We will be in Hebrews chapter 9 this morning. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15.
Picking up right where we left off. We had taken a little break from Hebrews VBS
revival but we're back. We'll be back in it for a few weeks. Hebrews chapter 9
verse 15. The author of Hebrews had been building up to kind of his main point
and really he had been there in the last three chapters 7, 8, and 9. And the main
point being that Jesus has established the New Covenant. The New Covenant is in
fact the perfect covenant, the better covenant. And that's what we talked about
last week is the New Covenant has come through Jesus Christ. And in
discussing that we talked about the Old Covenant, what the Old Covenant looked
like. We talked about the old sacrificial system. We talked about the
tabernacle and the symbolism of the Old Covenant. We talked about the blood of
the animals that were sacrificed that were not sufficient. But Jesus has come
and offered a better sacrifice. And if the blood of animals was at least
somewhat sufficient for what it was there for, how much better the precious
blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God who established the New Covenant through
his blood. And so that's where we left off last week and so we'll continue on
following that same line of thinking when we start here in verse 15. But before
we start let us pray. Father God we come to you we thank you for your Word.
Dear Lord I pray that your Word would speak to us today. Dear Lord there's no
words that I can say that are worth anything. But dear Lord your Word is
perfect in every way. God I pray that you would help me to speak, to preach, to
teach in a way that brings glory to you. That you would hide me behind the cross
dear Lord. That you take away any fear or any pride that is in me today. That
everything that is said and done is for your glory. That your Holy Spirit would
give us ears to hear that you'd free us of the distractions and the worries and
the thoughts of the world. And that you would meet us where we are dear Lord. You
know where we are today. You know what's going on in our life and in our heart.
And I pray that your Holy Spirit would help us to learn and understand your
Word. And that everything that is done here today will point us to Jesus. God
maybe there is one in this room today that does not know Jesus. I pray today
that if that is the case that they would realize it, that they would understand it.
And they would know it this morning through your Word. And I ask these
things in Jesus name, Amen. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15, Therefore, now with
that in mind what did we just talk about? That Jesus had established the New
Covenant by better blood than what you used in the Old Covenant. So therefore
with that in mind that Jesus has established the New Covenant, therefore
he is the mediator of a New Covenant. So that those who are called might receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance. Because a death has taken place for a
redemption from the transgressions committed under the First Covenant. So
what does the author of Hebrews tell us here? Well the author of Hebrews begins
to use a little bit of what we would call I suppose legal language. He uses
some legal terminology here in these next few verses. And he tells us that
Jesus is our mediator. Now he's already used this language earlier in the book
but this is important language for us to understand. Jesus is our mediator. What is
a mediator? A mediator is someone who is between two parties. Two parties
who have a difference, who are trying to come to some some general
understanding, who are trying to get on good terms. We see that a lot with
lawyers today. We see you may hear people talk about mediation. A lot of times you
may see a lawyer between two parties and they're trying to come to some kind of
terms, some kind of agreement on some deal that's being made. And so the deal
that's been made here, that's been established through Jesus Christ, is that
God has established a new covenant and as such he has placed Jesus as the
mediator of that covenant. Now why is that important to us? Why do we need
Jesus? Is it go between between us and God? Well the reason why is because we
have sinned and we have sinned greatly. And our sin has separated us from God.
Now in the Old Testament at the very beginning of the Bible, God made Adam and
Eve and God's Spirit would come down among them and and it seemed to be this
beautiful relationship that they had with God and the presence of God but
something occurred and that something that occurred was sin. And when Adam and
Eve sinned, they lost that relationship that they had with God. That ability to
be in the garden, in the presence of God, they lost that due to sin. And that's the
problem that you and I still face today. Is our sin has separated us from God and
it's not just a little ways. It's not that our sin is separated us a little
ways. Our sin is not that big a deal. Sometimes we sin, we do things to other
people, we say things we shouldn't do and we kind of, okay well we shouldn't have
done that, we kind of get over it and we go on our way. But what we need to realize is
that our sin against God is very serious and our sin has severed our our ability
to be in the presence of God. And so there's a problem there. And God began
to address that problem with the first covenant, with the old covenant. And while
it had a purpose and it served its purpose, it was insufficient and that it
can never really fully forgive the sins of people. Now when we read through the
Old Testament and even sometimes maybe in the New Testament we see this
language that the sacrifices of animals were for atonement, for the forgiveness
of sins. Well they certainly were but in a limited sense. They could
forgive the sinner momentarily. They could forgive the sinner just enough
that they could bear to kind of be in God's sight, that God
wouldn't just strike them down, that God would still have some grace and
compassion on them in the moment. There was the old covenant system that God had
established for atonement but it was never atonement that was sufficient to
really forgive the people's sins. And that's why when Jesus comes as a
mediator between God and man, he's there to bring that relationship back together.
