Alright, take your Bibles and go to Hebrews chapter 9. Hopefully we'll get to verse 15, but we're going to start in verse 1. It's pretty self-explanatory what we're going to discuss tonight. We have been walking through the book of Hebrews in a series called Better Than All. And we are getting to the point now where we're going to really be putting down the biggest nail, so to speak, in this idea that the law was the best. Just as a brief recap, the Jews were facing persecution. They had serious temptation to go back. to the way that the worship was before. And everything about the Mosaic Law, everything was outward. Outward in how you dressed, outward in how you appeared before your sacrifices. Limited is another thing. There were only certain things that certain people could do. And what Christ has now introduced is anybody is able to come on in. Anybody is able to participate in this fellowship. Anyone is able to have a relationship with God. I agree with Dr. Arnold. You've heard him make this statement that that word relationship is overused in application to salvation. It's proper, but it's not the way that we should be, you know, speaking about salvation because in today's world relationships start and they stop and that can be a permanent thing. The relationship that we have with the Lord is a familial thing. We're born into His family. So I like to use the word fellowship because it's used in 1 John quite a bit, and it's a really good way to look at it. We have a fellowship with the Lord. So the quality of our fellowship can be good or bad. It can wane here and there because depending on our level of service, our level of discipline, our level of knowledge, we can have real close, tight fellowship as we walk with Him in discipline, as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we've yielded to the Holy Spirit, or we can have a not-so-good walk with the Lord because we're disobedient, we're carnal, we're lacking knowledge. You know, these things are important. It's not God starts a relationship with us, and then based on how we perform, the relationship may be ended. It doesn't work that way. We are in an eternal fellowship with Him. Yes, our relationship is a familial thing. We're born into the family of God. But when we're looking at the Jew, their relationship with God, with the Mosaic, Law was you need to do these things not to be saved but to have a temporary covering for your sin For Israel to be blessed for you to be blessed You need to do these things you need to do do do and now we have Christ coming in and he says it's done and These Jews they knew that Remember Hebrews chapter 5 the last part I want to teach you these things, but you're not ready So last week we talked about how he was the better covenant Okay, and now there's a new covenant that comes in it's going to be compared with the old covenant and that is going to be the Mosaic Law compared with Jesus Christ in this eternal priesthood. We talked about how Jesus was the better priest, better than any priest of the Levites, because guess what happened with the Levitical priests? They all suffered from this thing called death, and they had to be replaced, and not all of them were good. Not all of them were bad either, but they were men serving in a role in which they were born into. Jesus was called into His priesthood. He wasn't of the tribe of Levi, yet He is the great High Priest. He intercedes for us. So now we're going to transition from this idea of he's the better priest, he's the better sacrifice. I was talking to Trent and he was saying, what's your title going to be? And I was like, man, I don't want to say he's the better sacrifice and give some type of indication that there are other sufficient sacrifices. He is the only one that matters. But for the sake of the title that we're going through in this series, He's way better than any of the animal sacrifices. And you're gonna see that tonight. I chose not to go to different cross-references. We could, we could go to the tearing of the veil as an illustration, and maybe we'll get to that next week. But this passage speaks so clearly for itself. Anybody that is caught up in a works-based salvation method can greatly benefit from just reading these verses. So we're gonna read, we're gonna pause a little bit, and we'll discuss. Let's get started in verse one. This is Hebrews chapter nine in verse one. Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. That's not worldly in a carnal way, this is earthly. Just like we could say we have a worldly building here at Calvary. It's earthly, you can touch it, it's of the earth, made of materials of the earth. And this sanctuary here, you see in verse two, it says, for there was a tabernacle, That's a dwelling place. This is where things resided and the tabernacle was split into different places. And there were places which you as a normal person, not a priest, you as a normal citizen of Israel, you could not have access to. It didn't matter how much you paid or how nice you were. You know people that they try to get on people's good side so they can get the perks. This didn't work like that. Only the priests were allowed in one section, and then