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[0:00] Welcome to Built on God's Word, the preaching and teaching ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.! Pastor Mike Scrivani preaches on Hebrews 8.!

[0:30] We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

[0:42] For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

[0:56] They serve a copy in shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

[1:11] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

[1:22] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

[1:48] For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

[2:00] I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.

[2:16] For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.

[2:27] And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Would you please be seated? I periodically review the photos on my phone, and I delete many of them to free up storage space.

[2:52] Most of the pictures I delete are multiples. For example, I have a lot of family photos from Christmas and Easter. On those occasions when we've been at church, I've handed my phone to one of you, and you took multiple shots of me with my family from different angles.

[3:13] And that's okay. I wanted you to do that because of the ten pictures that you took. One of them is going to come out good. With everybody's eyes open, everybody looking at the camera and smiling.

[3:29] But each time I sort through my photos, I'm reminded, too, of just how far photography has advanced since I was a kid.

[3:40] I remember my dad's old Canon camera. It had a big flash attachment on top. He would load 35-millimeter film in the back, always in a dark place so that the film wouldn't get ruined.

[3:54] And after each shot, he would wind the film with his thumb for the next picture. And you got about 30 photos per roll.

[4:06] And then once all those pictures were taken, so you had to be choosy with the pictures that you were going to take. And then once those pictures were taken, you would take that film and you would drop it off to be processed.

[4:17] A couple weeks later, maybe, you'd get your prints and the negatives inside an envelope. Remember that? Many of you do. That would be exciting.

[4:30] But sometimes it would be a letdown because someone's eyes would be closed. Or they'd have that weird, creepy red-eye thing going on. Or there would be just a blurry shot or maybe someone's finger got in the way of the picture and you didn't realize it until after you saw the developed pictures.

[4:48] There was no way to check your pictures back then in that moment when you took them that they would come out right. Digital cameras changed all of that. Suddenly, you could see your photos instantly and know if you got the right shot.

[5:06] No more waiting for film to develop. You could even print pictures from your home. And now, of course, smartphones let us take endless photos and videos as long as you have the storage to have them on your phone.

[5:22] I remember back in high school, now this was before smartphones, but after digital cameras, my art teacher encouraged us to try her photography course. And I was interested until I learned that we'd have to use film cameras and develop our own pictures in a dark room.

[5:41] The dark room was dimly lit with a red light. And then you had these trays full of chemicals that you would use to develop your pictures.

[5:52] And after hearing what all was involved, I decided, you know what, this is not for me. Why spend hours in a dark room when we can now take, edit, and share better photos instantly?

[6:12] Now, for some, the appeal was the work. But not me. There are a number of things that we used to use that have been replaced by something superior.

[6:28] Nobody came to church today in a horse-drawn carriage. None of you have ever mailed me a letter that you composed on a typewriter and don't get any ideas.

[6:40] Email is just fine. I've never seen anybody who's mowed our grass use one of those old push propeller lawnmowers.

[6:51] Why would you? Something better has replaced them. In fact, churches often have to have work days to clean out all the outdated items that church members have donated to the church because they replaced those old things with something better, something superior.

[7:14] So what does any of this have to do with Hebrews chapter 8? Well, from the get-go, the author of Hebrews has been making the case for the superiority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, over all the rites, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices that were prescribed under the Old Covenant.

[7:35] All those things were types. They were pictures. They were shadows of something better that was to come. Better things which Jesus' coming and His dying and His rising again have now made obsolete.

[7:53] Jesus inaugurated a new, a better covenant as our superior high priest. We no longer need to labor in the shadowy, dark room of the Old Covenant because we have the true image, the radiant image, the exact imprint, the final revelation of God in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who offered Himself as the perfect, complete, and final sacrifice to atone for our sins, inaugurating a new covenant that is not based on keeping external traditions but results in an internal transformation.

[8:29] This is the point. The author of Hebrews is making to his audience. He's saying in effect here, why hold on to the old when something superior is here and is offered to you?