Now there's no negotiating on God's side. It's not like God says, okay what do you
want for us to have a relationship? Well I want this. Okay well I want this and
Jesus is going back and forth. Well here's what God wants and here's what you...
That's not the way that Jesus mediates. Jesus says here is what God requires.
Well the problem is is that we can't live up to what God requires. We can't
live up to all the commands that God gives us. We fail repeatedly. We fail and
that's why Jesus is our mediator is so significant. He's not just one who
speaks on our behalf to God but he is one who has laid down his life by
shedding his blood on the cross to fulfill all of God's demands. And so when
Jesus is our mediator, what that is telling us is that Jesus has fulfilled
everything that we have failed at fulfilling. And Jesus through his blood
brings forgiveness of our sins. And we know that when Jesus did that it was
sufficient and we'll see that more as we continue on. It's obvious that the Old
Testament system, that the first covenant, that the Old Covenant was
insufficient. Why? Because God's people had to continually repeat the commands of
the Old Covenant. The high priest had to continually sacrifice the sacrifices. So
it's clear that the blood that was shed through animals was not sufficient to
cleanse sins eternally. There needed to be a better sacrifice. And so Jesus comes
as our mediator between us and God because God still, even though we are
sinners, desires a relationship with us. But that relationship has been broken
because of our sinfulness. But the author of Hebrews says that look, God has
established a new covenant, a better covenant, through Jesus Christ through
which Jesus is the mediator. And when the new covenant comes, it comes with better
promises. It comes with eternal promises. And it comes with promises that are
brought forth only by Jesus Christ. And when the new covenant comes, it's even
able to cover the sins of those who sin under the Old Covenant. That's what the
author of Hebrews is saying here. Remember the audience here, they're
wanting to go back to the Old Covenant system and the author's saying, look, nope,
you need Jesus because the Old System wasn't good enough. It had to be
repeated year after year. But what Jesus has done in establishing the New Covenant
is he has done something better. He's made a better covenant. It comes with
better promises, eternal promises. And that's what we see here in the first
verse, verse 16. Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be
established. For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in
force while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first
covenant is inaugurated with blood. All right, now we need to pause for a second
because there's something that we miss in our English language that is
important to the author of Hebrews in the Greek language. Now he's talking
about this death of Jesus that has occurred, that's established this New
Covenant, and then in our minds he shifts gears and he does to some extent. He
begins to talk about a will, where a will exists or where a testament exists,
some of your translations would say. Now we're familiar with that
terminology, last will and testament, right? You get it ready because one day
you're gonna die and doesn't matter if you're young or you're old at some point
in time, you need to get your will together and your will is gonna say what
you want to happen when you die. But there's one thing that is critical, it
is of the utmost importance, it has to occur for a will to be carried out and
that is the person who made the will has to die. Now you can will your children or
your grandchildren or whoever you want, anything you want, but it's not theirs
until you die. So he seems as though he's kind of shifting gears here, but here's
where there's a disconnect in the English language. Now this is
sometimes the case in Scripture, quite often we miss points because the
original language is different than our English language. Now we've been talking
about covenants. Now the Greek word for covenant is diathake. Diathake is the
Greek word for covenant. Diathake is also the Greek word for will or testament.
Now there's certainly a difference in those two things, in a covenant and in a
will or a testament, but the reason why the author of Hebrews here begins to
talk about wills and testaments is because the Greek word is the same. So
what he's doing is he's bolstering his argument, he's trying to help them to
understand the necessity of the death of Jesus in bringing about the new covenant.
