that did not please God, and they died.

They were, God slew them for their offering strange fire to the Lord.

The Lord is going to say that it mattered how you offered to him.

And so he's going to lay out this Day of Atonement.

And the Lord said unto Moses, speak unto Aaron, thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place.

So, in other words, he's saying, There's only one time, the right time.

You can't just do it whenever you want.

You can't come in to the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not.

For I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

Again, important to note that what mattered about that was that's where God would be.

And he could only come in if he did it correctly.

So, verse 3 says, Aaron shall come into the holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

It talks later about how he's supposed to be dressed, which is a plain white linen garment.

It talks about in verse 5 that he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

How much have we already figured out?

We got a bullock and a ram and two kid goats and a ram.

Okay.

Already, I'm losing track of keeping the math because you got your morning sacrifice, your evening sacrifice, and there's others as well.

But we'll just focus on the bullock and the two goats.

There's also the rams for the burnt offerings, but I want to focus on the bullock and the two goats for here.

Because the verse we read in Hebrews says the blood of bulls and of goats.

He didn't mention the rams, he doesn't mention lambs.

But not to say they're not important, but let's focus on the bullock and the goats.

They're sin offerings.

Aaron had to offer for himself first.

That's what a bullock is a bull.

It's a young boy.

He had to offer that for himself.

And that's because Aaron, his sons, and everyone except the Lord Jesus Christ is a sinner.

They can't approach God without first having re uh had an atonement for themselves.

And that's what we're told in Hebrews that the high priest couldn't come in, he had to offer for himself and for the people.

And so God lays it out that you have a special sacrifice, Aaron.

It's this bullock.

That's for Aaron.

Now, I don't know that there, I don't know or have any light on what, why a bullock for him and goats for them.

I don't know.

I don't have a reason for that.

I know God said to do it that way, and that if Aaron tried to offer a goat for himself, it would not have been accepted by God.

God said a bullock for him and then the goats.

Now there were two goats for the people.

So get, you know, get our minds out.

Aaron's going to offer the death, and he's going to slay the bullock.

And it tells us that he's to take that blood, which is for himself, and not just for himself, but for his house.

It's in verse 6.

And um, and he also takes the two goats and presents them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle.

Now, with the two goats, there's going to be a choice made between them for one, two purposes.

And we'll hold on to that for a second.

But he has to take the bullock for the sin offering, with the bull for himself, and make an atonement for himself.

Verse 11 says, and for as I he kills the bullock, which is for himself, and he takes a censer full of burning coal.

So a censer is like a basically it's a thing you can put hot coals in and carry fire around.

Okay?

Because he has to take this censor of burning coals of fire from off the altar and in his hands an incense is verse 12 says this, and um bring it within the veil.

So he's gonna go inside the veil with this hot coals from the altar and incense and the blood, and he will put the incense upon the fire before the Lord.

So he's sprinkling the incense on the coals, and it causes a cloud of incense that it would cover the mercy seat.

Now, God had said that that that's where he would be, and he would be in the thick cloud.

Okay.

Um and then he takes the blood of the bullock and sprinkles it with his finger upon the mercy seat seven times.

I'm not gonna get into like, I don't even know.

Like, I'm not gonna say first time is for this, second time is for this, third time is for this, I don't know.

The point is that he had to do it right.

And what we need to take from this is to realize that first he had to go in and do this this atonement for himself with the altar, the incense, and uh, the altar of fire and the blood.

Then he had to go and kill the goat that he had, that they had chosen out of the two goats, one of them would be the sin offering for the people, and it would die, and that same process would happen.

The blood would be sprinkled on the mercy seat with the cloud of the incense.

But the other goat, it says, the other goat would stay alive.

And that goat, and this you can read down to where it says um the 15th verse is where he kills the goat and brings the blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock.

Okay?

Then it says that um, verse 17, and there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place until he come out.

So he had to do this all by himself, all alone.

No one else could be in there with him.

And then he goes out and sprinkles the blood on the altar itself, and he has to sprinkle the blood on the tabernacle on the altar, and the and in Hebrews it'll tell us that everything is cleansed by blood.

And without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.

There was nothing that they could were doing that didn't require a blood atonement.

And then when he hath made, verse 20, when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat, and Aaron, or later the high priest that would follow Aaron, will lay his hand, both his hands, upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all of the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle, put off the linen garments which he put on when he went in to the holy place and leave them there, and he washes, and he puts on his high priestly garments, but I I've got I can't just keep reading all this law.

So here's what we have.

We have the bullock has to be killed, and an atonement made for the high priest because he is a sinner.

Then you've got him going back out, and he has to do all this by himself.

He goes back in with the goats, uh, the blood from the goat that's a sin offering for the people, and that has to be sprinkled on the mercy seat.

Then you have this live goat, which it will tell us will be called the scapegoat.

You've some of you might have heard that term.

We say someone is a scapegoat, but we don't really use it this way.

We use it as that's the person we're gonna put the blame on, you know, and try so we can get out of it or something.

