A Better Sacrifice

In the Bible, there are two covenants: the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Why are there two covenants, and what is their purpose? Open with us to the book of Hebrews, and we will discover that together.

Good morning! Happy almost Fourth of July! Would you take out your Bibles while you're standing and open them with me to the book of Hebrews? If you don't have a Bible, one of the ushers will bring you one if you raise your hand. Hebrews is right near the end of your Bible. Open to the very last book, the book of Revelation, and then just turn left; you'll find it after a number of pages.

Hebrews chapter 9 is where we are today. We are going to pick it up at verse 16. There, the author of the book of Hebrews writes, "For where there is a testament or a will, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power while the testator lives."

Therefore, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and he sprinkled both the book itself and also the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you."

Then likewise, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. According to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.

Therefore, it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with far better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Not that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another. He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin.

By the sacrifice of Himself, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation.

Father, as we consider the text here in Hebrews today, I pray that You would help us to gain insight and understanding to make application from the Scriptures. We just sang a Creed, our belief, and one of the things that we believe is that this is inspired by You and is given for our instruction and righteousness. We confess that this is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It cuts deep and exposes the areas of our lives that need the transforming power of Your grace by Your Spirit.

So God, would You continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds as we consider Your Word together today? We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

It's the sixth time in two months that you are making the trek back to the temple. Thankfully for you, you live in one of the nearest cities to Jerusalem. If you get up early enough in the morning, you can make the trip there and back in one day. What would it be like if you lived 30 miles away in Jericho or a hundred miles away in Galilee? To make that long trip to the temple would be quite a challenge.

But of course, even if you lived hundreds of miles away, you'd still make that journey because your deepest desire is to be honorable to God, to honor Him with your life. This is what faithfulness to His law and His commandments looks like. Faithfulness requires sacrifice. The fact is, as hard as you try—and you try very hard—you are completely unable to live perfectly according to the commandments of the law given in that first covenant. Therefore, to be faithful, you have to make this trip. The demand of the law is sacrifice. Over the last couple of days, you've been...

Taking account of your life over the last week and a half, think through the things that you've said, the things that you've done, the things that you thought, or maybe even some of the acts of faithfulness that you haven't done. You come to the temple with a lamb that you selected from your flock. You went and looked for the best one that you could find because that's what the law requires: to offer the best. You don't want to offer something that is maimed, lame, or blind. You want to be faithful.

So, you selected a lamb, knowing that in a short time, you'll stand there at the temple in the presence of a priest, your family, and your children. You'll put your hands on the head of that lamb and confess your sins. As you do, the priest will take an almost impossibly sharp blade and slit the throat of that lamb, which will stand in your place, taking your sin and the sin of your household upon it to be your atonement, to die in your place.

Faithfulness is costly. Six lambs in two months, almost forty last year, to go and offer to the Lord. But it's a small price to pay, you think, to be right with God. What if you were to die without a sacrifice? What if, God forbid, one of your children died without the sacrifice? It's a small price to pay to go to the temple. This is the only way to be right with God. This is what faithfulness looks like. This is what the agreement of the Covenant was all about. This is your hope of right justice; this is your hope of resurrection in the future. All of it is upon this sacrifice that you'll bring to the temple.

If this was your life, there's absolutely no doubt that the words of Jeremiah the Prophet, given 2,500 years ago, would have been something that you looked forward to, that you hoped in. God, speaking through the Prophet Jeremiah, said, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord. Jeremiah 31:31 states, "The days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house..."

The Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt was not according to that covenant of sacrifice at the temple under the priesthood. My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

But this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquities, and their sin I will remember no more.

What hope there would be in those words! "I will forgive their iniquities; their sin I will remember no more." Yet, you remember every single time you go to the temple. There is a memory, a remembrance of sins committed and the payment that is due. This little innocent animal is going to stand in my place.

And yet, there is this promise given twenty-five hundred years ago of a new covenant, a promise of forgiveness, a promise of no more remembrance of sin, of your conscience being completely cleansed of the guilt of sin—completely gone. That is a good promise. The new covenant that Jeremiah spoke of, the New Covenant that Jesus establishes, is a new covenant based upon better promises.

That's what we saw as we were looking back in Hebrews chapter eight. If you're still in Hebrews, just look back at verse six of Hebrews eight. Jesus is also the mediator, the one who establishes an agreement, a covenant. He is the mediator of a better covenant, which is established upon better promises.

What exactly is the better promise of this better covenant? If you skip down to Hebrews chapter nine, verse fifteen, just before the text that we're looking at this morning, there are those words again: He is the mediator, just like Hebrews eight, verse six says. He is the one who establishes this covenant, the new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise. What is the promise?