only the high priest was allowed in another section. We'll see that. But all these things were of the earth. What's gonna happen to this earth? Well, we know it's going to, it's gonna be gone. It's gonna be destroyed. The Bible tells us in Revelation that there's gonna be a new heaven and a new earth. You ever seen a building that lasts forever? No, I mean, I have a friend, he's a pastor at a church, and they are remodeling their church. You know how they chose to remodel it? Knock it down. They knocked the whole thing down. I mean, and I'm sure that that church was functional to a point, but their growth demanded we need more space. And so at some point, that earthly, worldly building didn't satisfy anymore, needed to be rebuilt. And I'm sure if we are to remain here for another couple hundred years, at some point, the one they're building right now will be old. I remember when we got struck by lightning And I got told by the internet company, well, if you want faster internet speeds, you're going to have to rewire the entire building. I don't know how to do that. I don't even know where the wires are running right now. They just come out of the wall, and we're thankful. But I cannot imagine rewiring this entire building, getting ethernet cables upstairs and in the sound booth and down over here and in all the offices. I have no idea, but it would be quite a task. But at some point, we may have to do that. Because what we have right now is not going to be sufficient always. Especially when you look at the coming destruction that's going to happen on this planet. It's going to be consumed by fire. And there are great buildings that through one flood can be totally useless, have to be knocked down. So when we're talking about here, this was an earthly dwelling place. Yes, as I want you to see here in verse one, they were ordinance of divine service. This is how you want to worship the Lord. This is how it's going to be done. You have to follow these things. Look in verse two. For there was a tabernacle, a dwelling place, made, the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. So now we're getting a picture of the temple here, excuse me, of the tabernacle. but there was one place where they had these different items and the author doesn't go into all the descriptions because The descriptions are not necessarily needed the audience knows it and for you and I I'm not gonna say we don't need to know but we don't really need to know these things These this is all a picture and that there were items here and there was form and order The one thing that I do want you to recognize is in verse 3 we've described in verse 2 the place where common like the priests Plural can go this next place. Only one could go in there. Look what it says in verse three. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, the dwelling place, which is called the holiest of all. Or we can see in other places, the holy of holies. This was a place where only the high priest could go once a year to atone for the sins of Israel. And not specifically the egregious ones that we commit on purpose. The the ones that we do on accident was particularly for the ones that you do as a mistake Didn't intend to do them You know what the punishment was for deliberately breaking the Mosaic law The game of life is over You would die And to an extent, that was understood, but of course we all make mistakes. You ever built something before? You ever tried to measure something and measured incorrectly, and you don't find out until the entire thing is built, and you're like, this is not, this isn't gonna work? That's why I don't build things. Looking at a ruler and trying to figure those things out, it can be a little stressful, but look, especially, I built a fence with my father-in-law, and learned how important it is to measure. Because if you start off half an inch, You're gonna end up way off the more fence you put down. Just out here, we had a gentleman come out and survey. When we start on the top of the property, the fence right there, it's on the line. By the end of it, we're about three to five feet off. And you're like, what happened here? I don't know, but maybe some measuring wasn't done, I'm not sure, but it's important that these things are exact. And the descriptions here of the tabernacle, these things were exact. There was no whoops, we forgot, only the high priest can go in here, we forgot. You go in there, you're not supposed to go in there, you're done, it's over. And the holiest of holies here was reserved for the high priest. Commonly, sometimes they would have to put a rope around the high priest's ankle in the event that he died while he was in there. They'd have to pull him out. Well, that's just a really horrible God. No, it's not. He's a God of order, and he will be obeyed. You realize that? He will be obeyed. Whether people reject him for salvation and end up in hell, they're going to stay there. Or whether people put their trust in Christ and continue to commit egregious sin, they will have chastening in this life, and they'll lose out on rewards in the next. But God will have order. I don't know if you guys are familiar with this, but I got this