And so in doing so, he's making a connection with the Greek word there. The
Greek word that means the same thing. You look it up in the Greek, same, where it
says covenant, diathake, where it says will or testament, diathake. Your Bible,
Old Testament, New Testament, old diathake, new diathake, or we could call it the old
covenant, the new covenant. That's how we separate our Bible. And so he's trying to
simply make just another way to make a connection for them about a will or
about a testament here. And so he says, where a will exists, the death of the one
who made it must be established for a will is only valid when people die since
it is never enforced while the one who made it is living. That is why even the
first covenant was inaugurated by blood. Now as with many illustrations,
we don't want to try to find the connection in every way between a will
and testament and a new covenant. But the point is simple. Jesus had to die for the
new covenant to be carried out, for it to take place, for it to be
established. And this is something that his audience would have understand by
the use of the words will and testament. And it's something that we understand too.
And so the point is, blood had to be shed. And that's what he's transitioning
to at the end of this thought. Because even, he says, the old covenant was
inaugurated by blood. Let's continue on.
Verse 19, For when every covenant had been proclaimed by Moses to all the
people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with
water, scarlet, wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the
people saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you.
In the same way he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of
worship with blood. According to the law, almost everything is purified with blood.
And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Okay, so he
says, Look, the old covenant was established by blood. God has established
a new covenant. How does he establish this covenant? Through blood, through the
blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus tells his disciples that in the Last Supper. I'm
establishing a new covenant. This wine that we drank, it represents the
blood of a new covenant or a New Testament, some of your translations will
say. So Jesus has already began to tell before he died his disciples about this
new covenant that was coming. The author of Hebrews is reminding his audience and
us today that that new covenant has been established through blood and the same
way that the old covenant was established through blood. But what did
he say in that last verse that we read there at the end of verse 22? Without the
shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Okay, without the shedding of
blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Now, oftentimes we come together and we
sing and you probably have noticed before that a lot of the songs we sing
have to do with blood. There's nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash
away my sins? There's all these songs that we sang that have to do with blood
and there's lots of scripture that deal with blood, especially in the Old
Testament. Now you go back and you read God's commands about what the priest
had to do and how they had to kill the animals in a certain way and they had to
sprinkle the blood in a certain way and all of this stuff is kind of strange to
us. But without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Why is that? Because
the wages of sin is death. Now the blood that runs through our veins, it is our
life. It represents life. It represents that we are living. The Bible even tells
us this in Leviticus chapter 17 verse 11, for the life of a creature is in the
blood and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your
lives since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement. Okay, so God had
established this command that blood must be shed for the
forgiveness of sins. It's very simple. The wages of sin is death. So death has to
occur. Death has to occur. God can't go back on his word. He can't all of a
sudden say, well the wages of sin is not death. Nope, those are the wages of sin
that death has to occur. Now in the Old Testament, God came up with a system that
would work for a little while. Now he could either kill all the people, just
let the people die and they're sinned, or he could come up with a solution. Okay,
now God desires relationship with his people. Even when Adam and Eve sinned, it
says in the scripture that God covered them with a skin. Well, where does skin
come from? Well, it comes from animal. So if an animal skin was given to Adam and
Eve to cover them, then an animal will sacrifice. That's probably the first
sacrifice that we see. That first idea that Adam and Eve sinned and God could
have either struck them down right that moment, or he could have provided
atonement for them, and he did through an animal sacrifice and through the Old
Testament. That's how God continued to work. Okay, so instead of our lives being
taken, there has to be sin that is covered in some way. A life has to be
taken, and in the Old Testament, God took the lives of the animals. So our blood is
diseased, it is rotten, and we're going to die. We need a blood transfusion, and so
the blood of animals would cover our nasty old sinful blood. Now we understand
the importance of blood even in a medical sense in our world today.
You've probably heard of some people who are anemic. You may be anemic. There are a
lot of people in the world who are anemic, and they need to get blood
transfusions. We understand the importance of needing fresh blood. We
need new blood. Well, that's kind of what it's like in a spiritual sense. Our
spiritual blood is tainted by sin, and we will die if we do not receive better
blood. Now in the Old Testament, God sent some blood to cover the people's sins,
but only momentarily, and that was the blood of animals. It was never going to
be sufficient, and so blood has to be shed. There has to be a penalty. There
has to be a price that has to be paid for our sin. Our sin cannot go unpunished.