Of the eternal inheritance, it's the promise of the eternal inheritance that constitutes the better promise of the better covenant. This is not something temporary, as seen in the Old Covenant where sacrifices were offered at the temple; those were temporary. Here is the promise of something eternal, which is a much better promise.

The better promise of the better covenant is the promise of the eternal inheritance. How, then, did our mediator, Jesus, the one who establishes this agreement, this covenant between God and us, secure this better promise? Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11, states that Christ came as a high priest. He came as a high priest with His own blood and entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

What is this eternal promise of eternal redemption? Continuing to verse 12, it explains that it is by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions. What transgressions? These are the guilty transgressions of God's law, the perfect law given by Moses at Mount Sinai. The children of Israel said, "All that you have said we will do and be obedient." Yet, within a matter of days, they were already breaking that law. This was not because they were something less than us; we probably would have broken it sooner.

All that you said we will do and be obedient! Oh, the zeal that we sometimes bring before God! We say, "I will serve you; I will follow you," and how quickly we fail. By means of death for the redemption of the transgressions, verse 15 states that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Point number one on your outline in your bulletin: Christ secured our eternal inheritance by shedding His own blood. That's what the text tells us. Christ secured our eternal inheritance by shedding His own blood. It seems so heavy.

It seems almost insane that He would have to shed His own blood for us. Why did He shed His blood? Why did He have to die?

Well, we read in Hebrews 9, verses 18 through 21, that covenants—these agreements between God and humanity—are established by the shedding of blood. The Old Covenant was, as stated in verse 18, not even dedicated without blood. The Old Covenant required a sacrifice to establish this relationship between God in heaven and humanity here on earth. There had to be the shedding of blood.

When Moses, as mentioned in verse 19, had spoken every precept to all the people, he read the law in their hearing. They all said, "All that you have said we will do and be obedient." After he had read the law to the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the blood on the book of the law—the writing of this law—and on the people. They said they would do what had been commanded, and they were bound by the shedding of blood to fulfill that law.

Verse 20 states, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you." Likewise, he sprinkled the blood on both the tabernacle and the vessels of ministry. Not only was the blood sprinkled on the book of the law, which they agreed to obey, but it was also sprinkled upon the people. The blood was sprinkled on the tabernacle, the place where they would go to worship, meet with God, and offer sacrifices. All the instruments of the tabernacle, including the altars and the showbread table, were sprinkled with this blood.

Verse 21 reiterates that he sprinkled the blood on both the tabernacle and the vessels of ministry. Yet, even though all of this was established under the Old Covenant, the first covenant proved to be not enough. It provided a measure of atonement and a measure of remission or forgiveness of sins committed under it, but the Old Covenant was incapable of eternal redemption.

You see, the sacrifices of the Old Covenant that you read about in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy—those sacrifices that were offered—were limited in their effectiveness.

Every single day, every single week, and every single month for 1,500 years, those sacrifices were temporal and temporary. They only dealt with sin here and now in a relationship with God that is earthly and temporary. You could offer a sacrifice, and then you would sin again later on that day, needing another sacrifice. If you are seeking to live perfectly faithful to the commandments of the Old Covenant, it is impossible—not because the Old Covenant is not good enough, but because we are not good enough. We constantly fail.

You could offer the greatest sacrifice you could ever imagine. Solomon, on one day, offered a thousand sacrifices, but I guarantee you that by day's end, he messed up some more and needed more sacrifices. It was never enough; it was never sufficient. It's like having a great debt. Maybe you are reminded of something you don't want to think about at church: you receive a bill from a credit card company every single month. Perhaps that bill is high, and you can't afford it. Maybe you have a ten, twenty, or thirty thousand dollar bill.

But you know that credit card company is awfully nice, aren't they? They say, "Listen, although you owe us thirty thousand dollars, we're only going to require that you pay this amount right here." It's called the minimum payment. You can pay that, and the credit card company is perfectly happy for you to pay the minimum payment. However, they'll be appeased for thirty days, and then they'll send you another bill, reminding you that you still owe $30,000. It just went up because you paid the minimum payment. But you know what? They'll be happy for another thirty days—just pay the minimum payment. You will be paying them in and paying until you die, leaving it for someone else to pay.

Those sacrifices are like the minimum payment; they never could take away sin. The atonement, the covering of sin under the Old Covenant, is a limited atonement. It's not enough; it's the minimum payment on an eternal debt. We saw this; we looked at it briefly, and we'll look at it again in a moment in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 through 4. The law is a shadow of things.