question twice in this past year about why did God want to suddenly kill Moses in Exodus? Many of you may be familiar with that, but it just seems like out of the blue, God is now searching for Moses to kill him. Well, it was because Moses and his wife did not want to obey circumcision. They didn't want to do it for their child. And Moses was ready to oblige and say, okay, it's not that big of a deal. Well, hang on, it actually is a big a deal because this is what God said was going to be the sign of his people. So God was willing and ready to take the life of Moses because of his disobedience. What's the point here? The point is when God gives instructions, we are wise to obey it. And all of everything in the Mosaic law You need to know it. You need to be willing to obey it. I want to give you some good news. We do not have to do those things now. I remember when I was starting to grow I mean, like really starting to get traction on things, probably between my junior and senior year of Bible college, when I started really picking up things and understanding how the Scripture can be understood, I had this idea to go on a website. I can't remember the, it's Christian Apologetics, maybe Research Ministry, Resource Ministry. It spells out CARM. like Chicken Parm, but it's with a C, C-A-R-M. And I went on there, and I made an account, and I was commenting on different posts, because this is where people were. They were having discussion and all that. And I remember how dull of hearing people are on that website. I would post something about the gospel. I think my first post was the seven points, illustrated with verses and going to different things. And within the first hour, there were like four or five comments of just people that were spamming content, just one thing after another. They're like, well, have you considered this? And you know, we really can't consider the writings of Paul as inspired. Like taking parts of the Bible in these people's minds and saying, this is not inspired scripture because it doesn't match up with what Jesus said. I mean, real issues, real difficult issues, and it's all coming from a misunderstanding of Scripture. But I remember one time, somebody got on there and said, we must keep the law and trust in Christ, not for salvation, but for spiritual growth. Guys, that's not true. That's not true. When Pastor Cucuzza was here, and he said, you can fulfill the law in one thing, love one another, he showed us that right there in 1 John 4. Not to say the law is not good, it is good, but even the Christian, you and me, as born-again believers, we are not more spiritual because we keep the Mosaic Law. It's not how it works. The Mosaic Law was a form to point to the completion in Christ. Now we have liberty, as we see in Galatians, and we live in that liberty, and we grow. The people that you reach will be different than the people that I reach. There are cultural differences in many countries, in which in America we would say not acceptable, but many missionaries participate in those cultural differences because they're reaching the people where they are. If we are to come and say to a unreached people group, we say, you must follow the Mosaic Law, they will not understand you. They won't understand what you're talking about. So they're just going to repeat what you're saying because it's what you're saying. You have to be careful. The Mosaic Law was there for a reason. The Mosaic Law is the type. Christ was the anti-type. He was the fulfillment, the literal fulfillment of those things that were as a placeholder. Look what it says here in verse four. This holy of holies from verse three, 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 cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. He's stopping himself to say yes, you know these things. This is not what we're talking about particularly. Move on now to the main point, look in verse six. Now, when these things were thus ordained, what things? The order and the practice of the law. When these things were thus ordained, the, and if you're taking notes, I would suggest circling priests. The priest went always into the first tabernacle, the one with the candlestick and the showbread, so on and so forth. They went into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. Right away, we have limitation. If you're not a priest, you're not getting into this next part. It's restricted. Look at what it says here in verse seven. But into the second went the high priest alone. I would mark that as well because now we have a second restriction. Priests in the one, the first dwelling place, high priest alone in the second one. Look what it says. And it was limited in the amount of time, the third restriction. Once every year, not without blood, the fourth requirement. You've got to go in there alone, only on the day of atonement, and you must have a blood sacrifice. Which he offered, mark this here, for himself. Now hold your place there for just a second, and turn, as a matter of fact, if you can do it, if you have a Scofield Bible, you can fold that page kind of in half, okay? And you can go to chapter four, of Hebrews. And you can look in verse 15 and compare it with the high priests of the tribe of Levi, okay? So there in verse seven it says, which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people. Well, what about Jesus and his priesthood? Look what it says in verse 15. