Join us in this special Christmas episode of Through the Bible as we explore the foundations of Christian faith and the significance of Christ’s birth. Hosts Steve and Greg dive into the true meaning of Christmas, offering hope and salvation to believers and non-believers alike. Through heartfelt discussions and biblical teachings, they remind us of the greatest gift – salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ. This episode also brings awareness to the global ministry efforts and how Christmas is perceived across different cultures. Greg and Steve encourage listeners to partake in meaningful conversations about faith, utilizing this holiday
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
SPEAKER 03 :
We want to welcome you to another program of Through the Bible. And on this special Christmas day, we want to say Merry Christmas on behalf of our entire staff. And I’ve got Greg Harris, Through the Bible’s president, in the studio with me today so that we can just talk with you a little bit before the program.
SPEAKER 04 :
And what a joy for Steve and I to share a Christmas greeting with you. No matter where you are, no matter what’s going on in your life, you’re part of this amazing ministry that’s getting the message of Christmas and Easter out to the world.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and if you are a believer listening to this program, you have the hope of salvation and an eternity with Christ, knowing that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. What a wonderful verse that is. And if you are not a believer, maybe you’re alone this Christmas day and you’re just listening to the radio or you’re listening on app or some other way and you’re hearing us, I would encourage you to take seriously the offer of salvation. And it all starts with the birth of Jesus Christ in terms of him coming to earth.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And the greatest gift that we can receive on planet Earth is the gift of salvation and eternal life and forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ. So thank you for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
And out of that flows worship. And appropriately so, that’s what Dr. McGee is going to be talking about in this program, is the significance of worship.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right, Steve. And one of the perspectives we always like to bring our listeners is that TTB, through the Bible, is a global ministry. And you know, around the world, Christmas is often considered a foreign holiday, and yet our partners in ministry and listeners, they use that as an opportunity to witness and say, let me explain to you about this holiday, about Christmas that I’m celebrating.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. So there are significant opportunities for our partners around the world. And our prayer is that there would be significant opportunities for you as well. Oftentimes we come in contact with neighbors, family members who don’t name the name of Christ. And so we’re praying for you that you would be bold in your faith and that you would hopefully be able to turn the conversation with the power of the Holy Spirit in charge. Yes, of course. Move that conversation towards a gospel conversation that you would boldly proclaim the saving faith that you have in Jesus Christ if you are indeed saved.
SPEAKER 04 :
And Steve, there’s a wonderful booklet we have on our website for free called Under the Tree, Eight Gifts Jesus Gives You at the Cross. So you might check that out for yourself or share it with others.
SPEAKER 03 :
Great. Now here’s Dr. McGee’s short introduction to the study.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now those of you that have been… Going with us through this epistle, you know that we’ve been walking through the tall corn. We’ve been treading on the mountaintops. We have been in flight in a jumbo jet. We have been riding a missile in space in this marvelous, wonderful epistle. And it’s my longing and desire that we get a hold of some of these great spiritual truths And may God deliver us from the cosmetic Christianity that’s around us today, from funny fundamentalism, from the jumpers to the kneelers. The jumpers are the ones that have no ceremony at all, and it’s all emotion. The kneelers are those that go through the ceremonies. They’re up and down. I told a friend of mine back east, I preach for him, and he has a church like that, by the way. We all wear a robe when we’re with him, and you go up and down. I told him, I said, after I’ve been through your service, I don’t need to take my setting up exercises. I’ve had them. And so that we might grasp something very wonderful in this epistle. And I do want it to mean a great deal to a great many of you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s pray. Father, would you lead us through the wonderful truths of your word and then teach us what it means to walk by faith and what it means to worship you in spirit and truth and not just on Christmas Day, but every day. We ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. We’re off to Hebrews 9 on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now friends, as we come again to the ninth chapter of Hebrews, we come to a new division and we’re dealing with that which is actually the meat of the word. This is not milk that we’re talking about now. Some little ceremony down here or some little method or some little program. We’re talking now in this ninth chapter actually about worship. And the subject is, the first 10 verses, a new sanctuary better than the old. And then from verse 11 into the 10th chapter, we have a superior sacrifice. Now, we have given to us here two ministries that are in contrast. One was the Levitical service and The ministry in an earthly tabernacle down here. Then the sanctuary in which the Lord Jesus serves and what actually is real worship today. Now, I want you to notice something that is very important and I’ll read the first verse. