Turn to Hebrews chapter 9, and let's, before we get into it, let's pray that God will bless this time. Let's pray. Father, I pray, please God, help us in our weakness. God, we, I feel very insufficient, God, and am without your spirit. I pray, God, please work Through this time, God, quicken us through your Spirit, that your word would go forth with power and with clear understanding. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's read. We're going to read Hebrews chapter 9, verses 1 through 12. By God's grace, we'll cover this section today. Let's start in verse 1. Then verily, the first covenant 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 showbread, which is called the sanctuary. 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 cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle 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 heirs of the people. the Holy Ghost, thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, and could not make him that did the service perfect 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. But Christ, being come and better 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." In these verses, we see the importance of the ordinances of the Old Covenant. That's what you see in the first six verses, that these ordinances of the of the Old Covenant did have importance, they did have significance. But God used them, like we've been over already, but it's important to understand that God used them for a period of time, and they were expired. The Old Tabernacle was only earthly, but had great significance because of what it represented, or what it was a type of. The earthly tabernacle was a type of the heavenly. Or we could say the earthly was a type of the spiritual. But most importantly, it was a type of what was to come. It was pointing to what was to come. And once the fulfillment, or the anti-type came, which was Christ, or the new covenant, Christ who came under the new covenant, then the old was then to be done away with. That's what he's talking about here in chapters 8, 9, and 10. That's the major theme of all three chapters. That the new covenant comes, and when the new comes, it does away with the old. The old is obsolete. It's no longer useful. Because the old was only there, it was only temporary. It only had the cardinal ordinances, it says. It was only of natural makeup. And it was only pointing to the spiritual, to the real, to the heavenly, to the eternal. And once that came to pass through Christ, the old was done away with. This principle relates to us, and that we, by nature, are in a system of worldly or earthly ordinances. Right? We like to say God, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. That's what the Jews were doing in the Old Testament. They said, God, just tell us what to do and we'll do it and we'll be okay. And today, we have the same attitude. Men and women have the same attitude of saying, we want it in our flesh just to say, Lord, tell me what to do and I'll do it and then I'll be okay. And it doesn't work that way. We may not have the religious ceremonies, but in a sense, we do. And much like these Hebrews, and how they desired to, and some did, want to go back to the Judaistic system, which simply shows that some of them never left that system. Even though outwardly, they may have left it, in their minds, they never did. And we see the same kind of thing today. Many say they believe in Jesus, but in their minds, they have never left their old system. They are still trying to perform in order to make themselves right with God. They have never left the old covenant. They have never left the system they were in. They have only added Jesus to what they already had. And we went over that this morning already. But it's so true. And in essence, some of these Hebrews were doing that. They were only adding Jesus to what they already had. It's what the Judaizers did. They were saying they could not deny Christ. So they said, okay, well we'll just add him to what we already have and keep what we have and add Jesus. And I fear that this is the situation we even with a portion of the people in this church are in. Oh yes, they are quick to say And we may be quick to say that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, but when you really get into what they believe, it comes down to a system of works. It comes down to Jesus plus me. Jesus dying on the cross and me performing good works to get to heaven. That's what it comes down to. And I know this is slightly outside of our text, but I believe it's very helpful. for each of us here. And I just want to show you three things quickly that are a system of works, three things that are a system of works that are common today, and I think have been common for a long time. Number one is having the list. Number one is having the list. And I think we can make the list in our minds. I could say, well, I go to church. I preach. I go witnessing. I do this, I do that. I read my Bible. I give to the poor. The list, it's called the list. I can make the list and somehow think because of the list, whatever your list is, that I'm okay with God. And I can take that list and I can add Jesus to it. I can take my list and add Jesus and now I'm really okay because I got my list and I got Jesus and I must be a Christian. I must be going to heaven when I die. That's