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, mark it, yet, without sin. What does this mean? That Jesus, as the high priest who intercedes on our behalf, is different and better than any other tribe of Levi priest. Why? Because when he made the offering, he was without sin himself. And there is no high priest, except for Jesus, that has made an offering on the day of atonement who was without sin. None Secondly, no high priest offered his own blood. Why? Because it's imperfect. That blood has to be of a certain type of lamb, slain in a certain way, the meat has to be used in a certain way, all those things are not met, the sacrifice is not counted. Rigid and strict as it should be. Why? Because the law demands perfection. And Christ was perfect. He is perfect. And if we stray from that, especially to the Jews, if you go back to adhering to the law, you show to the people who have yet to trust on Christ, these things, there's no real difference. We've gotta be careful that we're not making the law something in which can save, and it cannot do so. So you can let chapter 4 go of Hebrews and go back to there of Hebrews 9, and we'll finish this statement here. The Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. Which was a figure? This is not me using hermeneutics, or excuse me, not hermeneutics, homiletics, the art of preaching, and saying, oh, these things are just a type and a figure. Guys, it's right here in your King James Bible. It says that the tabernacle and the order of it and the structure of it was a figure of what? For the time then present in which we're offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect. This is strong stuff. It's strong because you can apply it just, not only in interpretation, we can see this is directly talking about all of the sacrifice practices. So it nails the Jewish person who says, you gotta keep the law. No, you don't, okay? No, you do not have to continually sacrifice to be saved. But we can also apply this. We can then also say the Catholic who is keeping the sacraments or keeping confession also is offering dead works. They're not gonna save. Confession never saved anybody. I've been getting questions over and over about Romans chapter 10, where it says believe and confess. Listen, just logically, I'm not going to get into that again, but this came up again, someone was talking about this, and getting on me about it, saying, you've got to say, you've got to say. There's a young man in Jersey, New Jersey, I think. He has a channel, I told you about this young man, Good Hope on YouTube. He had to mute the comments because of all of these Christians that were coming after him and saying, no, you must confess publicly or you're not saved. It's not in the Bible. The order there for the Jewish person, not even for salvation, but in order to reach other Jewish people, is to confess what you've already believed. Listen, you can't confess and then believe. It doesn't work. If I don't believe, as an example, if I don't believe that the Tampa Bay Bucks are going to win the game, I'm not going to say that they're going to win the game. It's not going to come first and say, the Bucks are going to win the game, and then I go, ooh, I believe that. Nothing works that way. I'm going to go to the store, and you're still thinking about whether you're going to go to the store. Confession is publicly for the benefit of those who have yet to do what you have done, which is believe. It doesn't save you. It signifies what you're believing. And when we don't confess, people don't know what we believed, and they don't have an opportunity to hear it and get saved. This is why baptisms are a wonderful opportunity to reach people. If you saw the baptism we did this year, which I think we had a lot of people baptized, Armando, one of them, one of the kids in Ranch, Matthew in Savannah, it was wonderful. And we came to the point where we're in the water, and I ask that person, I say, have you believed on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the full payment of your sin? And they say yes. If by surprise they say no, they're out of the water. Why? Because this baptism is supposed to be a picture of what they have believed so that the people that are there hear it and believe. That's the whole point of it. So when we are now here in scripture and we see in verse nine that all these things were a figure, we can rightly apply that to any works-based salvation, any one. Look what it says at the end of verse nine. That could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience. This is wonderful, it's a second layer. When they went in and offered those sacrifices, it cleansed them of the sin outwardly, temporarily. Because they had to do it again. I'm gonna show you, look in verse seven. Once every year. Okay, we did it for 2021. 