Bible Study: January 6, 2021

As we've gone through the book of Hebrews, we've seen Jesus Christ espoused as our perfect High Priest, superior to the angels, superior to the earthly High Priest, superior to Moses. We talked last week about Melchizedek and Melchizedek, and then the suffering Jesus Christ went through as a human to become our perfect High Priest. We've talked about God's eternal law. We saw the Sabbath and the Old Covenant. We talked about the Sabbath and the continuing observance of it that's required in New Covenant times as we look forward to the time when some will enter into that rest, which is part of God's plan. Last week we talked some about tithing. We talked about Abraham and how he tithed before the tithing laws were ever given to Israel, how Jacob tithed to their High Priest, how God had the ancient nation of Israel tithed to the earthly High Priest that he had appointed, and then we have a High Priest today. We discussed how the law never changes. Maybe some of the administration of it changes, but God's law has been the same from beginning all the way through the time that Jesus Christ will be on earth. As he says in Matthew 5, as long as there is a heaven and earth, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law. So last week, you know, we ended in chapter 8 verse 2, but I want to go back and read a few chapters, a few verses in chapter 7, just to bring us up to chapter 8 again before we enter into that. Tonight we're going to see some more verses that talk about this being better than this. You know, Jesus Christ is the subject of one of those. We're going to be talking a little bit about the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant and the transition between the old and the new and the differences in them. Chapter 8 and chapter 9 deal a lot in that subject, and we'll focus more on Jesus Christ as well. So let's begin with that. In chapter 7 and verse 26, I'll read through some of these verses that lead us up to chapter 8 verse 1, and we'll go from there. Chapter 7 verse 26, For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. So again, we're talking about Jesus Christ.

We have talked about him so much in everything he's done for us, how he has been the perfect inter... he's the perfect high priest for us, the perfect intercessor for us. Do let me recount one thing, because I'm looking at the word here in verse 25. It talks about Jesus Christ. He always lives to make intercession for them, and since he lived as a human being, he can do that. And I pointed out last week that Jesus Christ will be our intercessor, and he will intercede for us, but he won't make excuses for us. And that's one thing we have to remember, too. You know, Jesus Christ is there to say, I know you have a frail frame, I know that you're weak, I know that you're growing, he expects us to grow in perfection, but he won't make excuses for us. And we... when we stumble, and when we fall, and when we sin, no, we don't need to make excuses for ourselves.

We simply need to repent, get up, and determine, and ask God to give us the strength and the recognition to just keep on moving. But not to dwell on excuses, and I did this because, or I did this because. Jesus Christ doesn't do that for us, and we shouldn't do that for ourselves, either. But he is our High Priest. You know, every part of God's plan we can see is that the people of God need a High Priest. Abraham had Melchizedek. Melchizedek came to him back in Genesis 14 after the... after he was victorious and bringing back the loot and lot of Sodom, you know, from the kings who had conquered them.

Melchizedek was there. Jacob, when he wrestled with God, he had a High Priest.

To someone, he was going to pay those tithes. We don't know if it's this Melchizedek or... or he was by a different name at that time. We see that God set up earthly High Priests for the ancient nation of Israel, and today Jesus Christ is our High Priest. So the people of God have a High Priest always in their lives.

Jesus Christ is our perfect Eternal High Priest. Verse 26, it gives us his attributes, the holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He can't be any...

any better than him, and he sits today higher than the heavens. Verse 27, you know, it says, he... Jesus... he doesn't need the daily as those earthly High Priests, those of the Order of Aaron, the flesh... the flesh and blood High Priest, he doesn't need to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people. For this he did once for all, when he offered up himself. So Jesus Christ was perfect. Aaron and his descendants, his High Priests, every time they went into that Holy of Holies, they had to... they had to offer sacrifices and have their sins atoned, you know, before they could offer for the people. Jesus Christ doesn't have to do that. His sacrifice was the perfect sacrifice to end all the necessity for those physical ritual sacrifices that mark the Old Covenant.

Verse 28, it says, for the law, appoints as High Priests men who have weakness.

You know, that was the Old Covenant law, the rituals that... that they... and the law that God gave them that administered Israel during the time of the Old Covenant. It appointed flesh and blood High Priests. The law appoints as High Priest men who have weakness. But the word of oath, the oath, which we talked about last week, that God swore over Jesus Christ, that He would be a High Priest forever. He would be our eternal, perfect High Priest, and God would never relent from Him being in that role. But the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son, Jesus Christ, who has been perfected forever. And so, as we begin chapter 8, we have this reminder again of the superiority of Jesus Christ over every... every... every other being except God the Father. And He sits at the right hand of the throne of God. You can't get any higher in all of the universe using that word, and it's an understatement. The universe of all of infinity, of space, can't get any higher than sitting at the right hand of God.

And that's the High Priest that you and I have. That's the High Priest that died for you and I. That's the throne to which we have access because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that He gave for us. And He will be there forever. We don't have to worry about Him disappearing. He promises that He will never leave us. He's eternal. He will be there forever. And His will is that all of us, you and me, and everyone He calls, will be there forever with Him if we follow the principles and if we give ourselves to God and yield ourselves to God and... and let His Holy Spirit mold us into who He wants us to become. So in chapter 8, verse 1, we talked last week, this wraps up the chapter 7 that we've been in. This is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a High Priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty of the heavens, as I mentioned.

He's up there, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man. So in verse 2, we begin to see a little bit of what we're going to talk about in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant as we get into chapter 8 and into chapter 9.

We're going to see a physical covenant versus a spiritual covenant, a physical old covenant that had to do with physical things, and a new covenant that has to do with spiritual things. So in verse 2 here, we see that Jesus Christ, He is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man. So we know that back in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant, Israel in the wilderness, they had the tabernacle, and God gave Moses detailed instructions on how to build that tabernacle.

All the instruments, all the tools, all the furnishings of it, He gave Him right down to the T what needed to be done, and Moses and Israel did it, we're told, at the end of Exodus. They did it exactly to God's specifications. God said that He would dwell with them in that physical tabernacle. And you remember at the end of Exodus, He filled that physical tabernacle with His glory, the cloud that covered it, that showed that He was going to dwell with men in that physical tabernacle. And that lasted for a while, but it was a very temporary tabernacle.