one problem we see. It's called the list, I'm going to call it. Number two is the ceremony. It's the ceremony. Now we may not sacrifice animals and do ceremonies of that type, but many today do ceremonies by walking an aisle, by raising a hand, by signing a card, by saying, I did the ceremony. I was baptized. A lot of people say that. We meet a lot of people that are mostly ignorant of the scriptures, but they'll say, I was baptized. I did the ceremony. I did the ceremony. I was baptized. I said the prayer. I did the thing. Doing the ceremony. And number three, I was born into it. I've always been a Christian. How many times do we hear that? People say, I've always been a Christian. I was born into a Christian family. I was a Christian ever since I could remember. That's what people say. It's very scary to me when somebody says that. I know there's this reformed viewpoint on that, where some people, they believe in that covenant thing. I'm not even sure how it works, but I'm not going to get into that today. I'm sorry I haven't brought it up. But to be, you're not born into being a Christian. You're not born into the family of God by your mother's birth. You're born into the family of God through the power of the Spirit of God when He regenerates you. So we are not born into it. And I think these three things, the list, the ceremony, and being born into it, we can take any one of those three and add Jesus to it and be deceived. And I think these Hebrews were going through the same thing. The Hebrews, they definitely had the list. They definitely had the ceremonies, and they definitely had the mindset that they were born into it. Why is it that people cannot come out of their system of works? There can be several reasons, but the main reason, and the reason we see in these verses is this. Is this. They cannot leave their system of works because they have never seen that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all of God's requirements to enter heaven. That is one of the key points of chapter 9. The writer in chapter 9 is explaining and he's begging them, you hear him in his voice in the first chapters of this book, begging them not to go back to their works or to come out of their works if they're still in that system. And they cannot leave, a person cannot leave their system of works. because they have never seen, if they can't leave, they have never seen that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all of God's requirements to enter heaven. When a person has a revelation of Jesus Christ and who he is and what he has accomplished, on our behalf, they will turn from their system of works and trust Jesus alone. And this is the point that the writer of the Hebrews is trying to bring these people to, to whom he is writing. There is a portion of them that are still clinging on to their old system for their own works. But when Christ is exalted in the heart of a man, everything else comes down. And the first thing to go will be our system of works. now this is the situation in the book of Hebrews the situation in the book of Hebrews is a little different because the system that some of the Hebrews wanted to go back to was a system that was instituted by God which makes it a little more difficult for them to forsake the old system, the old covenant in the book of Exodus And Leviticus and Numbers was instituted by God. So how can a system that was instituted by God be obsolete? And that was a great struggle for them. Now, I think how it applies to us, in that we all tend towards a system of works, is a little different, because our system of works is not instituted by God. But really, they weren't really following, most of them, all of them weren't really following what God required anyways. But God has his uses and purposes for everything, and nowhere under the old covenant does the scripture say that these ordinances were everlasting. In the very nature of them, they could not be everlasting, because they were earthly, or temporal. They were all pointing to a coming Savior, to our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So let's, as we keep that in mind, let's go to verse number one. And it says, Then the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. So we see that as we just went over. 2 For there was a tabernacle made, the first, wherein was the candlestick, the table, the showbread, which is called the sanctuary, or the holy place. 3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which hath the golden censer, the ark of the covenant, overlaid with gold, round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot, that hath the manna, and Aaron's rod, that budded at the tables of the covenant. So the tabernacle, you have the tabernacle and you have the court. So there's really like three parts to the sanctuary before they had the temple. So they would have a curtain that was seven and a half feet long, tall, that acted as the outer perimeter of it. And then you had the tabernacle, which was inside of that. Outside of the, in the courtyard, which was outside, you had the altar, Then you had the labor. The labor was just like a pool of water where they would wash their hands after sacrificing on the altar. Then when you came into the tabernacle, there really wasn't that much furniture in the tabernacle. It was 45 foot long by 15 feet wide. And the Holy