2022 is on the schedule. We're going to do it again. We have to do it again. You miss it, lot of discipline is coming down on you. Because the following of those sacrifices for that time, I can't believe we're almost out of time. Can you believe it? Maybe you can. But for me, it's like, we're close. But when you get to this part, you see that the sacrifices, yes, they cleansed you outwardly, temporarily, but it didn't take care of anything inward. There's no new birth. There's no born again thing, look what it says, as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. This is beautiful. These things were there temporarily, that's all they are. The washing of this, the doing of that. Yes, they are brought into a divine purpose. None of them could ever save you until the time of reformation. What is that? This is why this time of year where we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ is wonderful. The word was made flesh, and he dwelt among us. You ever been in the presence of someone famous? I'm trying to rack my brain to see if that's ever happened to me. It hasn't. It hasn't. Well, you know what, I'll be honest. You might be a little embarrassed to admit this, but when I met Pastor Jim Scudder, I was kind of like, ooh. This guy does In Grace TV, he's got this huge ministry. When I met the late Dr. Scudder, I was kind of like, wow, this is the guy. You know Yankees talked about him? This is the guy. But let me tell you, nothing in comparison to what we have in Jesus. Nothing. You ready for this? Look at these next few verses. It's gonna be hard to stop at 15, but we have to, we have to. Lord willing, we'll meet next week. But Christ, being come in a high priest of good things to come by a, please mark this, greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. And we're gonna pause there, because they're gonna go deeper into that. We're talking about his body. Not the product of man and woman coming together to produce a little child. placed in Mary through the Holy Spirit, born into the world. Wow, wow! The God who literally said, let there be light, and there was light. Wouldn't you have loved to be a fly, well you can't be a fly on the wall then, it hasn't been made yet. What would you be? I don't know, an angel in the courtroom, I guess. What was that like? They weren't even created then. What was it like to see light come into existence? What was it like to see this planet formed? CGI has given us a little insight to, ooh, how things might look and all that, but pfft, you can keep your ones and zeros. I wanna see the real thing. Dr. Myers is always like, I have an appointment with the Lord, and he's gonna walk me through all of time, and he's gonna answer all my questions, and I wonder if that'll really happen. I don't have a chapter and verse for it, but wouldn't it be great if God was like, ask your questions, and you're like, I know the first thing I would wanna see. Show me that creation week. I wanna see it. I want to see that. But the one who did that, had the power to do it, is self-existent, became a man like you and me, and died for me. How can I say there's anything greater than that? Oh yeah, the sacrifices. They're nothing if a placeholder at all. Look what it says here. So we're talking about not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither, mark this please, by, I know I've said that a lot, but by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once. You know, in Hebrews chapter 10, there's three verses there that mention the word once, and we've used them before. He's forever sanctifying them. He offered himself up once. This is the first time we're seeing this here. All these chapter eight, nine, and 10, they're all interconnected together. But it's important to see here, this first use of the word once is to say it is in contrast with the once every year. He did it once. Excuse me, this is why particularly, and I am not dogging on the Catholic religion, I'm just telling you, this is what they teach, and this is what our area is stooped in. They particularly teach that Christ must be offered again for your sin. This is why confession is of grave importance, because if you miss it and you die, and your sin is not paid for again, you're not going to heaven. This is where people are. Wouldn't it be great to have a Bible verse that shows he paid for it all once? We went out to eat a couple weeks ago. It would be foolish if I went to that restaurant and say, I'm here to pay for my bill again. Who is this guy? Well, I'm ready. $35, swipe the card. Why? The bill's already paid. Now, if it was a credit card, amen, That bill is happening again, and again, and again, and again, until the debt is paid off full, and then the account is listed paid in full. Guys, the sin debt of all the world, paid in full. We don't need the Catholic Church to continually offer up sacrifices. We saw that in Hebrews 6. That would be to crucify him again, put him through that shame again. You think he's doing that? No, and if he had to go and do it again, it wasn't perfect, it wasn't enough the first time. This is also why we can say with confidence that there's no sin that you can commit after you've put your trust in Christ that would separate you. He'd have to be offered again or he would have had to exclude that sin. Look what it