It disappeared, and then Solomon built a temple after the same specifications that God gave him, a beautiful temple, that was built perfectly to God's specifications. In 2 Chronicles 7, 6 and 7, we see that God said He would dwell with Israel in that temple. And Solomon gave a beautiful and inspiring prayer as he dedicated that temple to God, and the one who became Jesus Christ said, you know, when people come to this temple, I'll be there. He filled that with His shekinah glory as well. But it was a physical temple, and it was torn down.

And then a second temple was erected in Jerusalem, and then that disappeared, or that was torn down as well. So the Old Covenant had these physical temples and tabernacles that marked them, but they weren't eternal tabernacles. They were, as we're going to read here in verse 5, a shadow or a copy of what is in heaven. So Jesus Christ, He doesn't dwell anymore in temples made by with hands.

He's dwelling in the true tabernacle of God, the true and the permanent dwelling place of God the Father. You know, as we look at verse 2, and we think about the temple of God, and we've had glimpses into the throne of God.

You know, in Revelation, you know, John gives us a vision of what the throne is like. Ezekiel gives us a pretty detailed description of the vision he was in, where he describes what the throne of God is like. And Jesus Christ is there. We know there are things in heaven. There are, you know, there's colors, there's lights, there's faces. You know, we can even think about the angel with four faces. He had a face of a man, he had the face of a bull, a face of a lion, and the face of an eagle. And then we can see replicas of those things on earth around us today.

We have cattle, we have lions, we have eagles, we have men who are made ever to the image of God. If you keep your finger there in Hebrews 8, you know, we can go back to Revelation, you know, and maybe you remember this as we were going through the book before the feast. In Revelation 11, we see glimpses as God is, as the time is coming for Jesus Christ to return.

We have the 24 elders in heaven praising God, and we have the angels praising God, and you can tell they're looking. The time, the time has been set. You know, the timeline is in order for the seals to be opened, the trumpets to be sounded, and Jesus Christ to return. So for instance, in Revelation 11 and verse 19, it says, the temple of God was opened in heaven. And that can kind of conjure up a vision in our mind of the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the Ark of His Covenant was seen in His temple.

Then there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, and earthquake and great hail. And so, you know, we there's a true tabernacle in heaven. Jesus Christ is up there with God the Father. Twenty-four elders are there, as we've discussed, around God's throne. And here in Revelation 11, 19, it says it's opened, and we see these things.

In Revelation 15, it says a similar thing.

Revelation 15 and verse 5. And, you know, after the people who have the victory over the beast sing the new song that, or the song of Moses that it says here in verse 3 of Revelation 15, it says this in verse 5. It says, After these things I, John writing this, after these things I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened and out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen and having their chests girded with golden bands. And then we read about the voices that come from, you know, the temple of the tabernacle where God where God dwells, where Jesus dwells at His right hand. And so there is the true tabernacle where Jesus Christ is living now that He references back here in Hebrews 8. No longer in those physical temples and tabernacles that have passed away, physical remnants, I guess, of the Old Covenant that were there and served a purpose, but they were never eternal. We're gonna see that they were never intended to be eternal. They were just physical things that would serve God's purpose and His plan in that time. So if we go back to Hebrews 8, verse 2, you know, we see again reading verse 2, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. God is in heaven. He's the one.

It wasn't made by man's hands. And verse 3 gives us kind of a definition of what a priest does. It says, And as you read through, you know, the Old Covenant and you see what the duties of the priests were, they were busy people. There was a lot of work to be done in ancient Israel.

They were responsible for doing the sacrifices for Israel as they were brought to them, the gifts that were brought to God. They were busy day and night.

The whole tribe of Levi had a lot of work to do as they worked in that physical administration of the temple by God's decree. That is what he wanted to do.

And as they worked day in and day out and processing those sacrifices and making those sacrifices and doing the things with the blood, it was constantly in their minds. And I'm sure over time they understood what God's message was, that sins are covered by blood. We bring thanks to God and the sacrifices and gifts that people brought were a way of maintaining the relationship with God.

But they were doing it in a physical way, bringing things to the temple, the tabernacle, where God dwelt among men at that time as he directed them to do.

But the priests, that was their job among other things, and they were busy. They were busy. The high priest had some responsibilities. And in verse 4, it tells us the latter part of verse 4, that was the priest. There are priests who offer gifts according to the law. But the temple and the tabernacle, back in the Old Covenant, through the Old Testament times, it was a busy place.

When Israel was obeying God and following what God had said this through, it was not a place that you just kind of went to on the Sabbath. There was something going on in that temple day and night. Remember about the fires that had to burn continually, the incense that had to be burned continually. There were things happening all the time in that temple, as people use that as a tool of their relationship with God. Before we go on in chapter 8, let's look over to chapter 9, because we could spend, if we wanted to, you know, a Bible study or two, and talking about all the detail of what God had given Moses to put into the Old Covenant tabernacle. And they all have meaning. And it's worth a study, but it's a time-consuming study. And you can read those chapters back in Exodus, you know, twice, God goes through all the detail of what what Moses and Israel had to erect. But in chapter 9, the author here, and remember the author is God, gives us just a brief synopsis of what we're talking about. Remember that the book of Hebrews was written sometime in the early or mid-60s AD. The temple in Jerusalem was still there. It was still operating. The Jewish religion was still going through the sacrifices and and the processes of the Old Covenant. The Hebrew Christians, the Jewish Christians who had come out, they were still aware of what was going on. And of course, the Gentile Christians, they were well aware of what was happening in that temple as well. They had the scriptures. They would read the same things that we would read from Genesis through Malachi. And they would understand or they would read about all the things that were going on in the temple. So this book, this book of Hebrews, helps transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant and help us understand what God was trying to teach us in that Old Covenant. Let's just read through the first, though. I guess we're going to read up the first 10 verses of chapter 9 here to remind ourselves of what the first tabernacle or the physical tabernacle was like. Verse 1, Then indeed, even the first covenant, that's the Old Covenant, had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. It's talking about all those things we read about. The priests need to do this on this day. This is how you do it.