You say, well, why can't God just give grace? Because God is not just a God of
grace. He is also a just God, and justice has to be served. Therefore, our sin has
to be dealt with. God's people's sin had to be dealt with, and in the Old Testament,
God dealt with that sin through the blood of animals, but that was not blood
that was good enough. There needed to be better blood that was shed, and that's
why God sent Jesus Christ, His perfect Son, to shed His perfect blood
for the forgiveness of our sins for all of eternity, and that's the only blood
that is sufficient. There must be shedding of blood for the forgiveness of
sins. Okay? The author of Hebrews wants his audience to know why is Jesus's death
important? Because He has come as a better sacrifice. Now, we've seen all of
these ways in which the author of Hebrews has talked about Jesus. He's
talked about Jesus as the high priest. Well, the high priest was the one who
carried out the sacrifice and who sprinkled the blood in the Old Testament,
but not only does Jesus act as the high priest, but Jesus also acts as the
sacrifice Himself, and so in the Old Testament, the blood was necessary. All
the blood that was slain, all the blood that was shed, it is a reminder of just
how bad our sinfulness is. Now, it didn't forgive the sins of the people. It only
just briefly covered the sins of the people, and God gave the commands to the
high priest and how everything was supposed to be done. We talked last week
about the Day of Atonement, the one day of the year that the high priest would go
into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood and carry out everything that God
commanded him to do, and there were all these instructions about sprinkling
blood and about offering sacrifices in this way and all of these things, and all
of that was necessary, every bit of it, so that one man could go one day a year
into the presence of God. That's how bad our sin was. That all the blood that was
shed was only only good enough to allow one man one day a year to go and stand
in the presence of God. Now, our sin is pretty bad. All that blood that was
slain was not good enough to allow people to come in to the presence of God,
and even the high priest, if he didn't do everything just right and he wasn't
cleansed and he wasn't prepared, guess what would happen when he went before
the Lord? He would die. We see the sons of Aaron. We see them in the Old
Testament, that they died because they didn't do things the way they were
supposed to do them, and so God's people sin was very serious, and God put all of
these things into place, and all of the blood shed, all of the blood sprinkled,
still not good enough to bring God's people into his presence. Yeah, the high
priest could come there once a year, but God desired something better than that,
and so God sent Jesus Christ to bring about a new covenant, to establish a new
covenant by his blood. What did we talk about last week? We talked about that
veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies, and that is why it
is so significant that when Jesus died that veil was torn. Why? Because now it
opens things up. It opens it up for all who would come to Jesus Christ to have
that relationship with God. Praise the Lord that there's not just one
tabernacle in the world today, and not just one man who can go before God, but
every one of us today can go before the Lord through Jesus Christ. Isn't that a
beautiful thing? That we can pray before God today, that we can go before God
today, that we can seek God today, that we can talk to God, and that God can talk
to us, and that is all made possible through Jesus Christ. Because if we were
still in the Old Testament system, we'd be doomed. But praise the Lord, the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins, and
without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. If we want our
sins covered today, it's only covered through Jesus Christ. 1st Peter chapter
1 verses 18 and 19 says this, For you know that you were redeemed from your
empty way of life, inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like
silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb
without defect or blemish. The precious blood of Christ is why we can come here
today in the presence of God, and praise God. It's why we can come here today with
assurance that our sins are forgiven, because the blood that was shed by Jesus
Christ is far better and far more precious than all the sacrifices that
came before. Continuing on, verse 23, Therefore it was necessary for the
copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but
the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than
these. For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands, only a model
of the truant, but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence
of God for us. So what does the author say? Okay, well the Old Testament way was
necessary, okay? God had shown Moses a pattern of how to make the tabernacle, a
pattern of things that he had seen in heaven, a pattern of the heavenly things,
and what exactly that means, I'm not sure. But what he says here is that the
earthly things, the earthly sanctuary, it was necessary for them to be covered
with God. It was necessary for them to be purified, because God was going to
descend and he was going to come down there in that tabernacle right on top of
the Ark of the Covenant on the mercy seat. That's where God would descend in
