well I want to continue in Hebrews
chapter nine this morning Hebrews chapter nine and look particularly
at verses fifteen to twenty-two and there's a lot in this passage
about blood and that's going to be the subject a covenant
sealed in blood it is a subject that almost revolts our twenty-first
century sensitivities blood, we don't like to think about
it. I remember an amusing story when I was first a teacher, nearly
40 years ago now, but my head of department was a very, very
clever man, lovely man, very, very clever man, really good
scientist, everything fascinated him. And he told me about the
day he went for his first blood test. And like everything else,
it was a fascinating thing. And he rolled up his sleeve and
the nurse put the strap on the top of his arm and made him clench
his fist. And she put the needle into the
vein that puffed up. And he said the next thing he
knew was about 10 minutes later he was waking up in the recovery
room. Because the sight of his own blood made him faint. We
saw last time that those Old Testament sacrifices, the blood
that we've just been singing about, not all the blood of beasts
on Jewish altars slain, it was a blueprint for the gospel. It
was the gospel in picture. It wasn't an alternative way
of getting right with God. It was the only way of getting
right with God, but in a picture, in a pattern, in a design. Now
think back to those Old Testament sacrifices. There was a lot of
blood. Can you imagine it? I imagine
that if any of us were taken back in time to the temple courts
in Jerusalem on any typical day, let alone a day of great sacrifice,
we would be horrified at what we saw. Have any of you looked
whilst an animal has been slaughtered. I don't recall ever looking,
I'm sure it would be an absolutely shocking scene. We read in the
news about knife crime, and there's just been the case this week,
you know, finally after all these years, the convictions for the
knife murder of Stephen Lawrence, just one. There have been many,
many, I don't know how many it was, but in London alone, weren't
there 20 odd knife murders last year, or the year before last?
It was a lot. And, you know, to see that scene
would be utterly shocking we know as it says it doesn't hurt
in the movies because it's all fake blood it isn't real but
if you were there outside and you saw a scene in which a young
man was knifed and you saw him dying as he bled to death it
would be an awfully awfully shocking scene wouldn't it and yet the
gospel is based on blood. It's a covenant sealed in blood,
the blood of the Son of God, the blood of the everlasting
covenant. John Betjeman is a man who was,
he's dead now, but he was the poet laureate for many years.
And I really like his poetry. I think it's a lovely style of
poetry. I really enjoy reading John Betjeman's poetry. And he
had a great love of English tradition and Anglicanism. And he loved
the hymns of the Anglican church, but I remember seeing him once
many, many years ago saying how he loved the hymns of the Anglican
church, but he couldn't stand the ones that had blood in them.
He couldn't bear it, all this blood, he couldn't stand the
thought of blood. Let's read these verses, verse
15 down to 22, and then I'll tell you what we want to see.
So remember, this is going straight on from, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? Verse 15, and for this cause,
he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death,
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the
death of the testator. For a testament is of force after
men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth. whereupon neither the First Testament
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 of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and
sprinkled both the book and all the people saying this is the
blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you moreover
he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels
of the ministry and almost all things are by the law purged
with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission. I want us to see, first of all,
the covenant that is sealed in blood. That's the title of this
message. Secondly, I want to see a testament enforced by death. And then thirdly, the cleansing
power of the blood, and fourthly, the sanctifying or dedicating
power of the blood. First of all, an everlasting
covenant sealed in blood. Verse 15, and for this cause
he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. This New Testament. The word
is the word, same word, identical word, translated covenant. the
translators for some reason decided to translate it testament here
but it's the same word as is translated covenant and it's
a new one not in that it is, you know, there's old ones that
are done away and now there's a new one, but that it's newly
revealed. This is the eternal covenant.
This is the covenant of grace that was before time began in
eternity between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Triune God. This is that covenant of grace. and it's newly revealed afresh.
It's newly revealed afresh to his saints, the gospel of his
grace, this new covenant sealed in the blood of the Son of God.