How they would administer the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared, the first part in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. We remember the holiest of all. That's where the mercy seat was. We're going to read here. It has the Ark of the Covenant and it's the one place that only the high priest could go in and only one time a year.

So it would have behind that the holiest of all. Verse 4, which had the golden sensor and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that butted, and the tablets of the Covenant. And so we have this Ark of the Covenant here, this physical one, that bore some physical reminders of Israel's journey.

Out of Egypt and through the Promised Land, or through the desert and the wilderness all those years. And above it were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things, we cannot now speak in detail. So it's kind of reminding us. That's what the physical temple tabernacle was like. Verse 6. Now, when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.

That's their job. They would go into the first part. It was a daily ritual, a daily, their daily, their job, to go into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services that they needed to do. But into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance.

So, during Orlando and Jacksonville, every year on the Day of Atonement, I find it almost impossible to give a Day of Atonement sermon without going back to Leviticus 16 and going through the ritual that they went through on the Day of Atonement with Aaron, with all of the washings that he had to do for himself, with the sacrifice of the goat, letting the wild goat go free, and how he entered into that holiest of holy just at one time, only him, only one time a year. You know, the Day of Atonement is just one of those, and what they went through is just such a perfect, perfect, you know, shadow, as we'll come across the word back in chapter 8 here, and then a perfect shadow of what God's plan is in that part of it, because it perfectly, perfectly demonstrates in a physical, physical way what the meaning of the Day of Atonement is, and what the spiritual effect of it as we get into the Day of Atonement is we know fulfilled when Jesus Christ returns. That was just once a year.

It's hard to imagine a building where you construct something in only one day a year, and only one person out of all the millions that were part of Israel, that was reserved for just that one time, and he went in on behalf of all the children of Israel. Now, before I go further, just a reminder that, you know, one of the tremendous benefits of the New Covenant is that because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, we have access to the Holy of Holies every day of our lives.

Every morning when we pray, we're right there, and God's throne. Every time during the day, when we approach Him, we're right there at His throne. The people of Israel did not have that opportunity. They knew God, but they didn't have the same opportunities that we do. It's a big, it's a big difference between the Old Covenant and the New. And so, the High Priest would go into that Holy of Holies just one time a year to atone for the people's sins. And verse 8 is kind of a key verse, I think, here in chapters 8 and 9 as well as verse 10. It says, The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

So, God had a shadow of what was going to come, that a High Priest would be able to enter into the holiest of Holies. The perfect High Priest would be able to forgive our sins, not just atone for our sins. But when God established the Old Covenant with ancient Israel, He knew it wasn't going to be an everlasting covenant or a permanent covenant. It was there, but it wasn't yet that the way for all of us to go into the Holy of Holies would be there. He knew that there would be another covenant after that. Israel was a physical nation. They were born into being Israel and part of the congregation of God, the wilderness at that time. They didn't choose to be.

Some strangers did choose to join them, but the vast majority of Israel was born into it.

They became that congregation. God did give them laws that they should live by. He did establish a covenant with them and told them that if you do these things, I'll be with you, I'll bless you.

He gave them promises of entry into the Promised Land, but it was a physical Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. But it was temporary because it was not yet made manifest, it says in verse 8, while the first tabernacle was still standing. There was something that still had to happen before as part of God's plan after the nation of Israel. Verse 9, it says it was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which can't make him who performed the surface perfect in regard to the conscience. So the priests in the Old Covenant, they would go, they would process all the sacrifices, they would kill the they would kill the cattle, they would kill the lambs, they would kill the goats, the turtledoves, they would process all the offerings that Israel gave. But none of those things, while they were important and Israel needed to do them, none of those things were going to make Israel perfect. They're not going to make Israel spiritually mature. They had to go through the process as part of their physical obedience to God, but it would never do for them the thing that God wants most for human beings to have, and that is to give their entire mind, body, and soul to them, their heart to God. Israel, Israel, all those sacrifices couldn't make them perfect in regard to the conscience. It says there in verse 9. And God knew that when he set it up. It wasn't like a surprise. And later he thought, whoops, okay, that didn't work. People, they didn't have a change of heart at all. They didn't have any conscience at all. You know, conscience is a very important thing for you and me. When we have God's Holy Spirit, when we've repented, when we've been baptized, we've had hands laid on us, and God, you know, His Holy Spirit is in us, it does teach us.

Conscious is the thing that is developed that teaches us, or not teaches us, but that we know right from wrong. When we're doing something, we sense this is the right way. Maybe more importantly, we sense that when we're doing something we shouldn't be doing, that's not the right way.

And we should always pay attention to our conscience. You know, there's times I've said that something will bother me, and I won't know what. And it'll be like, why do I feel uneasy? Why do I feel like I've done something? And I'll go back through my day, and I think that I say something I shouldn't have said, that I do something that I didn't even maybe recognize that I did. And and I find myself asking God, tell me why I have this uneasy feeling. And I know it's my conscience either, you know, showing something was amiss during that day, or something that happened, or maybe right after I did it. You know, God will let us know. And that conscience is extremely important to us, and we want God to develop that. It's the mind of Christ that he puts in us as we have his Holy Spirit. So that conscience is really, really important, and we don't want to, we don't ever want to go against our conscience. You know, sometimes we do, we, you know, we know better, and yet we do something, and we think, and then later, you know, probably kick ourselves, because we knew better than doing that, and, and whatever. But, you know, 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy 4, 2, it says, don't sear your conscience. You know, don't do things, don't do things against what God's Spirit in you is leading you to do. When you feel it's wrong to do, don't do it. You know, I think it was in the book of James that we read, if we sin against our conscience, if we go against our conscience, it's sin. It's sin. God will kind of let us know, and we learn from our conscience sometimes, the things that we do, and the errors that we make, attitudes that we have, sins that we may not even be aware of, by what our conscience is, and when God opens our minds to see, what is it that's bothering me? So always let your conscience be your guide, and let God develop that, and don't sin against it. In the New Covenant, that's one of the things that is the benefit, while the New Covenant is better. God does put His Spirit in us. In the Old Covenant, God's Spirit was not in the people, and so they didn't have the conscience that we have, that we have, or we should be developing today. Let's go back and look at Deuteronomy, a couple verses in Deuteronomy only that show this. None of that took God by surprise as He was writing that.

