Introduction:
Why the Old Covenant? (Hebrews 9:1-14):
- How the Old Covenant Worked : (Heb 9:1-7)
- What the Old Covenant Did Do :
- What the Old Covenant Didn't Do . (Heb 9:8-10)
Conscience: inner feeling that acts as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior
- How Jesus Did Do what the Old Covenant Couldn't Do. (Heb 9:11-14)
Revelation 12:11 - And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:04
Let's bow our heads and I'm going to ask you if you would pray for me.
01:05-01:06
I'm going to pray for you.
01:07-01:13
As advertised, this section in Hebrews is, there's a lot going on here.
01:13-01:24
And it is so important that we understand because there are some like literally life-changing truths that we're walking through here.
01:24-01:26
And we wanna get that.
01:27-01:29
So I want you to please pray for me to be clear.
01:30-01:33
And I will pray for us to have hearts open to receive this.
01:33-01:37
All right, so let's pray and then let's get at it.
01:40-01:55
Father, we thank you for your word because we would certainly know some things about you just by looking out of our windows, but regarding your mercy and your grace and your love and the work that you've accomplished through Jesus Christ, we would not know that.
01:56-02:02
Just through the creation, Father, you've given us your word so that we might know you.
02:03-02:10
So Father, I pray that by the power of your spirit you would really help us to dial in right now.
02:13-02:19
Give us understanding, not just for head knowledge, Father.
02:20-02:24
Let this be the means by which we grow in our faith.
02:26-02:28
Let this be our confidence.
02:30-02:32
Father, let the change take place today.
02:33-02:35
We pray in Jesus' name.
02:35-02:38
All of God's people said, amen.
02:40-02:42
Hebrews chapter nine, are you there?
02:43-02:51
You know, it's an interesting thing when you're an adult, to go back to the house where you grew up.
02:52-02:53
Have you ever done that?
02:53-02:57
You see, in my situation, My family never moved.
02:57-03:01
So we were all in the same house growing up.
03:02-03:11
And I noticed different times going back through my adult life, you just sort of walk around and things have meaning to you, right?
03:11-03:17
Like I remember, this is where dad used to lay down after work and watch the pirate game.
03:17-03:23
And this is the room where we used to play ball and get yelled at for making too much noise.
03:23-03:29
And I remember sled riding in our backyard.
03:30-03:36
When I was a kid, it was like three miles to walk back up the hill.
03:38-03:42
And going back as an adult, it's like three steps.
03:42-03:44
Like this was, you know what I'm talking about?
03:44-03:46
Like this was so huge.
03:46-03:49
And I remember for years that just baffled me.
03:49-04:02
And I'm like, "Boy, the house just seems like so much bigger and the yard was so much bigger and now everything is smaller." And then one day I realized things didn't get smaller.
04:04-04:05
I got bigger, right?
04:05-04:13
And there's just so much meaning attached to all of these things in the old house, right?
04:13-04:20
Well, in the new covenant, the Bible tells us that God lives, where?
04:21-04:25
In the heart of every believer of Jesus Christ.
04:27-04:29
But you know, it wasn't always that way.
04:31-04:35
God had a house that he used to live in.
04:37-04:46
And God's house has special meaning too, but in a much deeper and more meaningful way.
04:48-04:56
So today we are going to have an overview of how the old covenant worked.
04:58-05:04
And we're going to be talking about God's old house, the tabernacle and the temple.
05:04-05:15
And I know, look, going into this, on the front end, you're gonna be looking at this going, okay, this is very fascinating, but what in the world does this have to do with me?
05:19-05:23
I'm gonna tell you ahead of time what it has to do with you, because you really gotta pay attention to this.
05:26-05:28
This will change the way that you think about Jesus.
05:31-05:38
And this will completely change the way you view your relationship with him.
05:39-05:41
So you gotta stay tuned in with me here, all right?
05:42-05:45
So our series has been why Jesus, right?
05:46-05:46
Why Jesus?
05:46-05:48
Lots of people have died on crosses.
05:48-05:50
That was a common form of execution.
05:50-05:58
So why do we come in and preach and celebrate and sing to and make a big deal out of this man who was...
05:59-06:00
That's what the book of Hebrews is about.
06:01-06:03
He wasn't just a man executed.
06:03-06:04
This is the son of God.
06:05-06:06
This is the lamb of God.
06:06-06:11
This is God in the flesh who laid down his life as a sacrifice on our behalf.
06:12-06:13
So we've been saying, why Jesus?
06:14-06:18
Well, today we're going to sort of look at the other side of that coin on your outline.