[8:46] So now we're in the heart of this letter, this sermon today. I want to review real quickly. In chapters 1 through 4, if you remember, the writer of Hebrews uses the Old Testament Scriptures to reveal Jesus' superior position.

[9:03] From the very beginning in Hebrews 1, 1 through 3, he says this, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.

[9:20] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

[9:35] After explaining Jesus' superior position, His superior message in salvation, the writer of Hebrews turns his attention to Jesus' superior priesthood in chapters 5 through 7.

[9:48] Again, using Old Testament Scriptures, the writer of Hebrews makes the case that Jesus is the great high priest, which God planned and promised to send prior to the establishment of the Levitical priesthood.

[10:06] Jesus is not a priest in the Levitical line under the terms of the Old Covenant. He is a priest of a different order, a king priest, which was foreshadowed by Melchizedek back in Genesis chapter 14.

[10:22] Chapters 5 through 7 present Jesus as a superior high priest who inaugurated a superior covenant, making the Levitical priesthood and the Old Covenant obsolete.

[10:35] And now in chapter 8, he reiterates the point that he made in chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 about Jesus' superior priesthood and what it means for those who trust in Him.

[10:52] And there he says, And so chapter 8, begins with the writer of Hebrews restating this main point.

[11:29] We have such a high priest. In Jesus Christ, we have one who matches the description of the Melchizedekian priesthood in chapter 7.

[11:43] He is the ever-living one. The one who always does the will of the Father. The one whose sacrifice completely atoned for our sins.

[11:55] The oath and the promise in Psalm 110 about a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, the king priest, are fulfilled completely now in Jesus Christ.

[12:07] Jesus has come. He is the superior high priest who offered a superior sacrifice and who mediates a superior covenant.

[12:20] And so the main idea for this morning's sermon is that we have a superior high priest in Jesus Christ whose superior ministry mediates a better covenant enacted on better promises.

[12:34] So now again, why does this matter?

[12:48] Why does this matter? Well, say you owe a debt that you could never repay. Imagine all the things that you're currently making monthly payments on.

[13:01] Your mortgage, your car, your student loans, etc. Say all of those things or all that debt is added up and it's coming due tomorrow and you have to pay it tomorrow.

[13:14] Some of you have followed Dave Ramsey's advice and you're living debt-free. Praise the Lord. Lord, but imagine with me that you owe such a debt that is due and you have no way to pay it back.

[13:29] The next day the creditors show up at your front door with trucks to haul away all your stuff, everything you own because now they own that too. They hand you the bill which lists your debt and they ask you, can you pay this?

[13:45] And you know you can't. But then someone pulls up with a briefcase full of cash, enough to pay off all you owe. They take that bill, they hand over the money and they say, I'll pay for it all and I'm giving it all back to you.

[14:01] No strings attached. How would you respond? Like, oh, that's nice of you. Thank you. Is that how you would respond?

[14:12] No, you would jump for joy. You would rejoice. No more debt. No more monthly payments. I don't owe anyone anything anymore.

[14:26] Wouldn't you delight in the one who made you debt-free? Brother, sister, friend, this is the good news of the gospel. Your sin incurred a debt with God you could never repay.

[14:42] Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid that debt. He paid it with his own body. He offered it himself as a sacrifice to permanently pay, to permanently atone, and permanently forgive your debt to God for your sins.

[15:03] Not only should you delight in him for what he's paid, but you should delight in him for what he's promised. He's promised to preserve you.

[15:15] He's promised that he'll be patient with you as he purifies you and prepares you for the eternal paradise that awaits you when you are with him eternally in his presence, in glory.

[15:30] Until then, he's made a way for you to boldly approach the throne of God's grace in your time of need.

[15:41] He's able to sympathize with you in your time of need. He loves you. And as your superior high priest, he's paid your debt.

[15:52] He's mediated a better covenant, not based on the law, but on grace. This is the good news, which should cause us all who have been saved by his grace to delight in him all the time.