He didn't say, oh look, I didn't see that coming. I didn't realize Israel would respond that way.

He knew exactly how Israel would respond. He knows us inside and out. He's seen the behavior of those who are led by Satan for who knows how many, millennia or millions of years. So He knows exactly what the pattern is. He knows the devices of people. That's why Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11, we shouldn't be ignorant of, I guess it's maybe 2 Corinthians 11, we shouldn't be ignorant of Satan's devices. Because we can fall prey to them, and we want to. Let's...

Deuteronomy 29 verse 4 is an interesting verse.

Deuteronomy, of course, Moses is about to die, and he's reminding Israel of everything that they've been through. Kind of reminding them of the miracles that God has provided for them. He brought them through the Red Sea, brought them out of Egypt, provided for them all these years that are about to enter into the promised land. And Moses, of course, is encouraging them to continue to follow God. But in verse 4, in verse 4, he says this, Moses says this, he says, Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear to this very day.

He says a lot. He says a lot there. Israel saw things that you and I have never seen.

They saw magnificent miracles that there isn't anyone else in the universe except God who could come up with something like crossing the Red Sea, you know, and how Israel was delivered from Egypt. But all those miracles didn't have any effect on them, and their hearts never changed. They continually, they continually disappointed God in their behavior.

God, Moses tells us, didn't give them a heart to perceive and eyes to see, and ears to hear to that very day. He just let them be. He gave them his laws. He had them as part of the nation that he had called. Therefore, Father Abraham was completely obedient and faithful and loyal to God.

And they were part of that congregation, and he wanted them, he wanted them to be an example to everyone else. He wanted them to be, and they were, he wanted them to be the kingdom of God on earth, if you will, because he was the, they were his special people. What he said to them back in Deuteronomy 7 is the same thing he tells us in 1st Peter 2. You're a special people. You're the royal priesthood. You're a special treasure in God's eyes, but they failed because they didn't have the heart to perceive or eyes to see. Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy 5, I'm going to pick it up in verse 27.

And a couple things here that'll, the first one here will tie us back to Hebrews, the Book of Hebrews as well. Verse 27, you remember when Israel was assembled before God at Mount Sinai, and there were thunderings, and there were noises, and there were lightnings, and the people were afraid, and they backed off in fear of God, and they told, and God talked to us, let him talk to you, and you tell us what he says, but we'll do everything that God says. And you remember Moses told them, you know, don't fear God in the wrong way, but have the fear of God before you. It's good that you have the fear of God, and that reverence is that awe that you should have, for it will keep you from sin. In verse 27, Moses is reminding them of that incident there. Deuteronomy 5, 27, he says, you go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say. This is the people of Israel telling Moses.

You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, Moses, and we will hear and do it. There's a covenant. God offered it. Everything he says, you do it. We just don't want God speaking to us. Okay? Verse 28, it tells us, the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, Moses speaking here, and the Lord said to me, I've heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in that they have spoken. And you know, from that time forward, God did speak to Moses. He didn't speak to the people of God. And throughout the Old Testament, you see that God spoke to Israel through prophets, and they recorded his words. So we have those words today. But God would speak to a prophet.

They would write it down, and they would speak it to Israel. And it should remind us of Hebrews 1 1, where God, the author of Hebrews, says, God in various times past spoke to us through prophets today speaks to us through Jesus Christ. It goes back to Deuteronomy 5 verse 27, where Israel said, Don't you speak to us? You speak to Moses. Let him speak to us. And everything that Moses tells us to do that he hears from you will do. And God followed that through. So we have all the writings of the prophets, the wisdom books, the Torah, you know, the first five books of the Bible here that we have today as God spoke to them in that time. But going on then in verse 29, notice what God says. You know, he heard them say, Everything that you tell us to do, Moses, will do.

And God hears their sentiment. He knows their heart is willing. They want to do it, but he knows that they're not going to be able to. In verse 29, he says, Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments. Oh, if they just had a heart in them that they could. He knew they couldn't. He knew that they were incomplete people, as we discussed, you know, this afternoon. Incomplete people. They had the Spirit in man.

They were smart people. They saw. They knew who God was. He gave them his instructions on how to live a life. All they had to do was follow him, obey him, and he promised them the greatest physical blessings that they could have had at that time. But he knew without that heart they weren't going to be able to become the people that he wanted, and they wouldn't even be able to physically obey him and keep his commands that we made loyal to him. Without God's Holy Spirit, we learn, you just can't do it. There isn't a man alive without God's Holy Spirit that is any match for Satan. There's no way anyone, any man, can attain salvation without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and God's Spirit being put in him. One of the lessons of Israel here is that even though they saw all of those miracles, even though they had God's instruction, even though they had Moses leading them and setting a perfect example, they couldn't follow God without God's Spirit. They didn't have the heart.

They didn't have the heart to do that, so they were going to fail. And failed they did, and God knew it all along. That's why it was a temporary, temporary temples, temporary high priests, temporary priests, temporary everything in the physical old covenant that wasn't going to last forever. By contrast, we'll see the new covenant, how much better it is with an eternal high priest and with the access to God's Holy Spirit when we repent and we commit ourselves to God and are baptized and go through the process of the hands laying on us. With God's Holy Spirit, we can please God. We can overcome self. We can overcome world with the power that God has in us.

We can have eternity and the better promises that God has made us that weren't available to the Israelites. Didn't surprise God. Didn't surprise God that they failed. He said if they had a heart, but it wasn't at that time that he was ready to give his people his heart. We needed to learn, and they needed to learn, what life without God's Spirit is like. So finishing up in 29, it says, oh that they had a heart, such a heart in them that they would fear me. I mean, they were physically afraid, but if they would properly fear me, they had that type of heart and always keep my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. And then in verses 31, down to 33, he cautions Moses. Okay, I'm going to talk to you, Moses, and you're going to be the one that is teaching Israel my commands. I'll give the instructions to you. You teach them, but Moses, just because you're the mediator of the Old Covenant, just because you stand between me and the people of Israel, you have to live by these laws, too. You're not exempt from any of them. You have to be diligent in the way you're living. So in verse 31, he says, it's for you, Moses. Stand here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I'm giving them to possess.