06:19-06:21
We're going to ask why the old covenant?
06:23-06:25
All right, look at verse one in chapter nine.
06:25-06:38
It says, "Now even the first covenant "had regulations for worship "and an earthly place of holiness." Let's stop right there.
06:39-06:58
We're gonna talk about the earthly place for a few moments because understand, Hebrews was written to a bunch of Hebrews and they would have understood how the temple and sacrifice and priests, and they would have understood how all of that worked.
06:59-07:03
And us Gentiles, let's just say we need to get caught up.
07:04-07:10
So let's talk about the tabernacle.
07:10-07:17
Now in the Old Testament, the temple was really just like the permanent version of the tabernacle.
07:17-07:23
While Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God's house, so to speak, was a tent.
07:24-07:29
It was put up and it was torn down and it was moved and that was called the tabernacle.
07:29-07:36
So I'm gonna put my cheat sheet up here so that I stay on track.
07:37-07:44
But I wanna talk about what the tabernacle was like in the Old Testament, all right?
07:44-07:47
Now, this is a paraphrase.
07:47-07:55
Do you realize in the Bible, there's like two chapters about creation and there's like 50 chapters about the tabernacle?
07:56-07:58
So this is not going to be exhaustive, all right?
07:58-08:06
This is going to be an overview, but it's very important to understanding what he's talking about in this passage, all right?
08:08-08:11
So, this was the tabernacle.
08:11-08:13
It was this structure.
08:18-08:19
Is that gonna be big enough?
08:20-08:21
Can you see that?
08:22-08:22
All right.
08:25-08:29
All right, we're gonna work with this, just a squint or something.
08:30-08:34
So direction-wise, okay, this would be the north side.
08:35-08:36
This is just the way I wanna draw it, all right?
08:36-08:38
So this would be the south side.
08:38-08:41
This would be the west side that would make this what?
08:41-08:42
East, right?
08:42-08:45
Okay, what had a gate right here?
08:45-08:47
I think it was like a 30-foot wide gate.
08:48-08:55
And when you walk in, there was, first of all, you would encounter the altar of burnt offering.
08:56-09:00
So that was for sacrifice, all right?
09:01-09:05
We're just gonna write, we're just gonna abbreviate here, right?
09:05-09:06
So that was for the sacrifice.
09:07-09:13
And then after that, there was a labor and the labor was for washing.
09:15-09:20
All right, then you get to the holy place or the tabernacle proper.
09:21-09:23
It was divided into two sections.
09:23-09:25
And this isn't a scale, okay?
09:26-09:31
but it was like 45 by 15.
09:31-09:34
So the first section was like 30 by 15, again, not to scale.
09:34-09:38
But the first section, this was called the Holy Place.
09:39-09:43
And the priest would go in here every day to work.
09:43-09:46
And there were really three things in the Holy Place.
09:47-09:50
First of all, there was the lamp stand.
09:50-09:53
All right, so we're gonna, we'll make a symbol here.
09:53-09:55
How about, does that look like fire?
09:58-10:00
Is that good enough for fire for the lamp stand?
10:02-10:03
Anybody?
10:05-10:06
Does anybody else wanna come up and draw the fire?
10:09-10:11
That's gonna be the fire for the, there's a lamp stand.
10:11-10:16
Okay, the seven lights on it, the seven, there's the lamp stand.
10:16-10:19
Then we had here the altar of incense.
10:20-10:21
Okay, oh boy.
10:21-10:25
So the altar of incense, we'll just draw smoke here, right?
10:26-10:27
Does that look like smoke?
10:30-10:37
All right, and then here, and over here, we have the, there was the table of the showbread.
10:37-10:39
All right, so I'm gonna draw a loaf here.
10:39-10:42
Well, I don't know if I can draw a loaf here.
10:42-10:42
Let's see.
10:47-10:48
All right, that's not bad.
10:49-10:49
That's not bad.
10:50-10:54
All right, so that was in the holy place and the priest would go in there to work every day.
10:55-11:01
Well, there was a, the Holy of Holies, okay, so there's a veil right here, right?
11:01-11:05
There's a very thick veil right here.
11:05-11:09
And in the Holy of Holies was really one thing.
11:10-11:14
And that was the Ark of the Covenant, right?
11:17-11:20
Now the Ark of the Covenant, it was a box.
11:20-11:24
We're gonna see more about it in the passage here.
11:24-11:28
But the top, the lid, was known as the mercy seat.
11:28-11:32
And that was where God's unique presence on earth was.