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. Now, I’d like to call your attention to an improvement that can be made upon the words that are used here. Actually, the word for service speaks of ordinances of divine service. I think it could better be translated divine worship. And then a worldly sanctuary doesn’t mean worldly as we think of it, but a sanctuary of this world. That is, it was made of materials of this world down here. It was made so long and so wide and so high. And there was a ritual that they went through in this sanctuary down here. In that sense, it was of the world. Now, it will be contrasted with a sanctuary that is in heaven. And there’s some very important things we want to say right here. But let me read verse 2. For there was a tabernacle made. Now, we’re not taken back to the temple, and there’s no reference made to Herod’s temple for the illustration, although there’s been a reference made to it that there were still priests serving at the altar in the temple. Actually, when the type is given, the writer here goes back of the temple, any one of them that was built, and the third one was in existence at that time. He goes back to that very simple structure that God gave to Moses in the wilderness. That was a tabernacle made, and it was made of the things of this world. The first wherein was the lampstand and the table and the showbread. which is called a sanctuary. That is, it was the holy place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, 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, and over it the cherry beams of glory, shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly.” Now, this is a very important passage of Scripture for us to see. To begin with, he’s going to make a contrast now between this tabernacle that, as we’ve already seen, was made after the tabernacle in heaven. God showed Moses a pattern, and Moses followed that pattern. And that was after the one in heaven. But always at best, this was a tabernacle of this world. And it was much inferior, as we shall see, in many different ways to the tabernacle which is in heaven. And it was the place, however, of worship. Now, we find again this word worship used and translated a little differently in verse 6. Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle And our translation says, service of God. Now, I’d like to call your attention to something that’s very important. And this has to do with real worship. Not just a church service where an order of service is followed, where there may be a ritual that’s not very complicated, or it could be a very complicated ritual. But when real worship takes place, That real worship is a worship that draws us into the presence of Christ, where we can adore Him. Now, worship actually comes from the same root word, the old Anglo-Saxon word of worth. It is giving to someone that which is worthy. They are worthy to receive adoration and praise. That’s worship. And the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy to receive our praise and our adoration. And then service follows from that. Real worship will always lead to service. You remember when the Lord Jesus answered Satan in the wilderness temptation? Here was an answer he gave, and he always quoted Scripture, and it was this. It is written… Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” You see, worship, if it’s real worship, will lead to service. You don’t have to beg and coax and goad people into doing something if they are participating in real worship of Christ, because real worship leads to service. Now, many of us ministers spend a great deal of time urging people to do something, you know, for God. Urge them to give, urge them to do visitation, urge them to teach, urge them to sing, urge them to do something. Well, real worship will lead to service, always, if it’s real worship. And maybe we just didn’t provide real worship. Now, the first thought that’s in worship is that of rendering, therefore, homage and adoration and praise in the presence of God to our wonderful Savior. And that worship is a service. And it leads to real service out yonder where the rubber meets the road. That’s when we roll up our sleeves. And that’s when we spit on our hands and we get to work for the Lord. May I say to you, worship is adoration right through this section here. Now, I want to say that real worship is only possible through Jesus Christ. The ritual of the tabernacle actually never got the people into the presence of God. The high priest alone went into the Holy of Holies. Now, the tabernacle proper was just a big gold box, 30 cubits long. That would be about 45 feet and 10 cubits wide. That would be about 15 feet and 10 cubits high. And it was in turn divided into two sections. In the holy place, there was, as we’re told here, these certain articles. For instance, there was the table of showbread, the golden lampstand. And then there was, in the background, the golden altar, the altar of incense. And it speaks of prayer. No sacrifice was ever made there. Now, in the Holy of Holies, where the high priest went, and it was separated by a veil, why, there were two articles of furniture. That was the ark. It was just a box made out of gopher wood overlaid inside and outside with gold. On top of it was a very highly ornamented top called the mercy seat. Cherry beams were made there. They looked down upon the top of the box, and that’s where the blood was placed. That’s what made it a mercy seat, because the Lord had said to them in Leviticus, without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Now, we find here that there’s been a little change made. We’re told that inside the Holy of Holies, there is this censer, as it is called here, which had the golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold. Now, why does he move it on the inside? Well, to begin with, the veil has already been removed. The veil is down today. That veil speaks of Christ, and it speaks in particular of the life of Christ, made of fine twine, Egyptian bysis linen with the cherry beans woven into it. And it speaks actually of the humanity of the Lord Jesus. Now, when he died on the cross, he gave his life on the cross, his human life, that veil was rent in twain. And the way to God now is wide open because he’s made a way. He says, no man cometh to the Father but by me. And the veil has been rent in twain. We can come right in to God’s presence today. But what happened to that golden censer, the golden altar? Well, it’s moved inside. Didn’t Aaron on the great day of atonement, Didn’t he, with the blood, come by that altar? Didn’t he take a censer and fill it with coals and then put incense and went inside? In other words, he is transferring, as it were. He’s transferring the altar of incense to the inside at that particular time. But of course, he picked up that censer full of burning coals, the fire from off the altar, and had sweet incense on it. He brought it back out. Here you have the transferring of it into the Holy of Holies. But he brought it out. And he’s going to do it again next year. We got a great high priest. He’s our great intercessor, always at the golden altar there making intercession for you. And his prayers are heard, by the way. Therefore, it’s on the inside, but it’s also on the outside. You and I can come through him by prayer. And that’s what Paul meant, that being justified by faith, we not only have peace with God, but we have access to God. And that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that is something that is quite interesting. Now, he mentions here also what was in that ark. He tells us that that was in it, the golden pot that had manna. That speaks of the present ministry of Christ and feeding those that is only feeds them with his word. He’s the bread of life. And you get the bread at the bakery, which