Teach them what they should do, but you need to be observing them, too. You be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

And so, incumbent on all of us, those in the ministry, those in whatever role we have in God's church, we have to talk the talk. We have to know what the instructions are. We have to be able to teach them, so that God looks at us and says, you better be keeping those as well. Don't think you're exempt and that I'm going to give you any slack in anything as well. You need to be keeping them diligently and carefully, just like my people need to be keeping them diligently and carefully and applying them into their lives with a sense of urgency. With a sense of urgency, you know, not knowing how long we have on this earth, you know, to have God perfect us.

So, when we look, when we go back to Hebrews, you know, with that we can see what God is showing us here in this book. The difference between the Old and the, or, well, the Old Covenant, what it was like, and he was well aware of the shortcomings of Israel. We'll go back, we'll look at a verse in chapter 8 here in a minute on the people of Israel. But let's finish up with another verse here in chapter 9. It was symbolic. We read, you know, for the priests to do that, and we talked about the consciences, but in verse 10 he tells us, you know, what those physical things in the Old Covenant were. They were concerned with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances. But notice what he says in the last part of verse 10, imposed until the time of reformation. There was always designed to be a temporary covenant, that Old Covenant, until Jesus Christ would come, until Jesus Christ would appear, live a perfect life, sacrifice his life for us, be resurrected, and give us the access into the true tabernacle of God, into the Holy of Holies, that physical Israel was never allowed to go into. But our high priest, our high priest, has ordained it that we could have access into that tabernacle, into that throne.

So we see, we'll go back to chapter 8 here. Remember, if anyone's got any questions, comments, you can time in any time here. You know, we see in these chapters the difference between the Old and the New Covenant. And again, remember, it's, this book was first written, it was to a group of Jewish Christians who were 30 years into their Christianity. They were still aware of the Jewish rituals. They had, they had lived them. They were still going on in Jerusalem around them.

The Gentile converts were also aware of what was going on, and so they would read these things.

They may have had questions, well, should we be sacrificing? Should we be doing these things?

But the book of Hebrews helps us understand what the Old Covenant was for, what we learned from it, and what the New Covenant is for, and the things that we need to continue doing, but not the things, but not having to do all the rituals of the physical tabernacle that was back there in the in the Old Testament. So let's go back to verse, we'll pick it up in verse 8, just because I want to finish a thought that I've been leading you to here as we've gone through this. In verse 8 of Hebrews 8, well, in verse 7, it says, if that first covenant, the Old Covenant, if it had been faultless, you know, then no place would have been sought for a second. Now, some people, some churches in the world will say, see, there was a fault in the Old Covenant. That's why God got rid of it.

It was no good. Get rid of the Old Covenant. You know, you pay any attention to it. Let's just pay attention to the New Covenant. Throw out the Old Testament. Throw out all those things. We don't need them anymore. There was a fault in the Old Covenant. No, that isn't what the Bible says. There was a fault. The people didn't become who God wanted them to become. They didn't. But the fault was not in the instructions that God gave them. The fault was not in the laws that they gave them.

There was nothing that God discontinued. There was nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments, nothing wrong with the statues, nothing wrong with all the laws that God gave that were extant on the earth from the time of Adam and Eve, from the early days. You know, we talked about the Sabbath being there before Israel ever was. We talked about tithing being there before ever Israel ever was. Abraham tithed. Jacob tithed. God gave Israel. He changed. He changed who to whom they would pay the tithes. First the milk hisedek, then to a physical priesthood.

Today to a high priest, always paid to a high priest. But the laws were eternal. Nothing wrong with the laws. Verse 8 tells us what the problem with the Old Covenant was, because finding fault with them, the fault was with the people. They were the ones who couldn't live up to that covenant.

And because they did not have the heart that God wanted them to have, they did not have God's Holy Spirit. So they could not do the things that God wanted. It's a stark reminder to us that we have to have God's law. We have to have God's Spirit if we're over going to be there. And we need to follow that Spirit, and we need to be led by that Spirit in all that we do. If we're going to enter into that rest. You know Hebrews 4 was a stark reminder none of them entered into that rest.

They didn't have faith in God, but there is a time for people to enter into that rest. That time is for you and me, but we have to do it God's way. Not the way we want, not supposing that God is okay if we're part there with Him. His goal for us is perfection. Something Israel couldn't do, but something we can do. But the fault was with the people. We'll come back to verse 8 here in a little bit. But let's go back up to verse 4. We talked about priests and how the priests in the Old Covenant, they processed the sacrifices, the offerings, the gifts that were brought to God.

They were busy people, as I mentioned. It's interesting when you look at the term priest.

In the New Covenant, God doesn't call His servants priests. There are no priests. Once the physical temple ceased, the term priest is no longer there. Today, you know, tells us the order of things in Ephesians 4, evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc., etc. Those are the titles. But God doesn't have priests in New Covenant time because there's not a physical temple that those things are going to be, that those rituals are going to be done as they were in the Old Covenant time. And it's interesting that even in the Protestant churches in the world, they don't call their ministers priests. They call them ministers, pastors, whatever they call them. But none of them except one Christian church or the so-called Christian church calls their ministers priests. And that's, of course, the Catholic Church. They call them priests, even though the biblical example in the New Covenant is not a title that God has extant for today.

Of course, the Catholic Church also goes against what Jesus Christ says when He says, don't call any man father. And yet the Catholic Church, that is how they address their priests.

They call them father. So it's just a little different, just a little bit aside there.

But in verse 4, you know, as we're talking about high priests and Jesus Christ, it says, He, it's got a capital H, for if Christ were on earth, He wouldn't be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law.

Well, He, if He was on earth, He wouldn't be a priest. The earthly priests offer the earthly sacrifices and the earthly gifts and the earthly offerings, but Jesus Christ wouldn't do that.