Christ, it says, he is the mediator of the New Testament. Christ,
who is our great high priest, after the order of Melchizedek,
and a high priest is a mediator, an intercessor, a go-between,
if I can use that term. Go-between whom? go between the
infinitely holy God and sinners as vile as we are. You say we're
not vile? That's what that hymn said, wasn't
it? Quite rightly. We don't see it because our vision
is blurred by the state in which we are. But if we could see sin
as God sees sin, You know how Christ sweat drops of blood in
Gethsemane, as he knew he had to bear that cup of the wrath
of God. He had to bear the sins of his
people in his own body on the tree. And that sin, which that
perfect holy son of God saw all around him, but yet in himself
knew nothing of, he knew no sin, was prepared to bear it, that
his people might be made the righteousness of God in him.
he's the mediator the go-between between a holy god and sinners
and it was for the redemption of the transgressions redemption
how to think about redemption think of it like this sin debt
payment redemption is we use it all the time it's a word that's
used in modern-day language it's not an old-fashioned word that's
out of use you talk about redeeming the prize redeeming the ticket
redeeming you talk about that in everyday life Redemption in
the scriptures is sin debt payment. Sin made manifest under the law. The redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first testament. First as in that revealed in
time, the covenant of works. The first covenant, the first
testament of works. And there were sins under that.
Paul says in Romans 7 verse 9, that he's explaining how it is
that the law came and made manifest the sin that was already there.
There was sin in the world all the time from Adam. There was
sin in the hearts, in the flesh. God looked on that world in the
days of Noah when Noah found grace in his eyes and he saw
that everything, every factor of their heart was evil continually. Sin was there then. But the law
came under Moses and revealed that sin and made it manifest
he says in Romans 7 verse 9 for I was alive without the law once
but when the commandment came sin revived and I died he said
I thought I was perfect I thought I was sinless but then the law
said to me thou shalt not covet and I realized that I was guilty
of all I was guilty of all sin all this is You know, one of
the signs that God is working is like he did with those people
in the Acts of the Apostles. He granted unto the Gentiles
repentance. And with that must come a knowledge
of sin. You can't repent of that which
you have no knowledge of. A knowledge of sin, and he granted
to them repentance. Now how did Christ redeem? It
says, by means of death. The mediator of a new covenant,
a new testament, by means of death. my means of death. How? What was it that caused
him to die? He shed his lifeblood. We read in Leviticus that the
life is in the blood. the life is, you know, the warnings
that God puts in the law of Moses around the sanctity of life and
the dangers of shedding the blood. He says, this is why he says,
you know, the one who sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood
be shed. You know, that was the divine
authority for society to inflict capital
punishment on those who deliberately murdered somebody who shed man's
blood. There's a great mystery, if you
like, surrounding the idea of blood. The life is in the blood. And the Son of God died. The
price, the redemption price, the sin debt price, the price
that had to be paid was the life of the Son of God, the infinite
Son of God. And that was given by the pouring
out of His precious blood, by death, by shedding His precious
blood. By means of death, He redeemed
His people. That by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions, that were under the First Testament.
That's how he did it. Whom did he redeem? Whom did
Christ redeem? There it is again in the same
verse. They which are called. Who did he redeem? Those that
are called. Those that are called. Romans
8, 29 and 30 talks about God before the beginning of time
for knowing a people. knowing in an electing sovereign
way predestinating them so that every step is predestinated calling
them in time those whom he called those whom they which are called
might receive the promise of eternal inheritance those whom
he called he also justified those whom he justified he has also
glorified glorified in eternity This is the Israel of God, whom
he has called. This is his elect, because the
word goes out, the sower goes forth and sows seed, and it falls
on all sorts of ground, but in the grace of God there is some
which is good ground, which is the elect ground, and the seed
falls there, and it bears fruit. And the thecares of this world
don't strangle it and choke it. The birds don't come down and
pluck it straight away. It's that good ground, and it's
good ground because the Spirit of God comes, not because of
anything good in those people. The Spirit of God comes and gives
ears to hear, and newness of life, and eyes to see, and faith
to believe. And what purpose was it for?
that is elect might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. The promise of eternal inheritance,
eternal life, peace with God, not hell. condemnation for our
sins but peace with God acceptance with God knowing that it is well
with my soul because of what Christ has done how powerful
and how certain is this covenant sealed in the blood of the Son
of God it's sealed in eternity in eternity we can't understand
eternity it is outside this realm of time in which we live I don't
understand it. All I know is this. Eternity
is not just a long time ago, and heaven is not just a long
time in the future. You can't think of time in the
same thought as eternity. It's outside of time. What it
is, I don't know. The scriptures don't reveal it.