11:32-11:37
Remember we said under the new covenant, God's unique presence on earth is in the heart of believers.
11:37-11:40
But in the old covenant, if you were like, "Where is God?
11:40-11:47
Where's his unique presence?" God lives on the mercy seat in the Ark, on top of the ark rather.
11:48-11:57
All right, and now with the Holy of Holies, the high priest went in there one day a year, and that was the day of atonement, that's Leviticus 16.
11:58-12:02
And again, this was every day, this was one day a year.
12:03-12:20
They're like, "Well, what was the day of atonement for?" Well, Israel over time, the sins would sort of pile up, Right, the unintentional sins, the I sinned and I didn't even realize I was sinning, and those would pile up.
12:20-12:30
So every year, the day of atonement was to offer sacrifice for all of the unintentional or ignorant sins of the people, right?
12:31-12:46
So what happened on that day was the high priest would wash And he'd put on what I like to call the glorious robes.
12:46-12:49
His high priestly garments were just lavish.
12:49-12:55
He had this breastplate with 12 stones on it to represent the tribes of Israel.
12:55-12:59
And they were just these beautiful, elaborate robes that he wore.
13:01-13:16
And he would offer the daily sacrifice, this was on the Day of Atonement, he would offer the daily sacrifice, then he would take those glorious robes off and he would wash again, and he would put on pure white linen.
13:18-13:29
Then what he would do is he would take coals from this altar, and he put them in a censer with incense, and he would take that into the Holy of Holies.
13:32-13:45
Then he would come out, and he would offer sacrifice for his own sin, And he would have to take that blood and sprinkle it on top of the ark for his sin.
13:47-13:50
All right, then he came out again and there were two goats.
13:51-13:59
Again, this is all Leviticus 16, but these two goats, they would cast lots, which is basically like saying rolling dice, okay?
13:59-14:02
It was a way to determine God's will in the Old Testament.
14:03-14:04
And one of the goats would be for God.
14:06-14:10
And the other goat would be for Azazel, the scapegoat.
14:10-14:25
So the goat that was for God, the high priest would sacrifice that one and he would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat on the Ark again for the sins of Israel.
14:27-14:33
And then the scapegoat, he would come out and he would lay his hands on the scapegoat.
14:34-14:40
And it was sort of symbolically transferring the sins of the people onto this goat.
14:40-14:43
And then they would take this goat way out into the wilderness and they'd let it go.
14:44-14:49
And that was to show Israel, look, your sin has been taken away from you.
14:49-14:51
Your sin has been removed.
14:53-14:58
Then the high priest would put his glorious robes back on.
15:00-15:06
That's how the day of atonement and this whole thing worked.
15:07-15:36
So, let's look at verses 2 through 7, as he paraphrases that. He says, "For a tent was prepared. The first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence, it is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was There's a second section called the most holy place.
15:37-15:47
Having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold in which was a golden urn.
15:47-15:49
Okay, so this is what was inside the Ark.
15:49-15:50
Like it was a box, right?
15:50-15:51
What was in there?
15:51-15:52
Here it is.
15:52-15:55
In which was a golden urn holding the manna.
15:56-15:59
Okay, you know, that was the food that God supernaturally provided.
15:59-16:02
So they had a, basically a jar of manna.
16:02-16:09
It says, "An Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the covenants.
16:11-16:25
Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat." Okay, so carved into the ark were these two angels and they sort of, you know, were carved in such a way that they were over top of the mercy seat.
16:27-16:34
I love this, he says, "Of these things we cannot now speak in detail." Like, yeah, again, this is a paraphrase.
16:34-16:35
There's a whole lot going on here.
16:36-16:38
This is the gist of it, all right?
16:38-16:51
He says, "These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second," okay, that was the everyday stuff here, right?
16:52-17:00
He says, "But into the second, only the high priest goes in he but once a year." That's Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16.
17:00-17:05
and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself.
17:05-17:07
Remember we said that's his first sacrifice.
17:09-17:15
And for the unintentional sins of the people, that is the goat that was offered day of atonement.
17:17-17:20
So that was how the old covenant worked.
17:23-17:27
I can tell the look on some of your faces, you're like, good to know.
17:27-17:28
(congregation laughing)
17:30-17:36
Well, hang on there, your mind is about to explode.
17:37-17:37
All right?
17:42-17:45
Number two, what the old covenant did do.
17:47-17:47
All right?
17:48-17:50
Let's talk about what the old covenant did do.
17:51-18:01
Because at this point in the book of Hebrews, okay, you're writing to Jews, and you're basically saying we get this new high priest, And the first covenant is obsolete and he's been going through all of this.
