All right, so last week we didn't get very far. We didn't get very far. We had a lot of fellowship. Awesome to be in prayer with one another. So we are back in Hebrews chapter nine. We'll go ahead and finish up verses six through 10, and then we'll jump into 11 through about verse 15. If we get further than that, then great. So let's go ahead, we'll start reading at verse six. We'll start on the left side. Start with Matt. Oops, oh. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went all ways into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people, and committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed. as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. 9. Which is symbolic for the present age, according to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worker. 10. But deal only with food and drink in various washings, regulations for the body, and clothes and toes. 11. But when Christ came as high priest, good things that are now already here, he went to the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands. That is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12. Once for all time he took blood into that holy place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation through him. 13. For the blood of goats and wolves and the sprinkling of the vile person, would the ashes of the heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh? 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who is risen from the spirit, offer himself without spot to God? Can you consign from dead works to serve the living? Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because of death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 for a will takes effect only at death since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it is alive Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood All right. Let's go ahead We'll stop there for now Okay, so let's just kind of sum up verses 6 through 10. What are we talking about here? rituals of the Old Covenant. Right. And what did those rituals deal with? Why did they fall short? It's only temporary cleansing. Right, yeah. It's only temporary, right? It really dealt with external, right? It dealt with the external part of worship and nothing internally. And it talks about clearing the conscience. What are we talking about clearing the conscience of the sinner? Will the conscience be... Romans chapter 2 verses 14-15 speaks about the conscience. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts. Their conscience also bears witness using one another. So we know what's right and wrong. We know what's right and wrong. Our consciousness is almost like an illustration of a rucksack, right? You're putting a bunch of stuff in that rucksack. You're following the law, right? You're just trying to follow the law. All that stuff in your rucksack, and Jesus freezes, right? He freezes from having to carry all of that weight. Okay, we like seeing that. But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come. So now we almost have, if we look at verses, what we just read in verses six to 10, and then we go to 11 to 14, we have kind of like a compare and contrast, right? You've got the Levitical priesthood versus when Jesus comes. And so what are some of the things that is better with Jesus? In its entirety? Right. Except by Christ. Except by Jesus. And with Jesus, verse 11 talks about the good things that are to come. The good things that have come. What are those good things? What is he talking about there? Eternal redemption. Eternal redemption, right? But Jesus is the greater, more perfect tender. What else do we see? First, if you go back and comparing 6 through 10, one of the things that makes note of is the high priest can only go in once a year, whereas because of what Christ did, we don't need the high priest now. We can come boldly like Hebrews 4 says, ourselves, as often as we want to, not just once a year. You had to go to a high priest, but now we don't have that separation. Absolutely. Jesus did it once and for all. He entered once and for all into the holy places. All right, and by what means? With the Levitical priesthood, what did they have to do to enter the holy places? Sacrifices. Right. Required blood, required sacrifices. But Jesus, by means of his own blood, He cleanses us. Okay, now what else do we have? Can I ask a question? Yes. So is this 6 through 10 saying that in the Old Testament, Old Covenant, all of those sacrifices and things that were happening with the tabernacle and everything only ever cleansed like the impurities of the flesh, like what they ate and drank and what they touched and all of that kind of stuff, but they never, those didn't ever apply to their conscience? Like they didn't ever, if they lied, that didn't get covered? They still had a dirty conscience for the rest of their life? Is that what that's saying? But it didn't change, right? Right. Whereas with Jesus. Now with Jesus, we're, okay. So then with that and the new covenant, flesh and soul or conscience is now cleansed with the spiritual sacrifice of Jesus, who is the new tabernacle. Is that what we're saying? Right. Tabernacle. I've heard the word conscience used before when reading this. It's always meant, I guess to me, let me know if you guys think I'm wrong, but it's having, they never had under the old covenant law and the practices that were supposed to fulfill them, the blessed assurance of salvation. You had to keep coming back, you had to keep trying to keep yourself clean through these rituals. But now, through Christ as our high priest, you have that actual clean conscience of blessed assurance of salvation. That would help. Actually answer all of that because the old the Old Testament people Their their faith wasn't in the sacrifice that they were giving the faith was in the promise that God gave Yeah, and because of the faith without faith is possible Please send them because of the faith that they had to live according to that faith knowing that it may not come now But it is coming Yeah, Bob when I looked at