the Holy of Holies, and it was important that everything had to be cleansed,
everything had to be purified by the blood, so that God would be able to come
and descend in that one room for that one moment with that one person. So the
Old Testament system had its reasons for doing things and they
were necessary. So it says here that these things are copies of the heavenly
things, that is the earthly things, the tabernacle, were copies of the heavenly
things. And if it was necessary for the earthly things to be purified, then how
much more so for the heavenly things to be purified and purified with a better
sacrifice and purified with better blood that comes through Jesus Christ. Now
there's a couple of ways we could look at this. Well there's probably a lot of
ways we could look at it. One, we could assume maybe that there's some
type of tabernacle setup that looks very similar to that of what we see here on
earth, that Moses followed a pattern in that sense. That's possible. I don't
think so though. I think that probably this is symbolic language. That is
to say that in the same way that here on earth to be in God's presence, things had
to be purified, that is we had to be purified, so it is in heaven. That if we
are going to be in the presence of God, all of the things we see in the
tabernacle we're pointing forward to Jesus Christ, we're pointing forward to
what our relationship with God would look like, and if we're going to be in
relationship with God, then the heavenly things need to be purified. We need to be
purified. The way needs to be prepared for us so that we can stand in the
presence of God, so that the eternal promises can be inherited through those
who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And so just as the old things
were purified in the Old Covenant, the author of Hebrews says there's better
purification that comes through Jesus Christ. Continuing on, verse 25, he did
not do this to offer himself many times as the high priest enters the sanctuary
yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to have
suffered many times since the foundation of the world, but now he has appeared one
time at the end of the ages for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of
himself. Now the very the Old Covenant itself, the very methods that it had to
be repeated yearly, speaks to the fact that it was insufficient. And that's what
the author of Hebrews tells us, is that Jesus Christ has died once and for all.
He does not continually offer himself. He has not continually sacrificed, but that
when Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross, that it was sufficient to cover
our sins, to cover the sins of those who come before us, and to cover the sins of
those who will come after us. And so Jesus's priesthood is a better priesthood.
It's one that's established both now and forevermore, and that's what the author
of Hebrews has been telling us. And here he reminds us what Jesus has done is
sufficient. Now these audience here, they're wanting to go back to the old
system. They're wanting to go back to the old priesthood. He's reminding them that
Jesus has offered the sacrifice once and for all, and there is no other sacrifice
that can be offered for. What did the text there say? For the removal of sins.
For the removal of sins by the sacrifice of himself. Now in the Old Testament our
sins were covered in some way through the animal sacrifice, but they were
never removed. Jesus has come to remove our sins, to cast them as far as east is
to the west. The Old Testament system was a temporary fix, but what Jesus has done
is an eternal fix, and our sins are forgiven. Just this week there's a
there's a rotten spot at the bottom of one of the windows at Michelle's office,
and it leaks when it rains, and it needs to be fixed. It needs to be
repaired. And so I didn't have time to repair it. It's gonna be a big job. So what
I did was I covered it. I made a cover to put over there. I put some silicone, and
it covered it, but it didn't fix it. Eventually it's gonna have to be fixed.
In the Old Testament system, the animal sacrifices, they covered the sins of the
people momentarily, but they never completely took away the sins. There was
ultimately gonna have to be a better fix that was gonna have to come. And when
Jesus come, he took away the sins of the people. They're gone. They are done away
with if we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Now we're no better off
than the Old Testament folks here that we've been talking about. Our sin is bad.
You may not realize how bad your sin is today, but I'm telling you your sin is
bad, and it's probably worse than we could ever possibly imagine, and our sin
has separated us from God, but our sin can be removed through Jesus Christ our
mediator, who is the one who intercedes for us, as the author of Hebrews tells
us. But the only way that our sins can be forgiven today is through Jesus Christ.
Have your sins been forgiven today? Have your sins been removed? They have not
been removed if you have not put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Continuing on in verse 27, and just as it is appointed for
people to die once and after this judgment, so also the Messiah, having been
offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear
sins, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. Praise the Lord. The
author of Hebrews says, look, everybody's gonna die once. That's what it says.