18:02-18:07
And you can imagine that there are some Jews that are reading this are like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second.
18:07-18:10
You're telling me that the old covenant had no purpose.
18:10-18:11
Is that what you're saying?
18:11-18:15
You're saying all that stuff that was part of our culture, part of our history, part of our national identity.
18:16-18:16
That doesn't mean anything.
18:17-18:21
Is that what you're saying?" And he's like, "No, that's not what I'm saying at all.
18:22-18:25
The old covenant, it wasn't bad.
18:26-18:27
It was temporary.
18:28-18:35
And the old covenant did exactly what it was designed to do and what it was designed to do, do you know what all this was designed to do?
18:36-18:40
This was designed to picture Jesus Christ.
18:49-18:59
Now get this, Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16, that once a year sacrifice, Holy of Holies.
19:00-19:05
The Holy of Holies here really represents what Jesus did while he was on the earth.
19:06-19:07
When he was here, what did he do?
19:07-19:11
The main thing he did was he sacrificed himself for the sins of the people.
19:12-19:14
And the Holy of Holies represents that.
19:14-19:17
The Holy of Holies represents the earthly ministry of Jesus.
19:18-19:21
You know, just like the high priest, he only went in here once a year.
19:21-19:22
It was a rare thing.
19:22-19:28
Well, Jesus, ultra rare, one time, one event, once for all, he made the once for all sacrifice.
19:28-19:31
The Holy of Holies represents what Jesus did on the earth.
19:33-19:39
The only thing Jesus didn't do that the high priest did in those days, was remember we said the high priest offered first a sacrifice for himself.
19:39-19:43
Jesus didn't do that because he had no sin.
19:44-19:45
He didn't need to sacrifice for himself.
19:46-19:52
He was the sacrifice for our sin, but he himself without sin didn't have to sacrifice for himself.
19:52-19:52
All right?
19:55-19:57
But here's the mind blowing thing.
19:58-20:09
Remember we said on the day of atonement, what the high priest did was he removed the glorious robes, he put on the plain white linen, and he was basically just dressing like all the other priests.
20:09-20:12
And then he offered the sacrifice for the people.
20:12-20:16
And then when he was done, he put the glorious robes back on.
20:17-20:18
You know what that's a picture of?
20:19-20:22
That's a picture of the incarnation.
20:23-20:28
Because you see what Jesus Christ did, he removed his glory.
20:29-20:34
He humbled himself to become a man.
20:35-20:37
It's like the high priest removing the glorious robes.
20:37-20:44
Jesus took off the glory of his awesomeness in heaven to become what?
20:44-20:47
Putting on the plain white linen to become a human being.
20:50-20:57
And when he became that human being, he did it in order to offer that sacrifice for all of his people, right?
20:58-21:03
And then what did Jesus do when he was done offering the sacrifice for the people?
21:04-21:07
He went back to heaven and put that glory back on.
21:08-21:16
So do you see even the way that the high priest would change his clothes was a picture of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
21:19-21:20
Awesome stuff.
21:21-21:25
When Jesus was on the cross, you see the high priest, he could only go behind the curtain once a year.
21:26-21:29
When Jesus was on the cross, the Bible tells us that that curtain tore in two.
21:32-21:36
So that now we can draw near to God because of his once and for all sacrifice.
21:38-21:39
It's mind blowing stuff.
21:41-21:42
But wait, there's more.
21:45-21:50
We said, this represents the Holy of Holies, represents what Jesus did when he was on the earth.
21:50-21:52
Like, well, what does the Holy place do?
21:52-21:55
You know, priests work by the way, they weren't loafers.
21:56-21:58
They, the priests actually worked.
22:01-22:04
And remember we said, this is what the priests did every day.
22:04-22:14
They would go in here to trim the wicks, make sure that the incense was going and restocking the bread.
22:16-22:18
This is what the priest did every day.
22:18-22:22
And these represent what Jesus Christ still does for us every day.
22:24-22:26
Like what's Jesus doing now?
22:27-22:27
This.
22:30-22:31
The lampstand represents light, right?
22:31-22:33
Jesus Christ lights our way.
22:33-22:41
And that could be a whole sermon series, the picture of living in the darkness of sin, Jesus Christ being our light.
22:41-22:45
Jesus said, "I'm the light of the world." He's lighting our way right now.
22:45-22:48
He's illuminating the way we should go as his followers.
22:50-22:54
The bread is a picture that Jesus Christ feeds and sustains us.
22:54-22:56
We have no life apart from him.