But I guess that is kind of how this works, but in a righteous way.

This goat that would live would be imagine he's putting his hands on the head of the goat, and everyone's around watching this.

This is not done in the holiest of all, this is not done in private, this is done publicly.

He's gonna um put his hands on this goat, confess all the sins of all the people, and it's like he's laying that those sins on that goat, and then they would lead that goat living away into a wilderness.

But the point was to take it out there, and then this man, fit man that took it out would come back without the goat.

Now, you have the atonement that happens inside the holy place all by itself.

When the blood is taken into the holy place, the sacrifice was done.

It was done out by the altar.

They saw the death in the holy place, the blood was sprinkled, signifying that it was completed.

But then the people would not witness that.

They don't see that happening.

But they do see the scapegoat.

They see the sins being confessed and being led away.

Now, what we bring all that into now, and what Hebrews is saying, is what we have is the knowledge that Christ, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, the real holy place, the actual presence of God.

Now, how did he do that?

It says he offered himself through the eternal spirit without spot to God.

And by his own body and his own blood, he has obtained eternal redemption for us.

But more than just his blood being shed for us and paying the cost for the sins, which was a legal requirement to do, but he also has taken away our sins from us.

And we're told he has taken them as far as the east is from the west, like this live goat that was taken away and never came back.

The sins were gone and they didn't come back.

You've got to see that happen.

And so that would tell you, as me, as a person who wasn't the high priest, look what the high priest has done.

He's put our sins away from us.

We have them paid for by the blood and taken away, never to return.

But that had to happen next year too.

And the next year, and the next year.

But it did make them feel like God has taken care of it.

Now what we have is Christ, our high priest, knowing he's entered in once into the holy place, having attained eternal redemption for us.

What that should allow us to do is to know that our sins have been paid for, they've been taken away, and we can approach God.

Whenever I feel like my sins and have separated me from God, I need to look to Christ because if you don't, if you don't believe that Christ has paid for your sins, it doesn't change the fact that he did, but it definitely changes your approach to him.

So so many people in the world are worried about how do I get to heaven.

I am concerned with how I can come and worship and fellowship with God now.

I know Christ has obtained eternal redemption for me.

But when I want to pray at night to Him to uh for me to feel His presence, that's when I hesitate, as if I don't have access to God.

But Christ has made that way manifest.

And so what I must do is believe God that Christ has redeemed me.

I must believe that I have access to him.

Not just on Sunday morning, but I'm certainly Sunday morning when we come to worship him.

How do we even come here?

It's because Christ died for our sins.

He's paid for it.

But then on Tuesday night, you know, on Thursday midday, when I need God to be with me for what I'm going through, whatever that is, and I don't feel like I can approach him because of my sins, that's my unbelief.

It's unbelief in what Christ has accomplished.

See, that veil that was there, it actually, the actual veil, when Christ said it is finished on the cross, the actual veil tore in half because like the earthquaked and the this a literal thing happened when Christ gave up the ghost on the cross.

You read that the earthquaked and the veil in the temple was rent in twenty from the top to the bottom.

You know what that did?

That signified that the way into the holiest is now made manifest.

While it was standing, the Holy Ghost was signifying that it's not yet manifest.

When Christ said it is finished, he has shown us that he is the way into the presence of God.

Not just someday, but every day.

When we in a little while try to come together and take of the bread and the wine signifying the body and blood of Christ, you know we get to do that because of the blood of Christ.

We get to do that's a blood-bought opportunity and privilege.

That we get to commune with God.

And when you're eating the bread and the wine, you are, it's a one-on-one time of union, common union with God.

Now we all share that together as a church, but it's very private in the sense that it's you and God when you take that bread.

You're saying, I believe that he bore my sins in his body on the tree.

And when you drink the wine, you are also saying, I believe that that blood that Christ shed on the cross was for me.

And when he took it in the presence of my God and said, This is the blood, this is the blood that was shed for my child, for your child, God, for me, for you.

You're drinking the wine.

You're it's just wine, but it signifies, it pictures, it preaches in action that that blood was shed for you.

But you're doing that with God.

What an amazing privilege.

We think about how great it would be to have like a state dinner, be invited to the state dinner.

Maybe if I could just have the final seat at the long table with like a uh royalty or something, you have a seat right next to God at all times to come and to dine with him, but especially this moment when we have this communion service.

You have access to the presence of God, and he has beckoned you to come and fellowship with him, but it's because of the blood of Christ that has been taken in once and for all, redeeming us from our sins.

And I love the picture of the goat that has taken the sins away.

They're never coming back on you.

My sins stand before my eyes, but they don't stand before God's eyes because Christ has taken them away.

Um, I I mean, that's not something I can just finish, but it is something I'm gonna close with.

And we'll stand and sing a hymn.

And um there is opportunity to join with the church if you have a desire as we stand and sing.

I'm sorry.

231.

If you want to stand on 231.

Um again.

Oh, the doors of the church are open.