Everybody's gonna die once. Jesus died once, and He only died once. Now a little
clarification there. When he says that in verse 27, it is appointed once for men to
die. We need to talk about that just for a second, because oftentimes that verse
is kind of plucked out by itself, and it's used for a lot of things. A lot of
people would argue everybody has to die at least one time. Usually this is
brought up in regards to Elijah and Enoch. They were taken to heaven, they
didn't die. They have to die at least one time, so at some point they'll have to
come back so they can die. However, that's not the point at all that the author of
Hebrews is making, and I don't even believe that that's a good point to make.
After all, there are some we see in Scripture who die twice, so it's not
appointed for everybody to die once. Some have died and they were raised from the
dead only to presumably die again. There will also be others who will not die,
along with Elijah and Enoch. That is, if you believe in a future rapture that's
going to occur at some point. That is, Jesus will return, and when that return
happens, that those who are still alive will be taken up with him. After all, Paul
says not all will fall asleep. So we see some in Scripture who didn't die. We see
some who died twice. We see some who died once, and if Jesus comes and we're all
lifted up to be with him when we're alive, then there will be a whole host of
Christians who will not die once. That's not the point of that verse, even though
it's often used in that way. The point of that verse is this, is that Jesus'
sacrifice was sufficient. That is, Jesus will not have to die repeatedly. Jesus
has died once and for all for the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus came the
first time, Jesus came to die so that our sins could be forgiven, so that his
blood would be shed. And Jesus will return again, and when he returns it will
not be to bear our sins, but to bring about salvation to those who have put
their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The question is today, is have you done
that? Have you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ this morning? Are you
living under the new covenant, under the blood that was shed for you by Jesus
Christ? If you do not turn to Jesus Christ, you have no mediator between you
and God. If we do not turn to Jesus Christ, our sins are not covered, and
the wages of our sin is death. But praise the Lord that the forgiveness of sin only
comes through blood, and Jesus Christ has shed his blood for us. And after death
comes the judgment. One day we will stand before the Lord in judgment. Maybe we
take our last breath today and we die, and we go and be before the Lord. Maybe
the Lord returns and carries us home. However we end up seeing Jesus, the next
time we see Jesus, we're going to see Jesus and we're going to face judgment.
But praise the Lord that if we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that our
sins have been forgiven, that they have been canceled. Colossians chapter 2
verses 13 and 14 says, when you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Having
canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and
condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. Now apart from
Jesus, today we are dead in our sins. But praise the Lord, Jesus come to die on a
cross. He came so that our sins could be forgiven, so that our debt could be
canceled. And how did he do away with our debt? How did he do away with our sins?
By nailing it to the cross. And so it is through the precious blood of Jesus
Christ today that our sins are forgiven and it's only through Jesus Christ. If
you've never put your faith in him, maybe today the Holy Spirit is speaking to you.
If God is speaking to you today, if you've never been covered by the blood
of Jesus, I pray that today that you would. Father God, we come to you. We thank
you for your good word. I pray dear Lord that you would help us to understand
just how rotten our sin is and just how important Jesus is dear Lord. That our
sin is the ugliest thing that we have ever seen, but Jesus is the most
beautiful thing that we have ever seen dear Lord. So I pray God that we would
confess our sin to you today, that we would repent of our sin. God that we
would know that there is no other way for our sinfulness to be forgiven other
than through Jesus Christ. God I pray that if there are any this morning that
do not know Jesus that they would know him today. I pray dear Lord that as we
as we study your word that we would grow in it, that we would understand what
Jesus has done for us, how he has fulfilled everything in your word.
Everything that we see in the Old Testament was pointing us forward to
Jesus dear Lord and I pray that everything that we have discussed today
that we've seen in your word today has pointed us to who Jesus is dear Lord.
That we understand today that the death of Jesus Christ was necessary God to
cover our own sins dear Lord so that death would not get the final say in our
life, but that we would have victory over death through Jesus's victory over death
dear Lord. That we would have victory over our sins through Jesus's death on
the cross dear Lord. That our sins would be forgiven dear Lord. That they would
not determine who we are God. That we are not determined by our sin but God we are
determined by the blood of Jesus Christ. I pray dear Lord that if there are any
today that do not know who Jesus is that your Holy Spirit would speak to them
and that they would respond in this time of invitation and I ask these things in
Jesus name. Amen.