22:57-23:00
He is our spiritual nourishment.
23:01-23:02
That's pictured by the bread.
23:02-23:05
And incense, biblically, that's always a picture of prayer.
23:06-23:06
Right?
23:06-23:08
Incense is a picture of prayer going before God.
23:09-23:11
And we already saw in Hebrews, what is Jesus doing?
23:11-23:13
It says, "He always lives to," what?
23:13-23:18
"Make intercession for us." So this represents, what's Jesus doing now?
23:18-23:23
He's guiding us and he's feeding us and he's interceding to God on our behalf.
23:26-23:28
So what did the old covenant do?
23:29-23:30
It pictured Christ.
23:33-23:35
And I would say amazingly so.
23:36-23:41
Even this Christ offering sacrifice, the labor, picturing, cleansing, Christ cleansing us.
23:42-23:44
This is all a picture of Jesus.
23:46-23:48
But number three, let's talk about what the old covenant didn't do.
23:50-23:52
Let's look at verses eight through 10.
23:54-24:12
He says, "By this, the Holy Spirit indicates "that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age.
24:13-24:32
According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of Reformation.
24:33-24:35
"What the old covenant didn't do.
24:35-24:39
"It didn't make you righteous." The old covenant couldn't do that.
24:39-24:40
"It didn't take you to heaven.
24:43-24:51
"It didn't take away your sin." And see the problem is many people failed to see that this was just a picture.
24:51-24:54
It was imperfect and it was temporary, and it was a picture.
24:54-24:56
And that's what he's saying here in his passages.
24:56-25:02
These physical rituals were until the time of reformation.
25:02-25:05
The word in the Greek literally means until things were set right.
25:06-25:13
In other words, this was a picture until Jesus Christ came to fulfill everything that this stood for.
25:14-25:15
Are you still with me?
25:16-25:17
I can start over.
25:19-25:20
But here's something else it didn't do.
25:24-26:22
He says in verse nine, "It couldn't perfect the conscience of the worshiper." worshiper. It couldn't perfect the conscience of the worshiper. See, that was the problem for many people in the time of Hebrews, and that was a problem for us today. And that's this. We have this tendency as people to turn the religious ritual into the thing. We put all of our stock in the religious ritual. As long as I go through the motions and do the things that God told me to do, that is really what matters. Okay? We do our acts of religion and we're like, "This is what matters and this is what makes God happy." And as people, again, you study the major religions of the world.
26:22-26:26
I've studied all of the major ones and they all have this common denominator.
26:26-26:29
What do we have to do to make God happy?
26:31-26:32
We've got to do this.
26:32-26:36
I got to make sure that I, I got to make sure that I'm checking all of the boxes.
26:36-26:40
Am I absolutely doing everything that God wants me to do?
26:43-26:58
And the question here, people, is why do we get so caught up and thinking that we have to perform, that we have to do religious things in order to make God happy.
26:58-26:59
Why do we do that?
27:01-27:07
Why are we so, as human beings, why are we so obsessed with this idea of I work to earn God's favor?
27:07-27:08
Do you know why we do that?
27:10-27:11
It's because of your conscience.
27:12-27:13
That's why.
27:14-27:20
So today we're going to talk about the conscience.
27:22-27:32
Look again in verse nine, he says, "These things cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper." That is the issue.
27:32-27:34
And we're gonna see it again in verse 14.
27:34-27:36
He's talking about the conscience.
27:37-27:38
You're like, what is it?
27:39-27:40
What is the conscience?
27:41-27:42
It's kind of an abstract thing, isn't it?
27:44-27:51
I mean, the conscience is not really something we can like take out and analyze and measure it and dissect it.
27:51-27:54
We can't really do that, but we all know we have one, right?
27:55-27:56
What is it?
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Well, here's a definition.
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The conscience is the inner feeling that acts as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.
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I forget to put that on the thing.
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Yeah, I forgot to, that's my bad.
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I'm gonna say that again.
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It's the inner feeling that acts as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.
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That's what your conscience is.
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Another definition is this.
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It's the internal voice that sits in judgment over your actions.
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Everything that you do, your conscience is like a judge saying that was right or that was wrong.
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You did well, you did bad.
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That's your conscience, evaluating everything that you do.
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I like this definition.
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I read this week.
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What's a conscience?
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Somebody said, your conscience is that which feels bad when everything else feels good.
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And right now people are like, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to laugh at that.
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Thank you.
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(congregation laughing)
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That's kind of an amen from Owen.
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Now your conscience can work before or after an act, right?
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Your conscience can prod you.