To come, it can never be with those same sacrifices which they offered year by year. They can never make those who approach perfect. Hebrews 10:4 states, "For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sins." They can't take it away, but Jesus gives us an eternal inheritance and eternal redemption.

An inheritance is given only to those entitled to receive it—those that are named or listed in the will, the last will and testament of the one who has established that will. So, an inheritance is only given to those who are written into the will and only upon the death of the one who has this testament. This is exactly what the author of the book of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9:16: "For where there is a testament, there also must be the necessity of the death of the testator." Another way of saying this, as the New International Version puts it, is that "in the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made the will." A will is enforced only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is alive.

Why did Jesus have to die? There is this agreement, this covenant, this testament, this will and testament written, and it is only effectual upon the death of the one who has written this will. Without the shedding of blood, Hebrews 9:22 says, "there is no remission of sins." In other words, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, no pardon. That's what forgiveness is—a pardon. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, no redemption, no inheritance, and no eternal life.

The shedding of Christ's blood under the New Covenant is essential; it's not just important, it's critical. Without it, there is no redemption, no pardon. This is why the shedding of Christ's blood is so important that the church has commemorated it on a regular basis ever since Christ died on the cross.

That he was betrayed, he took the cup and said, "This is the cup of the New Covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." What do we do on a regular basis here at Cross-Connection Church? What has every Orthodox Church done for the last 2,000 years? They take the bread, which symbolizes His body that was broken for us. They take the cup, which symbolizes His blood that was shed for us. He wanted us to remember this; it is essential. Christ had to die. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.

Therefore, verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 9 states, "Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these." The author talks about the Old Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, Moses was commanded by God, as recorded in Exodus chapters 25 through 40, to build a tabernacle that was to be with the children of Israel as they journeyed in their wilderness wanderings from Egypt to the Promised Land. This tabernacle was always in the middle of the camp. Everywhere they would go, the entire nation would camp around this tent of meeting, this tabernacle.

In that tabernacle, there was an altar of incense, an altar for the burnt offerings, a table of showbread, a lampstand, and the Ark of the Covenant of God. There were all these different instruments in the temple, and these things were just shadows or copies of the temple of God in heaven, that which is unseen. Moses was given some sort of insight by God on Mount Sinai, and God said, "I want you to build a tabernacle after the pattern of what you have seen, what I've shown you in my temple, my throne room in heaven." So, he built this earthly tabernacle; it is a copy of the things in heaven.

Verse 23 said it had to be purified with the blood of calves and goats, but the heavenly things themselves are better sacrifices than these. What we have in the Old Covenant is just a copy, a facsimile; it is just a shadow. The offerings and the sacrifices are just a shadow of a greater sacrifice and offering that had to be offered before God in the true temple. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands; Jesus didn't go into the temple.

He's not a Levite. Only the Levites could go into the temple, and only the high priest under the Levitical priesthood in the Old Testament could enter the Holy of Holies. However, those things were just copies; they are not the real thing. Christ did not enter the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Not that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another. He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Those sacrifices in the copies and the tabernacle were given every single year, over and over again. We can't even fathom the greatness of the amount of these sacrifices. For 1,500 years, these were offered every day, every week, every month, and then on the feast days of Israel. When I say feast days of Israel, think of things like Passover or Yom Kippur. We still hear of these, even if you're not Jewish; you hear about them in our calendar year.

One of the Jewish historians, a guy by the name of Josephus, records that on one of the Passovers, 200,000 lambs were offered in one day. Two hundred thousand in one day! I mean, the Old Covenant was PETA's nightmare. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals would have found the Old Covenant to be their absolute nightmare. However, because of what Jesus does, he should be their dream.

Why? Because Jesus offered one sacrifice once for all. He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation.

Point number three on your outline: Christ shed his blood once for all, offering a far better sacrifice. Why? Why?

Was this sacrifice necessary? Remember, this letter was written to Jewish Christians 2,000 years ago who were being told by their leaders in the Christian Church that they no longer needed to go to the temple. However, they were being told by their family members and friends, who were still part of Judaism, that they still needed to go to the temple. The sacrifices were important, the priesthood was important, and they still needed to do all of these things. These things were significant.

So, why do we no longer need to do that? Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1 states, "For the law, the Old Covenant, having a shadow of the good things to come, the New Covenant, and not the very image of those things, can never with these same sacrifices which they offer year by year make those who approach perfect." The sacrifices under the Old Covenant were all well and good; they had importance under the Old Covenant, but they cannot make you perfect. They cannot deal with the problem of sin; they cannot pay the debt. There are limited payments, the minimum payment every single time.