of Holies was separated from the Holy Place. The one part was called the Holy Place. which was 15 by 30, was 15 by 30, and then you had the Holy of Holies, which was beyond. It was separated by a curtain that was 9 inches thick, that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies. So inside the holy place you had the table of showbread, on the one part, and then you had the altar of incense right before you entered into the Holy of Holies, and then you had the lampstand, which had the oil on the lampstand that would burn, with the seven sticks on it, the seven candlesticks. Then inside the Holy of Holies, You really only had one permanent piece of furniture, and that was the Ark of the Covenant. You also had the Golden Censor, but the Golden Censor would move in and out of the Holy of Holies as the priest moved in and out of the Holy of Holies. And the Golden Censor was almost like an extension of the Altar of Incense, in one sense. So we're not going to get too much into this, into the details of it. for a couple reasons first the writer here in Hebrew said that he's not going to get too much into it because you can get really into the details of what all of these things mean but in verse 5 it says which we cannot now speak particularly but I do think it is we should get into some of what this means what do these things mean why was this set up this way and what what is the significance of each of these pieces of furniture and the ceremonies which we'll get more into some of that next week as you have to in this chapter 9 but as we look at each part of the tabernacle and the court we see that even in the details it's all pointing to Jesus Christ the tabernacle being the tent or the dwelling place within the tent you have the holy place like we explained, in the Holy of Holies. And you really have two parts that point to Christ. You have the ceremonies and the furniture. The ceremonies and the furniture. But really, inside the tabernacle itself, there was only the five pieces of furniture. In the Holy of Holies, You only have the Ark of the Covenant. And today I would like to look at a closer look at the Holy of Holies. In Exodus chapter 22 verse 25, it says that this is the place where God would speak to the children of Israel. He spoke from the Holy of Holies. He spoke actually from the mercy seat that was on the Ark of the Covenant. We're going to see that. You can see that, read that in Exodus chapter 25 verse 22. But you can read that whole chapter if you wanted to. And it talks about how God speaks to his people from this ark, or from the mercy seat that is on the ark. The only piece of furniture that stayed in the Holies of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. And this was the place where God spoke to his people. This is where the presence of God was. It was between the cherubims. So the mercy seat, I'm not sure how many here are familiar with the Ark and what it looked like. The Ark was like a rectangle, it was a rectangle box, it was wood, it was overlaid with gold, and it was, the inside was gold and the outside was gold, but it was made of wood, it was just overlaid with gold. And then on top of the Ark, there was two angels and their wings touched the top of the ark. And underneath the angels' wings was the mercy seat. The mercy seat, which represented the seat of God, or the place where God sat, the place where God was. The place where God spoke to his people was from the mercy seat. The mercy seat. The ark, though, itself, the ark itself There's some debate about this, but I would believe that it represents the people, the God's people, the Ark itself representing God's people in the New Covenant. In the New Covenant, the place where God dwells. The place where God dwells. This is amazing. That God would dwell inside of a man. I believe it's why John in 1 John 3.1 is so amazed. that we are called the children of God, because what that means is that God is dwelling in us. And we, the children of God, if so be that we are, we are the ark, a type of the ark. A child of God is one who God dwells in. This is an incredible principle. A Christian is not simply a person who does good works, but he is a person that is filled with God himself. 2 Peter 1.4 says, whereby we are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature It's not like God just helps us some way as Christians, but God indwells us. God indwells a man. That's what it means to be a Christian. It means to be a Christian is to have God indwelling inside of you. And the Ark is a type of that. God and a man. This is what it means to be a Christian. Some people have no idea what that means. because they so foolishly say God is in everything or God is in everyone. But we see that God withdrew himself from Adam and Eve when they sinned and sin has separated us from God and has produced an unpassable chasm. We are so far from God without God's grace that the distance is immeasurable. How can a holy God and dwell a sinful person. How can that happen? But by God's grace, by God's mercy, by the provision of God, by the grace of God. And really there is only one answer, and the answer is found in the contents of the ark. The answer is found in the contents of the ark. Each of the contents of the ark are pointing to Christ. Each of them pointing to Christ. You have three things inside the ark. Number