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That when you have a decision to make, your conscience can say, "Listen, this is the right thing to do.
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"You need to do this.
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"This is how you need to do it." Your conscience kind of prod you or like warns you from doing it.
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Like, "Don't do that.
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"Now, please do not do that." Your conscience is like, "This is wrong if you do that." But it can also work after an act, right?
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You commit something and your conscience is the thing in your head when you are trying to sleep at night and you're conscious, like you shouldn't have done that.
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You shouldn't have said that.
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That was wrong of you.
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You need to apologize.
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That was bad.
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You shouldn't have done that.
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Or, hey, that was the right thing.
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You did the right thing.
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I know it was hard, but that was the right thing.
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That's your conscience evaluating everything that you do.
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Right?
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Now here's a myth, and you can't myth this.
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That your conscience, your conscience tells you what's right and wrong.
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That is a myth.
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Listen, 'cause some of you right now are like, you're wrong, listen, hear me out.
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Your conscience only insists that you do what you think is right.
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Your conscience doesn't determine what's right and wrong.
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Your conscience acts in judgment over what you think is right and wrong.
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But your conscience can be mistaken.
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And your conscience will accuse you when you violate your moral standard.
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But here's the thing, don't miss this because this is where he's going with this in the passage.
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Your conscience accuses you when you violate your moral standard, but your moral standard might be wrong.
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Your moral standard might be wrong.
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Like, what do you mean by that?
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Let me give you an example.
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Let's imagine that there's somebody visiting with us today.
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And on their way out these doors here, they look on that shelf and they see there's these really nice hard bound, large print ESV Bibles.
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And the person walking out sees those Bibles and they pick one up and they're like, this is a really nice Bible.
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And they tuck it under their coat.
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And they sneak to their car with it.
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And they put it in their seat and they drive out of here as fast as they can.
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Well, that person tonight is looking at that Bible I shouldn't have done that.
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I can't believe I just stole a Bible from a church.
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Like, I am the worst human being ever.
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I am such a jerk.
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I mean, does it get any lower?
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I stole a Bible from the church.
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I actually stuck it under my coat, and what is the matter with me?
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Why in the world would I steal a Bible?
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And your conscience is just like destroying you.
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Like, you are scum.
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Like, I can't believe you did that.
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So then you come to me and you confess, you're like, "Pastor Jeff, I stole this Bible "and I feel horrible and I wanna make it right." And I tell you, "Oh, do you know why we bought those?
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"We bought those to give away to people that need them." So do you see how your conscience can be wrong?
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You sincerely felt like garbage thinking you stole it, but then you found out you didn't actually steal it.
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We actually want you to take one, And that's true, if you see one and you want it, we want you to take one.
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But do you see how your conscience can be wrong?
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And that's what he's addressing here in this passage.
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The issue that he's talking about here is dead works.
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Your conscience, here's what he's saying, listen.
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Your conscience is plagued by guilt because you're trying so hard to work and be right with God.
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but your conscience can be wrong.
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You know, every area of your life, you have this mindset that you have to work to be accepted.
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Right, I go into my marriage, like my wife's happy with me when I perform well, I do what she wants me to do.
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Make sure the honey-do list is done, then she's happy with me.
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And we take that mindset to sometimes in our home.
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Like my parents only love me when I'm doing what they want me to do.
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And we take the concept to work.
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My boss is only happy with me when I'm doing the job the way he wants me to do it.
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We take it to school.
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My teacher only likes me when I perform well.
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And then we take it to God.
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God only likes me when I'm doing the right thing.
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So what do we do with that?
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Well, here's the point, church.
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He's talking about people that try to put their conscience to rest by performing for God.
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Like I know I'm a sinner, I know I'm guilty, but if I do enough religious activity, surely that makes me right with God.
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If I count enough beads, if I burn enough candles, if I volunteer enough at the soup kitchen or sign up for enough committees at church, See God, look at what I'm doing.
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And it just takes us to this false mindset that you gotta do slash be good to go to heaven.
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But we're left with how much is enough?
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When am I good enough?
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What about all the bad stuff that I've done?
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And do I need to do more?
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And has God happy with what I am doing?
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And then I feel so guilty, but I shouldn't feel guilty.
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And now I feel guilty about feeling guilty.
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And all of that is what he calls dead works.
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You see, the problem's not with the works themselves.
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You see, the whole tabernacle was a God-ordained place of religious activity.
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There are lots of works that took place here.
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The problem is doing religion to make God happy.
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That's the problem.
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The problem is going after the picture, I got to do these things and it'll make God happy.
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And the picture was never designed to do that.