is the Bible. The Bible is God’s bakery. And if you want bread, that’s where you’re going to go for it. And Aaron’s rod that budded, that speaks of the death and resurrection of Christ. Because that was a dead rod and life came in it. And the tables of the covenant. And that meant the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all the law. Now, we have this presented to us here as real worship. This is real worship, if you please, that he’s presenting to us at this time. And I want you to note that as we move down here now, verse 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.” What he’s telling us about now is the great day of atonement. In one sense, that was the high day, the Yom Kippur, the high day in the life of that nation. That is the day that the great high priest went in for the nation. And went in, and on the basis of that, the nation was accepted for another year. Now, our great high priest has gone in to the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God itself. He’s gone in there and hasn’t come out yet. He’s going to be there as long as we’re in the world. And when he comes out, he’s coming out after his own, because we are part of him today. We are the body of Christ. And the purpose of all of this is to make real to your heart and my heart the presence of the Lord Jesus. Today, did you start out with him? This is a hurly-burly world that you and I are in today. And it has no time for him as you rushed in on the freeway or wherever you rushed to today. And probably some of you at home now, did he go with you? Was he with you today? That’s the purpose of this. And you can worship him. You don’t have to go to a church and sing the doxology. However… That is something he’s going to urge here, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And you do need to meet with God’s people. And there needs to be this concerted corporate worship today. It’s very essential. But you can worship him at the end of a cotton row or a corn row. You can worship him on the freeway. You can worship him in the office. You can worship him in the classroom. Friends, you can worship him anywhere. I don’t care where you are, you can worship him. And this is something that’s always so needed today, that you and I pour out our hearts in adoration and praise unto his holy name. Now, the high priest has gone in for us today. And you can see how superior it is to this, where he went in just one day, and he only stayed, he hurried. In fact, he had a chain around his foot because if he had done anything wrong, he would have been struck dead and they’d had to pull him out and get a new high priest. But ours has gone in, and that is the wonder and glory of it all, that he’s been able to go into the very presence of God. of God for you and me today. Someone has made a little different translation here of Hebrews 9, 24, and I’m going to turn to that. For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the truth, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. Moses said to God, let me see your face. God says, you can’t do it. I’ve got a high priest that’s gone into the very presence of God. We don’t worship by going through ritual today, friends. We don’t worship by burning candles or burning incense or having a nice little altar fixed up today. Now, Protestantism has sure gone over to this. I have a very fine friend. I hold meetings for him, and he’s as sound as a dollar. But he told me last time I asked him, I said, why in the world you got the cross down there on the table of the Lord’s Supper? Oh, he says, not only that, did you notice the candles? Well, I hadn’t noticed those, but he had a candle at each end of the table. He says, that’s to help the people with their worship. My friend, if you need that kind of help, you’re not worshiping him. The Lord Jesus Christ said to that woman at the well, you remember? She said, now, where shall we worship God? Here, in this mountain? And we have a ritual? Or over Jerusalem, where we burn candles and incense? The Lord Jesus says, believe me, woman, the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers are going to worship God, how? In spirit and in truth. And I got another friend, he’s very much tied up in Jewish evangelism, which is very good. But he’s got a cantalabra in his church. He has a menorah, has seven candles on it. And I like to kid him because I know him real well. I said, my, you put in a new heating system here in your church. Oh, he was offended. He says, my, no. He says, this is to keep our minds centered on the fact that we have an obligation, Jewish people. I said, my friend, if you need that sort of thing, then you’re not really worshiping God today. Oh, I long for that, not only for you, but for myself, that I can get into his presence and I can smell the sweet incense of his presence, not with my nose, but with my heart and with my soul and my mind. May I be conscious of the sweetness of his presence. And may I walk in the light of his word. And may there be reality today in my life. Oh, I crave it for myself, friends. And I covet it for you today. That you and I might know what reality is. Oh, if we just quit drinking milk and put aside that little nipple on the bottle that we’ve got. I’ve got several letters here before me. I’ve got such wonderful letters today. But one dear lady, oh, she finds fault with the fact that we don’t write her a personal letter with every gift she sends in. She doesn’t realize that we are cut down to the bone here in staff. We cut down our overhead as much as we can. We are trying to get out the word of God. Oh, if I could just get that over with. But she wants the bottle with a nipple on it and wants to be burped every now and then. Oh, how we need today to get into the presence of the living Christ. He’s our great high priest. He’s ministering yonder at a better tabernacle than here on this earth. And the children of Israel worship God around that tabernacle. We can worship the living Christ today. May there be reality today in our worship. Now, we’re going on from there next time into this ninth chapter, which again is another wonderful chapter. Until next time, may God bless your hearts, my beloved, and enable you to worship him and smell the sweet incense of his presence.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s our greatest opportunity to worship the living Christ, our great high priest in heaven today. On this day of gift giving, we offer you these Bible studies with the hope that they help you grow deeper in your love of Jesus and God’s word. So if you’d like to help us take the gift to others as well, you can visit ttb.org forward slash give or call 1-865-BIBLE. I’m Steve Schwetz wishing you a merry and very blessed Christmas.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today’s study is always available, free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we’d love to know what’s God teaching you.