one, Aaron's rod that budded. Number two, the manna. The manna in the golden container, you could say. They call it a golden pot here. And three, the tablets of the commandments or the ten commandments, the two stones that Moses brought down off the mountain. These are the three things that were inside of the ark. And what I want to say, the first one, that's OK, was Aaron's rod that butted Aaron's rod that butted That's probably the first, that's probably the most obscure one to us here. But in Numbers chapter 17, you can read, it's in the whole chapter, but you can particularly look at verses 8 through 10 in Numbers 17. God told Moses to take 12 rods, or actually 12 sticks. It took 12 sticks that they broke off of an almond tree that were dead. So they took these 12 sticks and they represented the 12 tribes of Israel. or the twelve princes of Israel as you'll read in the chapter. And the one that budded was the one that God chose. And Aaron's rod budded and even provided fruit over just one night. This representing that Jesus Christ was the chosen one. He was the one chosen to be our priest, or the priest of God's people. Just as Aaron was chosen to be the priest of God's people, the one who stands before God for his people. So this is what a priest does. A priest stands before God for the people. And that was Aaron. Aaron was chosen for that particular task. And we see that Jesus Christ here, in this chapter 9 of Hebrews, is particularly chosen for that task. The Messiah being, by definition, the chosen one, the chosen one, Jesus Christ, or the one Maybe we can put it in these terms, the one who fulfilled all the prophecies, Jesus Christ, the chosen one, the chosen one of God, to bear our sins, and to be our sacrifice, and to be our high priest, primarily here, to be our high priest, because as it relates to Aaron being chosen as his rod budded. Number two is the manna. The manna was in the ark. Jesus in John chapter 6 called himself the manna that came down from heaven, which is a direct reference to the manna in the ark. Jesus Christ is our manna. He is our great provision in the desert. That's what it means. He's our great provision in the desert. When the children of Israel were in the desert, they had nothing to eat. What did God provide for them? He provided manna. or bread that came down from heaven. He was the provision for the people of God in the desert. And in this world, we are in a desert. There is no spiritual food on this earth, outside of Christ. There is no spiritual food. But Jesus says in John 6.58, Whosoever shall eat of this bread, Whosoever shall eat of this bread shall live forever. Those who partake of Christ, of His eternal nature, shall live with Him forever." The manna also representing Jesus Christ inside of the Ark of the Covenant. That He is the bread that came down from heaven. He is the eternal provision for our soul. He is the provision for us in a desert place. Then thirdly, in the ark you have the tablets of stone. The ten commandments that Moses brought down from the mountain. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law. And now for those who are in Christ, the law is written in our hearts. This is the fulfillment of Ezekiel in chapter 36 of Ezekiel. What did he say? He said, in the last days, the law will be written on your hearts. The law will be written on your hearts. What does it mean that God has written His laws on our hearts? It means that it is our delight to do the will of God or to obey God. And when the Lord Jesus is in us through the work of the Holy Spirit, it is our greatest pleasure to obey God, because we love Jesus Christ. So we have these three things inside of the Ark, and we have actually three things that I want to look at that are on top of the Ark. So you have three things inside of the Ark, Aaron's rod that budded, Speaking of Christ, the Chosen One, the Ten Commandments, which Christ is the fulfillment of the law, and all of the law was written of Him, and then the manna, that Christ is the spiritual provision for His people. And on top of the Ark, you also have three things. Number one, the cherubim, or the angels. number two, the mercy seat, and number three, which is beyond the first six verses in this chapter, but you have the blood on the mercy seat, the blood would be applied, would be put on the mercy seat. When the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies once a year, he would go with blood, with the blood of the sacrifice the blood of the goat in Leviticus 16. The one goat would be set free, who is the scapegoat. The other goat, on the day of atonement, would be sacrificed. I want to get into that more next week, I won't get into that today, what those two goats represent. is an amazing thing. But you'll see that that's what happened on the Day of Atonement. But the blood of the goat that was sacrificed would go on the mercy seat. So you have the cherubims, you have the mercy seat, and you have the blood on the mercy seat. Number one, the cherubims is representing the heavenly throne. This ark, or mercy seat, represents something much more than something that's earthly. But it represents something that is heavenly. That is heavenly. That's why the angels are there. The angels are where today? They're in heaven. That's what the angels represent. Standing on top of the ark. They represent that this