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You see his point here in this passage is the ritual had no value in and of itself.
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Think of a couple of rituals ordinances that we do in the church.
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You realize they have no value in and of themselves.
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Like baptism.
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Baptism is a picture, but there's no value in and of baptism, other than what?
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You got a second and a half bath.
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That's the only physical value of baptism, right?
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And communion, what's the physical value of communion?
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What, you got like a calorie and a half from the little bread thing.
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I guess if you have Rich's loaf, there were more calories with that one, but that's not gonna sustain you long-term, right?
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And the little cup isn't gonna quench your thirst, right?
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So you can't get caught up in the value of the picture.
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It's meant to point to something deeper.
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And that's his point here.
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These rituals had meaning in what they stood for, but all of the symbols, so much deeper.
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And works-based living never appeases your conscience because it's never enough.
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Like if you're living for this, guess what?
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You're also gonna be living with a guilty conscience your entire life because you're never going to feel like you have done enough.
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Never enough.
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Can't leave you there.
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Number four, how Jesus did do what the old covenant couldn't do.
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How Jesus did do what the old covenant couldn't do.
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Look at verses 11 through 14.
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It says, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tents," not made with hands, that is not of this creation.
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Look at this, "He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
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"For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God." Look, here it is, here it is.
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"Purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Do you see the contrast?
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I know there's a whole lot going on here, but here's the contrast.
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Old covenant could do nothing to perfect your conscience.
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Jesus Christ came and he perfects your conscience.
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He purifies your conscience from dead works.
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This is the power of the reality of what Jesus accomplished because the new covenant depends not on the work that you can do, but entirely on the work that Jesus Christ finished.
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Okay, I kind of see what you're saying here.
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But how, how does that purify my conscience from trying to please God?
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How does Jesus keep me from trying to earn God's approval?
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Here it is.
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When your conscience is confronted with the value of the blood of Jesus Christ, your conscience has nothing to say.
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In other words, when you look at the cross, what do you see?
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You see the sinless son of God take your sin on himself.
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You see God punishing Jesus Christ for your sin.
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You hear Jesus cry out, "It is finished." You know that that curtain has been torn in two, and now you can draw near to God.
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You see, the price that was paid for your sin, you consider that it took the blood of the Son of God to pay for my sin, and you realize, when you really get that, you realize this truth.
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I got nothing to add to that.
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Let me ask you, with what will you supplement the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
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What are you bringing to the table?
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What are you adding to Jesus' blood?
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You see, then you look at your religious works, right?
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You look at your efforts to please God, and you look at your efforts and you're like, you know what I'm doing in thinking that I'm working to please God?
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I'm undermining the effectiveness of Jesus' work.
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That's what I'm doing.
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I'm saying, Jesus, you didn't do enough.
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Despite God's plan, and despite God's promise, you didn't do enough.
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So I'm gonna help you out, and I'm going to bring what I can bring to the table.
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It's undermining.
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It's undermining.
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You're saying the blood of Christ isn't as powerful as God says it is.
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Do you see?
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Newsflash.
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God does not like you better when you serve him.
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That's what he's saying here, church.
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You have to have that funeral.
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Because again, performance-based, performance-based, Every arena of life, let's take it to God.
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And we think I had a great day today and I served God in church and I prayed and I did my devotions.
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So God must be really happy with me today.
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He's not any happier with you than on your worst day because it's not performance-based, it's Christ-based.
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That's exactly what he's talking about here.
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God loves you.
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Do you know why God loves you?
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You know why God loves you?
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He loves you because He is love, that's why.
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And He accepts you because you believe in Christ.
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And you believe what Christ has done for you.
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That's why I love this last phrase.
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He says, "Purify our conscience from dead works "to serve the living God." Do you see what this means?
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Our tendency is to serve God, to appease a guilty conscience.
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That's duty.
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I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this because...
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Yeah, no, no, no, no, we're free from that.
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You don't serve God out of duty, you serve him out of delight.
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I get to do this, I get to serve him.
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It is a joy to be able to partner with God and do his work.
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It takes giving from I have to to I get to, right?
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That's how some people give.
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Oh, I'm gonna give God his 10%.
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And that does nothing for God.
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God loves a cheerful giver.
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If you can't give joyfully, don't give anything.
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But it's not obligatory.
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It's not.
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It's not like God's gonna be really happy when he sees the size of the check that I wrote him today.
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God doesn't love you anymore for that.
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Or if for some reason, you're like, I don't really have the faith to write a big one today, I'll write a small one.
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Can you write a check for under a dollar?