[16:09] Mission statement for our church is that we exist to develop disciples of Jesus Christ who delight in him and demonstrate his goodness as we declare his gospel to our neighbors and to the nations.

[16:20] And I pray that the Lord will use this sermon to develop you as his disciple, teaching you, reminding you of the superiority of his priesthood, his sacrifice, the new covenant he mediates, that you will delight in him, that you will be overjoyed in his goodness to you, which you then will want to demonstrate to others because he's written his commands on your heart.

[16:53] And you want to declare his goodness, his gospel, to your neighbors and to the nations, to those who don't know Jesus.

[17:05] They don't know who he is. They don't know about the sacrifice that he made to atone for their sins, that by God's grace, they'd be forgiven of their sins and that they too would be a disciple of Jesus who delights in him also.

[17:20] So our text today provides three reasons why Jesus is a superior high priest whose superior ministry mediates a better covenant enacted on better promises.

[17:32] And so the first reason we see comes from verses one through two. Jesus ministers in a superior sanctuary. He ministers in a superior sanctuary. Again, verses one through two say, now the point in what we are saying is this, we have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

[17:55] The original audience of Hebrews was Hebrews. They were Jews. Many of them had come to faith in Jesus Christ.

[18:08] others confessed faith in Christ, but the persecution that they were enduring as a result of that, likely from their Jewish brethren, tempted them to drift away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[18:25] Thus, they were in danger of neglecting his great salvation. The original audience was rooted in all the rituals, the ceremonies, the religious observances under the old covenant.

[18:41] But here we see these were a shadow, a foreshadowing of Jesus' coming and establishing a new and superior covenant as their promised superior high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

[18:55] This is what the writer of Hebrews is arguing. And so he begins again, chapter 8, reasserting the central thrust of his point. The point he's made through the first seven chapters of this book.

[19:11] He's told them and he's told us what we've needed. And now he tells us we have in Christ exactly what we need.

[19:24] We need Jesus, the eternal divine Son of God as a superior high priest who mediates a better covenant in Jesus. We have, again, what we need, a superior high priest who inaugurated a superior covenant and acted on better promises.

[19:45] And this new covenant has made the old one obsolete. But let's look at the old one for a minute. The old covenant was established through Moses at Mount Sinai.

[19:57] And we read about that in Exodus 24 verses 3 through 8. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

[20:14] And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he set young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.

[20:31] And Moses took half of the blood and put it in the basin and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient.

[20:46] And Moses took the blood and he threw it on the people and he said, behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these were. The old covenant we learn in scripture was conditional.

[21:04] There were 613 commandments in total and it was contingent on Israel's obedience to them as they pledged that they would.

[21:16] All this stuff, yes Lord, we will do it. Keeping this covenant out of love for God would result in spiritual and material prosperity but disobedience would result in judgment including removal from the promised land.

[21:37] We read about that in Deuteronomy 28 through 29. God under the old covenant established a sacrificial system to temporarily cleanse his people from their sins and these sacrifices had to be performed repeatedly.

[21:53] And so to perform these sacrifices God set aside the tribe of Levi to serve as his priest in the tabernacle later the temple to offer sacrifices as priests on the people's behalf.

[22:07] The high priest was the only one who was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies the place where God's chose to manifest his presence among his people and he could enter that place only one time once a year on the day of atonement.

[22:25] Though Israel promised to obey all these commands in this covenant the biblical record records their repeated disobedience.

[22:38] In addition to repeatedly breaking the law they perverted it by twisting it into a means of a works based righteousness. righteousness. This was something that Jesus consistently called out and clashed with the Pharisees about.

[22:56] Externally they appeared to live in conformity to the law but their internal motivations were self-serving and were not motivated by their love for God.

[23:09] They wanted to receive the praise themselves for what they did. They didn't do it in praise of God. The Levitical priests under this system always had work to do.

[23:23] There was always work for them to do. They perpetually offered sacrifices to atone for the sins of God's people and since those animal sacrifices could not fully atone for sin they always had something to do in the temple.