covenant represents an eternal covenant. That this represents something that will be eternal. that wasn't yet eternal at this time when the old covenant was still in place. The angels represent the heavenly or the eternal covenant. Number two, the mercy seat. The mercy seat in Leviticus 16.2 is the place that God appears and God speaks. God appears in a cloud on the mercy seat and he speaks. This represented that we cannot come to God but by His mercy. If it was not for the mercy of God, we would all be consumed this very second and sent to hell. It's the mercy of God that these people are driving up and down the street right now. It's the mercy of God that there's people walking up and down the street. When you walk up the street and you see people coming towards you, it's the mercy of God. They're not consumed in a second and sent to hell. It's the mercy of God that we're sitting here. It's the pure mercy of God that I am not consumed and sent to hell right this second. That would be the right thing for God to do. If I was not in His Son, if I was not in Christ, that would be the right thing for God to do. It's His mercy. It's God's mercy that He allows us to live. And then, how much greater is His mercy for those who have salvation, who have Christ and His blood upon them? For this is where the blood is applied. The blood is applied, which is the third item on top of the ark, is the blood. The blood is on the mercy seat. Because this is why we have forgiveness. This is why we have access to God. It's because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because of what He has done. Because of what He has done on our behalf. And on the Day of Atonement, the blood was put on the mercy seat. And for the believer, the blood, well, the blood is forever on the mercy seat. The blood is forever on the mercy seat. In other words, when God sees me, he sees what Christ has done for me. He sees his blood. That's all he can see. That's why he, like we said a couple weeks ago, that's why he forgets our sins. He cannot remember them. Why can He not remember our sins? Because when He sees His people, He sees the blood on the mercy seat. He cannot see my sin or our sin, those who are in Christ, because the blood is on the mercy seat. His blood, the blood of Christ, cleanses us from all sin in 1 John 1. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. We'll get into that later in this chapter, which also comes from Leviticus. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. I ask people who think they're on their way to heaven by their work system, Where's the blood? The Bible says that there has to be shedding of blood. And some people will actually say, well, I guess I have to shed my blood. But the problem is your blood is sinful. But the blood of Christ is precious and perfect and holy and eternal because of his eternal nature. That his work on our behalf is eternal. And his blood forever speaks of the forgiveness of the sins of his people. Praise his name as we desperately need it. I know I do. Let's read though, let's look at verse 7. That was all in verses 1 through 6. Look in 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 heirs of the people. So we've been through that. the Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was standing, which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washing, and carnal ordinances opposed on them until the time of reformation." The time of reformation speaking of the time of Christ. So all of those things could not bring the forgiveness of sins, but they were used to point to, it's saying, they signified what was to come. And what was to come, verse 11, but Christ being come in 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 or not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal salvation for us." Wow, having obtained eternal salvation for us. I want to end by looking at these three betters here in these two verses. You see three betters. There's a better tabernacle, there's a better sacrifice, and there's a better salvation. A better tabernacle. We see the tabernacle here in the beginning of this chapter, an earthly tabernacle made with hands. But there's a tabernacle Those things on the earthly tabernacle only represent the heavenly tabernacle or the eternal tabernacle. And that tabernacle represents what? The sacrifice. That there's a better sacrifice. And this sacrifice is what? It is once for all. It is once for all. You can work your whole life and sacrifice everything you have for God, and you know, people have. You can read about people who slept on beds of nails and would walk up the stairs on their knees until they bled and give all their money to try to get their sins forgiven. And you know what it profits them? It profits them nothing. And we can say, well, we don't do those things, that's strange. But my friends, we do it in our minds. We think because I did this over here that's good, it makes up for that thing over there that's bad. And we can't deny that, that works in all of our minds. But Christ is the final offering once and for all. I am set free. There's nothing I can do. There's nothing I want to do to make up for my sin. Because Christ has done it all. He has done it all. And He is the once and for all sacrifice. You see that in verse 12. But it's for one time. And it's in the tabernacle in heaven. And