For if they could make you perfect, verse 2 continues, "then they would not have ceased to be offered; for the worshippers, once purified, would have had no more conscience of sin." But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every single year, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

Therefore, verse 5 states, "when He, Jesus, came into the world, He said..." The routine of the author of the book of Hebrews is to prove these claims he is making, and then he supports them with the writings of the Old Covenant. He goes back to Psalm 40, written a thousand years before Jesus came. In the Psalms, we have this amazing picture of the nature of God.

You see, Christians believe that God is one, but the one God exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We call this the doctrine of the Trinity. People often ask, "Where do you come up with this?" We find it in the Scriptures, as we come to passages like this that the author of the book of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 40, where he says, "Therefore, when He came into the world, He, Jesus, said, 'Sacrifice and offering You, Father God, did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.'"

Became a man, the Incarnation. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, You had no pleasure. Then I, Jesus, the Son, said, "Behold, I have come; in the volume of the book it is written of Me to do Your will, O God." Previously saying, in verse 8, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had You pleasure in them," which are offered according to the law of the Old Covenant.

Then He said, "Behold, I come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first, the Old Covenant, that He may establish the second, the New Covenant. By that will, what will? I have come to do Your will, O God. By that will, we have been sanctified, completely cleansed through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.

What Psalm 40 shows us is that the New Covenant was God's will and plan from the beginning. Why is this important? Because sometimes we can read the Bible, which is divided into two different sections: the Old Testament, the first 39 books, and the New Testament, the last 27 books, totaling 66. We can read the Bible and think that the first two-thirds, from Genesis to Malachi, was kind of God's first attempt at this whole salvation thing, and that didn't work.

So, God in heaven was sitting up there one day, wherever that is, on a cloud—that's the way we see it, isn't it? There He was, thinking to Himself, "You know, this just isn't working. I need to come up with a new plan. Let's try Plan B. Jesus, why don't You go down there and clean this whole thing up because it's just not working right?"

For some people, that's the way we sometimes approach the Bible. The first two-thirds? Well, that didn't work; scrap it, let's try something new. But what passages like Psalm 40 show us is that the New Covenant was God's will and plan from the very beginning. The purpose of the first covenant was to prepare us for the coming of the second. The plan of the Old Covenant was to show us our need for the new.

If you and I had to live under the Old Covenant and wanted to be faithful to God, every single time we failed—let's all be honest, we fail quite a bit, especially if you're married. So, we fail.

A lot of people think that if they want to be faithful to God, they better invest in a lot of livestock. This is because they have to go to the temple frequently to offer sacrifices. If there is one thing that is clear under the Old Covenant, it's that righteousness costs a lot. If you've ever read through the Book of Leviticus, you know that many people who set out to read their Bible in a year often get stopped at the speed bump called Leviticus. They get through Genesis and Exodus, but when they reach the third book, they wonder, "What in the world is this?"

The one thing that stands out from the Book of Leviticus, which describes all the offerings required to be right before a holy God, is that it costs a lot. The Old Covenant shows us just how far we are from a holy God. The offerings of the Old Covenant were given to increase our desire for the singular offering of the New Covenant. The priesthood of the Old Covenant, which was offering these sacrifices every single day, was longing for the rest that the New Covenant would bring.

Look at verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 10: "Every priest under the Old Covenant stands ministering daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." Now, some of you may not like your job, but let me run this job by you for a moment. You wake up every single morning and put on those fresh, clean, white linen clothes that had to be perfectly white because that was the requirement of the law. Then, you would perform a ritual cleansing of yourself and put on these garments.

After that, you would go to the temple, where people would come to you from sunup till sundown. They would bring an animal with them, place their hands on it, and confess their sins. Then, you would take a knife and slaughter the animal. This is a bloody mess. You would take the blood and bring it to the altar, sprinkle the altar with the blood, and place the burnt offering in the pit. You would do this over and over again, and we are told here that those sacrifices cannot take away sin. Talk about the futility of a terrible job.

Job repeatedly offered the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Now, if you were a priest, you would think, "That sounds good. You mean done, paid in full?" From that time, he is waiting till his enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

The Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after He had said before, "This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days," quoting Jeremiah 31, says the Lord: "I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will put it in their minds. I will write it upon their minds." Then He adds, "Their sin and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." For where there is remission, or pardon, forgiveness of these sins, there is no longer an offering for sin.

The priests would teach the Scriptures; they would teach the commandments. They would tell the people, "You need to know the Lord. You need to follow the Lord. You need to serve the Lord," knowing that every time they said that, these people were not going to do it. Then they would offer sacrifice upon sacrifice upon sacrifice.