It is just an existence outside of this time. But in eternity,
God the Father chose a people. In God the Son, who undertook
to be the surety of those people. Those people had nothing to recommend
them, nothing to distinguish them, nothing to mark them out
as fit objects for his grace, but just out of love and grace
he chose a people. And the Holy Spirit undertook
to make them alive and to bring them to belief, bring them to
faith, bring them to a knowledge of the salvation that was wrought
in eternity past by the the Lamb of God slain from the foundation
of the world and the Son of God becoming man to bear the sins
of his people in time. Think of the holiness of God.
We can't, we can't get close. Think of the justice of God. How in the very nature of God,
God must be just. and how Satan brought in sin,
and Eve was deceived, and Adam wasn't deceived, but knowing
what he did, ate that forbidden fruit. And sin entered in, and
thereby, through one man, sin entered on all his posterity,
on all people that have ever lived ever since. And the justice
of God demands condemnation. And that's the way it is. Oh,
I don't like that you say. Oh, I'm going to think of a good
reason not to believe in that. I'm telling you, you might as
well argue against gravity. You wouldn't think of it, would
you? You can't argue against gravity. It's an absolutely fundamental,
unavoidable fact of the universe in which we live. You can't argue
against gravity in the same way you can't argue against the justice
of God. This is the way it is. God is
just and holy. A man is sinful. All of us, all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us are
under that condemnation that the soul that sins, it shall
die. But in love, God the Father,
God is love, we read in John's epistle. God is love and his
love led to his grace. And his grace is undeserved favor,
absolutely undeserved blessing and favor. And that grace led
to election, to the choice of a people. How many? Always looks
like a little flock. Wherever we are, it always looks
like a little flock that is tiny and insignificant. But with the
eyes of eternity, it's a multitude that no man can number, from
every tribe and kindred and tongue. A huge number. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the second person of that blessed triunity,
undertook to be the substitute of those people. He undertook
not to be the substitute of everyone that's ever lived, for if he
did, and if he accomplished salvation in his death, then none would
go to hell. But we know that there were those in hell at the
time that Christ died on the cross. There were those already
there. those that had already been swallowed
up in the judgments of God. No, he died for his elect as
a substitute. He undertook to be the surety,
the guarantor, to be judged by the law of God in their place,
to bear all that was theirs, to say their debt is my debt
and he bore it to the cross of Calvary. How did he do it? He couldn't do it as God, just
as God. He had to become that which he
wasn't before two thousand years ago when he became a man because
we've already read in Hebrews that he took on him the nature
of the children the children whom the father had given to
him he took on him their nature their flesh and blood he came
in the likeness of sinful flesh that in that likeness with that
real human blood lifeblood flowing through his veins that that lifeblood
might be poured out for the soul that sins it shall die and he
poured out his lifeblood unto death in payment to the justice
of God for the sins of his people the sinner you and me we can
never provide satisfaction in our death it's just but it never
ever ever satisfies the justice of God never ever does only the
infinite holy son of God can do that in his perfections he
had to be sinless he had to be pure he had to be infinite in
his capacity as God but at the same time he had to be man that
he might shed human blood for human sin and think of this think
of this how deep We think of sin too lightly, don't we? We
always think of sin too lightly. We don't see what it's really
like. Think of this, how deep must be the crying of our sin,
of your sin, of my sin, against the holiness and the justice
of God. Because think what it took to
pay for it. It took the blood of his beloved son to pay redemption's
price. That's what it took, the blood
of the dearly beloved Son of God. Think how necessary the
death of God's Son was to save us from our sins. How necessary
it was. I don't know how bad my sin is,
but I do know this, that must have been an awful, dreadful,
unimaginable thing that God should abandon, the father should abandon
the beloved son to bear the sins of his people. He could not look,