it is an eternal redemption. There it is in verse 12, it says, he entered in with his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place. So when the priest went in once a year, that represented that there was a time coming, there's a time coming that there will be a one time sacrifice. The one-time sacrifice that the priest did once a year in the Holy of Holies represented of this coming one-time sacrifice. And this one-time sacrifice is provided by Christ, which gives us a better salvation because it's an eternal salvation. You see that at the end of verse 12, it's an eternal redemption. having obtained eternal redemption for us. Praise his name. He's obtained eternal salvation. And it makes me think that our supposed good works can add up to one drop of the blood of Jesus Christ. But therefore, the good news, the opposite is true also. All of our sin or offense toward God is paid for by one drop of His blood. The sacrifice and work of Jesus Christ is ten million times greater than our sin because it is eternal and because it is an eternal and perfect sacrifice. that Jesus Christ and what he has done on our behalf is able to pay for the sins of the whole world. It's able to pay for the sins of every person that has ever lived and beyond. But it is only given to those who believe. It is only given to those who trust in Christ Those who God has called unto himself and have believed in Jesus Christ, have trusted Him and they're given this. What is it at the end of verse 12? Eternal redemption. Do you know what it means to be redeemed? I know it used to be on the bottle, on the soda bottles, I don't know if it still is, or cans, where it says redeemed for five cents. I know when I was a kid, we would collect those bottles. I don't think they even had soda bottles anymore. But they're plastic, I guess. That's when they were plastic. But when we were kids, we'd collect the bottles and get, like, I think it was three cents. But it would say, redeem for three cents, or redeem for five cents. That means to buy back. In other words, the people who made those bottles would buy them back from you. So that's what it means to redeem. Redemption means that we are bought back. We were. We're Adam. was a child of God before he sinned. And then he sinned and fell into the slave market of sin, as it's pictured. And that's like us, we have fell into that. But now, Christ, through his blood, buys us back. It's the price. The price is his blood. He says, I will give my blood. I will suffer and die. Not only that, I'll come to earth. and suffer and die is that one man gave that illustration in that sermon we were listening to driving home last week of how I thought it was an interesting illustration how he said that Christ suffered even when he came to this earth. He said it would be like one of us going to like a third world country and not having any of the conveniences that we have. And to us that would be a form of suffering. But think of Christ, he said. who came from glory, came from the presence of angels always adoring him, and the presence of God in total bliss continually. He came from that and came down to earth, to the dirt, to the mud, and to the relationship problems, to all these issues. And he came and he suffered. And it's through that suffering and through the shedding of His blood that He redeemed His people. He paid the price through His blood to redeem His people, to buy them back from sin. And it's an eternal redemption. And I am so excited this morning that God has done that for me and He makes it available for each person here that Christ has paid for our sins through His blood. He has bought us back out of sin with His blood unto an eternal salvation. And all these things, all these carnal ordinances, as they're called in this chapter, are all pointing to this eternal salvation that is in Christ that He has shed His blood in order to obtain. in order to establish this new covenant. This new covenant. The old covenant was you do this, God does this, you do this, God will do that. It was conditional. But the new covenant is God has provided everything for us. God has done it all. We do nothing because we can't do anything. Because we're slaves to sin. until Christ comes, until God sets us free by His grace through the price of His blood and through the power of His Holy Spirit regenerating us and giving us this new life and this new hope that is in Christ and what He has done through the shedding of His blood. So let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, I just pray God that our hearts would be filled with joy today God in what Christ has done for us, that he has shed his blood. I think if we really knew what that meant, with all the Pentecostals, I just pray God that it would be worked in our hearts, God, that we would just rejoice continually in you, Lord Jesus. There will be tribulations, there will be trouble, but God, that we would rejoice always in what Christ has done for us in this incredible salvation as we wait, as we patiently wait for that day when our salvation will be full, when we will lose the sin natures and be with Christ forever. I pray, God, that this would be our continual hope and joy. I pray for those here that have never come to that knowledge. God, please work in the hearts of each one here today. that you would be glorified. In Jesus' name, Amen.