[23:41] No priest would sit around waiting for somebody to sin so that they could make a sacrifice.

[23:52] That wasn't a problem. People sin all the time. There was always a need for sacrifices to be made. In fact they couldn't sit down because there was no place in the temple for them to take a seat.

[24:05] Of all the furnishings in the temple there was only one seat. The mercy seat. Which wasn't truly a seat but the lid of the Ark of the Covenant which was contained inside of the Holy of Holies hidden behind the veil which housed the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments the golden pot of manna and Aaron's staff that budded.

[24:31] And again the only person who was permitted to enter that space was the high priest and only on the day of atonement as he passed through the veil entering the Holy of Holies and sprinkling the blood of the sacrificial lamb on top of the mercy seat to atone for the people's sins.

[24:55] This imagery showed that only the offering of blood could remove the law's condemnation. and cover violations of God's commands.

[25:10] So the fact that the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus sat down after his making his sacrifice in the location where he sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven communicates his superior priesthood because his sacrificial work is done.

[25:31] he's ascended to the true holy place to the heavenly dwelling place of God the father where he was prior to his incarnation having finished the work he came to do.

[25:45] He ascended to a superior sanctuary. He's taking his seat where he continues to work on our behalf as our high priest not to make sacrifices but to serve as our mediator and our intercessor.

[26:04] Romans 8 34 talks about our Lord's mediating work right now. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us.

[26:20] And as the writer of Hebrews has already said in Hebrews 7 23 through 25 the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in service but he Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

[26:38] Consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercessions for them. And then Hebrews 9 24 we'll read Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands which are copies of the true things but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

[27:02] This truth should have been received with joy by the Hebrews who Hebrews was written to. They should have thought you mean a final sacrifice has been made?

[27:18] You mean that Jesus in all of his glory in all of his exaltation in heaven is still preoccupied with us?

[27:31] He's advocating for us? And Satan the accuser's accusations will fall deaf on the father's ears? What a relief!

[27:45] The truth that Jesus sat down on the right hand of the majesty and high may have reminded them also of procedures that took place in the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the ruling council in Jerusalem.

[27:58] They had civil and religious authority to administer justice even under Roman occupation and rule. They acted as a kind of supreme court but with more authority.

[28:11] And the presiding judge who would preside over whatever case was being presented would have a scribe on either side of him.

[28:25] One on his right one on his left. They were like recording secretaries. The scribe on the left was responsible for recording condemnations for those who voted for conviction.

[28:39] the scribe on the right recorded the votes of those who were for acquittal. Those who are in Christ who have been saved by his grace whose sins have been atoned for by his blood have him as their superior high priest in heaven at the right hand of the father interceding on our behalf acquitting us of our sins since he's paid the debt.

[29:15] You don't need another intercessor. You don't need another priest. You don't need to go to some place, some pilgrimage in order to have access to God.

[29:27] If you have Jesus, you have such a high priest and he's there to acquit you not to condemn you.

[29:39] His throne for you in Christ is a throne of grace which you can approach in your time of need and at any time. Praise the Lord.

[29:52] Now the second reason, Jesus offered a superior sacrifice. Verse 3 says, Levitical priests didn't enter the tabernacle, later the temple, the earthly sanctuary of God empty handed.

[30:15] They took with them a sacrifice. He had to have something to offer. Makes me think about, you know, if you're a kid and you're invited to a friend's birthday party and you show up without a gift, it would be strange and it would be awkward for you if you did that, wouldn't it?

[30:35] Israel's high priests were responsible to offer gifts and sacrifices to express thanksgiving to God and to atone for the sins the people committed against God and for their own sins.

[30:51] But since Jesus is a superior high priest, he must then also offer a sacrifice because that's what high priests did. However, as verse 4 says, now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

[31:10] Jesus was not a Levite. In his humanity, he was a descendant of Judah. He was a descendant of the house of David. Jesus didn't fit the mold of an earthly high priest.