This man, Jesus, comes at one time, offers one sacrifice, and then He says, "By My Spirit, I'm going to write My law and word on your hearts and on your minds." It's there with you by His Spirit at all times, and He says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Point number five: The New Covenant forgives our sin and puts an end to the continual sacrifices of the old. Does anyone remember Jesus's last words on the cross? He said, "It is finished." As He died in our place as a sacrifice for us, He said, "It is finished." This is why Jesus can say, as recorded in the...

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, states, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The burden of the law is great, and there are many of you here who have experienced that burden. You have tried to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law on your own. Maybe that was the very first thing that led you to church—maybe not this church, but any church. You went there because there was a consciousness of sin; there was a guilt that weighed upon you. God wrote upon your heart a conscience, and there was something that told you you weren't living up to the way you were supposed to live. You felt compelled to try and deal with this problem, and you've tried and you've tried. If you've tried, you've likely failed.

Why? The Apostle Paul describes it like this in the book of Romans, chapter 7: "The good things I want to do, I don't do; the bad things I don't want to do, that I practice." Can anyone relate to that? He says, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" It's significant that he asks "who" and not "what." He concluded that it wasn't the law, it wasn't sacrifice, it wasn't the temple, and it wasn't the priesthood. He asked, "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?"

Praise God, he doesn't end there. He says, "I thank God through Christ Jesus." Maybe today you're still trying to make yourself right, trying to be perfect. You think, "If I just keep this, if I just do this, if I just don't do that, if I just stop that, then I'll be okay before God. Then all of these problems will be dealt with." You might think, "If I just go to church, if I just give a little more, if I just serve a little more," but you will never be able to undo the mess you've gotten yourself into.

Thank God you don't have to, because Christ Jesus did it once for all. Now, are you saying that I don't need to seek to live righteously? No, that's not what I'm saying, because He says, "I will write..."

My word in their hearts and in their minds. I will forgive their iniquity; I will remember their sins no more. I am going to write it on the tablets of their hearts, and I will direct them to walk in my Spirit. I will still forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more. There is great rest in Christ and in sacrifice.

He says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That is the glorious gospel, good news, and great grace. That is what the New Covenant brings. The Old Covenant was given to show us just how far from God we are and how we will never, by our own abilities, be able to reach up to Him. But the New Covenant says, "I will come down to you, and I will redeem, I will rescue, and give you an eternal redemption and inheritance." What great news! What great news! It is the end of our striving; it is the entering into rest. God is good, and what He has done for us is amazing.

Amen. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Jesus, I thank you for doing what I could not do for myself. Lord, we cannot deal with the stain of our sin, and yet you said through the prophet Isaiah, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Jesus, you purify, you sanctify, you cleanse, and you redeem. You buy back that which is lost and in slavery to sin and death. You make us sons and daughters of the holy God, and you transform us by the renewing of our minds, by the working of your Spirit, and by your word. You enable us, by the power of your Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, not fulfilling the desires of our flesh.

Lord, I pray that your people would know the love and joy...

Peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control are the evidence of your Spirit's presence in our lives. May it be evident to those we come in contact with this week. They should see your transforming power at work in us. They should notice that we don't respond the way we used to; they should see a peace where there used to be anxiety and fretting. They should see a love where there used to be indifference, and they should see a joy where there used to be hardness. God, transform us and help us to display this evidence, this fruit of the Spirit. By your grace, you have rescued us, and we praise you, Jesus.

It may be that as we stand here today, you have been trying in your own efforts to make yourself holy and right before a holy, righteous God. What the Bible makes very clear is that it is not possible for us to do it by our own efforts. Jesus did what we could not do. The law was weak because of our failures and our flesh, but Jesus came and fulfilled it all to give us grace, to forgive us of our sins, and to completely transform and renew us.

If you would like to receive His grace and His forgiveness today, I want to give you a chance to do that by leading you in a prayer of trust, faith in Him, and confession. Under the Old Covenant, you would go and confess your sins to the priest. We have a priest; our high priest is Jesus. We confess our failures to Him, and He has the ability to forgive us completely.

If you would like to receive His forgiving grace today, I want to give you a chance to do that. Just lift up your hand high so I can see it. Is there anyone here today? God bless you. I see a couple of hands over here in the middle. Praise the Lord! Anyone else? Do you want His grace to come and overflow your life and pardon you of your sin? If that's you, standing where you're at, would you just pray with me?

Dear Jesus, I know I need you. I cannot deal with my...

I thank you that you paid for my failures and sins. I confess my need for you. I pray that you would come into my life, that you would forgive me of my sin, and that you would help me to follow you by faith.