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I'm just gonna write a small one today.
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God's not like, well, I'm mad at you now.
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Shame on you.
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I can't believe you.
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He doesn't work that way.
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It's not performance based.
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It's based on what Jesus Christ has done.
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That's how he sees you.
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And because of that, his eternal love for you and the acceptance that he has for you doesn't change ever.
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Do you know who wants you to have a guilty conscience?
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Do you know?
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Satan.
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Satan wants you to have a guilty conscience because he knows what a guilty conscience will do to you.
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A guilty conscience keeps you from praying as you should.
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You're like, you know what, I need to pray, but I kind of feel like a hypocrite praying 'cause I just had a really bad day.
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I mean, I lost my temper and I said some non-sermony words that I shouldn't have said.
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and I just, I shouldn't even pray today.
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I'm such a hypocrite.
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I'm gonna come before God and pray?
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I can't pray.
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God knows what a jerk I am.
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Yeah, that's from Satan, because God's not mad at you.
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If you're in Christ, you're already accepted.
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It's not performance-based.
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Satan would wanna keep you from praying.
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It keeps you from getting involved in the church like you should.
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Like, man, I'd love to get involved in the church, but man, I just don't have my act together and just plagued by this guilt.
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A guilty conscience never feels worthy enough to fully draw near to God the way that he provided for you and the way that he wants you to come to him.
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So then the guilty conscience thing, if you're in Christ, that's from Satan, the guilty conscience is.
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Because it impedes your access to God.
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Not on God's part, on your part.
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So that was the introduction.
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Here's the sermon.
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This is the point right here.
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Listen, when you really, here's what he's saying.
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When you really look at the blood of Christ, really look at the blood of Christ, your conscience is forced to say, Jesus really did take away all of my sin and guilt.
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I have nothing to add, therefore I can serve God with a clear conscience.
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That's what this passage is saying.
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Oh, and speaking of Satan, you know, Revelation 12.10 talks about how Satan accuses God's people day and night before God.
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That's Revelation 12.10.
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And you're like, you know, here you have this powerful enemy going before God, making all these accusations against you.
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How could you possibly understand or possibly I withstand, excuse me, such an onslaught.
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'Cause I gotta tell you, I hear people gossip and slander about me here, and I get all bent out of shape about that.
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When you're talking about Satan slandering me before the Almighty, like how can I withstand that?
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The very next verse tells you.
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I love this, look at this, the very next verse.
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It says, "As Satan's accusing them before God," it says, "and they have conquered him." Satan, how did they do it?
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How did they do it?
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Say it.
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By the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony.
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Look at this church.
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We conquer our guilty conscience.
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We conquer the accusations of the enemy by the blood of the lamb.
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How do you conquer somebody by the blood?
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That doesn't mean we take a handful of blood and throw it in Satan's eyes.
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It doesn't mean that we're trying to drown Satan in blood.
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We conquer by the blood, by believing that the blood of the lamb has made us guiltless before God.
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That's what that means.
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It's like, I really don't give a rip what Satan's saying about me because I know what Jesus Christ said about me.
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And when the curtain is closed at the end of the day, all that really matters is what he said about me.
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That blood has taken away our sin.
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And when we truly understand everything that God says that means, that blood's also going to purify our conscience.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I don't even know what else to say.
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I'm keenly aware of my sin, the things I say, the things I think, my horrible attitudes, sometimes getting angry over things I shouldn't, speaking out of turn, not trusting you like I should. I could keep going. I'm well aware.
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And Father, I'm also well aware that sometimes it's easy for me to shrink back, thinking that, wow, God must be so disappointed in me, God must be so angry with me.
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But Father, I thank you for passages like this in your Word that remind me when I'm in my little guilty pity party, that's not from you.
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because you have purified my conscience through the blood of your Son.
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So Father, I pray for myself and I pray for my brothers and sisters here that we would truly understand as much as we have the capacity to do it, we'd understand the depths in which we are forgiven, in which we are accepted, in which we are free because of the blood of Jesus Christ.
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This is a great time of year for us to really change our thinking in this area.
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Father, let us serve you in freedom and in joy.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 9:1-14
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think the Hebrew writer turned his focus to the tabernacle? What was the purpose of walking through this?
In what ways does the tabernacle picture Jesus Christ?
Do you sometimes struggle with a guilty conscience? Why?
What does this passage say about feeling guilty over “am I doing the right works to make God happy”?
How does the blood of Christ “purify our conscience” (v14)? How should this change the way we serve Christ? The way we give?
Breakout
Pray for one another.