he's a purer eyes than to behold iniquity, he could not look upon
sin and he had to abandon his beloved son to his infinite eternal
justice. that redemption might be paid,
redemption's price. How agonizing was the pain of
separation on the cross of Calvary. We read those words and often
we're so dull of feeling and emotion. So often we're so, our
consciences are so seared that they've lost all feeling. To
think how agonizing was that cry, my God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? As there he hung, pouring out
that lifeblood. And why did he do it? To pay
for your sins and to pay for my sins. This is an awesome thing. I know I'm not remotely scratching
the surface of this. Oh, that the Spirit of God would
show us what it costs to save a soul. What it costs, the price,
the precious blood. You're not redeemed with silver
and gold and precious stones, but with the precious blood of
the Son of God. God commends his love. How do
you know God loves you if you're his child? God commends his love
to us in that while we were yet sinners, unattractive, revolting,
terrible, horrible, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Christ, who's the us that he
died for? Those who've heard his call, those who've called
upon his name. They which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. What about you? What about us?
What about anybody listening to this as we hear it? Jeremiah cried out in Lamentations,
I think it's chapter two, is it nothing to you, all ye that
pass by? Is it nothing to you? As Christ
hung there between two thieves on the cross at Calvary, all
sorts of people passed by, Is it nothing? Those words of Jeremiah
were the words of Christ to that crowd and to anybody today passing
by. Is it nothing to you or you that pass by? All sorts pass
by. The religious self-righteous
Pharisees, the crude Roman soldiers, the ordinary people pass by.
Is it nothing to you or you that pass by? Oh, praise God that
to some It was everything. Surely this was the Son of God,
said a Roman centurion. Surely. Oh, that he might reveal
himself to us. This is a covenant sealed from
everlasting in the precious lifeblood of the Son of God. It took the
blood of the Son of God to pay redemption's price. And what
about the confidence of it? What about the confidence? Are
you sure of eternity? Are you sure that you have a
place in eternity? He who spared not his only son
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? The eternal inheritance is certain. It's an inheritance sealed in
the blood of the everlasting covenant. Secondly, I want us
to see a testament enforced by death. Verses 16 and 17. For
where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death
of the testator. For a testament is in force after
men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth. At home, in a drawer, we have
a piece of paper that's called Our Last Will and Testament.
Same thing, testament, a will, covenant. It's a promise. And
it's a piece of paper that has our names in it, me and my wife,
and our three sons. And they're the ones that are
named in it. So if any of the rest of you were hoping for some benefit
from this, then sorry, take for you. It's for them. They can
do with it what they want once they've got it. But do you know
how much that piece of paper is worth? to Steven, Peter and
Martin today. Zilch. Zero. Nothing. It's not a force. It's of no
force whatsoever. Why not? Because we're both still
alive. On the day that we're both dead,
then you can guarantee they'll be very interested. I hope they'll
spend a moment or two of sorrow that we've gone, but when we've
gone, when we've gone, that piece of paper will be, wow, you better
not lose that. That's worth something. That
is worth money. That's worth some good things.
This is what this is saying. See, a testament, there must
be the death of the one who made the will for the will to come
into force. It's just a worthless piece of
paper as it stands today. You can't do anything with it.
You have a sudden need for money. You can't turn that piece of
paper into money today. But after we're dead, you can
turn it into money. Of course you can. And this is
what it's saying. The testament is in force when
men are dead. Otherwise, it is of no strength
at all while the testator lives. What about this testament, this
covenant of Christ's? What about this covenant that
promises so much, the promise of eternal inheritance? This
is the guarantee that it's in act now. It's in force now. Christ has died. He has died. We look back. He has died. It
is in force. The benefits of the covenant
flow freely from it. The beneficiaries of the covenant,
the elect of God, will inherit the benefits of the eternal inheritance.