says here in verse 12. Once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. What kind of redemption? Eternal. When Jesus died and he gave up the ghost, the very veil that we're discussing about here was torn in two from the top to the bottom to signify two things. Number one, from the top to the bottom is that no man is crawling up that veil and tearing it from the top. You know that now, because only the High Priest can go in there on the Day of Atonement once a year. And also, it is a picture of what was now restricted is now wide open. Anybody can come in. Now, we don't take that to the extreme of, up until that point, everyone was saved by the law, because we just saw here that those things never saved. But it was to say, the right relationship with God, the cleansing outwardly and the cleansing inwardly of a new birth is available now. And those who died before this veil was split, they went into a holding place called paradise, pretty cool. Abraham was there, we know. And when the Lord descended into the heart of the earth, he didn't fight with the devil for three days and three nights. I was taught that as growing up in a Baptist church. Can't find it in scripture. Sorry, it's not there. He didn't duke it out with the devil. The angels didn't buy tickets. There were no betting odds placed. He went in to lead captivity captive. He went in to take those that believed on his coming to pay for their sin. He took them and let them captive. And now when I die, I'm not making a stop in the heart of the earth. I'm going directly to him. Why? Because the way has been made open. where the high priest once could only go is now where anybody, the drunkard, homeless, vilest of people that you could think of, they believe on Christ, they have a seat at the table. No other religion teaches that. Get cleaned up first and then on assessment we'll see. Not biblical Christianity, amen? Not, no, no, anybody. Verse 13. For if the blood, for if, don't you like that phrase? If what? The blood of bulls. and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, if it sanctified 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 a living God? There's the two comparisons. The blood of bulls and goats, the sacrifices that were offered They took care of Israel physically for the time being until it needed to be made sacrifice again. Did nothing inwardly though. Did not bring about anything to them in the form of a new birth. Belief on a coming Messiah did. And those who now, since Christ has made the payment, those who believe now, they're sealed with the Holy Spirit immediately. So now, looking at that again, the purifying of the flesh, if that blood of bulls and goats took care of the flesh, how much more? What's the comparison? Purifying of the flesh, temporary, has to be done every year. Purifying of the spirit, it's a new birth, it happens once, and guess what? It lasts forever. You see the difference? How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot. He wasn't simply the best lamb available. He was the only one from the foundation of the world. he was gonna be that lamb slain. Think about this, in Christ's eternal body, in which we will sing praises to him forever and ever and ever, in which we will be with him, as it says in 1 Thessalonians 4, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, the only thing that remains on his eternal body as a signifier are the scars in his hands and on his feet. That is extremely powerful. He forever was supposed to be that lamb slain. There wasn't someone else as a backup. There wasn't a competition and he was selected. This is how it was gonna be. And we have access to him. That's exciting. It is exciting to see the language of scripture here. Look what it says, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Instead of just repeating the sacrifices and keeping the following of the law, which are just dead works in regards to salvation and in regards to growth, why don't you serve the living God through an inward renewal? This is why, are there people who look good on the outside but spiritually they're weak on the inside? Look, the following of rules does not make you spiritual. The inward renewal does. And it's twofold. You can't start growing spiritually until you're born. And then once you're born, you have to learn how to walk in the spirit to continue to grow. Oh, well, I'm just gonna follow the Ten Commandments, and that's it. Well, you follow the Ten Commandments and you don't soul win, you don't pray, you don't fellowship, All you're gonna be is someone who follows rules. I remember working at the bank, there were people who followed rules, and there were people who excelled. And you know who got paid bonuses? The ones who excelled. Still followed the rules, but they applied themselves. Boy, I loved working at the bank. I'll tell you right now, I loved it. There was this metric called AHT, average handle time, which is basically how quickly can you get that customer off the phone. And it was like, I was an artist. Account number, we're flying, we're moving and grooving. You know, all this stuff is getting done. And the customer's satisfied. You get that call done, three