[31:22] His sacrifice was better. While those priests offered sacrificial lambs during Passover, Jesus died on the cross as the sacrifice, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

[31:36] The Levitical priests, the tabernacle, the temple, the animal sacrifices were all shadows. They were copies. They were symbols pointing to a superior heavenly reality.

[31:52] And again in verse 5 we read that those things serve a copy in a shadow of the heavenly things for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that has been shown you on the mountain.

[32:10] A shadow has no substance in itself. No independent existence apart from what it is a shadow of.

[32:23] Earlier this summer at Falls Creek some of the girls in our youth group did a good job putting on a play during our talent show using shadow puppets. We all knew that the shadows on the screen had an object.

[32:39] There was a person behind them whose hands in props were cast on the screen. And once the play was over they came out from behind the screen out of the shadows and they received their applause.

[32:57] No one was shocked. Oh my gosh! What? You were behind the shadows? During the Southern Baptist Convention missionaries going to countries where there is a lot of persecution have their true identities hidden behind a screen.

[33:17] We can hear their voice but can only see their shadows. I can't help but in those moments think I want to know what they look like.

[33:31] I don't need to know what they look like. I just want to know. I'm not satisfied with just seeing their shadow. The Jews living under the old covenant, the people this letter was originally written to should have felt that way.

[33:46] We want to see God. I want to be in his presence. This system isn't complete. We are barred from access to God's presence in the Holy of Holies.

[33:59] We keep having to make all of these sacrifices over and over and over again. I'm not satisfied with the shadow. I want the substance.

[34:12] Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come in substance, not in shadow. He fulfilled the law perfectly. He offered himself sacrificially.

[34:23] He's put an end to that old shadowy system eternally. He is God in reality. And he sacrificed himself, atoning for our sins permanently.

[34:41] Hebrews 9, 11 through 14, says this, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

[35:05] For the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctified 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, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[35:25] When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom in two. in Christ, we have access to God.

[35:40] In Christ, we have more than just the external shadows. We have the indwelling substance of the Holy Spirit who lives in us under the new covenant as God has written his word, his commands in our minds and engraved them on our hearts.

[36:00] this is better. This is so much better. And now the third reason, Jesus mediates a superior covenant. covenant. He mediates a superior covenant.

[36:14] Verse 6-7 again says, but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.

[36:26] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. The old covenant was faulty because it wasn't final. the endless repetition of sacrifices demonstrated the covenant's incompleteness and its inability to deal with sin once for all time.

[36:48] On the cross, after shedding his blood and enduring the forsakenness of the Father, Jesus, who knew no sin, atoned for our sins.

[37:00] And in John 19-30, we hear his final words on the cross. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

[37:13] And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. With this final statement, the Lion of Judah roared from the cross that the wrath of God towards the sins of his people was finally, totally, completely, permanently paid in full.

[37:35] God unlike the old covenant, the new covenant offers full atonement and inner transformation in continuous access to God.

[37:45] In Christ, we have Jesus as our mediator and we can boldly approach the throne of God's grace in our time of need. Through Christ, we can draw near to God and receive an undefiled inheritance that will not and does not fade away.

[38:01] We have the substance, not the shadow. In verses 8-12, the writer of Hebrews says to his Jewish readers in effect, look at what your own scriptures have to say about the advantages of the new covenant.

[38:15] You should have been expecting this. One of your greatest prophets told you about this centuries ago. And he quotes Jeremiah in verses 8-12.

[38:26] For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

[38:42] For they did not continue in my covenant and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

[38:53] I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach one his neighbor and each one his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest for I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sin no more.

[39:14] In the new covenant the Abrahamic covenant is fulfilled. Gentiles have been grafted into the tree of Abraham through the promised seed through whom the nations would be blessed and that is Jesus Christ.

[39:30] As verse 13 concludes this section in speaking of a new covenant he makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

[39:45] I believe that when this letter was written the temple was still standing in Jerusalem and it wasn't but a few years afterwards after this letter was written and received that that temple was destroyed and there is no place today for Jewish people to go and do what is prescribed under the old covenant.