Now, they did it according to the law, but you'll remember that we spoke a chapter or two ago that Jesus Christ was of the tribe of Judah. That was His genealogy, and it was the Levites who were the priests in ancient Israel. They were the ones to whom God entrusted that role of priests in serving in the tabernacle of the time. So Jesus Christ on earth wouldn't be a priest. He was of the wrong tribe, but He is our high priest, and we discussed that back, you know, back, like I said, a couple of chapters ago. If He were on earth, He wouldn't be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things. So here we get a little insight, again, into how God works. The physical temple, the earthly tabernacle, the sacrifices, the rituals that God put Israel through in a physical way that all have meaning for us. When we go back and we can look at them, and you know, we may often think the physical Israelites had no idea what they were doing back then and what significance the things they were doing were. Today we have the benefit, you know, of being thousands of years forward in time. We could look back and say, oh, look, there's, you know, every, all sin has to be covered by blood. Did Israel ever understand that?

When they went through the day of atonement, did they ever understand the, you know, the two ghosts and those things? But they will. But they will know they're resurrected. But it says, they serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things. Now the word shadow is interesting if you look it up in the Greek. Let me tell you what it says. It says, it is a sketch, an outline, or an image cast by an object representing and representing the form of that object.

So a shadow, the shadow as we're looking at it here in chapter 8 verse 5, is kind of representing an object of the true tabernacle. Here the earthly priests were in this physical, temporary tabernacle, but what they were doing was a shadow or representing something that is done in heaven, that shows us kind of the way that God works in heaven, a pattern, a pattern that we can see, something about His plan that we can learn. Now there's two other places, one of them in Hebrews, that that word shadow is used. One here in Hebrews 10 and verse 1 says, for the law, the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

Well the law is, you know, as Paul says, is perfect holy, just, and good. So the law we should follow.

It's a way of life that we should follow, and if we follow that life, God says it will bring us, it will bring us happiness, it'll bring us peace, it'll bring us all the things that He said and people that adhere to just the physical aspects of God's law are blessed. Of course, He expects us to keep it spiritually as Jesus Christ let us know in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. There's a spiritual aspect of keeping the law, but we keep the physical law as well because the new covenant has to do with the physical as well as the spiritual aspect of it. So there's a way of life in heaven that leads to the peace and the joy that we know is among all those millions of beings that dwell with God.

They are at peace. They are unhappy. They love what they're doing. They're not bored. They're not looking on how they pass the time. They have plenty of things to do and everything that God has them to do, they are excited about, they are zealous about, they are eager about, just like He wants us to be eager with the work that He has called us to do. And so there's a way to do that in the way of life that's there. You know, the law, the law or the Ten Commandments or the instruction of reading something and it's actually Torah, you know, it translates as law, it really means teaching or instruction, God giving us His instruction on how to live happy, you know, happy and productive and joyous lives. If we can imagine, I sometimes say, and if you sit back and just have time to meditate, what would it be like if everyone on earth or if everyone just in our community are the people that we, you know, that we interact with, our families and the people at church and people we work with, if everyone obeyed, everyone of God's commandments, if they all lived like that, can we imagine how good life would be? I mean, there would be no upset, there would be no arguments, there would be people working with one another, there would be, there would just be happiness and joy ever, it would be joy to be, you know. I say sometimes if people would just live by one, just stick out, well, any one of the Ten Commandments is everyone on earth or everyone in our community lived by just that one commandment, every single person did, how much different would life be?

It'd be spectacular just by one of them. Imagine all ten. Well, in when Jesus Christ returns to earth and all humanity has God's Holy Spirit, they're all, they all have the mind of Christ and they're all understanding the law and all striving to live in that way. Imagine how life is going to be in that time. The law, having a shadow of good things to come. When people live by that way, living by the same standards that they live by in heaven, where they have learned and they just work together perfectly and they don't have all the things that mess us up, all the pride and all the consternation and all the self-will and all those things are taken out of our character and we're spirit beings that no longer have those things that that we have to deal with.

How good it will be. So the law, the law is a shadow of good things to do, of good things to God. God gave it to us. You know, I'm probably getting ahead of myself here, but you know, the law in the Old Testament, no, no, no, I am getting ahead of myself. Forget I said that. Let's go back to Colossians 2 and see the other place in the New Testament. There are a couple of places in the Gospels where shadow is there and it literally, the other meaning of the word shadow can be literally like a shadow. We go out in the sun and we see a shadow of ourselves. When you see those in the three places, I think of the Gospels, it's clearly it's the shadow, but not the image of the thing it's representing. So back in Colossians 2, verse 17, you know, we find Paul writing to a church at Colossae. They're a New Testament church, a New Covenant church. They've been being taught, contrary to what some people in the world will say, they've been being taught the Holy Days, they've been being taught the Sabbath, they were keeping the things that a Christian church, a true Christian church, keeps. They weren't, you know, they weren't exempt from it. It's the same law for the stranger and the native born. It's the strange law that God expects all the people that come to him and follow him to live by. So they were being taught, don't make any mistake, that they were keeping festivals, they were keeping Sabbaths, they were aware of God's law, and they were keeping it just the way that the Jews of that time were. It's God's way, the way that Jesus Christ taught, the way that Jesus Christ lived, the same way that he commands his church to teach his disciples or the disciples today to live by. So in verse 16, of course, they live in a world where there's other other religions and other philosophies going around, and they have people coming to them saying, you don't need to worry about that. What are you worried about that day for? Right? You don't have to worry about this Sabbath. You don't have to worry about this festival. Or, you know, you shouldn't be having that much. You shouldn't be celebrating that much.

You know, some people at that time, I forget the term right now, but they, you know, they thought that Jesus had to be miserable all the time. Everything that was fleshly and physical was evil, and you shouldn't enjoy any of it. But they were doing that, you know, some, maybe some way, the way that that we might have, as we're coming to the church, and some of our relatives might have said, you don't need to keep that. You don't need to be doing that. No one else does it.

And whatever. So in verse 16, you know, Paul says, let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival, or a new moon, or Sabbath. There are physical observances that we do, you know, and they have spiritual meaning for us as well. So if anyone says you don't have to keep the Sabbath physically, they're dead wrong. We learned that in Hebrews 4, there remains an observance of the Sabbath for the people of God. They say you don't need to keep the festivals anymore. You do. They have our shadow of things to come that tells us in the next thing. So don't let anyone tell you not to do that. Keep it in the Spirit, but you got to keep it physically, too. We're a covenant now where it's physical and spiritual. As Jesus Christ said, don't just keep the physical law as they were required to do in the Old Covenant. There's a spiritual component, too, that you're irresponsible for. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival, or a new moon, or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come. Now we know when we keep the Holy Days, it's the shadow of things to come. Give pictures of something that will come on earth as part of God's plan. When we keep the Sabbath, as we learn in Hebrews 4, we keep it not just because God rested on the seventh day of creation, but also we're looking at the time when all people will enter into that rest. It's a looking forward to the time of rest that people will go to, as well as the physical meaning of it that God put there for us for a rest day.