minutes, next one comes in, you're rolling, you know? You know why I applied myself? Because there was a reason to apply myself. I was gonna get a bonus. And I wanted that bonus. I wanted to be in the top three. Listen. Why should we apply ourselves now? Because you can have a, like we saw this morning in 1 John chapter one and verse four, these things write unto you that your joy may be full. That's better than any bonus of average handle time that you can get. It's better. But there are many Christians who don't want that. They got themselves in, they're taken care of, and they concern themselves with the affairs of this life. And they never get to enjoy that next step And particularly for the legalist, the one who just is mired in do, do, do, continue, continue, continue. They never enjoy the sweet fellowship of resting in Christ and growing in him, servingly with a right mind. Or many people would say with a right heart. Not this one. Your mind. Why do you follow the rules? You know? Why? Why do you soul win? Boy, I've seen soul winners that lack tact. It's like they're not aware of their surroundings. It's like, did you just hear what you said to that person? Why would they want to listen to what you just said after you said that? Well, you know, all that's important is we get the gospel. So they go around with a hammer and a nail, and they, boom, put it in people's foreheads, and say, well, I did my job. This is why Dr. Hank Lindstrom and Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, some of the best soul winners that we ever knew. You know why? They knew how to reach people. I have learned this, I'm still learning this, the importance of gaining favorable attention. Well, you can talk to somebody until you are blue in the face. If you don't have favorable attention with them, you're likely not going to get anywhere. People know what a sales pitch is. You see that guy walking down the street, he's got the bucket, he's got the squeegee, and he sees you, and you see him, and you know he's about to come give you a demonstration on your car window shield. He doesn't care about you. Next thing you know, Oh, I see your car windshield is pretty dirty. Let me show you this new product. People know he does not care about you. He cares about making the sale. People can see the same thing if we're that way with the gospel. If we're robotic, we're not aware, we're not paying attention. Gotta be careful. Last verse and then we'll close. 15, and for this cause he is the mediator, the go-between 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. Wow. Those who believed under the Old Testament, not the Old Testament as far as the first half of the Bible, but the Old Covenant, They believed and they're grandfathered in to the new one. And now you and I can experience fellowship in the new one. Where do I get that? I'm excited, you can close your Bibles. How do I get to be a part of that new testament? How do I get to part of this new covenant? You simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and not of any good works that you could do or someone could do for you. or that your money could do. Boy, if there's a biggest deception right now, it's that money will get you in. Particularly, that's why I don't like naming buildings after people. If it becomes the Martinez Fellowship Hall, look, I don't want that. Let's just call it the Fellowship Hall where people get saved. Let's just call it the sanctuary. It's not about me. It's not even about you, it's about Christ, and we need to keep it that way. You know the illustration. This is you and me, the wallet represents sin, and this will represent Jesus Christ. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. All a person must do to get to heaven. is believe on Him. He did it once. It was His blood, not the blood of animals or the blood of just any man. It was the Son of God. And by simply believing on Him, you receive the free gift of everlasting life. And it's taken care of forever. Forever. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heads are bowed, knives are closed. I know I've kept you a little long. For those that are watching on the internet, if you've yet to put your trust in Christ, I wanna encourage you to do so. You can leave a comment for us there, and that would be really encouraging to see that there are people that have put their trust in Jesus Christ. For all in the audience, as we're about to close here, heads are bowed, knives are closed, I want you to see how important these few passages in Hebrews are to the lost person. It lays out a great case against works-based salvation, and an even greater case for the finality of Jesus. I hope this motivates you and helps you to see how much there is available. This is just one book, 15 verses in one chapter of one book. There's so much more to learn. I hope you're encouraged by that. Father, thank You for Your Word, the study of it. I ask that You bring us back here safely for Wednesday night prayer meeting. We again remember Joyce. We ask that she is healed. We also remember this young man who's going through a difficult time right now. We pray that there will be an opportunity to get the gospel to him.