[40:10] It has vanished. Without the temple there is no altar and no holy of holies, no sacrifices and no Levitical priest to offer them.

[40:22] That system is finished. In Christ we are now temples of the Holy Spirit as 1 Corinthians 6.19 says.

[40:34] Having been redeemed by the sacrifice of our superior high priest he paid the ultimate price for us and now as new covenant people we live to glorify God in our bodies.

[40:48] These temples as living sacrifices delighting in Jesus. This new covenant. Do you delight in Jesus?

[41:00] Do you understand how awesome it is to be new covenant people this side of the cross? I've shared this story before but I couldn't help but think about it again.

[41:16] I was probably in fourth or fifth grade and I was with a couple of other of my buddies from church and we were confessing our sins to one another.

[41:27] I don't remember what those sins were but we just you know we felt like hey let's confess our sins and it was all going very well. I think our parents would have been pleased that we were confessing our sins maybe not over what we had sinned about but I shared that and I don't even remember what it was but there was this sin that I kept committing.

[41:49] So you know I ask God to forgive me every time I do it and one of my friends said to me do you think God is going to keep forgiving you for committing that sin over and over again?

[42:02] and he said it like he's not going to. Like his grace has a limit to it. His forgiveness runs out.

[42:16] And if I could go back in time I wish I could just burst into that room and say to myself and to that friend yes yes you can be forgiven again.

[42:31] you know why? Because that's what the Bible says and that is what the gospel is about. You've messed up as we've heard in our singing.

[42:43] We go astray at times. Praise God and thank God that he is gracious to keep us and to forgive us.

[42:54] And yeah there are consequences for the earthly sins that we commit. but there are no more eternal consequences for the person who is in Jesus Christ who has completely and permanently and totally atoned for their sins.

[43:11] And I wish I could tell my little self it's this gospel. It's this truth about God's grace and his love for you that should delight you.

[43:25] You don't want to sin against him. Not because you're afraid of condemnation but because you are amazed by his grace. And so as new covenant people the law is now written on our hearts and on our minds.

[43:41] And we delight to do it. If anything we should be doing it more and better because we have the spirit of God inside of us. And we know the full and complete atonement of Jesus Christ.

[43:55] And if you don't know him he's called you here to hear that truth. He's calling you to believe it today. How do we adjust for those of us who the Lord has been gracious to save?

[44:09] I think it's this to live sacrificially. Jesus Christ has saved us. He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit. We are new covenant people.

[44:20] We have the ability. we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. We've been transformed to live differently which means living sacrificially.

[44:34] And I'll close with God's word having the final word here in Romans 12 1-2. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.

[44:53] Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect.

[45:05] Let's pray. Lord we're thankful that we have you as our perfect superior high priest.

[45:21] Lord we are thankful that we no longer have to live in the shadow looking forward to your coming that you have come. that you have fully completely permanently atoned for our sins that we have peace with you and that you keep us and that you preserve us as you're patient with us as you forgive us of the sins that we confess to you as we look forward to that day when we are with you in paradise.

[45:56] Lord you've done it all and we're unworthy of what you've done. Lord you have you have called us into this amazing grace into this new birth into this transformation and so Father I pray for anybody who is struggling to think that there is something more for them to do or contribute to their salvation that today your word has shattered that lie and I pray for anyone who thinks that being a Christian or to become a Christian means you have to obey a bunch of rules first and then you're saved that your word today has shattered that lie and I pray that Lord we your people having heard of your amazing grace and sacrifice your position as high priest and intercessor for us that we would live our days delighting in you as we declare the goodness of who you are and what you've done to each other and to others in the hopes that they would be saved by you as well

[47:06]  Lord thank you for all that you've done and to you Lord alone deserve the praise the honor the worship and the glory in Jesus name we pray amen to learn more visit us in person or see the website at highlandparkbaptist.net