So he says, don't let someone tell you don't need to do that. These are a shadow of things to come.

They're good for you to do. They're reminders of the things that you need to do. They teach you of the way of God, the true tabernacle that's up in heaven, which are shadow things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Now the old King James, I think the old King James might say body.

I'm not sure. The new King James says substance. Again, if you look up that Greek word, some of the newer translations use the word body there, but the body is a Christ. It's talking about the body that we're into. When I looked up the word, one of the definitions that is the Greek word, I think it's 4639, you know, it means that it's the substance could be the one who casts the shadow.

I thought that was interesting, but the one who casts the shadow is a Christ. So, you know, what it's talking about there is this is of Christ. You do what the body does, replaced in a body, and the body of Christ does keep these things. Hi. Hello. Hey, this is Sharon.

Hi, Sharon. Old King James says, but the body is of Christ, but the is is in italics.

Is is in italics. But the body is of Christ, is is in italics. In the body of Christ, yeah.

I can't tell if that's italics in my Bible or not, so probably is. Yeah, she's correct. It's it's the is is not in the Greek. It's just the body of Christ. But the body of Christ, okay.

What's your shadow things to come? But the body of Christ. But the body of Christ, okay. Well, you get the gist. We can talk about that more if anyone wants to talk about it, so. Brother Shaby. Yes, sir. Going back to verse 16, though. Okay. Tyndale and probably one or two other people, the only people so far were translated correctly. It says, Let no man, therefore, trouble you, your conscience about meat or drink, or for in regards to a holy day, as the holy day of the new moon, and or of the Sabbaths. So there should be a definite article there saying, be new moon.

Start talking about every first day of the month. It's talking about the specific one in Tishor.

That was a Tyndale Bible, you said? Yep. Okay. Okay. Very good. Yeah. So, that's no one trouble you. Actually, trouble is a better word than judge. Yes. So, that was no one trouble you would be, would make that verse clearer for people. Yeah. Okay. Very good.

Okay. Let's go back to Hebrews 8.

Okay.

So, these things that the priests did, you know, the physical priests and the physical tabernacle, they served the copy and shadow of the heavenly things. Okay.

The heavenly things, where the true tabernacle is. Going on in verse 5, As Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle.

And again, you remember, God gave explicitly detailed instructions to Moses. I mean, painstakingly detailed instructions to God to Moses on how that tabernacle was to be constructed. For he said, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, God said, See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. Now, you know, that, of course, was the physical things that Moses Moses did. As Moses, you know, we could look at those words, and as God told Moses, See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

You know, those words would apply to us today as well. As God had Moses, and then later Solomon, and then the second temple built, to the detail that he wanted it to be. And then when it was completed, God filled them with this Shekinah glory and said, you know, basically, Well done.

Well done, Israel. Well done, Solomon. This is exactly, this is exactly the temple that I asked you to build, and this is the temple I will dwell in. Today, God isn't dwelling in a temple made by hands, but he's dwelling in a temple that he's erecting and or building in you and me, individually and collectively. We talked about that, you know, many, many times, individually and collectively. And he expects us to build those temples with his Holy Spirit leading and guiding us. And as we use his word and study and delve into it, and strive to live by every word of it, he expects us to live and construct those temples in the exact detail that he has reported for us. So he could say to you and me, too, you know, Rick, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. You know that Bible, you delve into that Bible, you build it exactly to my specifications. Don't take any shortcuts, don't make any allowances, don't replace any materials. I tell you exactly what you are to be made of, exactly what your character should be.

You follow me implicitly. And when you do, and at the end of your life, when that temple is done, and there's time for me to, well, he's dwelling with us right now, time for me to join that temple, he's got to look at it and say, you've done, you've done well, people of God, individually and collectively. It puts the onus on us individually to do the things that God wants us to do, to build it exactly to his specifications. That means we can't shy away from his word, we can't become dull of hearing like the book of Hebrews tells us, we have to do it with all our heart, minds, and souls.

He's given us the heart today that we can do it that Israel couldn't. And we have to do it collectively, too. He's looking for us to become one with him, you know, we work out our own salvation with him, and individual salvation, but he also says, my will is that you, Church of God, that Jesus Christ started as his mechanism of growth in this world today, you become one with each other, as God the Father and I are one, and become one with us. So we have our works cut out with us, that we together need to be building the temple in the way that God said he wants his church to be built, and also in our individual lives. So the same words that he gave Moses, you know, he would tell us, see to it that you make all things according to the pattern that I've given you. I've given you the detail in this book, in my instructions, and those instructions were the same from the time man was on earth, all the way through the time of Jesus Christ and the millennium. It's all the same.

The law hasn't changed. The law is good. There was nothing wrong with the law in the old covenant.

Nothing wrong with tithing, nothing wrong with the Sabbath, nothing wrong with anything.

It was the people. So we have the same things, and we know what we need to do, and we need to just be diligent, carefully careful and diligent in applying those into our lives.

So in verse 6, going back to Jesus Christ again, everything that he's done for us, it says, but now he, Christ, he's obtained a more excellent ministry. So all everything that those earthly priests did in service in the tabernacle was great. They did it, but Christ's ministry is a more excellent ministry than that. He does exactly what God wants him to do. He became a minister of God and did it in detail so that he was without sin. The same goal that we have, or same standard that he sets for us as well. But now he's obtained, being resurrected and sitting at the right hand of God, a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant. So when you stack up the old covenant to the new covenant, which would you rather live under? Would you rather be part of ancient Israel, or would you rather be part of the Abraham Sea, the spiritual of Abraham's speech, spiritual Israel in today?

They didn't have the heart. God didn't give them everything they needed. He has given us everything we needed. We do have understanding. We do have the opportunity to enter into eternal life. He's the mediator of a better covenant. Just like, as we think we mentioned last week, in Revelation 20, the first resurrection of the first fruits, it's a better resurrection. It's a better resurrection.