He has died, how many times? Once. For all. Once. For all
time. Never to be repeated. Not like
those Old Testament patterns and pictures. Once. For all.
Never to be repeated. This is what we're doing as we
gather for worship. I love that story. I think it
was Don that told us it last time he was here. You might have
heard it before. I'll try and tell it again. In the days of
the Scottish covenanters, the government banned all forms of
religious gathering other than that which they approved and
authorized. And it was dead, hypocritical,
worthless religion. But the Scottish covenanters
loved the gospel of grace. And they wanted to gather together,
but they were banned from doing so. And the forces of law were
out looking for people on Sundays who looked like they were going
to a meeting that wasn't approved, a meeting of the Scottish Covenanters.
And they found one young lady who, in her demeanor and her
dress, I suppose, looked like she was going to a worship meeting.
And they wanted to know where was this meeting and where was
she going and what was it for so that they could go and make
arrests and bind them. And this is the answer that she
gave. And I'm sure I'll get it wrong, but, you know, you'll
get the spirit of it. She said, oh, she said, my older brother
has died and I'm going to a gathering of the family to hear a reading
of his will and testament. Is that not what we do? Our older
brother has died and I'm going to a gathering of the family
to hear a reading of his will and testament. Romans 8, 34. Who is he that condemneth? Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that he's risen again. It's in force. It's a testament
that's in force. It's reality. We have the confidence
of it. We have the assurance of it.
Now I'm going to rush on. So we've seen a covenant that
is everlasting, that is sealed in the blood of the Son of God.
But now let's see the cleansing power of that blood. Look at
verses 18 to 22. Whereupon Neither the first testament was
dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every
precept to all the people according to the law, we saw it back in
Exodus 24, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water
and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all
the people saying, this is the blood of the testament, of the
covenant. which God hath enjoined unto you moreover he sprinkled
with blood both the tabernacle and the vessels and the ministry
see all the people all the things to do with all sprinkled with
blood they all had to have that splash of blood on them he sprinkled
them with blood saying this is the blood of the testament and
almost all things are by the law purged with blood purged
scrub clean scrubbed clean with blood. And without the shedding
of blood is no remission, no forgiveness, no covering over,
no removal away of sin. It must be by blood, cleansed
and scrubbed clean by blood. I want you to look back at Leviticus
chapter 14. Just turn back to Leviticus chapter
14, just for a couple of moments. Verse 48. Leviticus 14, and verse
48. This is all about leprosy, being
in a house. And what had to be done to clean
the house, to cleanse the house. It looked like the disease had
gone, so they had to get the priest to come and cleanse the
house. Verse 48, Leviticus 14, verse
48. And if the priest shall come
in and look upon it, that is upon the healed leprosy, and
behold the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house
was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean,
because the plague is healed. Now watch this. And he shall
take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedarwood, and scarlet,
and hyssop, and he shall kill the one of the birds in an earthen
vessel over running water. And he shall take the cedar wood,
and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip
them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water,
and sprinkle the house seven times. And he shall cleanse the
house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and
with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the
hyssop, and with the scarlet. but he shall let go the living
bird out of the city into the open fields and make an atonement
for the house and it shall be clean. Did you see that? Did you see what that is saying? about the cleansing that is in
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you see that he took two
birds? He killed one, poured out the blood, there was also
water. That speaks, you know when they pierced the side of
our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, both blood and water came
out. Speaking of the atoning power
of the blood and the cleansing power of the water and the word.
But he took those two birds and one of them was killed, and then
all things were sprinkled and dipped in the blood of that bird,
and the live bird was let go. That's speaking of Christ rising
from the dead. It's speaking of Christ shedding
his blood for cleansing, but not staying dead, being alive
and going away and flying away into heaven. He is now ascended
on high, and the things that his blood was shed for are cleansed,
are cleaned, just as those things in the Old Testament under the
ceremonial law were cleansed by the blood. And so we read,
1 John 1 7, the blood of Jesus Christ his son, the son of God,
cleanses us from all sin. He sanctifies, Hebrews 13, 12.