it said I cannot perfect the conscience if you look at When the Levites went in once a year, they had to splatter the blood. They even went in for unintentional sins, clearing the sins pretty much of the past year with that sacrifice before God. But they're still going to have to do it next year because it hasn't affected the conscience. So up until that point, their conscience is clear that they've sacrificed for their sin or uncleanness, whatever it was. And the change is that we no longer have to do it on a, well, we don't have to do anything on a consistent basis, because Jesus did it once, and that covers the rest. All right. Verse 13 talks about, for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of flesh, how much more would the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Anybody remember what they were talking about, the blood of goats and bulls and sprinkling defiled persons? I have to get the blood and just the number is 19. In fact, I'm not going to go back and read it. But during this time, the Israelites were wandering the wilderness, and a generation was dying off because of their rebellion and their refusal to take the land the Lord was giving them. So they constantly were exposed to dead bodies. If you came in contact with a dead body, inorganic or human, you were unclean, and thus you had to be purified. So now a red heifer without defect had to be sacrificed. It had to have never been yoked, and it was taken to the priest, And during the time of Numbers, this Eleazar, a heifer had been taken outside the camp and slaughtered. And the priest would then take the blood and sprinkle the tent of meeting seven times. And the heifer would be burned, flesh and blood and dung and cedar hyssop and scarlet yarn thrown into the fire with the heifer." All right, so man, that was a lot, right? I mean, yeah. It's just that it symbiotically would purify them of sin. They would be kept and mixed with water. Let's see. Hold on. You notice the thing over here. The ashes would be gathered up by someone clean and taken to a clean place, and they would be kept and mixed with water. It would be a sin offering used to cleanse both the sanctuary and the people of Israel to symbiotically purify them of sin. I mean, man. Right. Yeah. Maybe it's supposed to be hard and convoluted. Because number one, to let you know how hard this is and how it's unsustainable through eternity. But number two, are you going to listen to me? Is Israel going to listen to God when he gives them these instructions? It's kind of difficult to follow. You know what I think is interesting, too, is because there seems to be this definite play against the external things and the conscience, which, I guess, in this context, and this is why you can't just build a doctrine out of just one place, you have to read the whole Word of God, because we understand that conscience is kind of like a stand-in for the Spirit, but the idea of conscience isn't all that's involved in the Spirit. I mean, we talk about the will, the heart, we use other words, But definitely something going on here with the flesh and then the inside, internal. And it certainly is easy to see where some of the heresies came about, because there was a heresy about flesh, that all flesh is just evil, and therefore you need to destroy the flesh. And then spiritual things, and people got these weird ideas. Easy to understand but there is also something there I think because what did God do when out of any sin in the garden He didn't let him physically stay in the garden And the reason was and I never saw this until maybe 20 years ago Is that there was another tree in the garden that if they reached out their hand to it, what does it say? They'll live forever So they'll stay in this state that they are forever. So there's something about physical the material world that's fallen and fleshly and decaying. And so that's why they couldn't stay in the garden. And so at the end of time, that tree will be there again. And so we will be redeemed, new bodies, new hearts. Jeremiah, I'll put a new heart within you and all that stuff. Those two will now be together for eternity. Both the physical material and the spiritual will be both perfected and together for all eternity. So, I don't know, there's something there. It's interesting that, like you said, Phyllis, this really is a little confusing, because we know that there were things, like you said, Hugh, in the Old Testament, where they were offering for what seems like internal sins. And so there's that there, but sometimes I think when someone's trying to make an argument, they may leave stuff out, not saying that the stuff they left out is not true. Does that make sense? offering himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. Do you guys observe anything in verse 14 that kind of jumps out at you? Through the eternal spirit, he offered himself. You guys see the Trinity? Sure. You got the Trinity. You got the blood of Christ, the Son of God, who through the eternal spirit, yet the Holy Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, God the Father, to purify our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. Isn't it awesome that we serve the living God? And so because we have that freedom, there's one more thing I'm going to bring This goes back to Exodus, and I won't make everybody turn there right now, but Exodus chapter seven, verse 14. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, and he refused to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, and as he is going out to the water, stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand a staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, let my people go, that they may serve Anyway, then the Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. Verse 20, then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me. Over and over you're seeing that the whole purpose is to serve God. Freedom to serve, yeah. We have this freedom not to do what the world says, and it's all about us. It's about serving him. So we'll go ahead and end there.