The new covenant is a better covenant, which was established on better promises. You know, the old covenant, the promises were a promise land, a physical promise land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and physical blessings. If you obey me, I will give you all these blessings, blessings of the field, blessings of the womb, blessings of everything. But the new covenant blessings are those, but more importantly, eternal life. You will be heirs, co-heirs with Jesus Christ, God says.

That's a promise. If you build the spiritual temple, according to his specifications, co-heirs with him. Eternal life doesn't even compare to the promises of the old covenant. So the new covenant is built on better promises. And then in verse 7, when we've read that, read that first covenant with ancient Israel had been faultless. There wouldn't be any place for a second, because finding fault with them, it was the people's fault, not the laws, not the instructions. All those things were perfect. What God gives us is perfect for us to follow. For some things today is when there's no temple, of course. There's no way to do some of those things. But here's what he says, and he's quoting. He quotes then here in the rest of chapter 8 from Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34.

Now again, remember that in 60 AD when this book was first given to the Hebrew, the Hebrew Christians, the Jewish Christians, they were well aware, as were the Jews, of what was written in Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34. When they read these verses, they might have scratched their heads and thought, what do you mean another covenant? We're here in the covenant. We already have a covenant with God. We're already doing all these things with the temple, you know. So, to them, they would look at us a little bit differently than us. Now, 2,000 years down the road, we realized that temple is gone. The temple has not been erected since it was destroyed in 70 AD. There are no priests serving in those things. Jesus Christ was the better sacrifice who ended all the necessity for all the sacrifices of the Old Testament or the Old Covenant. But to them, as they're 30 years into their calling, if you will, the church, these words would have meaning.

They should have meaning for us today, too, when we look at the experience of ancient Israel.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they didn't continue in my covenant. And I disregarded them, says the Lord. You know, they couldn't. And he did. Again, didn't take him by surprise. He knew that they didn't have what it took to overcome Satan and the allure of the world, and he disregarded them. You know, the book of Jeremiah will also talk about that Old Covenant being like a marriage covenant.

And then it says that God actually divorced Israel. He wanted them to come back. He would have taken them back again, but they never came back to him. But it was a temporary covenant at that time. They didn't continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. He kept his end of the bargain. They didn't keep their end of the bargain. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts. Now, where did God write the laws in the Old Covenant?

He wrote them on two tablets of stone, gave them to Moses, and Moses brought them down to the people of Israel. As a physical covenant, he wrote his laws on physical tablets of stone. But in the New Covenant, he writes those laws on our minds and our hearts. Today he gives us a heart to obey him.

He gives us a mind and his Holy Spirit that we can follow him and gives us a conscience that we need to cultivate and let God cultivate that we need to follow and never, ever, ever, to the best of our abilities, not sin against it. I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. None of them, none of them shall teach his neighbor, and none of his brother saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. An interesting verse when you read it. Some people in the world say, See, you don't need. You don't need to have any teachers, just Jesus Christ and me. That's all we need. And that isn't what the verse is saying at all. As we mentioned with the Old Covenant, you were born basically into the Old Covenant. You were born into the nation of Israel, and it was a physical burn. The New Covenant, those that God calls are brought to him.

And if we enter into that covenant, we have repented. We understand where our past lives were in not in accordance with God. We've determined to give up those past lives. So we follow God. We repent. We're baptized. We have the Holy Spirit. So everyone in the New Covenant knows who God is.

So when we come to church, we don't have to do any of the people that are in the New Covenant.

We already know. We already know. We still need to have teachers, right? Ephesians 4 clearly shows that. Jesus Christ surely shows that. Romans 10 clearly shows that. We still need teachers, and God appoints those as he will to be our teachers. But the people of the New Covenant don't have to be convinced when they become part of the spiritual seed of Abraham.

They know God from the least of them, the very earliest of them, the youngest of them, to the greatest, to the oldest. They all know God. We still have to be fine-tuned. We still have to be taught by God and in the manners that he does through his mechanism and through his body.

In verse 12, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

Another one of the benefits or differences in the New Covenant. So, the New Covenant, we can actually have our sins forgotten. And God says, I'll explain to them. I won't remember them.

You repent. You're baptized. And when you bury yourselves and commit to me through that physical symbol of baptism that symbolizes your putting to death your old numbers and your old life, and living your life for me, I'll forgive your sins. And I won't remember them anymore. There was no forgiveness in the Old Covenant. There was atonement in the Old Covenant, and those rituals that would cover their sins, but the sins were never forgiven. They could only be forgiven with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So, God is indeed merciful to us and all of mankind.

All brought up again about again by Jesus Christ who is our perfect and our loving High Priest.

Verse 13. In that he says, in that he says, a New Covenant, he has made the first obsolete.

It's gone. The first Old Covenant, it's gone. There's now a New Covenant that we're part of that will extend through the time of the Jesus Christ reign on earth. He has made the first obsolete.

Now, what is becoming obsolete? Notice how he writes that to first generation, or not first generation, first century Christians, 60 AD. What is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. They didn't know when they first received this letter, epistle, treatise, essay, whatever you want to call it, that by 70 AD, in just a few years, that temple would be gone in Jerusalem. The temple, all the sacrifices would be gone. The symbol of the Old Covenant, it would be gone, now replaced by a New Covenant with a New High Priest, with a New Temple, with a better ministry, better promises. And so, that's what happened. In just a few years, there was no more temple in Jerusalem, and it still hasn't been built to today.

So, it goes right into chapter 9, then which we've read already, and we came down to verse 10.

Let's finish in verse 11, and then we'll start with verse 12 next week.

Looking at everything that we've looked at, the Old Covenant, the New Covenant, the Old Temple, or the physical temple, the True Temple, and everything, it says, but Christ, in verse 11, but Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come. And there are the good things to come.

Certainly, we would say we're living in a time of a better covenant, and when Jesus Christ returns to earth, there are good things to come for all of mankind. He came as a High Priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is not of this creation. So, let me end there. Just looking to see if there's anything else.

Don't see anything in my notes. Any comments or questions or anything else that anyone...