He sanctifies the people with his own blood. It washes the
stain and guilt. It washes the debt record from
the books of God. The books are going to be opened,
but there are those whose names are written in the Lamb's book
of life. And their debt record will not appear in the books
of God because he scrubbed it away. He's paid for it. He's
washed it away. He cleanses the heart from the
dominating love of sin. That's what it does as well.
Oh, what's going to make you? There are those who say we must
preach the law to stop Christians from behaving badly and sinning.
If we don't preach the law, then they'll think they can live as
they like and they'll go and live in immorality. It isn't
the law that stops you from sinning. Not at all. But if you look at
the blood of Christ, if you look at the blood of Christ, how a
look at Christ shedding his precious blood to pay your sin debts ransom,
I know of nothing quite like that for pouring cold water on
the sinful desires of the heart. You know, when the flesh rises
up in its selfishness, in its covetousness, in its spitefulness,
in its self-gratification, in its self-seeking, oh, look at
the blood of the Son of God and Him hanging there shedding His
blood for us, how that pours cold water on that fervent desire
of the flesh to sin. No. Animal blood had a sanctifying
power. Look back at verse 13. The blood
of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, does sanctify to the purifying of the flesh in
the ceremonial terms of that covenant. The birds cleansed
the house of leprosy. It had that. And without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. But oh, how
much more the blood of Christ. achieves that purpose. How much
more the blood of Christ purges clean your conscience from dead
works, from sins, from sins. There's no cleansing. There's
no forgiveness. There's no redemption. There's
no atonement. There's no propitiation, turning
away of the anger of God. There's no mercy seat. without
the precious blood. And if there's no mercy seat,
there's no Ark of the Covenant. And if there's no Ark of the
Covenant, Ichabod, departed glory. There is only glory in the blood
of the Lamb of God, the precious blood of the Lamb of God. Our
Paschal Lamb, our Passover Lamb is sacrificed for us. The cleansing
power of the blood. You need this. I need this. I
must have it. I must have that blood to wash
me clean from the guilt of sin. And then finally, briefly, the
sanctifying power of the blood, the dedicating power of the blood
of God. It's those same verses which
we won't read again, verses 18 to 22. But everything was dedicated
for the service of God by the sprinkling of blood. Everything
was separated for the use of God, for holy use, for holy service,
by the sprinkling of blood. So the people for whom Christ
shed his precious blood are sanctified and dedicated for holy use. They're
called, in verse 15, of the Holy Spirit. And when he calls, what
does he do? He shows you the receipt. You
know, you go to take something back. It's the season of taking
things back after Christmas. But you must have your receipt
at the shop till. Here's the receipt. You prove
purchase was made. The Holy Spirit comes. And when
He converts a soul, He shows you the receipt, the payment
receipt. The blood has been paid. The blood has been shed. Here's
the receipt. Your sins have been paid. Your
sin debt has been cleared. Here's the receipt. the receipt
of purchase, the price has been paid by that precious blood.
And you are not only dedicated, you're bought. You're not your
own. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians
6, 19 and 20, what? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God? And ye are not your own, for
ye are bought with a price. What was the price? The precious
blood. only the precious blood, nothing
other than the precious blood. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. As I said earlier
on, tomorrow I start a period of work. After not doing any
work for a couple of months, and I don't know which is best,
sometimes I think, oh, I wish I was at work, and then I suppose
when I'm at work, I'll be thinking, oh, gosh, they were rather nice
days, those days of not having to go to work. As of tomorrow
morning, for a certain number of hours during the day and the
days that follow, I will not be my own. You know that? That's
the way it works. I do what the person that's employing
me is paying for. They're paying for my time. They're
paying for my devotion. They're paying for my utter commitment
to their cause, to do that which is necessary to get this work
done. No. I'm not my own because I'm taking
a price, which is the wages that's traded for my time and devotion.
Verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, which has
paid the sin debt for you, how much more shall that set you
apart for his devoted and grateful service? Oh, praise God for the
precious blood of Christ. Amen.